Blockchain This Week - Nov 4
SBF Convicted, NEOM and Animoca, OpenSea Layoffs, MicroStrategy and Bitcoin, Coinbase, Block, Google and Solana, PayPal
SBF Convicted
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, was convicted by a New York jury on all seven counts of fraud and money laundering. The tentative sentencing date has been set for March 28, 2024. He faces up to 115 years in prison. An appeal is likely. The US Attorney Damian Williams labeled the case as "one of the biggest financial frauds in American history."
NEOM to Invest in Animoca
Saudi Arabia's NEOM megaproject has proposed investing $50 million in Animoca Brands, a crypto gaming investment company. As a part of the MoU, NEOM plans to fund $25 million in convertible notes and another $25 million for purchasing shares on the secondary market. It aims to promote the development of web3 infrastructure in the NEOM region.
OpenSea Cuts Half of Its Workforce
NFT marketplace OpenSea is laying off half of its employees as part of steering the company in a new direction - OpenSea 2.0. This shift would focus on product upgrades and foster innovation. OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer asserts that this new foundation makes it necessary to shift to a small team with a direct connection to users.
MicroStrategy Continued its Bitcoin Purchase
MicroStrategy bought an additional 155 bitcoins for $5.3 million in October. Consequently, it now holds 158,400 bitcoins in its kitty. The company's CFO, Andrew Kang, said its commitment to acquiring and holding bitcoin remains strong.
Treehouse Buys Origins
Web3 firm Treehouse acquired NFT analytics platform Origins to expand its NFT product offering. The founding team of Origins will join Treehouse to offer new services, such as an algorithmically tagged NFT wallet notification system and NFT analytics bots.
VanEck Amends Application
VanEck has filed an amended application for a spot Bitcoin ETF with the SEC. It reveals that an unnamed investor acquired Seed Creation Baskets consisting of 50,000 shares of the proposed ETF using Bitcoin.
Google Cloud and Solana
Google Cloud has integrated Solana with its BigQuery data analytics service. As a result, it is easier to access Solana's archival data and analytics. With this integration, Google has supported 20 blockchain networks so far. TNFT app Floor is among the first to utilize this service to send data on Solana NFT sales and listings to the BigQuery platform.
PayPal and Crypto
On one hand, PayPal UK has registered with the UK FCA to offer crypto services in the country. On the other hand, PayPal US has received a subpoena from the US SEC in connection with its PYUSD stablecoin. The subpoena asks PayPal to produce some documents.
Coinbase Q3 Results
Coinbase beat analyst estimates with $674.1 million in revenue in Q3 2023, a 14.2% increase YoY. Transaction revenue declined again. Yet, the company expects to generate meaningful positive Adjusted EBITDA for 2023.
Block Q3 Bitcoin Growth
n Q3, Block, Inc. saw a robust 37% YoY surge in bitcoin revenue, reaching $2.42 billion. It recorded a bitcoin gross profit of $45 million, marking a 22% increase from the same period in the previous year. This growth is due to the rising average market price of bitcoin and the increased volume of bitcoin sold via its Cash App.
Celestia Mainnet
Celestia has successfully deployed its mainnet beta. As a result, this network enables rollups and other modular chains to use Celestia for data availability and consensus. Celestia issued its native TIA token to 580,000 users. TIA will be listed on major centralized and decentralized exchanges, including Binance, Bybit, KuCoin, and Osmosis.
Unibot Exploit
Unibot, a Telegram based trading tool, suffered a token approval exploit, losing roughly $580,000 worth of crypto. The company has paused its router to contain the issue and will compensate affected users.
Bittrex US Wind Down
Crypto exchange Bittrex got court approval for its revised bankruptcy plan. As a result, it will wind down its US operations and repay its remaining creditors after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May and settling with the SEC for $24 million in August.
SafeMoon Executives Arrested
Two SafeMoon executives, Braden John Karony and Thomas Smith, have been arrested for allegedly lying to investors about locked liquidity. On the contrary, they diverted millions of dollars for luxury car and real estate purchases. Another executive, Kyle Nagy, remains at large in this case, which is part of a joint enforcement action with the SEC.
Adidas and Bugatti
Adidas and Bugatti partnered to auction 99 limited edition soccer shoes with digital twins on Adidas' web3 platform. These shoes, inspired by Bugatti's car design, are available in black and Bugatti inspired blue.
Onyx Exploit
DeFi protocol Onyx fell victim to an exploit, losing over $2.1 million. The attacker exploited a precision loss vulnerability and a flash loan. The hacker has sent 700 ether ($1.25 million) to the crypto mixing service Tornado Cash.
Swiss Bank to Offer Crypto Services
Switzerland's St. Galler Kantonalbank has partnered with SEBA Bank to offer its clients digital asset custody and brokerage services. Initially, they plan to offer bitcoin and ether services, gradually adding other crypto based on client demand.
Visa CBDC Trials
Visa collaborated with HSBC and Hang Seng Bank in Hong Kong for CBDC trials. These trials covered two use cases - high value property payments and the settlement of credit card transactions. They used blockchain for atomic settlement with added security and efficiency in financial transactions.
Cryptoverse
Zodia Custody, a digital asset custodian backed by Standard Chartered, is expanding its services to Hong Kong.
After securing a VASP license from the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), crypto wallet company Backpack is launching a regulated crypto exchange.
MetaMask has partnered with Blockaid to launch integrated security alerts to protect users from scams, phishing, and hacks.
Etherfuse, a platform that aims to improve decentralized blockchain infrastructure, has launched Stablebond, a tokenized bond offering for retail investors in Mexico.
Crypto custody firm Qredo, valued at $460 million in early 2022, is in a tight financial situation with six months of runway left. It has also laid off half of its staff again.
Kasikornbank (KBank), Thailand's second-largest bank, has acquired 97% of the shares of Satang, a local crypto exchange. It plans to rename Satang as Orbix Trade.
Modulus Labs, a startup intending to bring ZKPs to AI, raised $6.3 million in a seed round from investors Variant and 1kx.