Alpaca Finance Institutional Newsletter #11
Creating a stir across many industries, Elon Musks’ completion of the Twitter acquisition dominated the headlines this week. Some see this as a return to free speech on the platform, while others remain skeptical. In either case, sweeping layoffs in Twitter’s back-office are expected, with the firm to be set on a new course.
Twitter’s ongoings also affected crypto markets. Musk has been a long-time advocate (for good or bad) of the cryptocurrency DOGE which started and continues as a meme coin. The market thus reacted by connecting the dots on pro-crypto Musk’s aspirations to make Twitter like WeChat, where social and commerce collide, which sent DOGE prices skyrocketing. Of note is that CZ from Binance invested alongside Musk in the acquisition which was likely a bid to have BNB Chain underpin the new economic engine.
Finally, industry tension sparked when Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX was denied participation in the acquisition round, as you can expect in a new high-rising industry where players are jockeying for positions to be at the core of an application on the cusp of bridging millions of new users into Web 3.
News
- Dogecoin price jumps 40% on Elon Musk, Twitter’s crypto wallet rumors
- Fidelity to beef up crypto unit by another 25% with 100 new hires
- Prometheum partners with Anchorage Digital on SEC-registered alternative trading system
- South African crypto landscape primed for TradFi growth after FSCA ruling
Regulation
- Investors are loving SEC’s crypto industry crackdown
- Singapore’s MAS proposes banning cryptocurrency credits
- The UK has a new name for stablecoins and a new bill to regulate crypto
- S. Korean watchdog goes after crypto whales to ensure AML compliance
Products
- Fireblocks launches crypto payment engine with Checkout.com and Worldpay as pilot partners
- Japan’s International Payments System will test plastic cards for CBDC
- Tel Aviv Stock Exchange to create crypto platform
- Kazakhstan to build central bank digital currency on BNB Chain
Funding
- ConsenSys commits $2.4M annually to launch MetaMask Grants DAO
- Solana-based protocol seeking to decentralize ride-sharing raises $9M
- Celo ecosystem projects raise $77.3M in support of interoperability, ReFi
