Scenius Sync (Issue #79)

Goldman Sees Crypto Institutionalizing, Judge Approves Settlement Between CFTC & Binance, Bitwise Takes Lead in BTC ETF Ad Race With Most Interesting Man, & Tether Onboards FBI and Secret Service

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. 2023 Was the Year That Crypto Markets Became Institutionalized: Goldman Sachs

   • Historically, cryptocurrency markets have been dominated by unregulated trading venues and retail investor activity. Still, this year shows how much market structure and participation has evolved and become institutionalized, Goldman Sachs said in a report last week. The crypto market saw a growth of regulated, centrally-cleared derivatives venues in 2023, including Coinbase Derivatives, CBOE, Eurex, GFO-X, AsiaNext and 24 Exchange, the bank observed. “The institutionalization of the market was most evident in the derivatives market,” the report said, adding that “CME saw a consistent increase in bitcoin and ether futures and options trading, and in Q4 has become the top BTC futures exchange by open interest.”

2. Federal judge approves settlement between CFTC and Binance

   • A federal judge approved a settlement between crypto exchange Binance and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a month after the crypto exchange's former CEO pleaded guilty to charges related to anti-money laundering violations. Under the settlement, former CEO Changpeng Zhao will have to pay $150 million, with a third of that paid within the next 30 days, according to the order signed on Dec. 14 by Judge Manish Shah in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Binance will have to pay a $1.35 billion penalty to the CFTC,  as well as disgorge $1.35 billion of "ill-gotten transaction fees," according to the order. 

3. Coinbase Plans to Challenge SEC Denial of Crypto Rulemaking Petition

   • The SEC denied crypto exchange Coinbase's petition to clarify new crypto rules for the digital assets industry. But Coinbase isn't taking "no" for an answer as Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal said the cryptocurrency exchange plans to take the SEC to court once again—this time to challenge the Commission's denial of the company's rulemaking petition.

4. FTX's revised reorganization plan values crypto claims at time of bankruptcy

   • The FTX debtors estate filed its amended Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization, which contains a provision that treats cryptocurrency claims as their value in cash at the time of the bankruptcy filing on November 11, 2022. The price of most cryptocurrencies have recovered since the bankruptcy; the price of Bitcoin was around $17,000 at the time, and now trades above $42,000. 

5. Fairshake Super PAC Raises $78M to Support Crypto Candidates in 2024 U.S. Election

   • Fairshake, a super political action committee (PAC), has raised $78 million to support leaders who endorse crypto and blockchain in the forthcoming U.S. presidential election, according to a press release on Monday. The group, which also relied on affiliated super PACs to raise the money, has support from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), ARK Invest and crypto companies Circle, Ripple, Coinbase and more. Fairshake is a Super PAC, which wants to help steer the next U.S. election by raising money to advocate for political candidates. Fairshake’s mission is to support leaders who champion the innovation of blockchain and crypto.

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Innovation & Adoption 💡📈

1. Bitcoin ETF Ad War Officially Underway With Bitwise Campaign

   • With U.S. regulatory approval of a spot bitcoin ETF now nearly universally expected perhaps as soon as January 2024, Bitwise Asset Management on Monday unveiled what appears to be the first advertising for the new vehicles. "You know what's interesting these days," reads Jonathan Goldsmith, the actor best known as the "Most Interesting Man in the World" from numerous Dos Equis beer advertising campaigns. "Bitcoin."

   • Meanwhile, BlackRock's proposed spot bitcoin ETF gets a ticker in latest filing with SEC and ARK 21Shares Spot Bitcoin ETF has been listed on the DTCC under ticker $ARKB.

2. Tether: We've onboarded FBI, Secret Service to our platform

   • In a recent letter shared with U.S. legislators, Tether’s CEO has elaborated on his methods to prevent unsavory individuals from using the company’s USDT stablecoins, including by onboarding the Secret Service and FBI to the company’s platform. Tether froze wallets on the U.S. sanctions list last week, and claims to have frozen 435 million USDT so far. 

3. Avalanche users pay $13.8 million in fees for inscriptions over 5 days

   • Avalanche users paid $13.8 million in transaction fees over the last five days to mint and move tokens and NFTs created with inscriptions.

     Inscription-based tokens are created by writing text in normal blockchain transactions and using an off-chain numbering system to keep track of them. They were created as a workaround on the Bitcoin network owing to its lack of native support for tokens. They’ve recently spread to many other blockchains for various reasons, one of them being that they can be cheaper to move around than native tokens. 

4. Solana Saga sells for up to $5K on eBay as Bonk frenzy causes sell-out

   • A Solana Saga phone appears to have sold for as much as $5,000 on eBay — more than eight times its retail cost — after a frenzy to pick up a free memecoin airdrop caused the devices to sell out on the official website for the first time. According to a Dec. 16 listing on the online marketplace eBay, two unopened, in-box phones have recently sold, listed for $5,000 or “best offer,” while another device has sold for $3,316 or “best offer.”

5. Jupiter Airdrop Set for January With a Billion JUP for Solana DeFi Users

   • Jupiter, the Solana-based decentralized finance aggregator, has announced that its eagerly anticipated airdrop is set to begin as soon as January. In a colorful Twitter post written from the perspective of a cat, Jupiter’s pseudonymous founder Meow gave a slew of updates Friday regarding the project’s future plans, and detailing the breakdown of the upcoming airdrop.