Hello, Rebel
You may want to grab a seat. It has only been a couple of days, but the events of the past 7 days have felt like a thousand years just unfolded. In real-time, we have watched banks collapse, stablecoins depeg and re-peg, BTC dip and then recover in a surprise move, not to mention, the macroeconomic factors still rocking the boat.
Get comfortable, another issue of Rebel Digest is here, and these are the topics we’ll be reading;
Yesterday, the crypto market saw a rally after BTC pulled a comeback as regulators intervened to stop a pending collapse of the US banking system. BTC is up 9%, after shaking off losses earlier in the month when crypto-linked bank Silvergate failed and triggered a sell-off in the crypto market. ETH is up by US$1,682, a gain of 6.88% in the past seven days.
Last week, Bitfinex has delisted 10 tokens. See which tokens were removed from the platform here.
It’s all quiet on the funds raising front for the major exchanges, but we found some interesting ongoing and upcoming self-hosted ICOs, IDOs and IEOs. Check them out.
TL:DR:
The US banking sector crisis may have been averted, but the Silicon Valley Bank's closure has affected some crypto companies, including Ripple, BlockFi, Circle, Pantera, Avalanche, Yuga Labs, Proof, and Nova Labs. Many companies have disclosed their exposure to the bank, while others have claimed no exposure.
Ripple CEO, Brad Garlinghouse stated that the company had some exposure to SVB and that it was a banking partner, but he does not expect any disruption to their day-to-day business, and they remain in a strong financial position. Failed lender, BlockFi has $227 million in funds held at SVB. Circle announced that Silicon Valley Bank was one of six banks relied on to manage USDC's cash reserves, while the Avalanche Foundation announced that it has a little over $1.6 million in exposure to Silicon Valley Bank.
On the other hand, numerous crypto companies have claimed no exposure to SVB, including Paxos, Crypto.com, Binance, Kraken, Tether, Solana, Polygon, Immutable, and Gala Games.
In other news,
TL:DR:
The US Justice Department is investigating the collapse of the TerraClassicUSD (USTC) stablecoin, which contributed to a $40 billion wipeout in the Terra ecosystem last May. The investigation covers similar ground to a lawsuit filed against Terraform Labs and its founder Do Kwon by the US Securities Exchange Commission. Investigators are asking questions about the relationship between Chai, a South Korean-based payment platform, and the Terra blockchain on which USTC operated. It is unclear what specific charges the Justice Department is potentially pursuing. The investigation does not necessarily mean that charges will be filed.
In addition to the US Justice Department's investigation, New York prosecutors are also reportedly investigating a series of chat-group conversations from former members at Jump Trading, Jane Street, and Alameda Research, which are suspected to have involved market manipulation tactics in the TerraUSD stablecoin project. Meanwhile, Do Kwon, the founder of Terraform Labs, who was accused by the SEC of misleading investors, is reportedly now in Serbia, where he is believed to be hiding from South Korean authorities.
Our take
The Terra ecosystem collapse was one of the events that triggered the slump of the crypto markets last year. It remains to be seen what the outcome of the investigations will be, but they are significant steps towards holding those responsible for the collapse accountable.
Barely one year after announcing plans to allow the sharing of NFT collectibles on its platform, Meta is finally tapping out.
Stephane Kasriel, the head of commerce and financial technologies at Meta made the announcement is a series of tweets, adding that this decision was made in order to prioritize other ways to support creators, people, and businesses.
While the company will continue to support NFT creators who use Instagram and Facebook, it will focus on areas where it can make an impact at scale, such as messaging and monetization opportunities for Reels.
In other news,
TL:DR:
Decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Euler Finance has suffered an exploit of approximately $196.9 million, with the attacker nabbing $8.7 million in DAI, $18.5 million in Wrapped Bitcoin, $135.8 million in Staked Ethereum, and another $33.8 million in USDC.
The root vulnerability is still unknown, but the attacker used a series of six different flash loans to leverage the attack. Euler Finance's total value locked was $237.9 million prior to the attack, and its native token EUL plummeted by 50% yesterday.
This attack is the latest in a series of DeFi exploits, with flash loans being particularly vulnerable to malicious actors. As more users and capital enters the DeFi space, we can expect more efforts to take advantage of these protocols.
In other news,
