Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
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Adoption news
- Ethereum (ETH) scaling solution Polygon (MATIC) has launched a new blockchain network, Supernets, and said it will invest USD 100m in projects that use it and that are interested in increasing their growth through a dedicated Supernet chain, VentureBeat reported. It explained that a supernet is an internet network that is formed by combining multiple networks, or subnets, into a larger network.
- Online payments firm Stripe and social media giant Twitter will pilot stablecoin payouts for select users of Twitter’s content monetization products, Reuters reported. Eligible users of Twitter’s Ticketed Spaces and Super Follows programs will be able to receive their earnings from the company in USD coin (USDC). They can hold their earnings in crypto wallets on the Polygon network and exchange them into other currencies. Stripe plans to add options for payment in other cryptoassets in the future, per the report.
- The Bahamas government will allow Bahamians to pay taxes using digital assets, according to a whitepaper that outlines the nation’s digital asset strategy until 2026. The government will also start enabling Bahamians access to digital assets using the Bahamas sand dollar, a central bank-issued digital currency that was launched in 2020.
Legal news
- Ross Ulbricht, the convicted creator of the Silk Road dark web market for drugs, made an agreement with prosecutors stipulating that a portion of a newfound trove of Silk Road bitcoin (BTC), seized from an unnamed hacker, will be used to cancel out the more than USD 183m in restitution Ulbricht was ordered to pay as part of his sentence, Wired reported. In exchange for this, Ulbricht will waive any ownership he might have of the coins, per the report.
- Major crypto exchange Binance is seeking to be dismissed from a USD 8m lawsuit in which a woman accuses the exchange and others of orchestrating and aiding a romance scam, per Law360. They say that the plaintiff lacks jurisdiction over them, as the exchange does not operate in the United States.
- The US Department of Justice announced the arrest of Chet Stojanovich, aka ‘Chester J. Stojanovich’, on charges of defrauding more than a dozen victims of more than USD 1.8m, through fraudulent misrepresentations that he would provide the victims with specialized miners and miner-hosting services which would provide the victims with a lucrative stream of hash power. The charge carries a maximum potential sentence of 20 years in prison.
Regulation news
- Emmanuel Macron, the French president and presidential candidate in the current run, said that he is in favor of making “rapid progress” on the Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCA) Regulation that is meant to provide a legal framework for cryptoasset markets to develop within the EU, per an interview with The Big Whale. He stated that “France will pay close attention that the text does not prevent innovation and remains as neutral as possible in terms of technology,” adding that “[w]hat is happening should also lead us to move much faster on the subject of the digital euro.”
- The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a consent order against Anchorage Digital Bank, which they say is based on the bank’s failure to adopt and implement a compliance program that adequately covers the required Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering (BSA/AML) program elements. The bank has been given 15 days from the date of the order to appoint a Compliance Committee that will be tasked with preparing regular progress reports.
Exchanges news
- Currency.com announced it has expanded into the US. Registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) as a Money Services Business, it will enable US residents to trade crypto in 48 states and territories. Clients in New York and Hawaii will be able to access the exchange in the coming months, they added.
- Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, wrote on Twitter that the North Korean hacker group behind the Axie Infinity (AXS)’s Ronin bridge attack has tried to move their funds through the exchange, spread out over 86 accounts. He added that USD 5.8m has been recovered.
Investments news
- Web3 and blockchain security firm CertiK announced an additional USD 60m investment from SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Tiger Global. This funding brings the total amount invested in CertiK over the past nine months to USD 290m, they added.
- The financial arms of the South Korean banks Shinhan and Kookmin (KB) have joined the search engine giant Naver in an investment round worth some USD 13.6m for the crypto disclosure platform Xangle. According to EDaily, an unnamed industry insider stated that while KB and Shinhan have both made crypto-related investments in the past, Naver’s involvement was “noteworthy,” as the search engine operator “rarely” makes such “direct investments.” Another expert stated there was a possibility that Naver could be eyeing a “strategic collaboration” – and may be mulling the provision of “services related to cryptoassets.”
- Investment firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) announced the creation of a16z crypto research, a lab that will work closely with their portfolio and others toward solving problems in the crypto industry.
- Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Bastion announced that it has raised USD 9m in a Series A funding round led by Three Arrows Capital. The project plans to roll out new features such as leveraged yield farming, interest rate swaps, new asset listings, and others in the next few weeks, they added.
- Digital economy bank MetaLend announced the completion of a USD 5m seed round of financing led by Pantera Capital. The funds will be used to expand their coverage to other play-to-earn games in the coming months, they added.
Career news
- Decentralized privacy system Nym announced that advisors composed of George Danesiz (ex-Meta), Aggelos Kiayias (IO Global), Ben Laurie (Google), and Bart Preneel (KU Leuven) have joined their scientific advisory board. They added that a Nym developer and ecosystem fund is in process of being established.