Paxos stops minting Binance USD stablecoin

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gm everyone!

Welcome to today's newsletter.

Here is a breakdown of what has recently hit the industry.

• Romanian authorities take a bite out of Andrew Tate’s Bitcoin stash (crypto.news)

• BAYC owner burns $169,000 to move it form Ethereum to Bitcoin (nft news)

• Wyoming lawmakers pass bill to prevent forced disclosure of private keys (cointelegraph)

• Pudgy Penguins Lil Pudgys can now travel across chains (nft evening)

• GQ Magazine to Launch Its First 1,661 NFTs Giving Owners Access To Live Events (councu)

• Bitcoin Ordinals reaches an all-time high100k inscribed NFTs (crypto news)

• Bill Murray’s exclusive party for NFT holders was an immense success (nft news)

• Tether market cap nears $70B as SEC crypto crackdown hurts stablecoin rivals (cointelegraph)

• Usain Bolt joins celebrities endorsing crypto (crypto.news)

• Gamefam Brings SpongeBob and TMNT to Roblox! (nft evening)

• NFT Exchange, Hadeswap, Acquires Solana Monkey Business (nft lately)

• Banco do Brasil Bank Now Supports Crypto Tax Payments (coincu)

• Celsius creditors threaten to sue Alex Mashinsky and other Celsius execs (crypto news)

• Bitcoin single-day price surge linked to billions in USDC inflows (cointelegraph)

• DigiDaigaku NFT Super Bowl Ad Was A Massive Flop (nft lately)

• Mango Markets exploiter seeks to keep disputed funds paid as bug bounty (cointelegraph)

• Blur NFT Marketplace To Be Valued at $1 Billion USD (nft evening)

• Chiliz Unveils Its Blockchain Technology and Rewards Fans with Free NFTs (nft lately)

Here is what else we dug

Regulators instruct Paxos to stop minting BUSD stablecoin

The US Securities and Exchange Commission instructed Paxos to stop minting new BUSD tokens hours after the financial watchdog issued a Wells Notice to the crypto firm.

Here is what we know about the Feud going on between the SEC and Paxos:

• Paxos is a crypto firm that issues fiat collateralized stablecoins and regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services.

• Paxos Received a Wells Notice from the SEC that threatened to sue Paxos for its BUSD issuance.

• The SEC dictates that the stablecoin was issued as a security yet Paxos never registered BUSD as one.

• BUSD has not lost its peg following the feud

• Paxos has been authorized to cease minting new BUSD as investigations continue.

Romanian authorities take a bite out of Andrew Tate’s Bitcoin stash

British-America social media influencer and five-time world kickboxing champion Andrew Tate has had a slash of his bitcoin (BTC) holdings seized by the Romanian authorities.

Here is what we know about the story:

• Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan Tate were arrested in Romania’s capital Bucharest.

• The Romanian government arrested the Tate brothers as part of the ongoing investigations on human trafficking, sexual assault against women.

• In a twist of events, the Romanian police raided his residence and seized hardware wallets belonging to the Tate brothers.

• The hardware wallets contained digital assets worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

• Tristan’s wallet allegedly held 16 BTC while Andrew’s had $110k worth of the cryptocurrency.

Celsius creditors threaten to sue Alex Mashinsky and other Celsius execs

Celsius official committee of unsecured creditors plans to file a lawsuit against Alex Mashinsky and other seven senior executives of the derailed crypto lending and borrowing platform, Celsius. Alex Mashinsky was the CEO of Celsius at the time the firm collapsed due to liquidity constraints.

Here is what we know about the saga:

• The UCC claims that Celsius senior executives drove the company to bankruptcy through improper mismanagement practices

• Court documents filed by UCC lawyers indicate that UCC lawyers had been conducting investigations for the past six months.

• The investigations conclude that Mashinsky and his juniors carried out reckless use of funds, gross management, as well as self benefit decisions using customer deposits.

• The investigations also allege that Mashinsky knew the firm was about to collapse but he went ahead and urged customers to deposit more funds.

• Celsius lost $1.5 billion which was not disclosed to the public.

Binance to pay fines to solve US investigations

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, is required to pay fines following US investigations that began in 2018. In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, the exchange’s Chief Strategy Officer confirmed that the company may have breached financial laws laid out by the US regulations.

Here is what we know about the story:

• Binance’s CTO Patrick Hillmann has acknowledged that the exchange may have violated US laws on corruption, money laundering and bribery.

• The news first surfaced through a publication by Reuters to which Binance heavily condemned the platform for '“spreading lies”.

• Binance is expected to incur financial penalties as a result.

• The case against Binance is as a result of the ongoing war between the regulators and cryptocurrencies.

• The case could be bigger than everyone would expect.

NFT Spotlight: Jennifer & Kevin McCoy

Kevin and Jennifer McCoy are a couple based in New York. They are art lovers and have been making art together for years. Jennifer and Kevin McCoy have advanced their art to incorporate cutting-edge technology supported by blockchain technology. In 2014, Kevin and Anil Dash joined hands to create “Monegraph”, which is the short version of monetized graphics. The work “Quantum” was included in Sotherby’s native digital art curated as an NFT sale in June 2021. The couple met in Paris, France, and went ahead to study together in New York.

Essential links: Website, Instagram, Twitter

Meme Drop

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Read our previous newsletters:

• Blur outperforms Opensea in trading volume

• Logan Paul sued by CryptoZoo investors

• Crippled firm Celsius plans a strategic recovery

• Andrew Tate vs SB Fraudman

Follow the team: Olumide Gbenro, Chris Hauser, Sandro IEVA 

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