The Friday Focus: Issue 47

Aug 19, 2022

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Welcome to our Friday newsletter. Here you find the most exciting crypto content from the previous week - curated for you by us.

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Weekly happenings

The now well-known Do Kwon is back in the news after doing his first interview since the Terra collapse. However, many have been accusing the firm behind the interview of being biased and even shilling Terra. Not the best comeback?

Talking of collapses, the contagion in the lending space is still making headlines. Genesis CEO Michael Moro is stepping down, and the company cuts 20% of the workforce following major $1.2 billion losses after the Three Arrows Capital collapse. Singapore-based crypto lender Hodlnaut filed for judicial management and also disclosed a massive 80% layoff.

Celsius was approved to access mined bitcoin to meet operational expenses but will supposedly run out of cash by October. US regulators also claimed that Celsius’ bankruptcy should be probed to increase transparency and clarity. Moreover, a Canadian pension fund took a $150 million hit from its investment in the bankrupt lender.

Stablecoin issuer Tether has partnered with top 5 accounting firm BDO for reserve attestations and claims to go through a complete audit, moving away from its Cayman-based accounting partners. In other stablecoins news, Huobi’s HUSD stablecoin lost its dollar peg, and Polkadot-based aUSD depegged after a breach on the decentralized finance hub Acala Network.

The regulatory scene is moving as always. The EU is on the verge of creating a new AML regulator that will oversee crypto. Revolut gets approval to offer crypto services throughout Europe. In the US, the Fed released new guidance to banks who want to engage in crypto-related activity and opened up master account access to banks with “novel charters”, in win for crypto and fintech. US lawmakers are also looking into the environmental impact of crypto mining, sending letters to four crypto mining companies this week. In addition, the SEC has sued three entities and their founder for unregistered ICOs.

The Tornado Cash saga is still ongoing. The arrested developer was revealed, and Coin Center might challenge the Tornado Cash ban in court. DeFi lending protocol Aave argues against the criticism of blocking wallet addresses with indirect Tornado Cash interactions.

Big news coming from Galaxy this week, as they announced the termination of the $1.2 billion BitGo acquisition. Bitgo says it will pursue legal action and seek over $100 million. Another large deal was also canceled this week, as the crypto miner Primer Blockchain and 10X SPAC stopped their $1.25 billion merger.

In other funding news, Bill Ackman is among investors in a $200 million fundraise for VC crypto firm Shima Capital, Dragonfly is buying MetaStable Capital, and CoinFund launches $300 million Web3 fund.

Positive news coming from the Tradfi scene as well, as CME Group adds ETH options to its crypto offering, Brazil’s largest brokerage launches crypto trading, and Brazil’s largest investment bank launches a crypto trading platform.

That’s it for now - see you next week!