Scenius Sync (Issue #103)

CZ Starts Serving Time, Biden Vetoes SAB 121, Ethena’s USDe Crosses $3B Supply, Gemini Returns $2.18B To Earn Users, & Pudgies Going Mobile

Scenius: The intelligence and the intuition of a whole cultural scene. The communal form of the concept of genius.

Welcome to The Scenius Sync.

Our mission with this concise publication is twofold:

1. Share the essential stories driving the crypto industry and markets.

2. Highlight innovative applications and mainstream adoption of crypto and blockchain technology.

If you find this newsletter valuable, please subscribe and share The Scenius Sync with your network 💪

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Essential News 🗞

1. Binance founder CZ begins four-month prison sentence as the country's richest inmate

   • Binance founder CZ has reported to a low-security California facility to begin his four-month sentence. "It appears CZ will not benefit from any earned time credit programs, and he is expected to serve the full 120 days in federal prison," Sam Mangel, who works as a federal prison consultant, told The Block in April. CZ, who was sentenced in April on charges of anti-money laundering violations, is the richest man to ever serve time in federal prison. 

2. Biden vetoes bill overturning SAB 121, says standard 'necessary' for crypto innovation

   • U.S. President Joe Biden vetoed a bill to overturn a controversial Securities and Exchange Commission bulletin, SAB 121, establishing accounting standards for firms that custody crypto. “Appropriate guardrails that protect consumers and investors are necessary to harness the potential benefits and opportunities of crypto-asset innovation,” the president said in a letter to the U.S. House.  The bulletin has drawn controversy over the past year over concerns in the crypto industry that it could prevent banks from safeguarding digital assets.

3. Gemini returns $2.18B to Earn users following 18-month withdrawal freeze

   • Crypto exchange Gemini has kicked off the process of reimbursing users of its now-defunct lending program, Earn. According to an announcement, Gemini’s Earn users were paid $2.18 billion in digital assets on May 29, representing 97% of the assets owed to users and a 232% recovery following an interruption of withdrawals by Genesis, a former Gemini Earn partner.

     “This means, for example, if you had lent one Bitcoin in the Earn program, you will receive one Bitcoin back. And it means that you will receive any and all appreciation of your assets since you lent them into the Earn program,” reads the statement on X.

4. Coinbase donates $25 million to crypto super PAC Fairshake

   • Coinbase announced a $25 million donation to pro-crypto super PAC Fairshake. Coinbase laid out its plan to get regulatory clarity by supporting pro-crypto candidates from both political parties.

5. MicroStrategy and Michael Saylor Reach $40 Million Settlement in DC Tax Lawsuit

   • American software company MicroStrategy and its chairman Michael Saylor have agreed to pay $40 million to settle charges from the D.C. attorney general that the company and its co-founder defrauded the district of millions in unpaid taxes.

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Innovation & Adoption 💡📈

1. Ethena's 'synthetic dollar' USDe crosses $3 billion supply just four months after launch

   • Ethena Labs USDe stablecoin, also known as a 'synthetic dollar' which maintains its peg through arbitrage mechanics and a yield-returning cash-and-carry trade, has reached a supply of $3 billion tokens just four months following its public launch in February.  The stablecoin's supply has grown by $1 billion since April 5, when it last crossed the $2 billion threshold. Now, it's on track to challenge DAI as the largest algorithmic or decentralized stablecoin, though it'll have to add another $2 billion in supply to get there, according to data from The Block. 

2. Solana saw nearly half a million tokens launched last month

   • In May, 455,000 tokens were created on Solana, according to data compiled by The Block Pro. This compares to 177,000 tokens on Ethereum Layer 2 Base and 39,000 tokens on BNB Chain. The Ethereum mainnet and Layer 2 networks Arbitrum and Optimism each saw fewer than 20,000 tokens created. "Solana is built to be a general purpose layer 1, with fast finality and high throughput with extremely low transaction fees," said Austin Federa, head of strategy at the Solana Foundation. "The rise of mass token creation on Solana is downstream of these characteristics, bringing the cost of experimentation and new idea creation to near zero. Tokens on Solana should be as easy to create as content on the internet."

3. Australia's First Spot Bitcoin ETF With Direct BTC Holdings to Go Live on Tuesday

   • Australia-based Monochrome Asset Management’s Monochrome bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) (IBTC) will begin trading on the Cboe Australia exchange on Tuesday, the company told CoinDesk. The product is the first and only ETF that holds bitcoin directly in Australia, the company said. “Before IBTC, Australian investors were only able to invest in ETFs that indirectly hold bitcoin or through offshore bitcoin products, both of which don’t benefit from the investor protection rules under the directly held crypto asset Australian Financial Services Licensing (AFSL) licensing regime,” the announcement said.

4. Mastercard launches P2P crypto network, vanity address system

   • Mastercard is launching a peer-to-peer platform for cryptocurrency users in Europe and Latin America. The Mastercard Crypto Credential network, which is in pilot mode, supports transactions on Bit2Me, Lirium and Mercado Bitcoin exchanges, enabling cross-border payments across the Atlantic, Mastercard said Wednesday in a statement. The P2P platform’s rollout forms part of the payments company's push to leverage digital assets for cross-border payments, a growing payments services sector.

5. Pudgy Penguins to release mobile game in 2025

   • Pudgy Penguins’ flock of flippered friends are waddling into a new virtual world: A mobile-based video game.  The immersive mobile app based on the penguin-themed NFT and toy collection is set to debut in 2025, Mythical Marketplace, which is developing the game, said in a statement Thursday. The AAA game will be built on Mythos Chain, a Polkadot-based network that also hosts the popular Web3 game NFL Rivals. “Pudgy Penguins is the only web3 project to truly go mainstream through their incredible retail partnerships with Walmart and Target and their rapidly growing social media following,” Mythical Games CEO John Linden said.