U.S. Treasury sanctioned Russia's Suex / Vee Finance hacked for $35.2M / Mainnet 2021 speakers served by SEC

Plus: Today's fresh funding totaled $888.5M + revealed BitClout's founder

Inside.com Part of   Network September 21, 2021

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The global crypto market cap is $1.87T 2.35%▼ with a 24-hour market volume of $130.88B 4.67%▼. Bitcoin's dominance is currently 42.74% 0.06%▼. CURRENT PRICES BY MARKET CAP # Name Price 24h % 1 Bitcoin BTC $42,095.41 2.84% ▼ 2 Ethereum ETH $2,891.51 4.20% ▼ 3 Cardano ADA $2.04 0.83%▼ 4 Binance Coin BNB $357.59 2.02%▼ 5 XRP XRP $0.9057 1.22% ▼ *Prices as of 3:30 p.m. ET.

The U.S. Treasury announced new sanctions targeting the Russian-based crypto exchange Suex. Suex is alleged to have laundered over $160M in BTC since 2018, according to Chainalysis. More: Over the past three years, government officials stated that Suex had facilitated numerous ransomware payments, scam operations, and money laundering for BTC-e. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) released a list of 25 wallet addresses said to have facilitated the transactions. As the U.S. continues to fight against ransomware, direct sanctions to parties involved in the ransomware supply chain are expected to continue.

Major trade groups representing the blockchain industry and asset managers petitioned against newly proposed rules by the Basel Committee. The representative groups claim that the rules would limit banks and the financial sector from entering the crypto market. More: In June, the committee proposed that "high risk" assets like "Bitcoin and Ethereum" would require banks to apply a risk weight of 1,250%. When multiplied by the minimum capital requirement of 8%, this would mean that the bank would have to set aside at least $1 in cash or assets for every $1 in "high risk" cryptocurrencies. The committee said this would protect against a potential complete write-off without exposing a bank's depositors or creditors to a loss. The Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA) and the Institute of International Finance were among the petition groups. If passed, any cryptocurrency not deemed a security or a one-to-one backed stablecoin would be subject to the over-collateralization requirement.

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🍋 Fresh Funding🍋  Decentralized Social (DeSo), Social Tokens: $133M ⮕ The funding round was led by a16z, Sequoia, Social Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Winklevoss Capital, Pantera Capital, and others. More: DeSo is a social-focused blockchain network developed by BitClout creator Nader Al-Naji (aka Diamondhands). The announcement was the first time Al-Naji revealed his identity as the creator of BitClout. DESO token, the native cryptocurrency for the DeSo network, will be a continuation of BitClout’s CLOUT. Al-Naji called BitClout a “prototype” for experimenting with the DeSo functionality before its public launch. Portal, DeFi/Infrastructure: $8.5M ⮕ The funding round was led by Coinbase Ventures with participation from ArringtonXRP Capital, OKEx, Republic.co, GenBlock, B21 Capital, and others. More: Portal is a DeFi project building decentralized infrastructure for the Bitcoin blockchain. Using its “Fabric” protocol, Portal plans to deploy censorship-resistant layers on top of the Bitcoin network, similar to Ethereum Layer-2 networks. The fresh funding will be used to further develop traditional DeFi products for the Bitcoin network, including yield farming, derivatives, and liquidity pools. Metrika, Blockchain Analytics: $14M ⮕ this Series A funding round was led by Neotribe Ventures with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Samsung NEXT, Nyca Partners, and others. More: Metrika offers companies an operational intelligence service that monitors the health of their blockchain networks and avenues to improve their performance. The fresh funding will be used to further develop its platform as well as expand its user base. Metrika has raised a total of $17.7M to date. Ripio, Exchange/Wallet: $50M ⮕ The Series B funding round was led by Digital Currency Group and participated in by Amplo, Draper Ventures, Boost VC, and others. More: Ripio is a Latin American crypto wallet, exchange, and service provider that recently acquired the second-largest crypto exchange in Brazil. The fresh funding will be used to further international expansion as well as develop new products and services. Ripio CEO Juan José Mendez stated that it is seeking to expand into Spain but doesn't have plans to continue expanding into the rest of Europe at this time. Sorare, NFT/Gaming: $680M ⮕ Softbank led the Series B funding round with participation from D1 Capital, Liontree, Antonie Griezmann, Gary Vaynerchuk, Alexis Ohanian, and others. More: Sorare is an NFT-based fantasy soccer game built on the Ethereum blockchain, with over 175 international soccer clubs currently licensed. The startup has already seen $150M in trading volume this year, with over 600,000 users registered on the platform. Sorare was previously a part of Ubisoft's Entrepreneurs Lab accelerator program and closed a $50M Series A in February. Following the round, Sorare received a valuation of $4.3B. Taker Protocol, DeFi/NFT: $3M ⮕ The funding round was led by Electric Capital and participated in by Digital Currency Group, Dragonfly Capital, Spartan Group, Morningstar Ventures, and others. More: Taker Protocol is a cross-chain liquidity protocol designed to bring liquidity to the NFT market. The fresh funding will be used to accelerate Taker's mainnet launch on Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, Binance Smart Chain, and Near. Taker also offers TKR tokens for access to the Taker DAO system. TKR holders can set loan-to-value rates within the protocol as well as contribute to sub-DAO NFT collections.

▲ TOP GAINERS # Name Price 24h % 1 XinFin Network XDC $0.1136 10.57% ▲ 2 Celo CELO $6.46 10.47% ▲ 3 Elrond EGLD $205.66 9.37% ▲ 4 Bitcoin SV BSV $149.75 6.75% ▲ 5 Theta THETA $5.48 6.31% ▲ ▼  TOP LOSERS # Name Price 24h % 1 OMG Network OMG $9.50 9.01%▼ 2 Arweave AR $37.20 9.00%▼ 3 Decred DCR $112.90 8.60%▼ 4 NEAR Protocol NEAR $7.17 7.27%▼ 5 SushiSwap SUSHI $9.72 6.76%▼ *Limited to cryptocurrencies in the Top 100. Prices as of 3:30 p.m. ET.

DeFi platform Vee Finance was hacked for 8,804.7 ETH and 213.93 BTC (~$35.2M). The team posted a bounty on Twitter, asking the hacker to help in identifying the exploited bug. More: Vee Finance is a lending and borrowing protocol for the Avalanche (AVAX) blockchain. Vee’s stablecoins are reportedly unaffected by the incident, but whether user funds are secured is unclear.  Following the announcement, VEE token dropped from $0.235 to a low of $0.087 (-62.97%). This is the second Avalanche-based DeFi hack reported, following the $3.2M exploit on Zabu Finance on Sept. 12.

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Riccardo Spagni, the former maintainer of privacy-focused Monero (XMR), was released from jail. Spagni was released three weeks after being arrested in the U.S. for his connection to a case in South Africa. More: Court documents from July stated that Spangi was under arrest in South Africa for his alleged involvement in an invoice payment fraud scheme. A representative of Spagni stated in August that the arrest was due to a misunderstanding of court dates. Spagni tweeted that he is working with his attorneys on a return to South Africa to put the matter behind him "once and for all."

DeFi representatives speaking at the Mainnet 2021 conference were reportedly served by the SEC before going on stage. While the extent of the subpoenas is unclear, event organizer and Messari founder Ryan Selkis confirmed SEC action via Twitter. More: Indiegogo founder Salva Rubin said he saw someone get served by the SEC at the top of the escalator during Mainnet 2021. Rubin said it wasn’t clear whether the server was part of the SEC, but he clearly heard him say, “you are being served by the SEC.” A representative from stablecoin provider Terra (LUNA) and Gavin Wood were suspected to be subpoenaed, but reports have not been confirmed. Messari's Selkis followed up his message about the SEC involvement at the event with an announcement that he plans to run for U.S. Senate.

QUICK HITS Have you ever wanted an exclusive Q&A with Emmy Award Winning star Dan Levy? Now's your shot. Register for Elevate today to save your spot!* Colombian NFT artist Camilo Restrepo received a warning directly from Instagram ahead of his “ToN oF coke” NFT launch, which was set to feature 3D renderings of kilos. Burger King launched an NFT campaign, “Keep it Real Meals,” in which customers can scan QR codes to unlock digital collectibles and rewards. Compass Mining released “at-home” Bitcoin mining rigs aimed at making bitcoin mining more accessible for everyone. OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer called the recent insider trading allegation "misframed" and that the now-former employee’s actions did not rise to the SEC’s legal definition. Grayscale rival Osprey Funds launched a Polygon-based crypto trust for private placement. Brazilian investment bank BTG Pactual announced the launch of a new BTC and Crypto trading app, Mynt. The best customer experiences start with Zendesk. Qualifying startups get 6 months free — apply now!* * Sponsored content

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Griffin McShane is a J.D. candidate currently living in Portland, Maine. He is a graduate of Providence College, where he studied both computer science and business. Griffin aspires one day to go to the moon and bring some of his altcoins along for the ride. Editor Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford.

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