Scenius Sync (Issue #112)

Bitcoin Briefly Dips Below $50k Amid Global Market Crash as Futures Record $1B in Liquidations, Meanwhile Tether Records $5.2B In Profit for H1, & Morgan Stanley To Allow Advisers to Offer BTC ETFs

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.

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Essential News 🗞

1. Bitcoin Dips Below $50K As Global Market Crashes

   • The price of Bitcoin plunged below $50,000 on Monday, reaching lows not seen in over six months amid a widespread global market sell-off. Bitcoin dropped as much as 20% to around $49,000 before rebounding slightly to trade above $50,000 again. The steep decline coincided with crashing stock markets worldwide, fueled by recession fears. At the time of writing, price has recovered further to slightly under $55k.

   • ETH dipped as low as $2,1000 and the rebounded according to Binance

2. Crypto Futures Record $1B in Liquidations as Bitcoin Nosedives, Ether Slumps Most Since 2021

   • Crypto-tracked futures recorded over $1 billion in liquidations in the past 24 hours as the market sell-off worsened on Sunday. The bloodbath was catalyzed by a stronger Japanese yen and rumors of market maker Jump Trading liquidating its crypto business. Ether (ETH) tracked futures recorded over $340 million in liquidated bets, data shows, with bitcoin futures losses leading at $420 million. Futures tracking Solana’s SOL, dogecoin (DOGE), xrp (XRP) and pepe (PEPE) took on $75 million in cumulative liquidations.

   • In related news, Robinhood halts trading amidst global market meltdown

3. CFTC subpoenas Ben ‘BitBoy’ Armstrong’s former company in fraud investigation, asks about activity for tokens such as BEN

   • The CFTC issued a subpoena to Hit Network, the company that previously had Ben “BitBoy” Armstrong as its host. It asked for information on activity related to 15 tokens, including the BEN memecoin, which is affiliated with Armstrong.  Armstrong had featured the other 14 tokens in YouTube videos — predominantly prior to Hit Network’s formation — recommending them as potential buys.

4. Montenegro to Extradite Do Kwon to South Korea, Rejecting U.S. Request

   • Terraform Labs co-founder and fraudster Do Kwon is once again set to be extradited from Montenegro to his native South Korea, after a ruling from the Balkan nation’s court of appeals Thursday. The Appellate Court of Montenegro issued a ruling confirming an earlier decision from a lower court, the High Court of Podgorica, to send Kwon to South Korea instead of the U.S., which is also seeking his extradition.

5. Sen. Lummis introduces Bitcoin Strategic Reserve bill in Senate

   • On July 31, Senator Cynthia Lummis officially introduced the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve bill that would direct the United States government to start a reserve fund for the scarce decentralized asset. More specifically, the bill would establish a “decentralized network of secure Bitcoin vaults” under the control of the United States Treasury. The bill also directs lawmakers and bureaucrats to enact strict cybersecurity parameters and other physical security measures to ensure that Bitcoin funds are not stolen. The bill also laid out a goal of accumulating 1 million Bitcoin over time, or roughly 5% of Bitcoin’s total supply, using existing US Treasury funds to acquire the Bitcoin in amounts that mirror the US Treasury’s gold allocation. In conjunction with the introduction of the bill, the Wyoming senator also released a statement about the historic proposal. Twitter post here.

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Innovation & Adoption 💡📈

1. Tether generates a record $5.2 billion profit in first half of the year

   • Leading stablecoin firm Tether released its latest quarterly attestation showing a record net profit of $5.2 billion for the first half of the year. Tether issues the largest stablecoin, USDT, which has a market capitalization of nearly $115 billion.

2. Morgan Stanley to Allow Advisers to Offer Bitcoin ETFs to Wealthy Clients

   • Morgan Stanley gave thousands of financial advisers the green light to solicit eligible clients to purchase spot-Bitcoin exchange-traded funds as soon as next week, according to a person familiar with the matter.

3. Notcoin launches 'Lost Dogs' Telegram game involving NFTs, NOT and new WOOF tokens

   • Notcoin has launched a new story-driven Telegram game in collaboration with TON social projects team Lost Dogs Co and NFT trading platform Getgems. Notcoin rose to prominence, becoming the first Telegram game to pioneer the clicker tap-to-earn model, capturing the attention of a claimed 35 million players. All users had to do was press a button and earn in-game currency, which later became a $1 billion NOT token airdrop on TON blockchain. The NOT token currently has a market cap of $1.3 billion, according to The Block’s Notcoin price page. Other clicker-style Telegram games like Hamster Kombat, Yescoin and Catizen followed. However, Notcoin also became the first to pivot away from the tap-to-earn model, with the project’s founder Sasha Plotvinov not expecting it to be sustainable, deciding to end the mining phase at its peak on April 1.

4. Hong Kong’s Largest Online. Broker Launched Bitcoin Trading

   • Futu Securities, Hong Kong's biggest online brokerage with over 3.5 million customers, has launched retail Bitcoin trading on its platform. As per South China Morning Post, users can now directly buy and sell Bitcoin and ether using Hong Kong or US dollars. 

5. A16z Crypto leads $9 million Series A round for DePIN project Daylight

   • Daylight, a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) project focused on energy distribution, has raised $9 million in a Series A funding round led by A16z Crypto. Other investors in the round included Framework Ventures, Lattice Fund, Escape Velocity and Lerer Hippeau, Daylight said Wednesday. The startup began and closed the fundraising process in 10 days in April, co-founder and CEO Jason Badeaux told The Block. The Series A round brings Daylight's total funding to $13 million, having previously raised $4 million in seed funding in the summer of 2022, Badeaux said.