Alpaca Finance Institutional Newsletter #31
Highlights:
- Binance faces more regulatory challenges
- $1 billion lawsuit against Binance & CZ
- Arbitrum’s team backtrack on their first proposal
Once again this week, Binance is in the regulatory spotlight as the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), the entity that oversees crypto activities in Dubai, asked Binance to submit more information about the exchange’s ownership structure, governance and auditing processes. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has also Binance’s operating license in Asutralia.
Finally, five days after Binance and its CEO CZ were sued by the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for alleged trading violations, a new $1 billion lawsuit was filed against Binance, CZ and three crypto influencers for promoting unregistered securities. Many are watching to see how Binance will respond to this seemingly unrelenting wave of attacks.
Following up last week’s Aribtrum debacle, the Arbitrum community has openly created a proposal asking the Foundation to return the 700M ARB they unilaterally took. The vote on this proposal is currently leaning yes, and if passed, it’ll be interesting to see if the Foundation honors the vote, which they failed to do on the last proposal. If not honored, it will lead to further friction between the community and Foundation, and arguably make the governance authority of the DAO as toothless and moot as the results of the first proposal.
News
- Institutions ‘extremely interested’ in crypto ETFs, but buying has cooled
- UK banks are turning away crypto clients
- Elon Musk changes Twitter icon to Doge after seeking lawsuit dismissal
- Brazil bank BTG Pactual to issue USD-pegged stablecoin
Products
- Binance self-custody wallet launches crypto-to-fiat off-ramps
- Crypto exchange backed by 3AC founders launches with claims trading plans
- PancakeSwap changes its recipe with the launch of Version 3
- WonderFi merges with Coinsquare and CoinSmart to form regulated crypto asset platform
- Community wants Arbitrum Foundation to return 700M ARB to DAO Treasury
Regulation
- Japan’s FSA flags Bybit, others for operating without registration
- SEC will conduct investor education events including ‘cautious’ approach to crypto
- SEC reaches ‘agreement in principle’ to resolve insider trading case of Coinbase product manager
Funding
- Pantera Capital leads $22.5M investment in M^ZERO Labs for decentralized infrastructure
- Chinese state insurance firm launches two crypto funds in Hong Kong
- LayerZero raises $120M to expand cross-chain messaging efforts
