Jan 19th, 2023: Weekly Web3 Newsletter by Sujith Godavarthi

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Gm web3 believers!! sujith.eth is back with an interesting (hopefully) weekly web3 edition.

What’s Happening in Web3

Bitcoin’s market cap is now bigger than JP Morgan’s. And the US government has hit its $31.4 trillion debt limit. Also,

1. FTX

SBF is still a free man 😥

SBF ordered a secret backdoor that allowed Alameda to borrow $65 billion of clients’ money without permission, the lawyer says.
FTX liquidators lost 4 BTC ( $74,000) when they tried to transfer them into a multi-signature Alameda wallet. This happened when closing a position on Aave.
SEC charges SBF with defrauding investors.
Stat: FTX Contagion impacted over 1M investors, depositors and creditors.
FTX money showered nearly 37% of Congress. CoinDesk has identified 196 members of the new U.S. Congress – many of whom were just sworn in last week — who took cash from Sam Bankman-Fried or other senior executives at FTX.

Note: Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev is still in jail.

2. Game Of Thrones NFTs

Warner Bros., Nifty (NFT platform), and Daz 3D collaborated to launch an NFT collection that is based on GOT TV show. The first drop of NFTs was sold out 7 hours after the release. Talking about the design….

OpenSea Collection

3. Crypto Ban, for the 100th time

India’s Central Bank (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das calls for a ban on cryptocurrency. “100 percent speculation or to put it very bluntly, it is gambling.”

Also RBI:

“Since we don’t allow gambling in our country, and if you want to allow gambling, treat it as gambling and lay down the rules for gambling. But crypto is not a financial product.”

4. New Crypto Exchange: GTX

The founders of bankrupt hedge fund 3AC (3 Arrows Capital) are coming up with a new venture, and that’s a crypto exchange titled GTX. Yes, even I thought this was a joke or something.. but it’s not.

Su Zhu & Kyle Davies are collaborating with the founders of CoinFLEX for this new venture. And they are looking to raise $25M.

5. Fake NFT Collab!

TEJI’s most recent NFT drop titled “YES, THIS IS A COPY” was presented on OpenSea as a “collaborative piece” between him and the artist XCOPY.

Turns out, it’s not a collab after all, unlike what the description says so. And so, he comes up with an apology.

But why do it in the first place at all?? 💀

6. Market Overview

The Crypto Fear & Greed index reached its highest levels since April 2022. And the market cap bounced back to $1T.

After going below $10, $SOL now bounced back to $20+. Ethereum hit $1600 and Bitcoin hit $21,000. Can’t ask for a better run. But it’s a bull trap IMO and the goal of investors in 2023 should be to survive according to many crypto experts.

7. Metaverse Seoul

South Korea launched a Metaverse Replica of Seoul. Yes, that means you get to explore the city virtually. That’s fun!! But what’s the point??

Users will be able to play games, chat, FILE OFFICIAL FORMS, and receive tax services. The residents can access city services and attractions online through a new digital experience.

8. 2022 Electric Capital Developer Report:

Monthly active developers grew +5% year-over-year, despite a 70%+ decline in prices.
72% of monthly active devs work outside the Bitcoin and Ethereum ecosystems. Solana, NEAR, and Polygon grew 40% YoY and have 500+ total monthly active developers.
900+ developers write code monthly in NFTs across chains, +299% since 2021.

Read the full report here.

Quick Bites

Remember BitConnect? “hey hey hey wasu wasu wasu….”. The project was responsible for $2.4B fraud, and in 2021 the Justice Department seized $56 million from them. Now, they are returning just $17 million to 800 victims.

Crypto influencer NFT_GOD lost a huge amount of net worth in a hack. A lot of malware out there that can wipe your wallet. Stay Safe!
Ethereum has crossed 500,000 validators. Note: The Shanghai upgrade is due in March 2023 which will enable stakers to withdraw their $ETH (or keep staking).
Binance Mirror: Cold-custody opportunities are being added to Binance’s institutional trading services in response to the problem facing centralized crypto exchanges (CEX). Binance Mirror, an off-exchange resolution service that enables institutional investors to invest and trade using cold custody, was launched on January 16.
Crypto-focused bank operator Silvergate posted a net loss of $1.05 billion for the fourth quarter, compared with an $18.4 million profit a year earlier.
The US SEC has accidentally leaked the personal information of crypto miners tied to the blockchain firm Green and that includes the names and email addresses of 650 individuals. The SEC violated privacy law. Should we arrest them or what??
Bitzlato, a Hong Kong-based platform, has been effectively shut down, and founder Anatoly Legkodymov was taken into U.S. custody for laundering funds tied to illicit Russian finance.

A pseudonymous NFT trader known as “Pokeee” spent nearly $1 million to sweep 69 DeGods NFTs from Magic Eden.
Logan Paul apologizes and reveals a $1.3M refund program for CryptoZoo investors.
Bulgarian police have raided Nexo’s office. Reason:Illicit money had passed through Nexo over the past five years. Nexo believes that the raids conducted were against the law, and the firm wants the government to pay compensation for damages.
SEC sues Genesis & Gemini:

Crypto.com cuts 20% of its workforce. And Binance plans to increase its workforce by 30% in 2023.
The Japanese government is reportedly planning to introduce stricter regulations on using cryptocurrencies to combat money laundering and other financial crimes.
Following the collapse of FTX, USDC transfer volumes have often exceeded 5X the volumes recorded by USDT.
More bitcoin is being held by investors in hardware devices known as “cold storage” instead of in central exchanges like Coinbase. Good!! (look at this chart)
“If you’re asking me if there’s going to be another meltdown to zero? Absolutely. One hundred percent it’ll happen, and it’ll keep happening over and over and over again,” Kevin O’Leary, a true SBF fan.
US Inflation number fell to 6.5% (Dec 2022). It was 7.1% in November.
Miss Universe from El Salvador wearing Bitcoin outfit:

$GALA token is up +100%, after announcing a collab with Dwayne Johnson and Mark Wahlberg.
North Korea’s Lazarus Group moves stolen ETH worth $63.5m (~41000 ETH) from the Harmony bridge hack.
California cannabis producer Mendocino Clone Company adopts blockchain to track its weed.

Interesting Tweets

Coinbase NFT has done $700 in volume today. That’s like 1/4th of a single cryptodickbutt. [Giancarlo]

Iran and Russia to issue a new stablecoin backed by Gold. Damn, if this picks up could be day 1, event 1 of establishing a new economic order everywhere. No idea why it’s getting no oxygen from the global press…[Nikhil Kamath]

We detected Harmony One hacker fund movement. They previously tried to launder through Binance and we froze his accounts. This time he used Huobi. We assisted Huobi team to freeze his accounts. Together, 124 BTC have been recovered. CeFi helping to keep DeFi #SAFU! 🙏 [CZ Binance]

Only 2 weeks into the year & already more tech layoffs than all of 2021 combined 🤯. I have a feeling it’s going to be a rough year… [Alex Valaitis]

Interesting Numbers

3B

According to Financial Times, crypto lender Genesis owes its creditors over $3 billion.

300%

$BONK outpaced $DOGE (took 141 days) & $SHIBA (took 1253 days) with a 300% price return in 8 days.

0.54%

0.54% of the world’s population holds Bitcoin.

50%

Crypto hedge funds ended 2022 down almost 50%, per Barclay data.

80%

80% of the wallet’s first transaction was related to NFTs in 2022. Are NFTs brining more people into the world of crypto??

6M

Reddit NFT holders just passed 6M.

30B

Defi and blockchain technology could also reduce cross-border remittance costs by $30 billion a year, according to a research paper from Circle (USDC) and Uniswap (DEX).

Interesting Reads

Do You Know?

30 years ago, CZ was working at McDonald’s making $4.5 an hour, in Vancouver.

Meme Of The Week 😂

Disclaimer: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice. Please be careful and always do your own research.