Scenius Sync (Issue #111)
Trump’s BTC 2024 Keynote Promises To Fire Gensler, Strategic BTC Reserve & To End ChokePoint 2.0, ETH ETFs Drive $2.2B Inflows, Aave Considers Fee Switch & Buyback, & TON’s Torrid Growth Continues
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Essential News 🗞
Donald Trump, in a keynote address to the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, promised to fire SEC chair Gary Gensler and stop the US from selling its bitcoin holdings, creating a “strategic bitcoin reserve,” if elected in November. Trump also promised to end “Operation Chokepoint 2.0” and other anti-crypto policies in order to support the domestic digital asset industry.
Also at Bitcoin 2024, Sen. Cynthia Lummis announces bill for US Treasury to buy 1 million bitcoin worth $68 billion
For more on the action-packed Bitcoin 2024 Conference, here’s a helpful thread on X.
US Government Moves $2 Billion in Silk Road Bitcoin
The United States government moved just over $2 billion worth of seized Bitcoin connected to the Silk Road dark web marketplace to a new, as yet unidentified wallet, according to on-chain data shared by Arkham Intelligence.
The move comes just two days after former U.S. President Donald Trump told the audience at Bitcoin 2024 in Nashville that he would create a national "strategic Bitcoin stockpile" if elected. As part of that proposed move, Trump said that the government would no longer sell any seized Bitcoin. It’s not yet known whether the United States plans to sell today’s transferred Bitcoin. Decrypt reached out to the U.S. Department of Justice for comment and clarification, but did not receive an immediate response.
Coinbase UK fined $4.5 million for ‘high-risk’ customer onboarding
Coinbase’s United Kingdom arm was fined $4.5 million by a British regulator for breaching a voluntary agreement related to user onboarding. In 2020, CB Payments Limited (CBPL), part of the Coinbase Group, entered a voluntary agreement with Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) that would prevent it from onboarding customers considered “high risk” by the regulator. Yet CBPL has allegedly onboarded 13,416 customers that the FCA considered high-risk and offered them cryptocurrency services, which was also prohibited by the agreement. The British regulator fined Coinbase Group’s CBPL 3,503,546 British pounds ($4.5 million) for “repeatedly breaching” the agreement.
$24 million Compound Finance proposal passed by whale over DAO objections
A recent proposal passed by Compound Finance’s DAO has sparked claims of a governance attack after a small group led by whale Humpy amassed enough tokens on the open market to help narrowly pass their proposal over the objections of many community members. The proposal allocates 499,000 COMP tokens, currently worth about $24 million, to a yield-bearing protocol controlled by ‘the Golden Boys,’ the group led by Humpy which pushed the proposal through and has allegedly undertaken similar DAO-hijacking behavior in the past.
Here’s a tweet from Haseeb on the development.
Hong Kong Lawmaker Latest to Push for Strategic Bitcoin Reserve
A member of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council has called on the territory to “research and consider” including Bitcoin in strategic financial reserves.
In a tweet Sunday, Johnny Ng said that “as long as it is compliant,” it was “worth considering” including Bitcoin in a strategic financial reserve. “The global acceptance of Bitcoin is constantly increasing, and Bitcoin is seen by the public as 'digital gold' in the context of its technology," Ng added.
Innovation & Adoption 💡📈
The spot Ethereum ETFs' first week by the numbers
The U.S. spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds got off to a contrasting start last week, with net inflows into most ETFs overwhelmed by net outflows from Grayscale’s converted fund, ETHE. Nine new spot Ethereum ETFs from eight issuers launched last Tuesday after initially gaining approval from the SEC in May. In the first four days of trading, BlackRock's ETHA led the pack, generating $442 million worth of net inflows, followed by Bitwise’s ETHW with $265.9 million and Fidelity’s FETH with $219.4 million. VanEck’s ETHV, Franklin Templeton’s EZET, Invesco’s QETH and 21Shares’ CETH also generated $35.4 million, $23.3 million, $14.2 million and $7.5 million worth of net inflows, respectively. In fact, almost all of the ETFs have generated inflows, with the exception of Grayscale’s ETHE, witnessing over $1.5 billion in net outflows last week alone, leading to a total net outflow of $341.8 million for the combined U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs.
More coverage from CoinTelegraph here: Ethereum ETF launch drives $2.2B inflows
Aave proposal considers activating fee switch and buying back tokens from open market
A new Aave proposal considers adding a fee switch to return some of the platform’s net excess revenue to its key users. The move could also lead to Aave protocol restaking, providing new revenue sources for Aave and its users.
Wall Street's Cantor Fitzgerald to Open Bitcoin Financing, Lending Business
NASHVILLE — Financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald will open a bitcoin financing business, CEO Howard Lutnick said at the Bitcoin Conference Saturday. "We are going to launch with $2 billion in lending," Lutnick said, and increase the facility in $2 billion tranches as needed. He later added: "We are going to welcome bitcoin into the financing family of the global financial markets."
TON introduces gasless fees with new smart wallet
The TON Core team has launched its W5 smart wallet standard in collaboration with Tonkeeper, promising to deliver gasless transactions on The Open Network (TON) blockchain. The upgrade to the layer-1 blockchain’s pre-existing wallet smart contract will allow users to use Tether for gas fees for USDT transfers and Notcoin for gas fees when transferring Notcoin (NOT).
More on this development and Ton growth amid mini-app game raze, here from The Block.
Jersey City to Invest in Bitcoin ETFs, the Latest Pension to Dive Into Crypto
The municipal pension plan of Jersey City, New Jersey, will soon invest in bitcoin via exchange-traded funds, according to a Thursday social media post from Mayor Steven Fulop. While it's not likely to be a gigantic sum, the decision is another symbolic win for cryptocurrency on the road toward wider adoption. The move follows a Wisconsin pension making a similar decision earlier this year.
In other pension news, Michigan Pension Fund Allocates $6.6 Million to Bitcoin ETF