*The Daily Spin. ***The Fintech Times Thursday Edition. As the US and South Korea fights over who gets first crack at the notorious Do Kwon, Montenegro says hang on – we caught him with fake passports and other internal charges so you guys are going to have to wait your turn – basically, he’s f&cked. No FBI US Marshall escort rushing this one back to his parent’s guest room in sunny Palo Alto. Call me cynical – but something just ain’t right here. Nor is it right that Andrew Tate is still in Romania being held without trial… but SBF was BY FAR the worst of them all. And he’s still playing League of Legends and transferring cryptocurrency to the judicial system.
Bitcoin reclaims the $28k level, breaking $29k this morning as it approaches 400 days from the halving cycle. XRP continues to rally as the verdict in its case against the SEC approaches. Ethereum hits an all-time low aggregate balance on CEXs of just 10.3% of supply – cementing the trend to self-custody and the narrative preceding the Shanghai-Capella upgrade set for April 12th. Biggest liquid staking platform Lido decides to sunset its services for Polkadot and Kusama, citing low user activity and little growth. ConsenSys’ zk-EVM blockchain “Linea” becomes the latest newcomer to the explosion of zk-EVM chains, preceded by Matter Lab’s zkSync, Polygon’s zk-EVM, and Starknet’s Bitcoin zk-Proofs. NEAR protocol launches an $11m “grassroots community trust” and registered it in Guernsey. BSC receives a user proposal to reduce transaction fees. And Algorand’s recent partnership with India sees the launch of “Algokit” aimed at helping devs transition to web3 and preceded a nearly 30% spike in coin price.
Good news for Paxful Earn customers as they will reinstate balances affected by the Celcius collapse. SafeMoon is working to “rectify” the situation after a total of $9m was exploited from their liquidity pool. CZ denies reports that Binance has been hiding its China ties, amidst a sharp geopolitical blade that’s seeing TikTok getting banned and threats being made as the Taiwanese Premier arrives in New York. Binance’s daily withdrawals have doubled as users report issues with off-ramping, and the exchange faces criticism for pairing various assets with Justin Sun’s TUSD stablecoin. Meanwhile, everyone has something to say about America in America; but the European Central Bank balloons its balance sheet just as the FED did, and lawmakers vote to impose a €1,000 limit on unidentified crypto transactions. Last but not least, China and France complete their first LNG trade using Chinese Yuan, an ominous signal of the demise of the USD’s privy status as the world’s reserve currency. We have a great Thought Leadership section today, be sure to check it out – there is also a surprise appearance by our own Toby Gilbert in the Fintech Times… here is our round-up of curated news and opinions (surely biased) from the world of Blockchain, keeping you informed into the market news with the most trending, in-the-know, and controversial topics. In the name of transparent, dissemination of information to keep you curious, inspired, and clinically sane…
**
Ongoings at Coinweb**
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**SoftServe, Ultra, Coinweb, ConsenSys, DSCVR and XDC Foundation on Blockchain Misconceptions
https://thefintechtimes.com/softserve-ultra-coinweb-consensys-dscvr-and-xdc-foundation-on-blockchain-misconceptions/
Coinweb’s Layer 2 marks 4 million transactions milestone
https://twitter.com/CoinwebOfficial/status/1638125472814092291?s=20
Coinweb Partners With Ceffu for Institutional Crypto Custody
https://www.ceffu.com/blog/coinweb-partners-with-ceffu-for-institutional-crypto-custody?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=organic_social&utm_campaign=cweb0321
Coinweb’s Fireside Chat Series, digitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality
https://twitter.com/CoinwebOfficial/status/1636676933361745920?s=20
“A Thread on Refereed Delegation of Computation” by Kawin on Twitter
https://twitter.com/CoinwebOfficial/status/1635952081302589441?s=20
Coinweb to bring cross-chain tokenisation to Layer 2
https://cryptoslate.com/coinweb-to-bring-cross-chain-tokenisation-to-layer-2/
“A Thread on L2 Scalability, Network Efficiency and Throughput/TPS” by Anton on Twitter
https://twitter.com/CoinwebOfficial/status/1633424957693915137
A Leading Layer 2 Platform Looking To Tackle Crypto's Interoperability Issue
https://www.benzinga.com/markets/cryptocurrency/23/02/31067514/a-leading-layer-2-platform-looking-to-tackle-cryptos-interoperability-issue
“The Reality of Large-scale Enterprises Adopting Blockchain Technology” an article by Toby Gilbert for CityAM Magazine
https://www.cityam.com/the-reality-of-large-scale-enterprises-adopting-blockchain-technology/
Coinweb Labs is proud to unveil LinkMint ⛓️🍃, our groundbreaking Cross-Chain Tokenisation Platform and DeconX, our integrated native DEX! Live Walkthrough Demonstration for the Community by Toby, Knut, and Alexander.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSKA3cAB15U
“A Thread on Guaranteed Liveness and the Coinweb Routing System” by Anton on Twitter
https://twitter.com/CoinwebOfficial/status/1630052477579169793?s=20
“A Thread on Rollups, Monolithic, and Modular Blockchains” by Kawin on Twitter
https://twitter.com/rukawin/status/1616342851507613696?s=46&t=BjBOK3soH3kOMbsWEa_jlg
Toby’s full presentation at Token2049-London
https://youtu.be/pdtKx3vAs9c
**
On the Radar**
WOW Summit, Mar 29-30 (Hong Kong)
ASEAN Web3 Summit, Mar 30-31 (Singapore)
Ethereum Shanghai-Capella Upgrade, Apr 12 (On-chain)
Hong Kong Web3 Festival, Apr 12-15 (Wan Chai, Hong Kong)
Consensus 2023, Apr 26-28 (Austin, Texas)
Web3 Weekend, May 8-13 (Jakarta)
AIBC Asia, Jul 19-22 (Manila)
TOKEN2049, Sep 13-14 (Singapore)
**
Blockchain Events curated by CryptoNomad**
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KtyFTb_W282bQ1xoVA5rlTwTDz3QfhswWIVpXhpbQIc/edit
**
On the Block(chain)**
Bitcoin reclaims $28k despite potential regulatory woes from Binance lawsuit
https://cryptoslate.com/bitcoin-reclaims-28000-despite-regulatory-woes-from-binance-lawsuit/
Bitcoin Halving Approaches: Less Than 400 Days Until Block Reward Subsidy Is Cut in Half
https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-halving-approaches-less-than-400-days-until-block-reward-subsidy-is-cut-in-half/?utm_source=OneSignalPush&utm_medium=notification&utm_campaign=PushNotifications
DeFi Platform Lido to Cease Staking on Polkadot, Kusama in August
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/03/29/defi-platform-lido-to-cease-staking-on-polkadot-kusama-in-august/
Liquid staking tokens rally by 15% as Ethereum Shapella upgrade draws near
https://cryptoslate.com/liquid-staking-tokens-rally-by-15-as-ethereum-shapella-upgrade-draws-near/
Just 10.3% of Ethereum’s total supply is sitting on centralized exchanges (ATL)
https://twitter.com/santimentfeed/status/1640454653900124166?s=20
Biggest Movers: XRP Gains Intensify, as Token Hits 11-Month High
https://news.bitcoin.com/biggest-movers-xrp-gains-intensify-as-token-hits-11-month-high/?utm_source=OneSignalPush&utm_medium=notification&utm_campaign=PushNotifications
BNB smart chain (BSC) receives user proposal for lower transaction fees
https://cryptoslate.com/bnb-smart-chain-bsc-receives-user-proposal-for-lower-transaction-fees/
NEAR launches $11M grassroots community trust registered in Guernsey
https://cryptoslate.com/near-launches-11m-grassroots-community-trust-registered-in-guernsey/
Paxful to refund users’ Earn balances affected by Celsius collapse
https://cryptoslate.com/paxful-to-refund-users-earn-balances-affected-by-celsius-collapse/
SafeMoon working to ‘rectify’ situation after $9M exploit, says CEO
https://cryptoslate.com/safemoon-ceo-offers-official-statement-after-8m-exploit/
Binance’s CZ refutes report claiming company has been hiding China ties
https://cryptoslate.com/report-claims-binance-has-been-hiding-its-chinese-presence/
**
Competitive Landscape**
Infura launches NFT API SDK open beta: Query NFT data from 8 blockchains – in just one call
https://www.infura.io/platform/nft-api
Bitcoin․com Partners with HAPI to Launch High-Yield Farm on Verse DEX and Enhance Wallet and DEX Security
https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin%e2%80%a4com-partners-with-hapi-to-launch-high-yield-farm-on-verse-dex-and-enhance-wallet-and-dex-security/?utm_source=OneS
Binance Faces Criticism For Pairing Various Crypto Assets With Justin Sun-Linked TUSD Stablecoin
https://heraldsheets.com/binance-faces-criticism-for-pairing-various-crypto-assets-with-justin-sun-linked-tusd-stablecoin/ignalPush&utm_medium=notification&utm_campaign=PushNotifications
Binance daily withdrawals double as users report problems off-ramping
https://cryptoslate.com/binance-daily-withdrawals-double-as-users-report-problems-off-ramping/
Restaking protocol EigenLayer closes $50 million raise
https://www.theblock.co/post/222901/eigenlayer-series-a
ConsenSys Launches zkEVM Public Testnet, Renames It ‘Linea’
https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2023/03/28/consensys-launches-zkevm-public-testnet-renames-it-linea/
Kraken Lands Sponsorship Deal With Williams Racing Despite U.S. Regulatory Crackdown
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/03/28/kraken-lands-sponsorship-with-williams-racing-despite-us-regulatory-crackdown/
Algorand Aims to Help Developers Transition to Web3 With AlgoKit
https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2023/03/29/algorand-aims-to-help-developers-transition-to-web3-with-algokit/
Volt Inu Partners With OKX to Enable OKX Wallet Web Extension Users to Access Voltichange
https://news.bitcoin.com/volt-inu-partners-with-okx-to-enable-okx-wallet-web-extension-users-to-access-voltichange/?utm_source=OneSignalPush&utm_medium=notification&utm_campaign=PushNotifications
Crypto Exchange Gemini Looking to Launch Overseas Derivatives Operation
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2023/03/29/crypto-exchange-gemini-looking-to-launch-overseas-derivatives-operation-the-information/
Andy Warhol Artworks to Be Offered as Tokenized Investments on Ethereum
https://www.coindesk.com/web3/2023/03/29/andy-warhol-artworks-to-be-offered-as-tokenized-investments-on-ethereum/
**
US. Coordinated Regulation Failures**
Due to SEC Inaction, Registration is Not a Viable Path for Crypto Projects
https://policy.paradigm.xyz/writing/secs-path-to-registration-part-i
Law Firm's White Paper Claims US Bank Regulators Are Waging a 'Clandestine Financial War' Against Crypto Businesses
https://news.bitcoin.com/law-firms-white-paper-claims-us-bank-regulators-are-waging-a-clandestine-financial-war-against-crypto-businesses/
Former CFTC Chair: It’s not correct that all cryptocurrencies are securities
https://www.coindesk.com/video/former-cftc-chair-its-not-correct-that-all-cryptocurrencies-are-securities/
World's Largest Asset Manager Blackrock Predicts No Fed Rate Cuts This Year
https://news.bitcoin.com/worlds-largest-asset-manager-blackrock-predicts-no-fed-rate-cuts-this-year/?utm_source=OneSignalPush&utm_medium=notification&utm_campaign=PushNotifications
Senate Banking Committee Holds Hearing on Recent Bank Collapses, Calls for Tougher Regulations
https://news.bitcoin.com/senate-banking-committee-holds-hearing-on-recent-bank-collapses-calls-for-tougher-regulations/?utm_source=OneSignalPush&utm_medium=notification&utm_campaign=PushNotifications
Controversial 'Tiktok Ban Bill' Sparks Concerns Among Cryptocurrency and Technology Advocates
https://news.bitcoin.com/controversial-tiktok-ban-bill-sparks-concerns-among-cryptocurrency-and-technology-advocates/?utm_source=OneSignalPush&utm_medium=notification&utm_campaign=PushNotifications
SEC charges force crypto exchange Beaxy to close operations
https://cryptoslate.com/sec-charges-forces-crypto-exchange-beaxy-to-close-operations/
Potential crypto ban: Coin Center raises the alarm on the RESTRICT Act
https://cryptoslate.com/potential-crypto-ban-coin-center-raises-the-alarm-on-the-restrict-act/
SEC’s Gary Gensler seeks for more staff, resources to regulate crypto
https://cryptoslate.com/secs-gary-gensler-seeks-for-more-staff-resources-to-regulate-crypto/
FDIC to sell Signature’s Signet network; remaining bank clients given cutoff date
https://cryptoslate.com/fdic-to-sell-signatures-signet-network-remaining-bank-clients-given-cutoff-date/
Texas bill seeks to eliminate incentives for Bitcoin miners
https://cryptoslate.com/texas-bill-seeks-to-eliminate-incentives-for-bitcoin-miners/
**
World**
EU Lawmakers Vote to Impose €1,000 Limit on Unidentified Crypto Transactions
https://news.bitcoin.com/eu-lawmakers-vote-to-impose-e1000-limit-on-unidentified-crypto-transactions/?utm_source=OneSignalPush&utm_medium=notification&utm_campaign=PushNotifications
China and France complete first LNG trade using Chinese Yuan, ending reliance on US Dollar for energy trades
https://twitter.com/watcherguru/status/1641099885632954368?s=46&t=WMu6sJbqsiajTgXdlRTmuA
ECB joins global central banks in balance sheet expansion YTD
https://cryptoslate.com/insights/ecb-joins-global-central-banks-in-balance-sheet-expansion-ytd/
UAE Central Bank Implements Digital Currency Strategy
https://news.bitcoin.com/report-uae-central-bank-implements-digital-currency-strategy/?utm_source=OneSignalPush&utm_medium=notification&utm_campaign=PushNotifications
Do Kwon’s Extradition Likely to Take Time, Montenegrin Prosecutor Says
https://news.bitcoin.com/do-kwons-extradition-likely-to-take-time-montenegrin-prosecutor-says/
French Authorities Raid 5 Major Banks Over Accusations of Money Laundering and Fiscal Fraud
https://news.bitcoin.com/french-authorities-raid-5-major-banks-money-laundering-fiscal-fraud/
The Countries Bailed Out by China
https://www.statista.com/chart/29603/chinese-emergency-bailouts/
UK Government Drops Plan to Launch NFT With Royal Mint
https://news.bitcoin.com/uk-government-drops-plan-to-launch-nft-with-royal-mint/?utm_source=OneSignalPush&utm_medium=notification&utm_campaign=PushNotifications
Algorand up over 12% following on from India partnership
https://cryptoslate.com/algorand-up-over-12-following-on-from-india-partnership/
**
Thought Leadership**
State of DAO Funding
https://messari.io/report/state-of-dao-funding
Hashflow: Certainty in Execution
https://messari.io/report/hashflow-certainty-in-execution
Governor Note: The Launch of Arbitrum Governance
https://messari.io/report/governor-note-the-launch-of-arbitrum-governance
The State of Crypto Feat. J. Christopher Giancarlo, Former Chairman of the CFTC (22mins)
https://www.coindesk.com/video/former-cftc-chairman-giancarlo-on-us-crypto-regulation-cbdcs/
SoftServe, Ultra, Coinweb, ConsenSys, DSCVR and XDC Foundation on Blockchain Misconceptions
https://thefintechtimes.com/softserve-ultra-coinweb-consensys-dscvr-and-xdc-foundation-on-blockchain-misconceptions/
The Short-Sightedness of Run-Amok Regulators
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/03/29/the-short-sightedness-of-run-amok-regulators/