{"id":26294,"date":"2024-01-20T22:20:15","date_gmt":"2024-01-20T22:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/?p=26294"},"modified":"2024-01-20T23:06:46","modified_gmt":"2024-01-20T23:06:46","slug":"crypto-collapse-sec-takes-on-terraform-and-coinbase-etf-fallout-continues-tether-is-for-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2024\/01\/20\/crypto-collapse-sec-takes-on-terraform-and-coinbase-etf-fallout-continues-tether-is-for-crime\/","title":{"rendered":"Crypto collapse: SEC takes on Terraform and Coinbase, ETF fallout continues, Tether is for crime"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i>By <\/i><b><i>Amy Castor<\/i><\/b><i> and <\/i><b><i>David Gerard<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">If you like this post, please <b><i>tell at least one other person<\/i><\/b>. It really helps!<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">You can also send us money! Here\u2019s<a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/amycastor\"> Amy\u2019s<\/a> Patreon and here\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/davidgerard\/\">David\u2019s<\/a>. For casual tips, here\u2019s<a href=\"http:\/\/ko-fi.com\/amycastor\"> Amy\u2019s<\/a> Ko-Fi and here\u2019s<a href=\"https:\/\/ko-fi.com\/A1529D5\"> David\u2019s<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">David has<a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2020\/11\/26\/get-signed-copies-of-libra-shrugged-and-attack-of-the-50-foot-blockchain\/\"> signed author copies of his books<\/a> for sale.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">We still have <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/bitcoin-it-cant-be-that-stupid.png\">\u201cBitcoin: It Can\u2019t Be That Stupid<\/a>\u201d stickers for patrons! Message one of us and ask!<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Sign up on<a href=\"https:\/\/amycastor.com\/\"> Amy\u2019s blog<\/a> to see every new post she makes as it goes up, and<a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/#byemail\"> click here and enter your email address<\/a> for every new post on David\u2019s blog as it goes up.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cgood news. you know that dog you loved? the one who crossed the rainbow bridge?? I just put him on the Block chain where he can live forever\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">\u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dril\/status\/1705879978620190933\">dril<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2022\/11\/02\/celsius-network-bankruptcy-hearing-1-november-2022-stablecoins-kerps-and-ponzis\/bomb\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-24050\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-24050\" src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/bomb.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"510\" height=\"315\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/bomb.png 680w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/bomb-300x185.png 300w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/bomb-348x215.png 348w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>SEC v. Terraform: all securities, fraud claims going to trial<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2023\/02\/18\/crypto-collapse-sec-tightening-crypto-custody-rules-why-you-cant-cash-out-your-busd-binance-and-catherine-coley-sec-charges-terra-luna\/\">The SEC sued Terraform Labs<\/a> and cofounder Do Kwon in February 2023 for marketing unregistered securities to retail investors in the US, for lying to investors, for losing everyone\u2019s money, and for stealing the Luna Foundation Guard bitcoin reserve.<\/p>\n<p>New York District Judge Jed Rakoff issued summary judgment opinions on December 28. His opinions mostly favored the SEC. [<a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.nysd.594150\/gov.uscourts.nysd.594150.149.0.pdf\"><i>Order<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>The court determined that there was \u201cno genuine dispute\u201d that Terraform\u2019s four crypto assets \u2014 UST, LUNA, wLUNA, and MIR \u2014 \u201care securities because they are investment contracts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The SEC\u2019s theory is that if you build a system of tokens and promote it as number go up, then the parts of that system are likely to constitute securities. Judge Rakoff concurred.<\/p>\n<p>The UST stablecoin was not a security in its own right \u2014 but it was promoted by Kwon and Terraform as a ticket to invest in the Anchor protocol, \u201cwith a \u2018target\u2019 of \u201820% fixed APR,\u2019\u201d and \u201cundisputed evidence clearly demonstrates that UST in combination with the Anchor Protocol constituted an investment contract.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The SEC has already cited the Terraform decision on UST in <a href=\"https:\/\/amycastor.com\/2023\/06\/12\/sec-sues-binance-part-1-the-complaint-binance-us-asset-freeze-tai-chi-plan-sock-puppet-ceos-weird-cash-flows\/\">the Binance case<\/a>, where it argues that Binance\u2019s stablecoin BUSD is a security for similar reasons \u2014 BUSD was part of a complete ecosystem. [<a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.dcd.256060\/gov.uscourts.dcd.256060.202.0_1.pdf\"><i>Doc 202<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>The court also determined there was \u201cno genuine dispute\u201d that Terraform and Kwon sold the securities \u2014 most notably LUNA and MIR \u2014 in unregistered offerings.<\/p>\n<p>Rakoff was deeply unimpressed with two of Terraform\u2019s three expert witnesses \u2014 and with how Terraform tried to dismiss the testimony of the SEC\u2019s expert witnesses. &#8220;Defendants also make the puzzling argument&#8221; is not a phrase you want to hear from your judge.<\/p>\n<p>Terraform won a summary ruling against the SEC\u2019s claims that the Mirror Protocol involved offering and effecting transactions in security-based swaps. But the SEC can live with that.<\/p>\n<p>The trial will now focus on the fraud claims that the SEC brought against Terraform and Kwon.<\/p>\n<p>The trial has been moved to March 25 so that Kwon, currently <a href=\"https:\/\/amycastor.com\/2023\/12\/28\/crypto-collapse-mt-gox-payouts-tether-hooks-up-the-feds-sec-says-no-to-coinbase-crypto-media-mergers\/\">awaiting extradition in Montenegro,<\/a> can attend. That\u2019s if he gets sent to the US in time! [<a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.nysd.594150\/gov.uscourts.nysd.594150.166.0.pdf\"><i>Order<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<h3>Coinbase: all my Beanies gone<\/h3>\n<p>The SEC <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2023\/06\/07\/the-sec-sues-coinbase-its-on\/\">sued Coinbase<\/a> in June 2023 for operating as an unregistered securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency. The SEC claimed at least 12 tokens listed on the exchange were securities, as was Coinbase\u2019s staking program.<\/p>\n<p>Coinbase <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2023\/08\/09\/crypto-collapse-the-fed-takes-on-crypto-banks-coinbase-earnings-call-is-bad-ftx-2-ex-harder\/\">filed a motion to dismiss<\/a> in August 2023. In a five-hour hearing on the motion on Wednesday, January 17, US District Judge Katherine Polk Failla posed questions to lawyers on both sides.<\/p>\n<p>Coinbase\u2019s lawyer argued the tokens in question were collectibles, akin to Beanie Babies or baseball cards, as opposed to investment contracts like stocks. &#8220;It&#8217;s the difference between buying Beanie Babies Inc. and Beanie Babies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Neeraj K. Agrawal of Coin Center said: [<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NeerajKA\/status\/1747790332702445668\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/hgvIy\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>coinbase isn&#8217;t arguing that cryptocurrencies are just fun beanie babies so they should be left alone by the mean sec. only a fool would think that&#8217;s what they said<\/p>\n<p>they are arguing that the sec&#8217;s definition of an investment contact is so broad it would make beanie babies securities too<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Agrawal is correct that this would be a very dumb argument to make. Unfortunately, it\u2019s literally the argument Coinbase themselves made in the August <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2023\/08\/09\/crypto-collapse-the-fed-takes-on-crypto-banks-coinbase-earnings-call-is-bad-ftx-2-ex-harder\/\">motion to dismiss<\/a> that was being heard today:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>On Coinbase\u2019s secondary-market exchange and through Prime, there is no investment of money coupled with a promise of future delivery of anything. There is an asset sale. That\u2019s it. It is akin to the sale of a parcel of land, the value of which may fluctuate after the sale. Or a condo in a new development. Or an American Girl Doll, or a Beanie Baby, or a baseball card.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(&#8220;funding my new startup by selling Stock Babies which are an asset just like a parcel of land, the value of which may reasonably fluctuate.&#8221; \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/amolitor99\/status\/1748807804151009639\">Andrew Molitor<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Judge Failla asked whether Judge Jed Rakoff was wrong when he sided with the SEC in saying that Terraform Labs offered and sold unregistered securities. Coinbase wants the judge to follow the <a href=\"https:\/\/amycastor.com\/2023\/08\/15\/crypto-collapse-sam-bankman-fried-goes-to-jail-sec-appeals-ripple-ruling-prime-trust-bankrupt-the-tangled-tale-of-trueusd-and-tron\/\">July 2023 Ripple ruling<\/a>, where Judge Analisa Torres ruled that the sale of XRP on public exchanges complied with federal securities laws because purchasers had no reasonable expectation of profit based on Ripple&#8217;s efforts. (A ruling that many, including us, thought was completely nuts.)<\/p>\n<p>Failla ended the hearing saying she would make a decision later. &#8220;I can&#8217;t decide this from the bench right now,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Coinbase general counsel Paul Grewal says the US exchange is still in pursuit of regulatory clarity! [<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/iampaulgrewal\/status\/1747721984383856667\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/nitter.net\/iampaulgrewal\/status\/1747721992747253831#m\"><i>Nitter<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>If Judge Failla denies Coinbase&#8217;s motion to dismiss the case \u2014 and we expect she will \u2014 the case will likely proceed to trial sometime in 2025. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2024-01-17\/coinbase-argues-crypto-like-beanie-babies-in-sec-case-hearing\"><i>Bloomberg<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/Izz3i\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<h3>Crypto ETFs: collateralized rugpull obligations<\/h3>\n<p>Bitcoin is down 15% since the <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2024\/01\/10\/sec-approves-bitcoin-spot-etfs-what-this-means-for-crypto\/\">bitcoin ETFs were approved<\/a> on January 10 \u2014 but the mechanisms of effect are tricky to trace.<\/p>\n<p>Bitcoin trades 24\/7, but ETFs only trade during stock exchange market hours. Outside those hours, there will frequently be a gap between the last ETF market price and a given moment\u2019s bitcoin price.<\/p>\n<p>Billions of dollars are going into ETFs \u2014 but billions are also going out. Some days show a net inflow of dollars to the ETFs and others show a net outflow.<\/p>\n<p>We know that investors are <a href=\"https:\/\/amycastor.com\/2024\/01\/16\/you-wont-believe-the-21-million-reasons-bitcoin-etfs-are-dumb-as-heck-and-super-risky-oh-wait-of-course-you-will\/\">cashing out of Grayscale\u2019s GBTC<\/a> as fast as possible now that they can \u2014 with $2.2 billion flowing out since the closed-ended trust became a two-way ETF. Some of that money seems to be circling back into other bitcoin ETFs.<\/p>\n<p>When the shares are cashed in, the bitcoins backing those shares have to be sold. Even if Grayscale sells its BTC over-the-counter (OTC) via Coinbase Custody, that\u2019s still going to push the bitcoin price down.<\/p>\n<p>With ETFs, shorting bitcoin is now something you can do a bit more reliably \u2014 the WSJ notes that \u201cspeculators close out their bets and the price plummets.\u201d The bitcoin price <i>actually<\/i> correlates with the Ark Innovation ETF, an ETF of speculative tech junk. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/finance\/currencies\/etfs-make-bitcoins-problems-even-worse-f48256d2\"><i>WSJ<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/zzIAk\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>VanEck already had a bitcoin futures ETF \u2014 but they&#8217;re shutting that down now that they have their spot ETF. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marketwatch.com\/story\/vaneck-to-liquidate-a-bitcoin-etf-533ef2fc\"><em>MarketWatch<\/em><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>VanEck and Ark\/21Shares have already proposed ether (ETH) ETFs. [<a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.cboe.com\/resources\/regulation\/rule_filings\/pending\/2023\/SR-CboeBZX-2023-070.pdf\"><i>Ark filing<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.cboe.com\/resources\/regulation\/rule_filings\/pending\/2023\/SR-CboeBZX-2023-069.pdf\"><i>VanEck filing<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>ProShares is hard at work on making crypto ETFs stupider. As well as their existing spot ETF, they\u2019re proposing cash-settled inverse ETFs \u2014 bets that go up when bitcoin goes down. Several of these are leveraged.<\/p>\n<p>The names of ProShares&#8217; new funds make them look even more like straight-up gambling than crypto already did \u2014 ProShares Plus Bitcoin ETF, ProShares Ultra Bitcoin ETF, ProShares UltraShort Bitcoin ETF, Proshares Short Bitcoin ETF, and ProShares ShortPlus Bitcoin ETF \u2014 but hey, as long as they file an S-1, apparently. Here\u2019s to Moron-Backed Securities and Collateralized Rugpull Obligations. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/06a64bd6-a893-4783-8827-9743722684b6\"><i>FT<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/sBi2y\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/Archives\/edgar\/data\/1174610\/000168386324000107\/f37305d1.htm\"><i>prospectus<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Bloomberg\u2019s Editorial Board thinks the SEC made a terrible decision in allowing bitcoin spot ETFs \u2014 this is not how to protect retail investors from a trash market. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/opinion\/articles\/2024-01-17\/sec-s-bitcoin-etf-approval-fails-to-protect-investors\"><i>Bloomberg<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/s2hZX\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<h3>The use case for Tether<\/h3>\n<p>The United Nations thinks that tethers are widely used by criminals. The UN Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) published the report \u201cCasinos, Money Laundering, Underground Banking, and Transnational Organized Crime in East and Southeast Asia: A Hidden, Accelerating Threat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The UNODC report points to USDT as one of the primary methods for money laundering in the region. It specifically points to the rising popularity of USDT on Tron due to its \u201cstability and the ease, anonymity, and low fees of its transactions.\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.unodc.org\/roseap\/en\/2024\/casinos-casinos-cryptocurrency-underground-banking\/story.html\"><i>Press release<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.unodc.org\/roseap\/uploads\/documents\/Publications\/2024\/Casino_Underground_Banking_Report_2024.pdf\"><i>report<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>Separately, a new Chainalysis report finds that stablecoins like Tether were used in the vast majority of crypto-based scam transactions and sanctions evasion in 2023. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/stablecoin-sanctions-violations-crypto-crime\/\"><i>Wired<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/8P0rb\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.chainalysis.com\/blog\/2024-crypto-crime-report-introduction\/\"><i>Chainalysis<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>David S. H. Rosenthal goes through what&#8217;s known about the nearly 100 billion tethers in circulation and concurs with Dirty Bubble\u2019s claim that the guy who&#8217;s actually running Tether is iFinex shareholder Christopher Harborne. (Plus, presumably, a team at Harborne\u2019s end.) [<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.dshr.org\/2024\/01\/good-news-for-tether.html\"><i>DSHR<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Tether competitor TrueUSD is surely backed by something. Right? The real-time attestations <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2023\/07\/02\/crypto-collapse-trueusd-in-trouble-prime-trust-and-banq-go-down-europe-hates-binance-blockfi-terra-luna-twitter-is-just-resting\/\">paused again<\/a> last week, though. Redemption hasn\u2019t been reliable either. [<a href=\"https:\/\/protos.com\/trueusd-attestations-paused-again-this-time-for-improper-balances\/\"><i>Protos<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/markets\/2024\/01\/18\/trueusd-wobbles-towards-1-peg-amid-reported-redemption-issues\/\"><i>CoinDesk<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<h3>We have rekt at home<\/h3>\n<p>SEC has shut down BarnBridge DAO, a \u201cpurportedly decentralized autonomous organization,\u201d for selling unregistered securities to US retail investors.<\/p>\n<p>BarnBridge was a DeFi protocol that allowed users to earn a fixed return on their deposit \u2014 by selling bonds. Tyler Ward and Troy Murray set up BarnBridge as a DAO in 2020, presumably to disguise that it was just the two of them running the project. From March 2021 to May 2023, the BarnBridge DAO sold SMART Yield bonds to retail investors \u2014 not governance tokens.<\/p>\n<p>SMART Yield attracted more than $509 million. To settle the SEC charges, BarnBridge will disgorge $1.5 million and Ward and Murray will pay $125,000 in civil penalties. This is the first time the SEC has targeted a DAO. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/news\/press-release\/2023-258\"><i>SEC<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/files\/litigation\/admin\/2023\/33-11262.pdf\"><i>order<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/files\/litigation\/admin\/2023\/33-11261.pdf\"><i>order<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>HyperVerse was a $1.3 billion crypto scam run by Sam Lee and Ryan Xu, founders of the collapsed Australian crypto company Blockchain Global. HyperVerse\u2019s CEO, Steven Reece Lewis, turned out &#8230; not to exist.<\/p>\n<p>HyperVerse seems to have used Cameo \u2014 a website that lets you pay celebrities to read a script for you \u2014 to get endorsement-like videos read by Steve Wozniak, Chuck Norris, Jim Norton, and Lance Bass.<\/p>\n<p>Sam Lee denies having anything to do with HyperVerse, but also felt he had to claim it wasn\u2019t a scam. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2023\/dec\/14\/crypto-currency-schemes-investors-losing-millions-regulation-hyperverse-warning-ntwnfb\"><i>Guardian<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2024\/jan\/04\/chief-executive-of-collapsed-crypto-fund-hyperverse-does-not-appear-to-exist\"><i>Guardian<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>A blockchain developer was approached with a job offer on LinkedIn. He was given a \u201ctake home\u201d project to download and debug on his computer. Hours later, he discovered 0.225 ETH ($558) had been siphoned from his Metamask wallet. Shocked to hear that a blockchain developer might be of less than first-rate competence. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bleepingcomputer.com\/news\/security\/blockchain-devs-wallet-emptied-in-job-interview-using-npm-package\/\"><i>Bleeping Computer<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<h3>Good news for bitcoin<\/h3>\n<p>Venture capital investment in the crypto industry totaled just $9.5 billion last year, less than a third of what it was in 2022. But crypto VCs are currently sitting on investor funds they have to put out there sometime. Perhaps at &#8220;the intersection of blockchain and <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2023\/06\/03\/crypto-collapse-get-in-loser-were-pivoting-to-ai\/\">artificial intelligence<\/a>.&#8221; [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2024-01-10\/crypto-startup-funding-down-two-thirds-but-founders-see-bright-side\"><i>Bloomberg<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/Ahscw\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Australian bank blockchain startup Lygon has gone broke. It was formed five years ago by ANZ, the Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, IBM, and Scentre Group, with the finest of <a href=\"https:\/\/amycastor.com\/2023\/12\/09\/societe-generales-useless-euro-stablecoin-when-bank-blockchain-units-go-feral\/\">2019-era enterprise blockchain hype.<\/a> The idea was to digitize bank guarantees to businesses \u2014 but on the blockchain! Nobody cared, and Lygon appointed an administrator in June 2023 and declared insolvency in late 2023 with AUD$14.3 million in debts. The company\u2019s assets \u2014 mostly trademarks \u2014 were bought by senior management at one-tenth of their book value. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news.com.au\/finance\/business\/technology\/blockchain-startup-backed-by-major-banks-collapses-into-liquidation-owing-143m\/news-story\/2b80327fda4322243915abd518cfd80a\"><i>news.com.au<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2023\/09\/18\/crypto-collapse-fortress-custody-hack-binance-stonewalls-sec-ftx-to-dump-its-crypto-genesis-sues-dcg-new-york-restricts-crypto-listings\/\">The Venezuelan Petro was dead as of last May<\/a>. Now it\u2019s even deader \u2014 it\u2019s finally been removed from its only exchange, Patria. The remaining petro tokens are being converted to Venezuelan bolivars. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.barrons.com\/news\/venezuela-kills-off-petro-cryptocurrency-1e2b0317\"><i>Barron\u2019s<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>USDC stablecoin issuer Circle has filed confidentially for an Initial Public Offering. The IPO will take place after the SEC completes its review of the filing. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesswire.com\/news\/home\/20240111073632\/en\/Circle-Announces-Confidential-Submission-of-Draft-Registration-Statement-for-Proposed-Initial-Public-Offering\"><i>Businesswire<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Use case for blockchain found! Court service of a SIM-swap scammer on the bitcoin blockchain by sending an OP_RETURN message to the address with the victims\u2019 bitcoins in it. [<a href=\"https:\/\/krebsonsecurity.com\/2024\/01\/heres-some-bitcoin-oh-and-youve-been-served\/\"><i>Krebs<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Celsius Network had 30,000 ETH staked in validators. They&#8217;re unstaking it now so they can distribute the funds to creditors. CoinDesk insists that dumping a mountain of ETH is <i>good<\/i> news for the price. This huge unstaking delayed everyone else who wanted to unstake by nearly six days. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/markets\/2024\/01\/05\/celsius-to-unstake-thousands-of-ether-possibly-easing-eth-selling-pressure\/\"><i>CoinDesk<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/tech\/2024\/01\/05\/ethereum-validators-forced-to-wait-days-to-unstake-amid-celsius-withdraws\/\"><i>CoinDesk<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Apes can no longer set NFT profiles on Twitter! Never mind, you can always right-click and save. [<a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2024\/01\/10\/x-removes-support-for-nft-profile-pictures\/\"><i>TechCrunch<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Bloomberg has a nice profile on James Block, <i>a.k.a.<\/i> Mike Burgersburg of Dirty Bubble Media, after he marked Silvergate Bank for death two months before it <a href=\"https:\/\/amycastor.com\/2023\/03\/09\/crypto-collapse-good-night-silvergate-bank-unbanking-crypto-exchanges-voyager-sale-to-binance-proceeding\/\">collapsed<\/a>. Block did in fact short Silvergate and make some money. Bloomberg thinks this was \u201cThe best short call of 2023.\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2024-01-19\/best-short-call-of-2023-belongs-to-amateur-dirty-bubble-sleuth\"><i>Bloomberg<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/zy5l7\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<br><br><div align=\"center\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\"><img src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/become_a_patron_button.svg\" alt=\"Become a Patron!\" title=\"Become a Patron!\" width=217 height=51><\/a><br><p style=\"align:center;\" class=\"patreon-badge\"><i>Your subscriptions keep this site going. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\">Sign up today!<\/a><\/i><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Moron-Backed Securities and Collateralized Rugpull Obligations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3692,2547,1198,2231,138,3697,21,74,3704,3349,916,273,3707,650,670,288,2019,479,684,3035,2949,1047,82,3093,1799,3701,316,3695,3708,2474,3709,2948,3696,2020,3694,3528,421,2411,3703,3702,3693,33,1545,3700,3706,3705,2946,39,3699,522,487,3698,540,296,3514],"class_list":["post-26294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-21shares","tag-andrew-molitor","tag-anz-bank","tag-ark-invest","tag-australia","tag-barnbridge","tag-bitcoin","tag-blockchain","tag-blockchain-global","tag-bloomberg","tag-celsius","tag-chainalysis","tag-chuck-norris","tag-circle","tag-coin-center","tag-coinbase","tag-commonwealth-bank","tag-dao","tag-david-rosenthal","tag-dirty-bubble-media","tag-do-kwon","tag-etf","tag-ethereum","tag-gbtc","tag-grayscale","tag-hyperverse","tag-ibm","tag-jed-rakoff","tag-jim-norton","tag-katherine-polk-failla","tag-lance-bass","tag-luna","tag-neeraj-k-agrawal","tag-nft","tag-patria","tag-paul-grewal","tag-petro","tag-proshares","tag-ryan-xu","tag-sam-lee","tag-scentre-group","tag-sec","tag-silvergate-bank","tag-smart-yield","tag-steve-wozniak","tag-steven-reece-lewis","tag-terra","tag-tether","tag-troy-murray","tag-trueusd","tag-twitter","tag-tyler-ward","tag-united-nations","tag-venezuela","tag-westpac"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/bomb.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26294"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26320,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26294\/revisions\/26320"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}