Over the past seven days, the markets have been festive and bursting with all shades of green as the crypto market went past $1T again. One of the top 50 coins, Aptos ($APT), went up x2 on the combination of a short squeeze and the popular demand from China.

In other macro news, the stock markets have also been rallying in anticipation of a possible halt or lowering of interest rates by the Feds. This sentiment is being sustained by ongoing positive indicators (a decrease in inflation). 

We believe this rally will continue to rub off in the crypto space well into the month of  February.

Speaking of listings, Conor Gregor, Director of Coinbase, is wagging a finger at Binance on suspicion of Insider trading. He alleged that an anonymous wallet bought multiple unlisted tokens minutes before their listing announcement on Binance and dumped them right after the announcement. Read more.

The $TFT initial token offering is ongoing on Uniswap.

‍About Toon Finance ($TFT)

Toon Finance Protocol is a decentralized exchange application platform aiming to fix the externality surrounding the P2E gaming demand by ensuring a P2E metaverse backed by SHA256 encryption.

TL: DR

• Binance uses Signature Bank to process SWIFT payments
• Signature Bank is moving away from crypto
• They have raised their minimum limit to $100,000
• Binance is swiping right for a rebound

Binance and its SWIFT payments processor are calling it quits - and Binance is ready to move on. In a bid to limit its crypto exposure, Signature Bank - Binance’s former partner and SWIFT payments processor, recently announced a $100,000 minimum limit.

This means that Binance can no longer support USD deposits and withdrawals through SWIFT if the amount involved is less than the set limit. In a letter sent to all its users, Binance informed their clients of the new policy, adding that they are actively looking for a new partner to process their SWIFT payments. The email also pointed out that only “0.01% of our average monthly users are serviced by Signature Bank,”.

‍What changed, though?

Clearly spooked by the FTX collapse, Signature Bank is going all paper-hands on crypto in the act of self-preservation. Before now, they used to be one of the more crypto-friendly banks. The bank is also following the warning issued by The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Federal Reserve (Fed), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) about risks in the crypto sector.

‍In other news,

• My Keys, My Crypto: More retail investors are going self-custodial - can you really blame anyone at this point?  Given the unfortunate events of the past year, more investors are taking on the risk of securing their assets. Read more. If you’re new to crypto, check out our article on crypto wallets.

The FBI has confirmed that Lazarus Group and APT38 were responsible for the $100 million Harmony bridge hack last June. Read more.

Coinbase and the German football club, Borrusia, have doubled their commitment to each other. The relationship between the pair began last year when the exchange started running ads on the stadium’s video screens.

The partnership will have Coinbase serving as the club’s premium partner until the end of June, with a possibility of an extension depending on the future performance of the crypto market. The terms of the partnership will also have Coinbase promote its products and services on Signal-Iduna-Park (the club’s home ground and Germany’s largest stadium) and provide crypto education programs for the team’s employees. 

We’re yet to uncover how much it cost Coinbase to woo the club. According to Carsten Carmer, Borrusia Dortmund’s MD, the obvious green flag was Coinbase’s BaFin license.

But, Coinbase is not alone.

Other Rebels securing their spots on the pitch with some hot deals are;

Binance is the main global sponsor of the Argentinian national team, the major Jersey partner of the Italian Lizio, and has partnered with Christiano Ronaldo to drop an NFT collection.

Crypto.com was the official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

Bitget is the sleeve partner of Italy’s most successful soccer club – Juventus. It also partnered with Lionel (Leo) Messi – to allow fans to explore Web3 and the potential of crypto trading on the platform.

Our take

It is such a relief to see Coinbase still making some bold moves despite the ongoing crises. This January, the exchange slashed its workforce by another 30%, in addition to the 20% in Q4 2022. Despite pulling out of Japan recently, the American number 1 crypto exchange remains rebellious with its expansion into Europe. 

In other news,

Down but not out. The crypto-sports partnerships may be slowing down, but they aren’t dead. Read more.

‍

The USA is ready to open its first-ever nuclear-powered data center. If you still have doubts, this confirms that Satoshi’s legacy is here to stay. The data center with a rather mouthful name - Cumulus Susquehanna will be open in Pennsylvania by Q1 of this year.

The center will begin with hosting nuclear-powered Bitcoin mining and cloud computing services. The first of its kind in the USA. Back in August 2021, Talen Energy partnered with U.S.-based Bitcoin mining firm TeraWulf to develop the Nautilus Cryptomine, a zero-carbon Bitcoin mining facility, on Cumulus Data’s campus.

TeraWulf is in “the initial stages of ramping its mining operations” and expects the nuclear-powered data center to “provide 50 MW of net mining capacity to TeraWulf” in the first quarter of 2023. The 300,000-square-foot data center is powered by Susquehanna’s 2.5-gigawatt nuclear power plant.

In other news,

• Gemini shrinks some more. The company shaved off another 10% of staff, citing the crypto industry’s ‘bad actors.’ Read more.
• In an attempt to retain its talents, BlockFi has asked the court for permission to use its funds for employee bonuses. Read more.

We are proud to announce that we are a media partner for the European Blockchain Convention happening in Barcelona this February. Grab a ticket here and watch our parent company RBL Labs pitch live as a nominee for Europe's Top Blockchain Startup of the Year.

Less than a year after slamming a hard ban on all stablecoins, Japanese regulators may be making a 180 and cozying up to stablecoins.

The Financial Services Agency (FSA) of Japan is working on lifting a ban on the domestic distribution of stablecoins. The new policy could kick in by June 2023. In June 2022, the Japanese parliament passed a bill to ban all stablecoins. The bill also required stablecoin issuers to link such cryptocurrencies only to the Japanese yen or another legal tender.

In a caveat, the Agency has made it clear that it will only allow the stablecoins that have successfully passed individual checks. This is to ensure that the cryptocurrencies are safe from the perspective of user protection.

Any guesses on if the USDT or USDC will make the cut?

Well, that is not yet certain. An FSA rep stated that ‘FSA does not provide any opportunity to access such information before the decision is made,” 

In other news,

• A new guideline by the South African Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) has proposed that all crypto ads airing in the country must warn potential investors of the risks of digital assets. Read more.

After making Bitcoin a legal tender in April 2022, The Central African Republic is set to make way for even more crypto adoption. On Friday, President Toudera tweeted that the country has formed a committee to draft new crypto legislation. Read more.