“reHash” — Your Weekly Summary of Everything Important in the Crypto World — issue no. 25

Published in

Wanchain

6 min readMar 10, 2021

reHash issued for March 4th to March 10th

Welcome to reHash 25 in which we recount the news from last week. It seems this week it is more of the same — third ETF launched in Canada, Arthur Hayes might be surrendering to authorities, McAfee still does not agree with being imprisoned, some exploits and MicroStrategy buys a little more BTC. Other companies also purchased some cryptocurrencies, which is nice. Hope you enjoy reHash this week!

NOTE:
reHash is not intended to be original journalism. It is intended to be a brief summary of significant articles and events from the past week with links to the original sources. Sources will always be linked and credited. If you know any good newsletters or Twitter accounts which provide news we have been missing, please mention them in the comments!

ADOPTION

A third ETF, CI Galaxy Bitcoin ETF, has been approved in Canada; it started trading on March 9th on the Toronto Stock Exchange under BTCX symbol; “We believe the emerging digital asset class presents compelling growth and diversification opportunities. The CI Galaxy Bitcoin ETF offers a simple and secure access point for traditional investors to gain exposure to bitcoin,”; the previous two ETFs have attracted more than $500 million in investment in the oast week;
SOURCE: 1, 2, 3, 4
Software company Meitu bought $40 million worth of cryptocurrency; they bough 15,000 Ethereum and 379.12 BTC; they are Hong Kong-listed and headquartered in China’s Fujian province; “the Board believes cryptocurrencies have ample room for appreciation in value and by allocating part of its treasury in cryptocurrencies can also serve as a diversification to holding cash”; “More importantly, the Board considers this a demonstration to investors and stakeholders that the Group has the vision and determination to embrace technological evolution, and hence preparing its foray into the blockchain industry” said the announcement released by Meitu
SOURCE: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Aker ASA, owned by billionaire Kjell Inge Roekke, plans to invest in Bitcoin through new investment entity Seetee; Seetee is launching with 500 million Norwegian Krone (nearly $60 million) in capital and will keep all of its liquid assets in Bitcoin; “First, we will use bitcoin as our treasury asset and join the community. In Bitcoin speak, we will be hodlers,” commented Kjell Inge Roekke, and added “Bitcoin may still go to zero. But it can also become the core of a new monetary architecture. If so, one bitcoin may be worth millions of dollars,”;
SOURCE: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
$32 million was raised from 5 investors in Galaxy Digital’s ethereum fund; “Bitcoin has solidified its lane as a store of value in which we continue to have conviction, while the Ethereum blockchain’s general programmability presents a distinct growth opportunity,”; “We’re excited to help our clients participate in that potential upside as a complement to bitcoin.”
SOURCE: 1, 2

REGULATION

Sohrab Sharma, one of the co-founders of the Centra Tech project has been sentenced to 8 years in prison; Centra Tech was backed by Floyd Mayweather and raised $25 million in an ICO held back in 2017; “Sohrab Sharma led a scheme to deceive investors by falsely claiming that the start-up he co-founded had developed fully functioning, cutting-edge cryptocurrency-related financial products. In reality, Sharma’s most notable inventions were the fake executives, fake business partnerships, and fake licenses that he and his co-conspirators touted to trick victims into handing over tens of millions of dollars. We will continue to aggressively pursue digital securities frauds like this one.” commented Ilan T. Graff, the Attorney for the United States;
SOURCE: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Arthur Hayes, ex-CEO of BitMEX might surrender to authorities; according to a court filing he proposed to surrender to authorities in Hawaii on April 6; he was charged last year with violations of US Secrecy Act “by willfully failing to establish, implement, and maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program”; “We have discussed with counsel how to arrange for a voluntary surrender, and he has proposed appearing within the United States in Hawaii and having his initial appearance there and then,” commented Jessica Greenwood, an assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New York;
SOURCE: 1, 2, 3, 4
Bybit is suspending its services in the UK after FCA crypto derivatives ban; “If you are either a U.K. resident or citizen, please close all your positions and withdraw all account balances by 8 a.m. UTC [3 a.m. ET], March 31, 2021. Thereafter, customers located in or are residents of the U.K. will be restricted from accessing or performing any trading activities on Bybit.”;
SOURCE: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
BitGo has received the trust license from New York regulators; that allows them to provide custodial services for institutional customers in New York; “We are extremely proud to receive the approval for a trust charter from NYDFS to serve the world’s premier financial organizations that are based in New York State,”; “The past year has been exceptional for BitGo and the digital asset markets overall, primarily due to the influx of large financial services institutions that bring a new level of credibility, liquidity and stability to the crypto ecosystem. Our new charter is an important milestone to serve these clients within New York State’s regulatory framework,”
SOURCE: 1, 2, 3, 4

DEVELOPMENT

EIP-1559, a major overhaul of the Ethereum gas fees is slated for July release in London hardfork; while users should be happy, ETH miners not so much; the proposal would see Ethereum become a potentially deflationary asset with fees being burned; the fee would be regulated automatically; “to date, gas fees have been determined based on an inefficient auction process.”; “EIP 1159 proposes a ‘BASEFEE’, which automatically adjusts to the network’s congestion level of transactions, providing a ‘market rate’ instead of users referencing prices paid.”
SOURCE: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

GENERAL UPDATES

Jack Dorsey, Twitter CEO, is selling the first ever tweet as a NFT on the digital platform Valuables; currently the highest offer is $2.5 million by Sina Estavi, CEO of Bridge Oracle; “The tweet itself will continue to live on Twitter. What you are purchasing is a digital certificate of the tweet, unique because it has been signed and verified by the creator.”; Tweet itself reads “just setting up my twttr”; bidding will end on March 21st and all profits will be send to GiveDirectly’s Africa Response;
SOURCE: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Meerkat Finance has been exploited for $31 million; the exploit has resulted in loss of 73,000 BNB and $14 million in BUSD stablecoin; community was quick to call it a rugpull; the project’s Twitter account and website went offline; a user identyfying themselves as “Jamboo” has created a Telegram channel in which they claim that the exploit was to help “users realize the potential danger in smart contracts, the subjectivity in the audit processes of audit companies. Meerkat invited a third party (hacker) to attack the vulnerability through the verify proxy contract” and that they plan on refunding funds to the victims;
SOURCE: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
PayPal has acquired Curv for nearly $200 million; Curv is a digital asset security startup that pioneers using multi-party computation (MPC) to safeguard the holdings; “To drive sustained growth and innovation in this area, the company recently created a business unit focused on blockchain, crypto and digital currencies. Curv will join the newly formed group, with its strong team of technologists adding technical expertise to PayPal,”
SOURCE: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Cipher Mining, a subsidiary of Bitfury is looking to go public at $2 billion valuation; they entered into a business combination with Good Works Acquisition Works and are set to become the largest Bitcoin mining operation in USA;
SOURCE: 1, 2, 3, 4
DODO DEX has been exploited for up to $3.8 million; “On March 8, Several DODO V2 Crowdpools were attacked. WSZO, WCRES, ETHA, and FUSI pools were impacted, while AC pool funds have been fully recovered. Funds in all other pools, including all V1 pools and all non-Crowdpool V2 pools, are safe.”
SOURCE: 1, 2, 3, 4

Thank you, as always, for reading and hope to see you next week! We will have news next week too!

About Wanchain

Wanchain is the infrastructure connecting the decentralized financial world. Wanchain’s live cross-blockchain solution is EVM-based, includes optional private transactions, and provides a decentralized, permissionless, and secure approach for interoperability. Wanchain has employees globally with teams in China, the USA, and other team members around the world in Asia, Africa, and Europe.