SUI, New Kid on the Block(chain)
Former Meta engineers who worked on the now-defunct Novi project have launched the Sui blockchain, a Move-based layer-1 blockchain platform. The blockchain went live this week and can reportedly achieve high throughputs between 10,871 transactions per second (TPS) to 297,000 TPS on various workloads, and the native token of the project is SUI.
CoinMarketCap’s Shark Tank
CoinMarketCap has partnered with Web3 entertainment firm Hello Labs to release a Shark Tank like show, “Killer Whales.” This competition show will allow entrepreneurs to pitch their Web3 projects to a panel of judges. Those interested can submit their applications to Hello.one and CoinMarketCap. Those selected will go through several rounds of interviews in Hollywood before the filming of the show begins in June. The show would be released across various streaming services and Hello Labs’ on-demand Hello TV service.
Blockchain Powered Economy
The Nigerian government approved a national policy to create a blockchain powered economy. As per the guidelines, regulators would develop provisions for deploying blockchain across various sectors of the economy. But, there is no mention of crypto in this policy.
Nigeria’s Tokenized Coin Offerings
Nigeria’s SEC is considering allowing tokenized coin offerings backed by equity, debt, or property. But notably, crypto is not considered. The regulator is also processing applications for digital exchanges on a trial basis. It intends for them to undergo one year of “regulatory incubation.” During this time, they will offer limited services under SEC supervision.
Coinbase Enters Perps Market
Coinbase announced that it would enable international users to trade perpetual futures. Traders will transact out of Bermuda through a new platform, Coinbase International Exchange. It will initially offer traders 5x leverage for bitcoin and ether derivatives.
Coinbase Facing Shareholder Lawsuit
Coinbase is facing a shareholder lawsuit alleging that its management failed to disclose damaging information about its business when it went public in 2021. It alleged that insiders sold shares immediately before the bad news came out, reaping millions of dollars. The suit, which was filed by an investor in Coinbase stock, names the company’s CEO Brian Armstrong, and other top executives, as well as investors Marc Andreessen and Fred Wilson, as defendants.
Ark Invest on Coinbase Shares Buying Spree
Ark Invest has purchased stock in Coinbase for two consecutive days. On the first day, it added $8.4 million worth of shares into its Ark’s Innovation, Next Generation Internet, and Fintech Innovation ETFs. It topped it up the next day with another $7.5 million purchase.
Citi Downgrades Coinbase Stock
Citi has downgraded Coinbase’s stock rating from buy to neutral, and cut its price target to $65 from $80. As per Citi, the high levels of uncertainty due to unclear crypto regulations in the US will continue to weigh down on the exchange’s performance. Alongside, Coinbase is now being tasked to advocate for a reputationally damaged industry and pave a sustainable pathway toward regulatory compliance.
Coinbase Sued for Improper Use of Biometrics
Crypto exchange Coinbase is being sued by Michael Massel for the unauthorized collection and improper use of customers‘ biometric data. The suit claims that this action violates Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act. The plaintiff is seeking $5,000 for each violation of the act.
Borrow Program Discontinued
Coinbase has announced it will discontinue its Borrow program, which allowed users to borrow cash against Bitcoin as collateral due to a lack of demand for the product. The program will no longer be available to new customers from May 10, 2023, but existing users can continue to access their loan history and the Borrow dashboard.
Coinbase Reports Q1 Results
Coinbase reported Q1 revenue of $736 million, up 22% from Q4. It also disclosed its fifth straight quarterly loss, this time of $79 million. Its loss per share was, however, lesser than analysts’ expectations.
MicroStrategy Turns Green
MicroStrategy, the largest public holder of bitcoin, posted a profit for the first time in nine quarters thanks to a 70% rise in the price of BTC in Q1 2023. As a result, the company turned to a tax benefit and repaid its bitcoin backed loan with Silvergate Bank. The gains also enabled the firm to add 7,500 BTC in Q1 2023, bringing its total holdings to 140,000 BTC.
PEPE Drives up Gas Prices
The average cost of a single transaction on Ethereum has surged above $15.82, its highest level in over a year, driven by the demand for trading meme coins such as PEPE. PEPE has seen its trading volume surpass $150 million on Uniswap and its valuation rise to $879 million. As a result, Ethereum’s mean transaction fees have reached a total of 9,392 in ETH burned over the last 24 hours.
Star Wars NFTs
Cryptoys announced that it would launch a Star Wars NFT collection on May 24th. The NFT series features 15 limited edition “digital toys” of iconic characters from the franchise, such as Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Darth Vader. The NFTs will sell for $39.99, come in five rarity levels, and be minted on the Flow blockchain.
Justin Sun to Reverse $56M Binance Transfer
Tron founder Justin Sun arranged for a full refund of a $56 million transfer to Binance after the latter’s CEO CZ warned against a potential token grab of the new SUI token. Binance’s Launchpool, where the SUI token was made available, is meant for retail users, not just for a few whales, CZ said.
Curve crvUSD Contract Deployment and Redeployment
Curve Finance developers deployed crvUSD stablecoin contracts on the Ethereum mainnet this week. But, after discovering an error in the deployment script, they are now preparing to re-release the code for the crypto backed stablecoin.
Bhutan’s Crypto Mining Fund
Bhutan’s commercial arm, Druk Holding & Investments (DHI), and Jihan Wu’s Bitdeer Technologies plan to raise up to $500 million for a crypto mining fund. Bitdeer will be the general partner of the fund, and DHI will be a strategic limited partner in the joint initiative. They aim to launch a carbon free digital asset mining data center.
Sotheby’s Metaverse
Sotheby’s has launched a peer to peer NFT secondary marketplace, Sotheby’s Metaverse, through its Web3 division. The sales system will be on chain via Ethereum and Polygon networks. Artists’ royalties will be honored through smart contracts that automatically pay artists according to their selected on-chain royalty rate.
Cloudverse
Alibaba Cloud has collaborated with Avalanche to build Cloudverse. Cloudverse is a launch pad for businesses to create and manage their metaverse spaces. The platform is designed to enable companies to engage with customers in new ways. It will use Avalanche’s blockchain technology for building the metaverse spaces, while Alibaba Cloud will provide computing and storage.
Web3 Shorts
A US court has given ten days to the US SEC to respond to Coinbase’s complaint regarding the application of securities laws to digital assets.
Coinme will pay over $4 million to the US SEC to settle charges alleging that Coinme participated in an unregistered security offering.
Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority has issued a formal reprimand to Kyle Davies and Su Zhu and is investigating their new venture, OPNX, for operating without the necessary licenses.
Nathaniel Chastain, a former head of product for NFT marketplace OpenSea, was convicted for alleged NFT insider trading.
The US SEC has deleted its once proposed definition of “digital assets” from its final hedge fund reporting rules.
Web3 Investments
Ahead of its token launch, crypto firm FARE protocol raised $6.2 million in a seed round led by C Squared Ventures and Goat Capital.
Via its crypto subsidiary Intella X, South Korean game publisher Neowiz launched a $10 million gaming accelerator to fund next gen web3 games on Polygon.
Crypto startup OpenTrade raised $1.5 million in a funding round led by Sino Global Capital to reshape the financing of the global supply chain with USDC.
An NFT-to-product platform Vibe raised $4 million in a seed round from investors, including Aglaé Ventures and P Nation.
Crypto startup Fedi raised $17 million to make it easier for bitcoin newbies to understand by using private federations.
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