Scenius Sync (Issue #56)

Gemini Sues DCG, BlackRock's Fink Praises Bitcoin, RFK Jr. Owns It, & Circle Quietly Launches wallet-as-a-service Developer Platform

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. Gemini Sues Digital Currency Group and Founder Barry Silbert Alleging 'Fraud'

   • Crypto trust firm Gemini sued Digital Currency Group on Friday, alleging the industry conglomerate and its founder Barry Silbert committed "fraud" through DCG subsidiary Genesis, which held funds for Gemini tied to the latter company's Earn program. For more color, here’s a tweet thread from Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss.

2. Republicans ask Justice Department, SEC to investigate Prometheum

   • Prometheum recently gained approval from the SEC as an alternative trading system. Co-CEO Aaron Kaplan testified in June before a House committee as a Democratic witness that he wanted to build a crypto trading platform that operated within existing securities laws — a message in line with the SEC's approach since it began cracking down on initial coin offerings as unregistered securities in 2017. That view cuts against much of the digital asset industry, which argues that blockchain-based assets should not be subject to the same investment rules as other businesses. The firm has been subject to increased scrutiny since Kaplan's appearance. 

3. BlackRock Boss Larry Fink Praises Bitcoin for ‘Digitizing Gold’

   • Once dismissing the top cryptocurrency as a money laundering tool, he’s now singing a different tune. “I do believe the role of crypto is digitalizing gold, in many ways,” said Fink. “Instead of investing in gold as a hedge against the onerous problems of any one country.” “Let’s be clear—Bitcoin is an international asset,” he added.

4. RFK Jr. touted bitcoin but said he wasn’t an investor. Financial records show otherwise

   • RFK Jr. lists on his June 30 financial disclosure report a brokerage account that held between $100,001 and $250,000 worth of bitcoin. Kennedy, who is running for president, told a crowd of crypto enthusiasts in May that he was not an investor in bitcoin. The filing does not say when the Kennedy family purchased bitcoin and how much they may have spent on their original bitcoin investment. Hours after publication of this story, the Kennedy campaign said that the bitcoin investment was his wife’s. Later, the campaign then said it was indeed Kennedy’s investment.

5. Coinbase was aware of securities law violations, SEC claims in letter

   • The SEC filed a response to Coinbase’s claims that the regulator lacks jurisdiction to prosecute the crypto exchange. According to a letter sent by the SEC to a district judge on July 7, Coinbase had knowledge of the probability that federal securities laws would apply to its operations, openly informing its shareholders about the possibility of assets traded on its platform being classified as securities.

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Innovation & Adoption 💡📈

1. Circle quietly launches wallet-as-a-service developer platform

   • Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, launched a wallet-as-a-service platform for developers. The service allows developers to embed web3 wallets in their apps, while offering a user-friendly design. The wallets can be used with any blockchain to give users easier access to NFTs, cryptocurrencies and other web3 digital assets. 

2. Uniswap Protocol has officially seen 200M unique transactions

   • That’s a lot of swapping. Meanwhile, Uniswap v4 is expected to go live after Ethereum’s Cancun upgrade and security audit. The upgrade is targeted for the end of September, and the completion of a thorough audit process will follow.

3. Ripple Labs to revolutionize real estate industry through tokenization

   • Digital payments and blockchain technology company Ripple Labs has announced an initiative to transform the real estate industry using tokenization. Antony Welfare, CBDC adviser at Ripple, highlighted the growing global interest in CBDCs and stablecoins in a July 7 tweet. He emphasized that Ripple’s team is actively exploring practical applications for CBDCs and stablecoins, focusing on tokenizing real estate assets.

4. Lightning Labs releases new Bitcoin tools for AI development

   • Lightning Labs, the firm building out the Bitcoin Lightning Network, has unveiled a new suite of tools designed for AI development. The tools, which include LangChainBitcoin, aim to enable developers to seamlessly integrate Bitcoin and Lightning into their AI applications. The suite includes LLM Agent BitcoinTools, which allows developers to create AI agents that can hold bitcoin balances, send/receive bitcoin on Lightning and interact with Lightning Network Daemon nodes.

5. Bitcoin Ordinals launchpad proposes BRC-69 standard to reduce costs by 90%

   • Bitcoin Ordinals launchpad platform Luminex has proposed BRC-69, a new standard for creating Recursive Ordinals collections. It claims this standard can reduce inscription costs by over 90%.