Scenius Sync (Issue #122)
Kamala Vows To Support Crypto Regs, Dubai Ranks #1 for Crypto, Avalanche’s ‘Off The Grid' Game Tops Epic Store, Vitalik Ponders Ethereum’s Future, & Uniswaps Unichain
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:
Share the essential stories driving the crypto industry and markets.
Highlight innovative applications and mainstream adoption of crypto and blockchain technology.
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Essential News 🗞
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said she plans to support a cryptocurrency regulatory framework that gives protections to Black men who invest and own crypto as part of a newly released proposal to help build wealth for Black men. Less than a month out before the presidential election, Harris released a proposal called the "Opportunity Agenda for Black Men" on Monday. Over 20% of Black Americans own or have in the past owned crypto, according to the Harris teams' plan. "Vice President Harris appreciates the ways in which new technologies can broaden access to banking and financial services," the campaign team said in the plan. "She will make sure owners of and investors in digital assets benefit from a regulatory framework so that Black men and others who participate in this market are protected."
Dubai Ranks as Top Crypto Hub, Followed by Switzerland and South Korea in 2024
According to a recent report by Social Capital Markets, these three nations rank as the world’s top crypto hubs. The study evaluated factors such as legal transparency, tax policies, and the rate of crypto adoption, along with the number of registered crypto firms and the widespread acceptance of digital currencies. Dubai claimed the top position with a score of 79 out of 100, thanks to its progressive regulatory stance and comprehensive support for blockchain ventures. Meanwhile, Switzerland follows closely in second place with over 900 crypto companies and a score of approximately 75.
Read the report here: World’s Most Crypto Business Friendly Countries in 2024
Vitalik Buterin ponders Ethereum’s post-Merge future
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin took to social media to share his reflections on the state of the protocol and its potential evolution after the Merge. In a detailed blog post on Oct. 14, Buterin highlighted several key areas where Ethereum could see significant advancements, including faster transaction speeds, improved security and greater accessibility for solo stakers.
Read part 1 of the post here: Possible futures of the Ethereum protocol, part 1: The Merge
SEC files lawsuit against crypto market-maker Cumberland DRW
The US SEC has charged the crypto market-maker Cumberland DRW with acting as an unregistered dealer. The agency, which revealed the charges Thursday, alleged that the Chicago-based firm has been “operating as an unregistered dealer in more than $2 billion of crypto assets offered and sold as securities.” “Despite frequent protestations by the industry that sales of crypto assets are all akin to sales of commodities, our complaint alleges that Cumberland, the respective issuers, and objective investors treated the offer and sale of the crypto assets at issue in this case as investments in securities, and Cumberland profited from its dealer activity in these assets without providing investors and the market with the important protections afforded by registration,” Jorge G. Tenreiro, acting chief of the agency’s crypto assets and cyber unit, said in a statement. In the complaint, the SEC alleged that the firm “has made available for trading many crypto assets offered or sold as investment contracts and, therefore, as securities.” The agency cited POL (formerly MATIC), SOL, FIL, ALGO and ATOM.
Former FTX executive Ryan Salame begins his seven and a half year prison sentence
Former FTX executive Ryan Salame has begun serving his prison sentence of seven and a half years at a Maryland prison, records show. Salame, previously the co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, is in custody at FCI Cumberland in Maryland as of Saturday morning, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website. The prison is a "medium security federal correctional institution with an adjacent minimum security satellite camp."
Innovation & Adoption 💡📈
Tether CEO says company exploring commodities trading and TradFi opportunities
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said his company is mulling new opportunities in the world of traditional finance and commodities trading. "Tether is in early exploration of different commodity trading and TradeFi opportunities," he told The Block on Monday. "This business line won’t have impact on stablecoins’ reserves, since it will be performed via the Tether Investment vehicle that is separated." Aside from Tether's work as the developer of the world's largest stablecoin by market cap, the company recently created separate divisions, including an investment arm. Back in June, Ardoino said in an interview that the company would invest more than $1 billion over a 12-month period.
Decentralized finance protocol Ethena, issuer of the $2.5 billion yield-generating USDe "synthetic dollar" token, announced Thursday it will invest its $46 million backup fund in BlackRock's and Securitize's tokenized fund BUIDL, Mountain's USDM token, Superstate's USTB and the new USDS stablecoin of Sky, formerly known as Maker. The protocol's so-called Reserve Fund will allocate roughly $18 million in BUIDL, $13 million in USDS, $8 million in USDM and $7 million in USTB, according to a governance forum post.
World Liberty Financial hosted a live stream on X Monday morning to discuss the DeFi protocol ahead of its token launch on Tuesday. Paxos co-founder Rich Teo has joined the team as its stablecoin and payments lead. “Our entire banking system is basically just a big Ponzi scheme,” Donald Trump, Jr. said about what led him to support this protocol. WLFI will be an ERC20 token, and the sale will take place on the WLF website for those who've joined the whitelist. Well over 100,000 people have signed up for the whitelist since it went live on Sept. 30, said co-founder Zak Folkman, and a "gold paper" will also be released Tuesday.
In related news, the public token sale will start today October 15th to everyone who qualifies through the whitelist. See here.
Avalanche Shooter 'Off the Grid' Becomes Top Free Title on Epic Games Store
Following the early access release of Off the Grid earlier this week, the Avalanche-based battle royale shooter is rising the ranks of the Epic Game Store. Developed by Gunzilla Games, Off the Grid rose to the top of the storefront’s Most Popular Free-to-Play PC Games list on Friday, topping Epic’s own massively popular Fortnite and Rocket League. It’s also the first title listed on the store’s Trending list. The game pits players against each other in a similar way to other battle royale shooters like Fortnite and Apex Legends: shoot, loot, and survive as the map gets gradually smaller. At the same time, the game features its own Avalanche L1 (aka subnet) for its upcoming GUN token and in-game items that can be minted and traded as NFTs.
And here’s a link to 5 Viral 'Off the Grid' Clips That Show Why It's Such a Hit With Gamers
Uniswap Developer Unveils Own Layer-2 Network, Unichain, Built on Optimism Tech
The main developer behind Uniswap, the largest decentralized crypto exchange, plans to launch its own blockchain as a layer-2 network atop Ethereum – part of an effort to make transactions faster and cheaper while also improving liquidity. Unichain, as the new network is known, was set to go live on a private test network Thursday, according to a press release. The project's technical development is being led by Uniswap Labs, relying on technology borrowed from the Ethereum layer-2 team Optimism's OP Stack. As such, Unichain will become a part of the Superchain, a federation of Optimism-affiliated networks that includes the U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase's own layer-2 blockchain, Base.