The Scenius Sync (Issue #33)
Goldman Report Reflects Bitcoin Is 2023's Best Performing Asset, Amazon NFT Initiative Incoming, & Senator Cruz Wants Crypto Payments on Capitol Hill
Scenius: The intelligence and the intuition of a whole cultural scene. The communal form of the concept of genius.
Welcome to The Scenius Sync.
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Share the essential stories driving the crypto industry and markets.
Highlight innovative applications and mainstream adoption of crypto and blockchain technology.
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Essential News 🗞
Bitcoin has rocketed into the new year, adding approximately 40% so far in 2023 despite fresh fears of a “disastrous global financial meltdown.” Now, Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs’ has reported that bitcoin has been the best-performing asset in the world during the first month of 2023—outperforming gold, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100.
White House Blames Congress for Failure to Enact Crypto Regulations
Four senior Biden officials penned a note Friday urging lawmakers to hasten their efforts to create a regulatory framework for crypto. The White House pointed to stalling on a comprehensive, national crypto regulatory framework, outlining numerous actions lawmakers could take to reign-in fraud and bad actors in the crypto sector.
The former FTX founder and CEO appears to have attempted to influence a witness in the case looking into the exchange’s collapse, prosecutors said in a letter to the court. In addition to limiting his ability to contact current and former employees of companies he founded, prosecutors seek to restrict Bankman-Fried’s access to encrypted messaging services.
South Korea to Deploy Cryptocurrency Tracking System in 2023
The Ministry of Justice in South Korea announced plans to introduce a crypto-tracking system to counter money laundering initiatives and recover funds linked to criminal activities. The “Virtual Currency Tracking System” will be used to monitor transaction history, extract information related to transactions and check the source of funds before and after remittance.
WazirX Says Binance Lied About Ownership as Dispute About India’s Largest Exchange Escalates
Emails obtained by CoinDesk shed new light on the ongoing debate that began after WazirX’s Mumbai office was raided in August 2022 by Indian officials on suspicions that the exchange had helped 16 fintech companies launder money. Following the raid, Binance, which had previously published a a blog post saying that it had purchased the Indian exchange began distancing itself stating the transaction was instead “limited to an agreement to purchase certain assets and intellectual property.”
Innovation & Adoption 💡📈
Amazon NFT Initiative Coming Soon
Amazon is launching a digital assets enterprise, according to four sources familiar with the matter, who said that an NFT initiative is expected in the spring. Reportedly, Amazon has been shopping the digital collectibles effort to no shortage of power players in the industry, with a focus on blockchain-based gaming and related NFT applications. One example in the works: getting Amazon customers to play crypto games and claim free NFTs in the process.
Gains Makes Splash in Derivatives Niche on Arbitrum
Crypto derivatives exchange Gains Network has recorded $1.6 billion in trading volume on the Arbitrum blockchain one month after launch. Initially deployed on the Polygon network, Gains Network runs gTrade, a decentralized margin trading protocol. The Gains platform enables users to trade financial derivatives of various assets, including crypto tokens, U.S. stocks, and indices through smart contract-based trades.
Moody’s Developing Scoring System for Stablecoins
Moody’s, which among other things provides credit ratings for publicly-traded companies, is working on a system to score up to 20 stablecoins based on the quality of their reserves attestations, according to a report from Bloomberg.
BH Digital didn't just get Dragonfly's head of liquid strategies, it got the whole team
Dragonfly’s Kevin Hu, who led the Dragonfly liquid team, had joined Brevan Howard along with the whole liquid team. Hu will focus on listed digital assets. BH Digital is expanding amid a difficult market for the industry. Brevan Howard manages over $30 billion in assets for institutional investors, such as sovereign wealth funds and corporate and public pension plans.
Senator Ted Cruz Wants Vendors to Accept Bitcoin at the Capitol
The Texas lawmaker introduced a resolution to prioritize crypto for payments within parts of Capitol Hill. The new directive would apply to officials tasked with overseeing day-to-day operations within the House of Representatives and Senate, encouraging them to work with “persons that will accept digital assets as payment for goods” and food services.