The Scenius Sync (Issue #28)

SBF Out On Bail As His "Captains" Cooperate, Messari's 2023 Theses, & Crypto Employment Number Go Up

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. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to be released on $250 million bail, will live with his parents

   • The FTX founder was released on $250 million bail, a federal judge ruled, while he awaits trial for eight federal criminal charges related to alleged fraud at his collapsed crypto empire. Two of his top executives, Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang, pleaded guilty Wednesday to various criminal charges related to fraud at FTX, and are cooperating with the federal government. In fact, Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, told a federal court in New York that she knowingly misled lenders about how much the firm had been borrowing from the collapsed FTX crypto exchange and knew that her actions were wrong, Bloomberg News reported, citing a transcript of a plea hearing on Dec. 19.

2. Messari Publishes Crypto Theses for 2023

   • Key trends, people, companies, and projects to watch across the crypto landscape, with predictions for 2023.

3. Biden Administration Delays Tax Rules for Crypto Brokers

   • As part of the $1 trillion infrastructure bill signed into law in 2021, Congress required brokers of digital assets to detail the proceeds of their customers’ transactions to the IRS in a 1099 form. But the IRS and the Treasury Department have yet to formulate the rules for enforcing the provision, leaving critical questions—such as the definition of a broker—unresolved. The IRS and the Treasury said on Friday the new reporting requirements wouldn’t take effect until the agencies had finished writing the rules governing them. 

4. NFT marketplace OpenSea delisting Cuban artists and users

   • Leading NFT marketplace OpenSea is actively delisting Cuban artists and users to comply with U.S. sanctions. Though most distributed ledger technology is inherently decentralized, the crypto industry still features large centralized platforms that comply with international sanctions.

5. OKX publishes second proof-of-reserves report

   • Crypto exchange OKX released a second proof-of-reserves report, a month after its first, in a continuing effort among crypto exchanges to provide evidence they are handling customer funds safely following the collapse of FTX. The proof-of-reserves method used following the collapse of FTX has been criticized by the SEC

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Innovation & Adoption 💡📈

1. The number of crypto employments jumped 351% to 82.2K in 2022 from 18.2K in 2019

   • Half of them are in the Trading/Brokerage category and Binance has the largest team of 7,300 employees.

2. Fidelity files for metaverse trademarks in latest crypto push

   • Fidelity has filed three U.S. trademark applications to provide services in the metaverse and other virtual worlds in its latest step into the realm of digital assets. Fidelity has been quicker to embrace digital assets than most other large investment companies and in October said it was planning 100 more crypto hires to expand its digital asset team to 500.

3. Hong Kong accelerator looking to help 1,000 web3 startups in next 3 years

   • G-Rocket is looking to help 1,000 web3 startups set up shop in Hong Kong within the next three years. “Hong Kong Web3.0 Hub” coincides with the special administrative region’s concerted push to put itself among the leaders in the virtual asset industry.

4. Top Solana NFT projects DeGods & y00ts are headed to Ethereum and Polygon

   • Two of the most significant NFT projects on Solana, DeGods and y00ts, announced a migration to new blockchains. DeGods will migrate to Ethereum, whereas y00ts is planning to bridge to Polygon. 

5. Donald Trump Says He Launched NFTs for the 'Sort of Cute' Art

   • The ex-president says he didn't do it for the money—but still thought his NFTs "might sell."