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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Investments news
- Troubled crypto lender Celsius Network (CEL) announced that they “continue to take important steps” to preserve and protect assets and explore options, which include pursuing strategic transactions as well as a restructuring of liabilities, among other avenues.
- Simon Dixon, the founder of the online investment platform BnkToTheFuture, said that Celsius has reached out to him and that he is considering the best way to help. They are offering three proposals for their community, leaving them to decide on the path that the platform will take.
- Online brokerage eToro and the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that agreed to take it public are planning to let the deadline for their merger pass without closing the deal, The Information reported, citing an undisclosed person familiar with the matter.
- Investment company VanEck filed a new application for a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), called the VanEck Bitcoin Trust, with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
- DeFi protocol MoHash raised USD 6m in seed funding to provide access to global capital and liquidity to debt issued by non-bank lenders using DeFi as a tool.
Stablecoins news
- Stablecoin issuer Tether (USDT) announced that it reduced its commercial paper portfolio by around 58%. It currently has USD 8.4bn of these holdings, of which USD 5bn will expire on July 31, with the goal being to bring that number to zero, said the company.
Legal news
- Crypto platform Blockchain.com and crypto derivatives exchange Deribit, creditors of Three Arrows Capital (3AC), are cooperating with ongoing investigations into the troubled crypto hedge fund, per Bloomberg. Per a spokesperson at Blockchain.com, 3AC “defrauded the crypto industry” and the company has filed for the immediate liquidation of all global assets of 3AC as they intend “to hold them accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
- Ex-Monero (XMR) lead maintainer Ricardo “Fluffypony” Spagni will surrender on July 5 to the US Marshals Service for extradition to South Africa, where he faces fraud charges to the tune of USD 10,000 against his former employer, Cape Cookies. South African officials will be on hand to “effectuate his arrest.”
- The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) charged Cornelius Johannes Steynberg and the company Mirror Trading International (MTI) with fraud and registration violations for creating and running a global foreign currency commodity pool, valued at over USD 1.7bn, that only accepted bitcoin (BTC) to purchase participation.
- The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced criminal charges against:
- Le Anh Tuan for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit international money laundering through a rug pull scheme that included a so-called “Baller Ape” NFT.
- Emerson Pires, Flavio Goncalves, and Joshua David Nicholas with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud in connection with a global crypto-based Ponzi scheme called EmpiresX that generated approximately USD 100m from investors, per the statement.
- Michael Alan Stollery, CEO and founder of Titanium Blockchain Infrastructure Services (TBIS), a purported crypto investment platform, for securities fraud involving TBIS’s initial coin offering, which raised approximately USD 21m from investors in the US and overseas.
- David Saffron, the owner of crypto investment platform Circle Society, saying that he used it to solicit investors to participate in an unregistered commodity pool, and that he fraudulently raised approximately USD 12m from investors.
Mining news
- New York, USA, officials denied required air permit renewals to the Greenidge Generation power plant on the grounds that its Bitcoin mining operations were a threat to the state’s climate goals, per the Associated Press. The company said it would continue operating under its current permit while it challenged the decision, it added.
Blockchains news
- The Ethereum (ETH) core developers launched the Gray Glacier upgrade, once again pushing the Ice Age/Difficulty Bomb roughly 100 days, with no other changes implemented.
- Decentralized application (dapp) store DappRadar announced a cross-chain token staking mechanism for their native token RADAR, allowing users to claim their staking rewards on any blockchain.
Exchange news
- Coinbase denied reports that it is selling a suite of features, used to track and identify crypto users, to the US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. They stated that their Coinbase Tracer tools are designed to support compliance and help investigate financial crimes like money laundering and terrorist financing, sourcing their information from public sources, and that they do not make use of Coinbase user data.
- CoinFLEX said that it is in talks with investors over a token sale for its Recovery Value USD token (rvUSD) and that commitments are growing, but withdrawals will remain suspended until the token sale is fully committed.
Economics news
- Euro area annual inflation is expected to be 8.6% in June 2022, up from 8.1% in May, according to a flash estimate from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. A more precise number for the month is scheduled to be released on July 19.