Weekly Update: 10 Nov 2022
1) Binance has walked away from an acquisition deal of its rival FTX. [Twitter]
– Binance tweeted, “As a result of corporate due diligence, as well as the latest news reports regarding mishandled customer funds and alleged US agency investigations, we have decided that we will not pursue the potential acquisition of http://FTX.com.”
2) FTX’s native token, FTT is down 90% this week and was attempting to steady around $2, not far above its record low around $1.50. [Reuters]
3) Bank of Korea tested NFT trading, remittances with CBDC [Coindesk]
– Governor Yong Rhee shared that the CBDC could process up to 2,000 transactions per second, but distributed ledger technology, does not yet have the scalability needed for a retail CBDC
4) Crypto exchange Coinbase Germany ordered by regulator to tackle “Organizational Deficiencies” [Coindesk]
– The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) said the company needs to address a range of issues including ensuring adequate risk management, staffing and IT systems.
5) Japan’s largest mobile operator to establish Web3 consortium [Cointelegraph]
– NTT Docomo, Japan’s largest mobile operator with over $40 billion in annual revenue, partnered with multichain smart contract platform Astar Network to accelerate the Web3 implementation.
6) Liquidity crunch spreads to crypto lending as institutional borrowers max out credit pools [Coindesk]
– Multiple institutional crypto capital firms maxed out their credit pools on Clearpool, an uncollateralized lending protocol, as fear on the market mounts that crypto trading firm Alameda Research’s liquidity troubles might spread to crypto lenders.
7) Middle East, Asia and Africa blockchain association launches in Abu Dhabi [Cointelegraph]
– A new blockchain body has been launched with the backing of industry leaders in the Middle East region including figures from Binance, Crypto.com and the largest crypto exchange in the region.
8) Nomura unit preparing to trade crypto, boost staff by 45% [Blockworks]
– The crypto unit functions somewhat independently of Nomura. It’s focused on deploying its own capital to establish cryptoasset management and venture capital (VC) investment engines.
9) US seizes 50K Bitcoins (worth $1B) related to Silk Road Marketplace [Coindesk]
– The Silk Road was an illegal marketplace on the darknet that operated between 2011 and 2013 and that primarily used bitcoin as a method of payment.
10) Wintermute elbows into crowded DEX market [The Defiant]
– Bebop, a decentralized exchange built by crypto market maker Wintermute, on the Polygon blockchain that delivers assets at quoted prices (0 slippage).
