Binance.US Suspends Deposits 🏴, Robinhood Token Delistings 📉, Reddit Crypto Communities go Dark 🌚
Daily Crypto, Blockchain & Web3 Update 2023-06-12
CRYPTOCURRENCY
Binance.US Suspends USD Deposits, Warns of Fiat Withdrawal Pause (2 minute read)
Starting June 13th, Binance.US will be temporarily pausing USD withdrawals and will no longer accept USD deposits due to a request from the SEC. Its banking situation has become more complicated after the SEC issued an order to freeze Binance.US’s assets.
The cryptocurrency exchange is preparing to shift towards an entirely crypto-based trading platform. While trading, staking, deposits, and crypto withdrawals will remain operational, the firm plans to delist USD trading pairs, though Tether pairs will still be supported.
Binance CEO CZ responds as data points to billions in exchange outflows (2 min read)
Although data shows that crypto assets have been leaving centralized exchanges rapidly in the past week, Changpeng Zhao, Binance CEO, believes it may not be as bad as it seems.
Nansen and DefiLlama found increased exchange outflows from Binance in the last seven days due to news of the SEC's lawsuit against the firm.
Democrats’ ‘war on crypto’ will lose its key voters: Winklevoss twins (3 min read)
United States President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party risk losing their crucial youth voters as a result of their continued “war against crypto," according to the Winklevoss twins.
Cameron Winklevoss tweeted that the Democrats' anti-crypto stance would alienate crucial youth voters.
Reddit crypto communities go dark, Here’s why (2 min read)
Many Reddit sub-communities, such as the popular crypto Subreddits, agreed to go private for 48 hours. They are protesting against new company policies that ban third-party applications.
In April, Reddit announced plans to modify how users interact with the Reddit Data application programming interface (API), a seven-year-old application enabling developers to create tools and utilities for moderation and other activities.
BUSINESS
Robinhood Ends Support for Solana, Polygon, Cardano Amid SEC Exchange Crackdown (1 minute read)
The company Robinhood has been delisting after its latest offensive against crypto exchanges. Users can transfer cryptocurrencies before the deadline, but afterward Robinhood will sell them and credit the USD value to users' accounts.
The decision follows Robinhood's review of SEC lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase. Robinhood's officials have a license for securities trading, but they are unsure if it covers the tokens that the SEC says are securities.
Tether CTO clarifies $1B USDT mint on Ethereum is for chain swaps (3 min read)
The move is Tether’s second $1 billion mint in two months, bringing the total USDT minted by the stablecoin issuer in 2023 to over $16 billion.
Tether minted a fresh batch of $1 billion worth of its Tether stablecoin on the Ethereum blockchain on June 12. The latest billion-dollar mint for the stablecoin issuer comes within two months of its last mint on April 21.
‘Near impossible to know’ what is and isn't a security: Mark Cuban on SEC (3 min read)
Mark Cuban criticized the US securities regulator for not giving cryptocurrency companies a clear registration system.
The Shark Tank investor claimed in a June 11 tweet that no registration exists in the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s “Framework for ‘Investment Contract’ Analysis of Digital Assets” document, making it “near impossible to know” what constitutes a security in the “crypto universe”.
a16z opens London crypto office citing ‘predictable’ environment (4 min read)
Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm, will open its first office outside the United States this year.
Chris Dixon, a16z’s crypto founder and managing partner, cited a “predictable business environment” as one of the main factors behind its decision to expand. The move comes amid a slew of regulatory actions against crypto firms in the United States in recent months.
Bitcoin to fight against European challenges, Northern Lightning founder (2 min read)
The Bitcoin (BTC) community in Europe continues to be a voice in combating social problems affecting the continent, according to podcast host Erik Dale.
The CEO of Northern Lightning, who organizes Bitcoin events in Europe, thinks that the Bitcoin community in Europe is teaching important values that can help solve conflicts and social problems.
QUICK LINKS
Attacker drains $800K from DeFi protocol Sturdy Finance (2 min read)
The lending platform responded by pausing all markets and assuring its community that no additional funds were at risk.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Sturdy Finance has lost 442 Ether, worth almost $800,000 when written, to a security exploit. The attacker exploited a vulnerability that eventually manipulated a faulty Oracle price, allowing them to drain funds from the protocol.