Crypto Weekly Roundup: Wonderland CFO Controversy, Chainalysis Report, OpenSea Bug, Biden’s Executive Order, And More

The biggest news in cryptocurrency, especially DeFi, is the Wonderland controversy. It looks like the CFO Sifu is actually the notorious Michael Patryn. The community is concerned that this controversy will likely give naysayers another reason to write off all applications of blockchain and cryptocurrency as fraudulent, especially since the Chainalysis report showed that DeFi protocols have become the tool of choice for money laundering cybercriminals. Let’s find out more. 

Bitcoin

The United States Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) has rejected yet another spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), this time from investment giant Fidelity. 

Governor Greg Abbott has turned to Bitcoin miners to help stabilize the Texas power grid and made several outreaches to the crypto industry, inviting them to Texas. 

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire has shared his Bitcoin Predictions, stating in an interview that he believes Bitcoin will eventually surpass gold and hit $1 million.

Ethereum

The Ethereum Foundation has decided to retire the terms “ETH 1.0” and “ETH 2.0” in favor of their latest rebranding as Ethereum’s “execution layer” and “consensus layer” respectively. 

DeFi

The Chainalysis Crypto Crime Report 2022 has observed that DeFi protocols contributed to a significant 37% of all crypto scam revenue in 2021, becoming the preferred tool for money laundering by cybercriminals.

CardStarter and SundaeSwap, both building on the Cardano blockchain, have accused each other of foul play, broken promises, and accusations of a rug pull event. 

Altcoins

Solana Labs has disclosed the upgrades that it will prioritize in the near term, in a bid to respond to the network’s current scaling challenges.

Stellar is looking at further expanding its anchor network in 2022, focusing on trust-minimized innovations and increasing inclusion and interoperability.

The Wonderland CFO, known as Sifu, could actually be Michael Patryn, the co-founder of the notorious Canadian QuadrigaCX exchange, where the founder disappeared with $169 million. 

Business

The crypto firm Fireblocks has raised a total of $550 million from institutional investors in one of the largest financing rounds in the crypto sector in the last few years. 

The US affiliate of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX has just announced an external raise of $400 million, putting the company at a valuation of $8 billion. 

Meta (formerly Facebook) is reportedly looking to sell the Diem cryptocurrency project along with all its associated assets. 

The Sandbox, a metaverse subsidiary operated by Animoca Brands, has announced its commitment to support new startups aiming to build on top of its Open Metaverse.

Regulation

The IMF has warned El Salvador of major associated risks and requested the country to discontinue Bitcoin’s status as legal tender.

The Biden administration is working on an executive order which might be issued next month, to establish an initial government-wide approach towards digital assets. 

NFT

A number of games are already taking shape on the Gala Games platform, with three new next-generation, triple-A games already on the way.

Hindustan Times is launching a collection of NFTs that will feature digitized versions of original creatives based on historical events that were published in the newspaper. 

Chelsea player John Terry looks to have landed in a soup after tweeting about a collection of NFTs that include images of the Premier League Trophies and UEFA’s Champions League And Europa League trophies.

Reddit is planning a feature that will allow users to upload NFTs to their profile picture to verify their account, inspired by Twitter’s latest feature. 

Hackers exploited an existing bug in the OpenSea platform to purchase multiple NFTs worth over a million dollars at drastic six-figure discounts. 

YouTube is reportedly working on integration for NFTs with an aim of helping video content creators. 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.