The Scenius Sync (Issue #11)

Snoop & Em Ape MTV's VMAs, Avax Hit by Whistleblower Claims, & MakerDAO Makes History (again)

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. Sam Bankman-Fried Says FTX Will Not Buy Huobi Global

   • Rumors earlier this month claimed FTX would buy crypto exchange Huobi Global, but SBF says it's not happening.

2. Federal Reserve's FedNow payments system will be live within a year

   • The Federal Reserve is readying its new instant payments service aimed to resolve the lag in payment time between US financial institutions for launch between May and July of next year. FedNow appears in many conversations alongside a potential Fed central bank digital currency or CBDC.

3. Crypto Coin AVAX Drops 11% After Self-Described Whistleblower Says Avalanche Weaponized Litigation Against Rivals

   • Crypto Leaks, a self-proclaimed whistleblower, published a report saying that New York-based Ava Labs and law firm Roche Freedman made a deal under which Freedman would collect confidential information of rival companies and trap them under class-action lawsuits in return for massive amounts of AVAX tokens and Ava Labs corporate stock. Ava Labs CEO rejected the accusation as "conspiracy theory nonsense."

4. Senate committee preps hearing on CFTC regime for crypto exchanges

   • The Senate Agriculture Committee is moving forward with a bill that would build a regulatory regime for crypto exchanges, prepping a hearing on the topic for September. If passed and signed into law, the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act, would establish a mandatory regime for crypto exchanges to report to the CFTC.

5. Dubai issues crypto marketing rules to better protect investors

   • As Dubai moves forward with a new license program for cryptocurrency service providers, its new Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority will require more clarity and transparency from industry marketers and promoters to protect investors

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Innovation & Adoption 💡📈

1. MTV VMAs: Eminem and Snoop Dogg Perform as Bored Apes in the Metaverse

   • The two rap legends ventured into the Yuga Labs’ Otherside metaverse and preformed their song “From the D 2 The LBC” in the guise of the Bored Ape NFTs the two individually own.

2. Mastercard begins working with Binance

   • Mastercard CEO Micahel Miebach revealed that the company is working with Binance to enable purchases in more than 90 million stores. Mastercard has been working in the sector for some time to enable cryptocurrency holders to use its network for fiat payments, but integration with the world’s leading crypto-exchange would be a big step forward.

3. MakerDAO Opens $100M DAI Loan to Huntingdon Valley Bank

   • The MakerDAO loan to Huntingdon Valley Bank marks the “first commercial loan participation between a US Regulated Financial Institution and a decentralized digital currency.”

4. Crypto ATM Firm Bitcoin Depot Strikes $885 Million SPAC Deal to Go Public

   • The merger comes during market downturns for cryptocurrencies and SPACs and is expected to test investor appetite for bitcoin ATMs.

5. Derivatives marketplace CME goes live with euro-denominated bitcoin, ether futures

   • CME Group, the world’s largest derivatives marketplace in terms of volume, has launched bitcoin and ether futures denominated in the euro. Designed to match their U.S. dollar-denominated counterparts, Bitcoin Euro and Ether Euro futures contracts will be sized at five bitcoin and 50 ether per contract. The derivatives market comprised 69% of total crypto volumes in July compared to 66% in the previous month, according to researcher CryptoCompare