The Scenius Sync (Issue #36)

SEC Sues Do Kwon and Terraform, Blur's Airdrop Boost, & Helium Moves to Solana

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. SEC Sues Terraform Labs, Do Kwon for Misleading Investors on TerraUSD Stablecoin

   • The SEC sued Terraform Labs, the company behind the failed TerraUSD stablecoin, and its co-founder Do Kwon on Thursday. The SEC alleged that Terraform and Kwon misled investors on a number of issues, including who was using TerraUSD for payments and the stability of UST, the algorithmic 'stablecoin' purportedly pegged to the U.S. dollar. "UST's price falling below its $1.00 'peg' and not quickly being restored by the algorithm would spell doom for the entire Terraform ecosystem, given that UST and LUNA had no reserve of assets or any other backing." The SEC is charging Terraform and Kwon with fraud, selling unregistered securities, selling unregistered security-based swaps and other related claims.

2. Hong Kong Plans to Let Retail Sector Trade Larger Crypto Tokens Like Bitcoin

   • Hong Kong outlined a plan to let retail investors trade digital tokens like Bitcoin and Ether, taking a major step toward its goal of becoming a crypto hub in a policy shift that contrasts with a crackdown in the US. Individual investors would be allowed to trade larger coins on exchanges licensed by the Securities and Futures Commission, providing safeguards such as knowledge tests, risk profiles and reasonable limits on exposure are put in place, the regulator said in a consultation paper on Monday.

3. NFT Market Gets A Boost From $400M Blur Airdrop

   • Blur, currently the largest NFT marketplace on Ethereum as measured by trading volume, took a critical step toward decentralization this week, sending its users newly minted governance tokens that will give them a say in the protocol’s direction. The BLUR airdrop rewarded active NFT traders and comes as a welcome stimulus package to an industry that has suffered a steep year-over-year decline in trading activity. Blur has positioned itself as the marketplace for professional traders previously stating its mission was to “move the NFT space toward becoming institutional grade while increasing decentralization.”

4. FTX Japan to Resume Crypto and Fiat Withdrawals on Feb. 21

   • Withdrawals will be processed via the Liquid Japan web platform, which FTX acquired in 2022. Customers with assets on the exchange will have to confirm their balance. Users without an account on Liquid Japan will need to open one to withdraw their assets. FTX Japan paused crypto and fiat withdrawals in November 2022 after the collapse of the FTX and its sister trading firm Alameda Research. The platform was initially asked to suspend its operations in early December 2022. FTX Japan, however, secured an extension to this order until March 2023. The platform is looking to announce the resumption of other services, according to Monday’s statement.

5. Crypto Hedge Fund Galois Capital Shuts Down After Losing $40M to FTX

   • One of the world’s largest crypto-focused quantitative funds, Galois Capital, has called it quits after losing a sizable portion of its capital in the collapse of FTX, the firm said in a tweet on Monday. Founder Kevin Zhou said “This entire tragic saga starting from the luna collapse to the 3AC credit crisis to the FTX/Alameda failure has certainly set the crypto space back significantly.” “However, I, even now, remain hopeful for crypto’s long-term future.”

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Innovation & Adoption 💡📈

1. Hong Kong Successfully Offered Inaugural $100M Tokenized Green Bond

   • Hong Kong's government successfully issued its first tokenized green bond of 800 million Hong Kong dollars (US$101 million), according to an announcement on Thursday. The bond is the first green bond to be issued by a government globally, the announcement by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said. "Processes of the bond lifecycle, including coupon payment, settlement of secondary trading and maturity redemption, will also be digitalized and performed on the private blockchain network.”

2. Helium to Fully Migrate to Solana Blockchain by March 27

   • Decentralized wireless communication network Helium will entirely shift to the Solana blockchain by March 27, developers said on Friday. The migration will see HNT, MOBILE and IOT issued on the Solana network, which will continue to be the tokens in the Helium ecosystem.

3. Fireblocks Testing 'Off-Exchange' Crypto Custody Solution

   • Fireblocks is trialing a hybrid custody solution that its clients can use to safeguard their crypto even while trading on exchanges. The proposed platform has been conceived as an “off-exchange” service that will enable clients to keep their crypto assets in custody while trading on exchanges. The funds will only move out of the custody platform when the trades need to be settled. Fireblocks joins a growing list of firms offering such hybrid custody services as well as institutional crypto custodians like Copper and Fidelity Digital Assets that have such off-exchange platforms as part of their service suite. Binance Custody also has a similar product that enables clients to mirror their assets held in cold storage to their trading accounts.

4. NBA Top Shot Will Let Users Buy NFTs via Apple, Android Mobile Apps

   • NBA Top Shot, the officially licensed basketball NFT platform that has generated more than $1 billion in sales to date, is headed to mobile with the launch of smartphone apps through Apple’s iOS App Store and Google’s Android Play Store. The native apps aim to provide a smoother way to access and buy digital collectibles on the go. But for creator Dapper Labs, which developed the Flow blockchain and also runs platforms like NFL All Day and UFC Strike, it’s the first step in the company’s transformation into a mobile-first Web3 company.

5. San Francisco Fed Hiring for Digital Currency Development

   • According to a job listing posted to LinkedIn, The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco is looking for software developers to help research and design a central bank digital currency (CBDC). A CBDC is a tokenized version of a country’s fiat currency. Similar to stablecoins, a CBDC’s value tracks that of a currency issued by a government like the U.S. dollar. But instead of being managed by private companies, a CBDC is issued by a central bank like the Federal Reserve.