Robinhood to axe 7% of staff ✂️, FTX splurged on cartoon 💸, Coinbase lends Hut 8 $50M 💰
Daily Crypto, Blockchain & Web3 Update 2023-06-27
CRYPTOCURRENCY
Australian banks claim 40% of scams ‘touch’ crypto as it defends restrictions (4 min read)
Australia’s cryptocurrency industry banking woes will likely continue, with the government and major banks signaling no intention to back down against scams that “touch” crypto.
During a panel at the Australian Blockchain Week, executives from Australia’s major banks explained why they added restrictions on payments to local crypto exchanges.
US House bans members from using all chatbots except ChatGPT Plus (2 min read)
The ban comes less than a week after the House proposed a bill to create a federal artificial intelligence commission.
US House of Representatives new rules now prohibit members from using most artificial intelligence (AI) language models, except for OpenAI's ChatGPT Plus service.
US lawmaker calls for info from Treasury and SEC on crypto market structure bill (2 min read)
Maxine Waters wants Yellen and Gensler to reply to her questions about the “Digital Asset Market Structure” bill by June 30.
Maxine Waters, a representative from California, wants federal regulatory agencies to give their opinion on a plan for digital assets.
Singapore central bank reports on tokenized asset network models after trials (2 min read)
Singapore's monetary authority and 11 financial institutions are studying ways to make it easier to trade tokenized assets.
Open and interoperable digital asset networks are essential for maximizing the potential of technology, according to the MAS's Project Guardian report on June 26.
BUSINESS
Coinbase Credit lends Hut 8 $50M to support Bitcoin treasury (2 min read)
The Canadian Bitcoin mining company, Hut 8 Mining, has secured a credit facility from a subsidiary of the United States-based cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase.
Hut 8 officially announced on June 26 that it entered into a $50 million credit agreement with Coinbase Credit. The credit facility involved Hut 8’s subsidiary, Hut 8 Holdings, as the borrower.
Riot Platforms to add 33,000 Bitcoin miners ahead of 2024 halving (3 min read)
Riot Platforms, one of the world’s largest Bitcoin, mining companies, has bought 33,280 “next-generation” Bitcoin miners for its Texas facility, costing $162.9 million.
The rigs, which were sourced from mining manufacturer MicroBT, will boost the firm’s self-mining capacity by 7.6 exahashes per second (EH/s) and come “in advance” of Bitcoin’s next halving cycle, which is set to take place in mid-2024.
zkSync unveils new network of ‘Hyperchains’, Testnet by end of year (3 min read)
Ethereum zero-knowledge proof scaling system, zkSync Era has unveiled its answer to Optimism’s Superchain concept in the form of ZK Stack.
It's a framework for custom blockchains called Hyperchains that use ZK technology and will operate as a new layer on top of the layer-2 protocol. Chains will work together, allowing fast transfers of liquidity and flash loans between protocols. This is not possible on L1 blockchains.
Firms managing $27T in assets are embracing crypto: CoinShares CSO (3 min read)
Major United States financial institutions managing $27 trillion of assets are “actively” seeking to provide clients with exposure to Bitcoin and crypto.
On June 26, CoinShares Chief Strategy Officer Meltem Demirors highlighted that at least eight major financial institutions had signaled moves in the digital assets space, including BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF filing and Fidelity’s crypto wealth management solutions.
QUICK LINKs
Digital pound will be pseudonymous with a focus on privacy: BoE CBDC chief (2 min read)
The Bank of England (BoE) has made significant developments in its central bank digital currency (CBDC) program. Tom Mutton, director of fintech at the BoE, recently shared insights on the privacy aspect of the CBDC and why the central bank might look for other options beyond blockchain as the underpinning technology.
FTX splurged on cartoon, book about humans and ‘Pineapple House,’ alleges CEO (2 min read)
Former FTX executives allegedly splurged millions on funding niche projects unrelated to crypto or Web3, including a uniquely named $1.8 million “Pineapple house.”
A June 26 report from FTX restructuring chief and CEO John Ray laid out the uses of the allegedly misappropriated customer funds.
Binance Australia got 12 hours’ notice before it was debanked, exec says (3 min read)
In the middle of the night, Binance Australia’s team was suddenly told it would be “cut off” from Australia’s banking system. There was no prior warning, consultation, or redress, the exchange’s regional manager has claimed.
Binance Australia stopped providing dollar services on May 18 because its payments provider, Zepto, was instructed to stop supporting Binance by Cuscal, which is Zepto's partner for banking and payment services.
Robinhood to axe 7% of full-time staff in latest round of layoffs: Report (2 min read)
Robinhood will lay off about 150 employees, which is 7% of its total workforce, in its third round of layoffs in just over a year.
According to an internal company message seen by The Wall Street Journal, Robinhood Chief Financial Officer Jason Warnick reportedly wrote that the cuts were being made to “adjust to volumes and to better align team structures.”
Swiss central bank announces plans for wholesale CBDC pilot with ‘real money’: Report (2 min read)
The head of the Swiss National Bank announced a project at a conference in Zurich, but the bank is still cautious about a retail CBDC.
The head of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) has announced that the bank will launch a wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC) pilot project, according to a report. Reuters quoted bank chair Thomas Jordan as saying the project would begin “soon.”