The biggest crypto news and ideas of the day |
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| Argentina's State-Owned Energy Company Moves Into Crypto Mining: YPF, Argentina's state-owned energy company, is supplying power to an international crypto mining company with a 1 megawatt operation in southern Argentina. The company plans to launch a second project eight times larger before the end of the year. - "We started to develop this generation pilot for cryptocurrency mining with a vision of sustainability and business from flare natural gas, which cannot be harnessed during exploration and at the beginning of the production of an oil field," YPF Luz CEO MartÃn Mandarano said.
Grayscale Takes Over Key Role for Bitcoin Trust, Other Products From Genesis: Grayscale Securities, a new broker-deal division of the eponymous institutional-facing crypto firm, will now sell shares of sister company Genesis's popular crypto trusts. (Both firms, and CoinDesk, are owned by Digital Currency Group.) - Grayscale is taking over this role after a tumultuous couple of months for Genesis, which was rocked by the crypto market downturn and a bad investment in failed hedge fund Three Arrows Capital. It is unclear if the new arrangement impacts plans to convert the flagship Bitcoin Trust into a regulated exchange-traded fund (ETF).
- The discount on GBTC shares relative to the underlying cryptocurrency held in the fund widened to a record 36.2% on Sept. 30, showing the signals of subsiding institutional interest.
Even "Safe" Stablecoins Might Pose Financial Stability Risk, New York Fed Says: The rise of Circle's USDC stablecoin is a threat to the broader financial system, according to a paper by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The paper, which also discussed risks of stablecoin monopolies, is the latest example of the Fed's concern over crypto market contagion risks. Meanwhile, the Treasury-led Financial Stability Oversight Council is calling for a crypto spot market regulator. - Separately, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision – a group of international regulators – is calling to increase the 1% cap they recommend for banks holding crypto, because it is "prohibitive."
Court Rules CFTC Legally Served Ooki DAO Through Help Bot: The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) can serve a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) a legal summons through Ooki's website help bot and forum, a judge declared. Regulators took this unique approach to announcing their lawsuit after failing to find an "undoxxed" member of Ooki. - The ruling came the same day a group of crypto lawyers and developers filed to join the CFTC's case against Ooki DAO, which is accused of unlicensed derivatives trading.
– Xinyi Luo |
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Putting the news into perspective |
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Kim Kardashian, EthereumMax and the SEC's Publicity Grab Monday, before the market opened, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced it settled with celebrity influencer Kim Kardashian for $1.26 million related to her paid endorsement of a cryptocurrency called EthereumMax. Just as when Kardashian first shilled the token in June 2021 (and failed to disclose the $250,000 she was paid to do so), the news raises the question … why? Why did Kardashian get involved in the first place, and why is the SEC fining her now? The SEC, under Chairman Gary Gensler, is looking to send a message: Celebrities should think twice before endorsing cryptocurrencies. Kardashian, a celebrity who has built her reputation on being famous as well as ubiquitous, is a high-profile target. With a federal agency that is consistently underfunded going after this big target, the settlement serves as a warning for the crypto industry at large. But the news also comes amid a deep market rout, where every day brings more news of crimes swept under the rug during a FOMO-fueled market rally during the COVID-19 pandemic. Three Arrows Capital, once thought to be one of the smartest hands in the game, was found to have built its fortune largely by rehypothecating borrowed funds. Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of bankrupt "neo-bank" Celsius Network was just found to be siphoning funds from Celsius. |
(Raymond Hall/GC Images, modified by CoinDesk) Figures like Mashinsky and Three Arrow's Kyle Davies and Su Zhu promised much more than Kardashian and other celebrity crypto endorsers ever could. Celsius' unofficial slogan was "unbank yourself." The Three Arrows hedge fund operated under the idea of an unstoppable crypto "supercycle." Until the firm imploded under the weight of bad debt and bad bets, Celsius promised users returns of up to 20% on their crypto holdings. Mashinsky is now selling T-shirts saying, "Unbankrupt Yourself." None of this is to excuse the role celebrities have played in pumping tokens like EthereumMax. Kardashian posted about the project on Instagram, where she had about 220 million followers at the time, making it the "financial promotion with the single biggest audience reach in history," according to outgoing U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Chairman Charles Randell. Further, Gen Zs' second-most popular source for financial advice is social media, according to a CreditCards.com survey. Read the full article here. – D.K. |
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Overheard on CoinDesk TV... |
"The SEC is always looking for a way to get the message out to the public and when somebody with the kind of following that Kim Kardashian has makes a blunder like this…that's a layup for the SEC." – Lisa Bragança, former SEC enforcement branch chief, discussing the Kardashian token debacle, on CoinDesk TV's "First Mover" |
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Starfish Finance Building Snow Forts In Crypto Winter* As expected, the crypto market has been pretty choppy over the past few months. While we may be experiencing a crypto winter, it's important to remember that there's no such thing as a bear market in crypto. Even during the coldest days of winter, these times are more commonly known as a builder's market. Builders will harvest their crops/rewards when Spring comes. Markets are as cyclical as seasons. Good crops survive and grow stronger, it's survival of the fittest. Without paying attention to the daily fluctuations in price, the team over at Starfish Finance have been constantly building. Continue reading here *This is sponsored content from Starfish. | |
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Criminals have laundered $4 billion through DEXs, bridges and coin swaps: Elliptic (The Block) Mastercard pushes deeper into crypto with new tool for combating fraud (CNBC) Crypto Nomads' Wandering Ways Face a Bear-Market Reality (Bloomberg)
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