The biggest crypto news and ideas of the day Mar. 30, 2022 Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here. Supported by |
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Today’s must-reads Top Shelf |
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MASSIVE HACK: Ronin Network, the blockchain that supports the massive play-to-earn metaverse game Axie Infinity, suffered a $625 million exploit on Tuesday. The dust is still settling, but this appears to be the largest attack yet in DeFi history. The attacker is said to have “used hacked private keys in order to forge fake withdrawals,” ultimately stealing 173,600 ETH and 25.5 million USDC across two transactions. The majority of the funds remain in the attacker’s address, and several experts told CoinDesk the attacker is unlikely to enjoy their ill-gotten gains.Their address is tied to centralized exchanges, and the hacker also tried to use Huobi, FTX and Crypto.com to launder funds. Binance has already blacklisted those funds.. CROSS-CHAIN: OpenSea is adding Solana NFTs to its marketplace, a massive boon for the nascent SOL-based economy when finalized (a launch date has yet to be determined). This would be the third layer 1 system and fourth blockchain network whose NFTs can trade on OpenSea, after Ethereum, Polygon and Klaytn. Meanwhile, Solana’s digital wallet is also seeing support from Norwegian-based company Opera, which plans to add the crypto wallet, among seven other blockchains in a staggered rollout across its apps and web browsers. Opera has roughly 350 million users. WHITE LABEL NFTS: Payments giant Visa is jumping further into the space of digital commerce with the launch of a Creator Program intended to support a select number of small businesses across fields in music, fashion and film through the use of NFTs. According to the Foster City, California-based company, the one-year immersion program will provide technical and product mentorship, community building, access to thought leaders, exposure to clients and partners and a one-time stipend (an amount that was not disclosed). Meanwhile, the world’s most expensive living artist, Jeff Koons, has announced his first NFT project, which will explore the intersection of art and tech. The twist? His sculptures are literally going “to the moon.” COLLATERALIZING BTC TO BUY BTC: MacroStrategy, a subsidiary of software company MicroStrategy (MSTR), has received a $205 million term loan from crypto payments provider Silvergate Bank to buy bitcoin. The cash loan was collateralized with about $820 million worth of bitcoin, via the Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN) Leverage program. The money can be used by MacroStrategy to purchase bitcoin or for MacroStrategy’s or MicroStrategy’s general corporate needs. “We’ve effectively turned our bitcoin into productive collateral,” CEO Michael Saylor said in a statement. CEASE AND DESIST: At least seven U.S. states are scrutinizing Canadian crypto investment firm Voyager Digital over its “Earn Program” accounts. This continues a yearlong battle by U.S. states to bring crypto interest accounts under regulatory oversight. Securities regulators believe the accounts may be unregistered securities, according to Alabama Securities Commission Director Joseph Borg. In a coordinated effort – New Jersey, Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas, Kentucky, Vermont and Washington – filed separate legal actions, including at least one “cease and desist,” against the publicly traded firm. So far, Voyager Digital, which has 1.5 million clients, said “it is aware of or has received the cease and desist orders,” and is working with the regulators to better understand the orders and to clarify statements it believes are inaccurate. –Fran Velasquez |
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Overheard on CoinDesk TV... Sound Bites |
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"As a layer 2 problem, there's too much complexity [in] systems that aren't really audited in their totality." –WAX co-founder William Quigley, on the Ronin network heist, on CoinDesk TV's "First Mover." |
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What others are writing... Off-Chain Signals |
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MENA Climate Week notes blockchain’s potential for climate action (Cointelegraph) Azuki NFT sells for record $1.4 million (The Block) Grab’s Technology Head Quits for Cryptocurrency Gaming Startup Ethlas (Bloomberg) The crypto reckoning in the Finger Lakes (Protocol) Dubai's new crypto regulator brings UAE firm BitOasis under its wing (Reuters) |
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Putting the news into perspective The Takeaway |
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If Money Is Speech, CBDC Should Be Tools for Freedom There is no constitutional right guaranteeing that you can spend your money as you please. Although there should be, and there’s precedent for thinking that money is akin to speech and spending it (within the bounds of established law) a form of expression. This particular problem has come to light as the U.S. government studies a potential central bank digital currency (CBDC). A digital dollar, as it is sometimes called, is essentially a way to make an internet-native version of cash and coins. Central bankers, if they support CBDCs, often point to the greater control a state-run monetary ledger affords over microeconomic and macroeconomic policy. A digital dollar could help automate tax collection, streamline welfare payments and inform decisions around setting interest rates. Like everything else in the internet age, CBDCs are about big data: State-run ledgers would give near-complete insight into how money is being spent in a country. In fact, Agustin Carstens, general manager of the “central bank of central banks,” the Bank of International Settlements, said: “We don’t know who’s using a $100 bill today and we don’t know who’s using a 1,000 peso bill today.” With CBDCs, that would be possible, he noted. That’s quite dystopian for anyone who thinks there ought to be a measure of financial privacy – the same privacy afforded today by physical cash. Further, because CBDCs are mostly just research projects at this stage, they invite a high degree of skepticism and conspiracy theories. Namely, people are worried “Govcoins” could become tools for coercion or censorship. "Should people be encouraged to eat the foods decided best for them, such as a plant or insect-based diet? CBDCs could do the trick. Should people be limited in how much they can spend per week on carbon-intensive purchases? CBDCs could help with that too,” N.S. Lyons, author of The Upheaval Substack, wrote last week in conservative-leaning digital mag City Journal. It shouldn’t be controversial to say that governments want insight and oversight over monetary flows. They enact policies that degrade privacy and set limits around how money can be spent; often in service of the noble aim of combatting terrorist financing and money laundering. Lyons’ concerns are certainly, technically possible with CBDCs. In fact, Rohan Grey, assistant professor at Willamette University, said it’s already an established trend with some types of government-issued digital money. In the U.S., for instance, food welfare programs like EBT SNAP? set barriers around what can be purchased as well as time-limits within which the benefit must be spent. “I could certainly imagine a CBDC enhancing individual choice and wellbeing, etc., but probably only if designed with that in mind. Likewise, it’s not hard to imagine a CBDC being abused in some jurisdictions,” Matt Homer, executive in residence at Nyca Partners and former executive deputy superintendent at New York State Department of Financial Services, told me over Telegram. Read the full article here. –Daniel Kuhn |
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Cracking the Notification Conundrum in Web 3 Apps* Ping! You’ve got mail. This is one of the oldest memes of the internet age. The little icon in the corner of our screens, the talking paper clip, the familiar buzz of the phone in our pockets. We take real-time alerts and notifications for granted. They are hard-wired into our everyday lives. And when an app does not provide notifications and alerts, it feels outdated. But in the most modern iteration of the internet – Web 3 and blockchains – these notifications are conspicuous by their absence. The reason for this is largely technical. *This is sponsored content from Tatum. |
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