Scenius Sync (Issue #139)
Stablecoin Legislation Push, Portnoy’s Memecoin Ride, Berachain Launches with $1.1B Airdrop, Gemini Said To Be Weighing IPO & Arweave’s AO Mainnet Goes Live
Scenius: The intelligence and the intuition of a whole cultural scene. The communal form of the concept of genius.
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Essential News 🗞
Rep. Waters calls for support on bipartisan stablecoin legislation
California Representative Maxine Waters has called on lawmakers in the US House of Representatives to support a bill drafted in the previous session of Congress governing payment stablecoins. In a Feb. 10 notice, Rep. Waters suggested that a 2024 stablecoin bill drafted by then-House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry and her staff members would be preferable to other legislation proposed by lawmakers in the 119th session of Congress. According to the California lawmaker, the bill represented “three years’ worth of work to craft bipartisan stablecoins legislation.” It included closing loopholes for issuers to circumvent US laws by operating abroad and barring certain convicted fraudsters from working at a senior level at stablecoin firms.
Binance co-founder clarifies token listing process amid TST controversy
Binance’s co-founder has addressed concerns over the exchange’s token listing criteria following the rapid rise and fall of the Test (TST) token, which briefly reached a $500-million market capitalization. The most important criterion for a token listing is its return on investment (ROI), which is calculated by comparing its first-day average price to quarterly performance across other CEXs, Yi He, co-founder of Binance, told Colin Wu in an interview published on Feb. 10. He’s clarifications come shortly after Changpeng Zhao, co-founder and former CEO of Binance, said that “the Binance listing process is a bit broken” due to the arbitrage opportunities used by decentralized exchange (DEX) traders that led to poor performance shortly after the listing.
Hacker pleads guilty to SEC social media breach used for fake spot Bitcoin ETF post
Eric Council Jr. pleaded guilty to his part in the hack of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's social media account that posted a fake announcement about spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds being approved. The SEC's account was compromised in January last year, just before the agency approved spot bitcoin ETFs. Prosecutors said that Council worked with others to take control of the SEC's X account when they posted, "Today the SEC grants approval for #Bitcoin ETFs for listing on all registered national securities exchanges." Both former SEC Chair Gensler and X quickly confirmed afterward that the account had been compromised.
Bartool Sports founder David Portnoy has landed in hot water after discussing recent memecoin trades on his X account, which boasts over 3.5 million followers. Portnoy began by trading a coin styled after a contestant on the Spanish reality show La Isla De Las Tentaciones, called "Montoya por favor." "Uh oh. Davey learned how to trade shitcoin and is already up a billion percent on my 1st one!!!!!!" Portnoy wrote on X Friday. The token reached a market cap high of nearly $14 million before crashing to its current $1 million market cap.
In related news, Dave Portnoy Takes His Fans on a Wild Ride With Solana Meme Coin Jailstool
In similar news, Kanye West quashes memecoin launch rumors, says coins 'prey on the fans'
Coinbase, Gemini CEOs cheer as Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chief defangs agency
Russ Vought, acting CFPB director, has reportedly told the agency’s employees to “cease all supervision and examination activity” and has stopped a key future funding source in an attempt to hobble the bureau’s regulatory efforts. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Gemini CEO Tyler Winklevoss, along with Elon Musk, have cheered the development. Coinbase is mentioned in a higher proportion of CFPB complaints than competitor crypto exchanges that serve U.S. citizens.
Innovation & Adoption 💡📈
Berachain Officially Launches Mainnet, Distributes $1.1 Billion Airdrop
Berachain, the bear-themed layer-1 blockchain utilizing a novel "proof-of-liquidity" consensus mechanism, has officially launched its mainnet on February 6. Alongside the launch, the network commenced the airdrop of its native token, BERA, to early contributors and community members, marking a significant milestone in its evolution from a 2021 NFT experiment to a fully operational blockchain ecosystem. Trading for BERA went live on leading exchanges such as Binance, OKX, and Coinbase, with the token initially reaching a peak of $14.83 before settling at around $8.00, reflecting a 49% decline from its high.
Winklevoss Twins’ Crypto Exchange Gemini Is Said to Weigh IPO
Gemini, the cryptocurrency firm backed by the billionaire Winklevoss twins, is considering an initial public offering as soon as this year, according to people familiar with the matter. The crypto exchange and custodian is in talks with potential advisers on a listing, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public. Deliberations are ongoing and no final decisions have been made on pursuing an IPO, the people said. A representative for Gemini didn’t immediately respond to emails and text messages seeking comment.
Stablecoin donation company Coala Pay closes $3.5 million funding round
Stablecoin crypto startup Coala Pay, which connects humanitarian aid organizations with potential donors, has raised $3.5 million. The seed round was led by Castle Island Ventures with participation from Lattice Fund, Factor Capital and the founders of The Giving Block, a crypto charity platform.
Stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency that maintains a value in line with the U.S. dollar, are often used to make cross border payments. Founder Melyn McKay says that by using stablecoins to facilitate donations across borders, Coala Pay can save up to 25% of donation money that would otherwise be eaten up by transaction fees.
Arweave's computing platform AO goes live on mainnet
Decentralized storage project Arweave has officially launched the mainnet release of its computing platform, AO, following a year-long testnet phase. Native tokens previously minted and distributed to AR holders and testnet depositors are set to become transferable following this mainnet launch. AO, dubbed a “hyperparallel computer” by its developers, introduces a distributed computing environment with parallelized processing capabilities.
Grayscale Files For Cardano ETF, Its First Standalone ADA Product
Crypto investment firm Grayscale on Monday filed to list a Cardano (ADA) exchange traded fund on the New York Stock Exchange. Grayscale, which last year broke through U.S. regulators' blockade against the bitcoin ETF, has never previously offered a standalone ADA investment vehicle despite making past moves to do so. But the Trump 2.0 SEC's pivot from policing the crypto industry to seemingly embracing it has emboldened issuers to think big about what they can get through. In recent weeks Grayscale filed for a Solana and XRP ETF as well. Those products would convert Grayscale's preexisting crypto trust products into more widely tradeable ETFs whereas the ADA ETF would be entirely new. Investor demand has always been high for the flagship asset of the Cardano blockchain. ADA ranks among the largest crypto assets by market cap, weighing in at $25 billion at press time. The token spiked 1.5% to 71 cents following the Grayscale news.