Scenius Sync (Issue #59)

House Financial Services Committee Advances Set of Crypto Bills, Curve Exploit Shakes DeFi, Reddit Launches More Polygon NFTs, & CME Bitcoin Futures Volumes Hit Yearly High

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. House Financial Services Committee Votes in Favor of Crypto, Blockchain Bills

   • The votes mark the first time crypto-specific bills were advanced on their own merits and not as part of broader legislation.

2. Curve Finance exploit has 'shaken confidence in DeFi'

   • A weekend exploit that targeted Curve Finance is shaking confidence in decentralized finance. The DeFi protocol saw several of its liquidity pools exploited on Sunday as a result of a bug in smart contracts that use versions of the Vyper coding language. Attackers stole $24 million, and several stablecoin pools using Vyper contracts were drained due to a re-entrancy vulnerability.

   • More coverage from Coindesk here.

3. DOJ calls SBF’s bail conditions ‘insufficient’ in push to jail former FTX boss

   • Earlier this week, lawyers for the DOJ and Bankman-Fried attended a hearing where the government asked for the former FTX CEO’s bail to be revoked and for him to be held in jail ahead of his trial, which starts in October. The prosecutors cited SBF’s contact with a New York Times journalist as one of the tipping points. SBF allegedly attempted to discredit his ex-colleague — and ex-girlfriend — Caroline Ellison by leaking her diary entries to a reporter. 

4. Bankrupt Crypto Platforms FTX, Genesis Set to Resolve Dispute

   • Bankrupt crypto companies FTX Trading Ltd. and Genesis Global Holdco LLC reached an in-principle agreement on resolving a dispute involving their Chapter 11 cases. FTX had argued that it was owed as much as $3.9 billion by crypto lender Genesis, a contention that Genesis rejected. The sum was later reduced to up to $2 billion. The two parties’ claims against each other would be settled by the agreement.

5. Sequoia slashes its crypto fund by 66% after industry collapses: Report

   • The cryptocurrency fund will now focus more on backing early-stage startups, given the recent crypto industry turmoil that took away many of the opportunities to back larger companies.

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Innovation & Adoption 💡📈

1. Reddit Launches More Polygon NFTs—After Already Minting 18 Million Avatars

   • Online discussion platform Reddit has quickly become one of the biggest brands tied to NFTs, with more than 18 million of its Polygon-based Collectible Avatars minted over the last year—and now it has dropped another huge set of options. Reddit’s Collectible Avatars Gen 4 drop, titled “Retro Reimagined,”July 26th, pulling together an array of artistic riffs on the site’s iconic “Snoo” alien mascot from dozens of creators.

2. Securitize launches tokenized security in Europe

   • Securitize, a blockchain firm specializing in the tokenization of real-world assets, has started issuing tokenized securities in Europe that represent equity in the Spanish real estate investment trust Mancipi Partners.

     The shares will be tokenized on the Avalanche blockchain, and secondary trading is set to begin in September. 

3. Cloaked in mystery, Kevin Rose’s Proof releases latest season of Grails NFTs

   • Proof Collective, the NFT studio behind Moonbirds and run by CEO Kevin Rose, is unveiling a fourth season of Grails, a series of artistic non-fungible tokens. “Grails IV features artworks from 20 artists whose identities will stay hidden until after collectors have minted their works,” Proof said in a statement.

4. Alchemy Pay expands payment support with Checkout.com partnership

   • Fiat-crypto payment gateway Alchemy Pay today announced a partnership with parent processor Checkout.com. The partnership sees Alchemy Pay's on and off-ramp integrate with Checkout.com's Visa and Mastercard channels — with its NFT Checkout also slated to see integration "in the near future" — according to a press release. Alchemy Pay claims the new integration helps it achieve "one of the highest payment acceptance rates in the industry" while allowing users to buy and sell crypto through the aforementioned card providers.

5. CME bitcoin futures monthly volumes hit yearly high

   • Despite dwindling volumes across cryptocurrency trading venues and exchanges, CME Group clocked its highest monthly volumes of the year in July, according to data from The Block's data dashboard. CME's bitcoin futures market saw volumes for July top its previous high in April, with the exchange clocking in volumes of $53.33 billion with one day left in the month. In April, the firm saw $53.06 billion worth of contracts trade hands.