tl;dr: what a fucking week… obviously FTX/Alameda/Binance was the biggest topic.
Non-FTX stuff this week includes:
News: US CPI print lower than expected - 7.7% YoY, 0.4% MoM, U.S. Attorney seizes $3.36B tied to Silk Road, Solana unveils Google partnership/ smartphones/Web3 store at Breakpoint, Neon Labs Solana EVM coming Dec. 12, Meta cuts 11,000 jobs, ETH turns deflationary 55 days after The Merge, Aptos partnered with Google Cloud, Middle East, Africa & Asia Crypto & Blockchain Association launches, Space and Time joins Nvidia's startup program, Shell two-year sponsor partnership with Bitcoin Magazine,
Data: Bitcoin dropped to $15,563, ETH dropped to $1071, Total Crypto Market cap dropped to $850B, DeFi TVL drops to $44.5B, Stablecoins and ETH rush off exchanges, Smart Money stabled up
DeFi: Zerion in-browser web extension challenges MetaMask, GALA exploit due to GitHub public leak, Avalanche $4M in AVAX incentives for GMX, BetDEX, Solana sports betting exchange offering fee-free betting on World Cup games, Solana adding support for Euro Coin, Upcoming Solana scaling protocol Layer N, DeFi aggregator Bebop expands to Polygon, MetaMask Bridges, Curve's 3pool imbalanced, Solana 28.5M SOL re-staked, dYdX placed Solana trades in “close only” mode, Solend $6M bad debt, USDT/USDD begins to depeg, Debank Time Machine
NFT/Metaverse/Gaming: OpenSea to enforce creator royalties, LooksRare NFT Aggregator, Beeple bringing 'immersive 3D NFTs' to Solana, Mysten Labs strategic partnership with South Korean gaming company Ncsoft, WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann launching NFT project Flow3rs, Yuga Labs Co-founders suggest BAYC sales only to royalty-enforcing marketplaces, STEPN partners with ASICS and Solana, Lionel Messi joining Sorare
Exchange: Huobi alleges pNetwork Gala actions were not whitehat, Bitmex launches native BMEX token trading, Binance, OKX, Crypto.com, OKX and Kucoin, BitMEX, Huobi, Bitget to introduce Merkle-tree proof of reserves, Binance Custody adds NEAR standard to infrastructure, Coinbase Germany must meet regulatory requirements, Crypto.com suspends deposits and withdrawals of USDC and USDT on Solana,
Economic/Government/Regulatory: DoJ and SEC investigating FTX’s U.S., Polkadot claims to be software not a security, UK bank Santander to block payments to crypto exchanges, SEC wins suit against LBRY, Kim Kardashian and Floyd Mayweather set to win EthereumMax lawsuit, U.S. Treasury Department updates Tornado Cash sanctions due to North Korean nuclear weapons, Hong Kong to allow crypto retail ETFs, SEC subpoenas HEX, Pulsechain and PulseX influencers, SEC suing ponzi scheme Trade Coin Club, Paradigm launches Crypto Policy Council
Also, put together this big ol’ timeline of events for the FTX shitshow
FTX Timeline
Wednesday, November 2nd
CoinDesk report finds that Alameda’s balance sheets are largely made of FTX’s native FTT token
Executives deny aspects of the story, saying it paints an incomplete picture but sparks rumors
Sunday, November 6th:
CEO Caroline Ellison says Alameda has $10B in assets not reported in leaked balance sheet
CZ/Binance to sell $584M worth of FTT due to recent revelations
Caroline offers to buy Binance’s FTT at $22
FUD and fears of insolvency break out even more
Monday, November 7th:
Alameda begins to sell off SOL to keep the price of FTT above $22
CZ refuses OTC deal and begins to sell FTT to purchase BNB
FTX FUD results in heavy outflows, people rush to withdraw - things start heating up
Tuesday, November 8th:
SBF attempts to calm markets by assuring investors their assets are safe
FTX pauses certain withdrawals causing panic about potential bank runs
BitDAO accuses Alameda of dumping 1% of BIT token supply. Alameda proves they didn’t
SBF tweets that FTX would be acquired by Binance. CZ confirms
Begins clearing withdrawal backlogs, resolving liquidity issues and conducting due diligence
Binance will not buy FTX after reviewing the company's financials
FTX websites go dark - uncertainty reigns
Wednesday, November 9th:
Crypto markets nuke
Tether, Coinbase, Circle, Genesis, Crypto.com, Cumberland, Deribit, Solana Labs claim limited exposure
Multicoin Capital has 10% of fund's AUM stuck on FTX
Galaxy Digital has a $76.8M exposure to FTX
Wintermute has funds stuck on FTX but within its risk tolerances
Amber Group has no exposure to Alameda or FTT but 10% of capital on FTX
Most of FTX legal and compliance teams have quit
$1B of SOL, 13% of supply, will soon be unlocked and released onto the market
Huobi and Tron DAO promises to exchange Tron tokens at 1:1 if FTX withdrawals fail
Binance + other exchanges to introduce Merkle-tree proof of reserves for full transparency
FTX CEO lost an estimated $14.6B dollars – nearly 94% of his net worth
FTX.us and Binance.us are two separate companies and are not currently impacted by the deal
Binance tops up Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) to an equivalent of $1B
SBF’s priority crypto bill ‘dead’ after FTX sells to Binance
Solend is facing the risk of accruing bad debt
People selling their FTX accounts for 10-20 cents on the dollar
Thursday, November 10th
FTX would need to file for bankruptcy without a cash injection - top priority is fundraising
DoJ and SEC are working together to investigate FTX U.S
It took a grossly irresponsible amount of time before FTX closed customer deposits
SBF transferred at least $4B to Alameda after suffering losses in May and June
Alameda allegedly owes FTX about $10B
Alameda Trading is winding down
Justin Sun working with FTX to protect Tron users with funds stuck on FTX at a 1:1 ratio
Tether freezes $46M USDT on the Tron blockchain following a request from law enforcement
FTX approached U.S.-based crypto exchange Kraken about a potential rescue deal
Binance hot and cold wallets holds a total of ~ $70B
Japan's financial regulators have ordered FTX's Japan arm to suspend operations
Crypto.com, OKX and Kucoin, BitMEX providing proof of reserves & proof of liabilities
Tether begins to depeg. The Tron DAO Reserve will purchase 1B USDT to fight short sellers
Curve's 3pool imbalanced - USDT accounting for ~ 80% of the pool's liquidity
FTX begun processing withdrawals again following a more than 48-hour shutdown
SBF seeking up to $9.4B for FTX's rescue
Sequoia FTX investment now worthless ~ $213.5M in losses but fund is still in good shape
Nexo currently has net zero exposure to FTX and Alameda Research
Kraken had no exposure to Alameda Research - only holds ~ 9,000 FTT
Genesis Trading reported losses of ~ $7M
GSR will cover client losses from FTX collapse
Hodlnaut held assets worth $13.1M on FTX
El Salvador's president Nayib Bukele denies country had any funds on FTX
Friday, November 11th
SBF seeks $9.4B package for FTX rescue from Justin Sun, OKX, and Tether
Tether does not have any plans to invest or lend money to FTX/Alameda
FTX reached an official agreement with Tron to establish a special facility to allow holders of TRX, BTT, JST, SUN, and HT to swap assets from FTX 1:1 to external wallets
Genesis derivatives business currently has ~$175M in locked funds in FTX trading account however does not impact market-making activities
Crypto lender BlockFi suspended withdrawals and will not be able to operate business as usual
Bahamas regulator freezes assets of FTX
FTX’s head of institutional sales resigns. The FTX Foundation’s Future Fund team resigns
Alameda employees resign collectively after a meeting
Mechanism Capital assets stuck on FTX. Says amount is non-trivial and exploring legal options
Stripe, Deloitte, Sullivan & Cromwell among 53 FTX advisors, vendors and bankers affected
Pantera Capital has limited exposure to FTX - mainly as a shareholder through the acquisition of Blockfolio
CoinList has no material exposure to FTX, FTT, Alameda or any credit exposure to FTX
FTX had $16B in customer assets and lent more than half to Alameda
A peek into SBF's social circles reveals a leadership regime where personal and professional ties blurred
SBF invested hundreds of millions in Sequoia Capital, Paradigm, Multicoin and Altimeter, the same VC firms that backed FTX
Bahamian regulators froze the assets of FTX Digital Markets and related parties
FTX US warned its users to close their positions as it might halt trading
FTX US says assets are safe and the company will soon be entirely separate from FTX
Voyager has not transferred any assets to FTX, planned deal with FTX has not been completed
SBF sold equity in the firm at a 50% discount to employees in the spring
FTX U.S.-based employees trying to sell assets like a stock-clearing platform and naming rights to a Miami arena
California becomes the first state to officially announce an investigation into FTX
FTX NFT exchange is paused after $50M in volume due to a Bahamas account withdrawing other people’s funds bypassing balance transfer block by selling NFTs
LayerZero structured an agreement and bought out FTX, FTX Ventures and Alameda Research from all equity positions, token warrants and all other agreements between the parties
European arm FTX EU has had its license in Cyprus suspended just two months after securing it
FTX has liabilities roughly worth $8B according to ex- Head of Institutional Sales of FTX
Scaramucci’s SkyBridge exploring buying back 30% stake in equity from FTX
Crypto trading shop Folkvang has some assets on FTX but is highly liquid and solvent
Crypto services provider Matrixport's fixed affected but faces no risks of insolvency
Genesis to get $140M equity infusion from parent company DCG
FTX declares bankruptcy and CEO SBF resigns
FTX's new CEO, John J. Ray, III, was the lawyer brought on to clean up Enron
FTX withdrawals remain active
I also did a meme version of the timeline and you can find that here:
- Time moves differently in crypto. Crypto is an intricate game filled with various players operating across multiple time frames and with varying agendas. Day in, day out, the pieces are moving all across the board. Sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. The following is a look at the crypto landscape during the past week covering various sectors. Use these events like clues - let it tell you the larger overarching story of crypto -
Data:
Bitcoin:
What a week for the ages… Bitcoin broke the level we’d been holding all summer long and things in the short to medium term are looking grim for the crypto industry. It’s not just that the macro is tenuous, events this year ranging from the collapse of Luna, Celsius and FTX - a lot of regular people got hurt and some lost everything. That tarnishes trust and it’ll take a while for trust and faith in the industry to be restored.
Ethereum:
The performance of ETH has been quite interesting. Despite everything, it has still refused to visit the summer lows and dip beneath $1000 (yet) Seems that people are extremely hesitant to dump their ETH positions.
Crypto Market Cap:
Not Great! Everyone was so excited recently when it seemed we had reclaimed the $1T market cap level and we were going to experience some fun in the sun but alas… all the recent chaos has dipped us back to the $800B market cap level
Nansen:
That big ol’ spike is smart money stabling up.
Stablecoins on exchanges plummeted. Most likely from fear and uncertainty in addition to the FTX ordeal. No one wanted to be left with trapped funds
ETH on exchanges similarly nuked. Normally you’d say that people taking their crypto off exchanges is bullish because that’s less sell pressure, but in this case - trust has really been eroded. People panicked and took their crypto off exchanges. Will people really rush right back in to buy after such a mess? Seems like it would take time
Largest Smart Money Inflows this week: smart money was stabling up it seems
Largest Smart Money Outflows this week: Maker, MIM and WBTC - however not in particularly large amounts
Exchange Flows:
We can see cbETH, TUSD, LUNC, FTT were primarily sent to exchanges over the past week.
Understandably, people rushed to get their Stables and ETH off exchanges during all the panic.
DefiLlama DeFi TVL:
That $50B TVL level that we’d been ranging at for months? Yeah, we broke that too. Down to $44B
Top protocols by TVL:
Just a sea of red for the top protocols
The top blockchains by TVL:
Similar sea of red for top blockchains
Token Terminal Revenue:
Looking at the projects over the past week’s revenue and earnings. The curious thing is that despite solid revenue, not all protocols have solid earnings
From: Nansen, DexScreener, CoinMarketCap, CoinGecko, DefiLlama, DappRadar, CryptoSlam, TokenTerminal, Tradingview, Dune
Now for those who like the detail: a deeper dive into each day from this past week
Crypto News:
Monday:
Binance to sell FTX token holdings after ‘recent revelations’, Alameda CEO says leaked balance sheet is incomplete and offered to buy Binance's FTT token holdings for $22. Drama filled twitter exchanges between CEOs
U.S. Attorney announces historic $3.36B cryptocurrency seizure and conviction in connection with Silk Road dark web fraud
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, plans to cut thousands of employees this week
Solana unveils Google partnership, smartphones, Web3 store at Breakpoint
Google Cloud is adding support for the Solana blockchain in BigQuery, in order to make it easier to access Solana data and also working on bringing Solana support to its Blockchain Node Engine
The Solana Saga smartphone can be used on the upcoming Helium Mobile network. Helium Mobile pairs the Helium 5G decentralized network with coverage from T-Mobile’s nationwide 5G network. Due to launch in early 2023
As Lebanon's economy struggles and people lose trust in banks, they are relying on Bitcoin and Tether to store funds and make payments
Neon Labs plans to release its mainnet, an Ethereum virtual machine on Solana, on Dec. 12. Neon EVM will allow developers to port Ethereum-based applications on top of Solana
Crypto wallet Zerion is gearing up to launch an in-browser web extension as it prepares to take on industry leader MetaMask. The web extension is now in a closed beta and is expected to go live by the end of November
A16z-backed Mythical Games, which reached unicorn status last November, has laid off 10% of staff as part of a business restructuring
Crypto trading platform Amber Group lowered its valuation to the $3B at which it previously raised, as the company seeks an additional $100M from investors. Attempted to raise again at a much higher valuation between $5B-$8B
Ajuna Network has won the Polkadot parachain slot 31 + Weekly ecosystem update
Tuesday:
Bitcoin mining group Iris Energy Limited said in an SEC filing it had received a loan default notice on $103M after miners struggle to make monthly payments
The GALA token exploit resulted from a public leak of applicable security keys on GitHub
Wednesday:
As the crypto industry looks for further contagion from FTX, Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino said the world's largest stablecoin issuer has no exposure to FTX or its sister firm Alameda Research after the crypto exchange was forced into a merger with rival Binance. Coinbase CEO also reaffirmed that they don’t have 'any material exposure' to the FTX/Aladema. Circle, Genesis, Crypto.com, Cumberland, Deribit, Solana Labs also distance themselves from FTX crisis. Galaxy Digital has a $76.8M exposure to FTX, of which $47.5M is currently in the withdrawal process. Crypto market maker Wintermute has funds stuck on FTX, but that they are within its risk tolerances. Multicoin Capital, one of the top crypto-focused venture capital firms, is significantly impacted with 10% of its fund's AUM stuck on the exchange. Amber Group has no exposure to Alameda or FTT, but it has been an active trading participant on FTX and less than 10% of total trading capital is tied up in the exchange
BlockFi, which was set to potentially be acquired by FTX, says it is an independent entity following Binance’s acquisition announcement and that their products are currently fully functional
The prices of coins associated with SBF - known as “Sam coins” - such as Solana, FTT and Serum have dropped far more than the rest of the market. In its second-largest token unlock, Solana tokens worth nearly $1B, 13% of the coin’s circulating supply, will be unlocked
Meta cuts 11,000 jobs, 13% of its workforce
Ether officially turned deflationary 55 days after The Merge
Copper, an institution-grade crypto infrastructure provider, has $500M of insurance for digital assets in cold storage. The cover uses a panel of specialty insurer Canopius-led insurers and was arranged by Aon, a professional services firm
The Middle East, Africa & Asia Crypto & Blockchain Association (MEAACBA) has been launched within Abu Dhabi’s free economic zone that aims to further the development of blockchain and crypto ecosystems
Thursday:
Binance will not buy FTX after reviewing the company's financials. SBF told investors that the company would need to file for bankruptcy without a cash injection and that the top priority is to conduct a fundraise. Alameda Trading is winding down. Alameda owes FTX about $10B. FTX has approached U.S.-based crypto exchange Kraken about a potential rescue deal. FTX begun processing withdrawals again following a more than 48-hour shutdown
SBF transferred at least $4B to prop up sister company Alameda Research after suffering losses from deals in May and June. A portion of these FTX funds were customer deposits
On the brightside, US CPI came in lower than expectations - fell to 7.7%: 7.7% YoY, 0.4% MoM Expected: 7.9% YoY, 0.6% | MoM US CPI Core: 6.3% YoY, 0.3% MoM Expected: 6.5% YoY, 0.5% MoM
Bitcoin falls under $16,000 for the first time since November 2020 - hitting a 2 year low
Justin Sun is working on solution with FTX - will protect Tron users with funds stuck on FTX at a 1:1 ratio
Tether has frozen $46M of USDT on the Tron blockchain following a request from law enforcement
Worrying things: deleveraging during the fallout, cascade of margin calls due to the close relationship between FTX and Alameda Research and the rest of the crypto ecosystem
Sequoia says its investment in FTX is now worthless with losses totaling $213.5M and that the fund is still in good shape
Crypto lender Nexo currently has net zero exposure to FTX and Alameda Research - they withdrew its entire balance of funds from FTX within the past few days
Crypto trading firm GSR will cover client losses from FTX collapse, will no longer trade on Huobi and "manageable exposure" to FTX following the crypto exchange's collapse
Kraken said it has no exposure to Alameda Research, but that it holds around 9,000 FTT
European crypto asset trading and investment group CoinShares disclosed $30.3M currently stuck on FTX. This is roughly equivalent to 11% of its net asset value
No Aptos Labs or Aptos Foundation treasury is held by FTX
Lender Genesis Trading reported losses of about $7M after it hedged and sold collateral in anticipation of extreme market volatility
Troubled crypto lender Hodlnaut held assets worth $13.1M on FTX. Unclear whether Hodlnaut’s managers moved funds away from FTX before operations were halted
Starknet new governance organization called the Starknet Foundation - will lead grants and funding for new Starknet protocols and aim to create standards that align with Ethereum’s decentralization and open source standards
Layer 1 blockchain startup Aptos partnered with Google Cloud in a move that will see the search giant power some of its validator nodes, among other services
Data warehousing platform Space and Time has joined chipmaker Nvidia's startup program just over a month after raising a $20M strategic funding round backed by Microsoft’s venture arm M12
Shell, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, has signed a two-year partnership with Bitcoin Magazine to sponsor the 2023 and 2024 Bitcoin Conferences
Friday:
Protocol roadmap 2023-4: the next 2 years of NEAR
Economic/Government/Regulatory:
Monday:
The Web3 Foundation that funds development of Polkadot said the blockchain’s token should no longer be considered a security subject to regulation by the U.S. SEC and is instead considered software
The European Commission will soon propose legislation on a central bank digital currency
Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission looks set to allow the launch of ETFs tracking cryptocurrency futures for retail investors, citing the increasing sophistication of investor safeguards
The SEC reportedly issued a subpoena to influencers who were found promoting cryptocurrencies such as HEX, Pulsechain and PulseX
The SEC is suing Trade Coin Club, an alleged Ponzi scheme that netted 82,000 bitcoin from 2016 to 2018
UK bank Santander is set to block real-time payments to crypto exchanges next year citing fraud
Tuesday:
SEC wins suit against LBRY in major blow to crypto token issuance - the case has major ramifications for applications of SEC enforcement authority over projects that did not conduct ICOs
Web3 venture capital firm Paradigm has launched a Crypto Policy Council - an 8-member bipartisan council that will advise Paradigm’s leadership and assist the company in “telling the story of Web3 in Washington and around the world”
BlockFi is bringing back its popular high yield crypto savings account almost 9 months after the SEC fined them, thanks to a loophole - this time it will only target U.S. accredited investor clients
The Bank of Korea has developed and tested a program that facilitates cross-border remittances by linking different central bank digital currencies (CBDC) from other countries and tested NFT trading
Wednesday:
Binance-FTX deal may attract antitrust regulators’ attention. The combined company would have a more than 80% share of the global crypto market
Sam Bankman-Fried’s priority crypto bill ‘dead’ after FTX sells to Binance
Kim Kardashian and boxer Floyd Mayweather are set to win a lawsuit accusing them of scamming investors with the obscure cryptocurrency EthereumMax
The U.S. Treasury Department updated its sanctions on Ethereum coin mixer Tornado Cash, citing its role in North Korea’s nuclear weapons program
Thursday:
The Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are working together to investigate FTX’s U.S.
Friday:
Everyone too focused on the developing FTX news. Lots of politicians making statements
Exchange News:
Monday:
Huobi made allegations against pNetwork, claiming that the protocol’s recent Gala actions were not a white hat move but a scheme for malicious profit and calling the activity a white hat attack was only an excuse by the pNetwork team to avoid legal consequences
Gate.io has cooperated with Armanino for the third consecutive year to complete 100% margin audit
Hashflow (HFT) will be listed on Binance, Coinbase & Coinbase Pro
Crypto exchange Gemini has expanded its offerings to five more European countries - Croatia, Cyprus, Hungary, Romania, and Slovenia
Tuesday:
Binance CEO announces intent to acquire FTX to 'help cover the liquidity crunch'
FTX treasury lost over $3B in a week, while Binance treasury is up $2B according to Arkham Intelligence
Crypto exchange Bitmex is set to launch trading of its native BMEX token on Nov. 11. Rewards will be offered in the form of trading fee discounts, withdrawal fee waivers, improved staking rewards and access to new products and services
Binance CEO not interested in Alameda's offer to buy up its FTT holdings for $22 and that they'd rather “stay in the free market”
The BitDAO community has said that it would vote on what to do with its FTT tokens if Alameda fails to provide evidence that it continues to hold 1% of BIT token supply as promised. Alameda satisfied BitDAO’s proof-of-funds request
Binance Custody adds $NEAR token and NEP-141 standard to its infrastructure
Germany’s financial regulator ordered the local German Coinbase branch to comply to risk and capital requirements outlined by national banking legislation
Wednesday:
How an FTX buyout benefits Binance. A timeline of events. In the hours before it secured rescue financing from its rival Binance, the crypto exchange FTX sought a bailout of more than $1B from Silicon Valley and Wall Street billionaires
FTX.us and Binance.us are two separate companies and are not currently impacted by the deal. FTX.us’s withdrawals are and have been live, are fully backed 1:1, and operating normally
Huobi and Tron DAO promise to exchange Tron tokens (TRX, BTT, JST, SUN, HT) at 1:1 if FTX withdrawals fail
Crypto.com suspends deposits and withdrawals of USDC and USDT on the Solana blockchain
Singapore’s state investor Temasek is engaging with FTX in its capacity as a shareholder in the wake of Binance’s bailout plan
Sam Bankman-Fried no longer ranks in the top 500 on Bloomberg’s billionaire index - estimated 94% plummet in his personal, an estimated $14.6B
Binance will soon introduce Merkle-tree proof of reserves, in the interest of full transparency - says the industry can’t simply say, "Trust me, bro." Justin Sun/Huobi Bitget also said that they will publish reserve certificates. OKX also plans to publish the auditable merkle tree proof-of-reserves or POF in the coming weeks (within 30 days)
Binance has topped up its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) to an equivalent of $1B
Cathie Wood's Ark Invest buys another $21.4M in Coinbase stock
Thursday:
Binance list of hot and cold wallets reveal: total of around $70B is held in BUSD, USDT, BNB, BTC, ETH & USDC
Bitmex, which claims no FTX or Alameda exposure, plans to launch its native token regardless of market volatility amid the collapse of FTX. No material exposure to FTX's native token or any other tokens issued by centralized exchanges
El Salvador's president Nayib Bukele, who denied that the Central American country had any funds on FTX's exchange
FTX has suspended new users from signing up on its trading platform following widespread criticism that was allowing onboarding despite facing liquidity troubles
Japan's financial regulators have ordered FTX's Japan arm to suspend operations in the country
Crypto.com commits to proof-of-reserves after halting certain deposits and withdrawals. OKX and Kucoin say proof of reserves will be ready in a month. BitMEX provides snapshot update to bitcoin proof of reserves & proof of liabilities
OKX will regularly delist contracts with poor liquidity in order to prevent market risks such as BTT, SC, WNXM, SOS, ASTR, and NYM
Friday:
SBF seeks $9.4B package for FTX rescue from Justin Sun, OKX, and Tether. Tether does not have any plans to invest or lend money to FTX/Alameda
FTX reached an official agreement with Tron to establish a special facility to allow holders of TRX, BTT, JST, SUN, and HT to swap assets from FTX 1:1 to external wallets
Genesis derivatives business currently has ~$175M in locked funds in FTX trading account however does not impact market-making activities
Crypto lender BlockFi suspended withdrawals and will not be able to operate business as usual
Bahamas regulator freezes assets of FTX
FTX’s head of institutional sales resigns. The team behind the FTX Foundation’s Future Fund resigns.
Alameda employees resign collectively after a meeting
Mechanism Capital assets stuck on FTX. Says amount is non-trivial and exploring legal options
Stripe, Deloitte, Sullivan & Cromwell among 53 FTX advisors, vendors and bankers weathering the collapse
Pantera Capital has limited exposure to FTX - mainly as a shareholder through the acquisition of Blockfolio
CoinList has no material exposure to FTX, FTT, Alameda or any credit exposure to any affiliate of FTX
FTX had $16B in customer assets and lent more than half to Alameda
A peek into SBF's social circles reveals a leadership regime where personal and professional ties blurred
Sam/FTX situation internally as told by a close source
SBF invested hundreds of millions in Sequoia Capital, Paradigm, Multicoin and Altimeter, the same VC firms that backed FTX
FTX NFT exchange is paused after $50M in volume due to a Bahamas account withdrawing other people’s funds bypassing balance transfer block by selling NFTs
LayerZero structured an agreement and bought out FTX, FTX Ventures and Alameda Research from all equity positions, token warrants and all other agreements between the parties
European arm FTX EU has had its license in Cyprus suspended just two months after securing it
FTX has liabilities roughly worth $8B according to ex- Head of Institutional Sales of FTX
Scaramucci’s SkyBridge, which FTX Ventures had a 30% stake in, is exploring buying back equity from FTX
Crypto trading shop Folkvang has some assets on FTX but is highly liquid and solvent
Crypto services provider Matrixport's fixed income offering tied to bitcoin has been affected but faces no risks of insolvency
Genesis to get $140M equity infusion from parent company DCG
FTX declares bankruptcy and CEO SBF resigns
FTX's new CEO, John J. Ray, III, was the lawyer brought on to clean up Enron
Bahamian regulators froze the assets of FTX Digital Markets and related parties, calling it a “prudent course of action” to “preserve assets and stabilize the company”
FTX reached an agreement with Tron to establish a special facility to allow holders of TRX, BTT, JST, SUN, and HT to swap assets from FTX 1:1 to external wallets
FTX US warned its users to close their positions as it might halt trading. Users will still be able to withdraw all funds
FTX US says assets are safe and the company will soon be entirely separate from FTX
Voyager has not transferred any assets to FTX, and planned deal to sell its assets to FTX has not been completed
SBF sold equity in the firm at a 50% discount to employees in the spring
FTX U.S.-based employees are trying to sell assets like a stock-clearing platform and naming rights to a Miami arena
California becomes the first state to officially announce an investigation into FTX
FTX US resigns from its position at the crypto advocacy group Crypto Council for Innovation
Deribit wallet holdings
Coinbase laid off just over 60 people - previously laid off around 1,100 employees or 18% of its workforce
Crypto exchange Bitget still aims to expand its workforce to 1,000 employees by the end of year despite the market environment and collapse of FTX
DeFi:
Monday:
The Avalanche Foundation is providing incentives worth $4M in AVAX tokens for the decentralized trading platform GMX, as part of the Avalanche Rush incentive program, which has the goal of growing the DeFi ecosystem on Avalanche
BetDEX, a sports betting exchange built on a blockchain, will open on Solana mainnet on Nov. 17 at the beginning of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar - offering fee-free betting on all World Cup games
Stablecoin issuer Circle announced Solana will add support for Euro Coin (EUROC), a regulated and reserve-backed stablecoin pegged to the value of the euro
pGALA post-mortem: measures taken to safeguard the ecosystem from malicious actors and recovery plan
Beefy Finance now on Ethereum
Drift v2 is officially live on gated mainnet. v2 alpha ticket holders can now trade $SOL perps with SOL & USDC collateral
Tuesday:
A new Solana scaling protocol named Layer N that could quicken DeFi derivatives and on-chain social networks has come out of a stealth development phase ahead of a mainnet launch expected next year. FTX Ventures, Solana Ventures, Solana Foundation, and Solana co-founders Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal are investors
Magic Internet Money (MIM), the stablecoin issued by Abracadabra Money, slightly lost its peg and fell to as low as $0.95. FTT accounts for 18% of MIM’s collateral
Wintermute-backed DeFi aggregator Bebop expands to Polygon. Bebop's unique “many-to-one” token feature lets traders swap whole portfolios for one coin in one click
Bitcoin.com, a digital ecosystem and secure self-custody platform, has integrated the Polygon network to its self-custodial web3 wallet
Wednesday:
Solend is facing the risk of accruing bad debt due to a large lending position that’s now underwater - the large loan is being liquidated slowly due to network congestion
Metamask users can now bridge across multiple blockchain networks using MetaMask Bridges, which aggregates different blockchain bridges in one place
Evmos, the connector of the Cosmos and Ethereum blockchains, is teaming up with crypto custody firm Anchorage Digital to offer access and staking of its native token, EVMOS
Thursday:
Tether dominance nears all-time high as crypto crashes however has fallen 1% below its peg. The Tron DAO Reserve will purchase 1B USDT to fight short sellers
Curve's 3pool, one of the most important pools for stablecoins in DeFi, is heavily imbalanced - USDT accounting for 80% of the pool's liquidity
Solana plan to unstake has now been postponed, and all 28.5M SOL have now been re-staked
dYdX placed Solana trades in “close only” mode, meaning users will only be able to close out their positions on the perpetuals exchange and not open new ones citing market volatility
Solend has accrued a bad debt of more than $6M from a large underwater position
The Tron network's algorithmic stablecoin USDD has begun to depeg - fell to as low as 96 cents
Debank - "Time Machine" - help you look back your complete portfolio details (not just the total net worth number) from any day in history
Friday:
A hacker siphoned over $7.5M from stablecoin exchange DFX Finance by taking advantage of an insecure flash-loan mechanism
Mango Markets recommends withdrawing from v2.mango.markets due to not being able to verify the solvency of sollet wrapped tokens which are affiliated with FTX
NFTs/Gaming/Metaverse:
Monday:
OpenSea laid out the first of a suite of tools for its users, allowing creators of new NFT collections to enforce royalties on-chain. The code to which it is giving creators access restricts NFT sales to marketplaces that enforce creator fees
Coming Soon: LooksRare NFT Aggregator
The world’s biggest-selling NFT artist, Beeple, is bringing 'immersive 3D NFTs' to Solana via Metaplex and Render Network
Tuesday:
Blockchain developer Mysten Labs has entered a strategic partnership with South Korean gaming company Ncsoft to create engaging gaming experiences, which contributed $15M to Mysten Lab’s previously announced $300M Series B round
Flowcarbon, a blockchain startup created by WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann, will launch an NFT project, Flow3rs, that uses a majority of its proceeds to buy carbon offsets
Co-founders of Yuga Labs have suggested a method to allow Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT sales only to royalty-enforcing marketplaces
Tim Tebow Solana-based platform he founded called CAMPUS.io - gives college athletes a way to capitalize on their name, image and likeness. Previously, those assets were treated as property of the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the schools they played for
NFT.London’s two-day inaugural stint saw over 2,500 registered attendees and 800 speakers
OneOf—an NFT startup known for music, sports, and brand-centric collectibles, partnered with online seafood delivery service Get Maine Lobster to create an NFT-based membership club - includes shipments of Maine lobster and other seafood
NFTs for subscription/membership-based models, or loyalty programs, are gaining traction. Gym owners aim to bring NFT memberships to wellness clubs
Wednesday:
Binance has agreed to purchase FTX however the deal on FTX’s many NFT and gaming initiatives remains unclear
STEPN partners with ASICS and Solana, pioneering a new era of Web3 fitness - launch of the new ASICS X SOLANA UI Collection featuring custom-made GT-2000 running shoes includes a token gated experience
Thursday:
OpenSea will continue to enforce creator royalties on NFTs following significant pushback from the community
Soccer star Lionel Messi is joining Sorare, the French NFT trading game, as an investor and brand ambassador
Streetwear brand The Hundreds has canceled a planned NFT drop on OpenSea due to the marketplace’s stance on creator royalties. Many notable Web3 creators are stepping up their pushback
Wuhan omits NFTs from metaverse plan amid regulatory uncertainty in China
Funding in NFTs/Gaming declined roughly 73% MoM, from $732M to just $198M
Friday:
Optimism new app called Magic Mirror allows NFT holders to copy or “mirror” their Optimism NFTs to the Ethereum mainnet
Manifold Finance shares commitment to creator royalties and the initiatives they are working on to support creators
Fundraises:
Monday:
Digital currency exchange Coinmetro raised $7M in a funding round that valued the business at 180M euros and plans to use the capital to scale up its operations in the U.S., U.K. and Europe
MT Tower, a metaverse project aiming to bridge the gap between current Web2 social media platforms and the Web3 metaverse space, closed a $3M seed round
Upskilling startup AlmaBetter raises $2.7M funding from Kalaari Capital
Tuesday:
LeadBlock Partners, a venture capital firm based in London and Paris, completed the first close of its new fund, which has a target value of $150M
Archax, the UK's only digital asset exchange to be licensed by the Financial Conduct Authority, has raised $28.5M in a Series A fundraising round led by investment firm Abrdn
Decentralized search startup Sepana, which seeks to make web3 content such as DAOs and NFTs more discoverable through its search tooling, closed a $10M funding round led by venture firms Hack VC and Pitango First
Web3 gaming infrastructure startup Xternity raised $4.5M in pre-seed funding. NFX, a pre-seed and seed-stage-focused venture capital firm based in Israel, led the round
Web3 gaming company Eterlast emerged from stealth having raised $4.5M and aims to make owning NFTs a more interactive experience for sports fans by enabling them to leverage the assets within gaming experiences using a tech stack built on ImmutableX. The seed round was led by Supernode Global. Other backers included Immutable X, Stake Capital and Founders Factory
The founders of a short-lived NFT marketplace for "fantasy startup investing" raised $1.5M in funding led by Tioga Capital for Job Protocol, a new decentralized recruitment network
Wednesday:
Japanese mobile operator NTT Docomo plans to invest up to ¥600B ($4.1B) over several years to focus on web3 technology
Blockchain-based intelligence company TRM Labs announced a $70M expansion to its Series B funding round, bringing the total raised to $130M. Led by Thoma Bravo, with Goldman Sachs and previous TRM investors PayPal Ventures, Amex Ventures and Citi Ventures participating
Crypto payments firm Ramp has raised $70M in Series B funding as its valuation increases to at least $450M co-led by the investment arm of Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund Mudabala Capital and venture firm Korelya Capital
Fordefi, a financial technology and software company, raised an $18M seed round for the public launch of its institutional MPC wallet built for transacting on dApps. Led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, including Electric Capital, Alameda Research, Jump Crypto, Castle Island, Pantera Capital, Illuminate Financial, PayPal Alumni Fund, Nima Capital, Digital Currency Group, Defiance Capital and StarkWare
Thursday:
Web3 messaging infrastructure Notifi raises $10M seed round co-led by Hashed, Race Capital
Anything World raises $7.5M to assist content creators using AI-based animation - investors include Acrew Capital, Alumni Ventures and Warner Music Group
The company behind Icons of Theia, Theia Studios secures $2.4M to create a decentralized modding platform intended to revolutionize strategy games
Friday:
Ping, a new freelancer-focused neobank, raised $15M in a seed round as it plans to expand its focus from Latin America to new regions. Firms including Y Combinator, Race Capital, BlockTower, Danhua Capital, Signum Capital and Goat Capital participated in the round
Early Stage Projects:
Monday:
The Sandbox and Brinc announce the startups selected for the first cohort of their $50M Open Metaverse Accelerator Program. Each startup will receive up to $250,000 in initial funding, as well as access to and support from the best network of Web3 mentors and experts
Zeta Markets perps mainnet live - the world’s first orderbook DEX with Options, Dated Futures & Perps
3xcaliSwap is now officially live
Introducing Web3 Subscription of Mail3
Introducing DFlow Chain - a standalone, Cosmos-based appchain built to host decentralized order flow auctions
Introducing Duality - the DEX that gives Liquidity Providers superpowers. The next generation exchange is now coming to Cosmos
Flare Network - FLR Tokenomics
Tuesday:
Anthony Di Iorio, the co-founder of Ethereum, Decentral and Jaxx Liberty, unveiled a project envisioned, designed and built over the span of a decade. The project, dubbed Andiami, blends game theory with cutting-edge hardware to bring blockchain computers to a wider audience
Shell Protocol officially confirms a future airdrop of $SHELL governance tokens to protocol users
Top Mina prize winners from the ETH SanFrancisco 2022 hackathon - AnonDao, Factum, Vmina & CompliSend
Introducing Helios, a fast, portable, and secure Ethereum light client written in Rust. Helios syncs in two seconds, uses no storage, and provides trustless access to Ethereum
Swim Protocol will be shutting down Swim due to external factors as well as Swim’s internal trajectory and traction
Wednesday:
GammaSwap litepaper
Thursday:
12 Projects selected for Season 5 of Binance Labs Incubation Program, spanning infrastructure, zkDID, DeFi, tooling, security, gaming, and payment sectors
Friday:
Introducing Kargo - the first Layer 1.5 for prediction markets on Sei Network
Chainflip Lightpaper V4.0
Quark testnet will launch on November 10th
Research/Reads:
Research Paper: DeFi on Bitcoin - source
Arthur Hayes - Pure Evil - source
Bankless - The Case for $15,000 ETH - A venture fund's valuation model for ETH this decade - source
WuBlockchain - The battle between FTX and Binance: why, will FTX crash?- source
Messari - State of NEAR Q3 2022 - source
The Buildooooooor - Chris Whinfrey of Hop Protocol - source
State of Aurory Address - October 2022 - source
The Merge series: Performance - source
Automated Market Making and Loss-Versus-Rebalancing - source
Nansen x Bybit - State of the Industry Research Reports - source
Glassnode - Slowly but Surely - source
Delta-neutral DeFi strategies overview - source
a16z - Building Helios: Fully trustless access to Ethereum - source
Why did FTX sell to Binance? What other obstacles are there? What are the implications for the future? - source
Nansen’s on-chain metrics suggest several reasons why FTX decided to sell itself to Binance - source
WuBlockchain - CEX Data Report in Oct.: Spot Volume Steady, Futures Volume Down Sharply - source
Arthur Hayes - Speechless - source
Andre Cronje - Learn from my mistakes - source
Messari - State of Boba Network Q3 2022 - source
A Letter from KuCoin CEO - source
Where do we go from here? The crypto endgame is here (or is it?) - what do? - source
Insights From the FTX Implosion - source
Python script to pull FTX fills/funding/borrow/lending/etc for taxes/accounting - source
Twitter:
How it all went wrong for SBF and FTX - source
FTX/Binance/Alameda Tweets - source - 2nd - 3rd - 4th - overview
Vitalik - Updated roadmap diagram - source
6 reasons Binance invested in Twitter - source
OpenSea on NFT creators & whether creator fees (“royalties”) are viable - source
Why Eigenlayer is a big deal - source
Turning $7,500 -> $225,000 in 3 weeks - source
Dune dashboard on Uniswap cousin a stir - source
Zhu Su returns to twitter - source
Where are we in the long-term macro cycle? - source
30 Potential Airdrops - source
5 simple steps to make big money when Twitter monetization launches - source
Cumberland take on FTX - source
Alameda & FTX Tracker (Crypto & NFTs) Dune - source
Do appchains fundamentally make sense? - source
Why rollups in Cosmos are a perfect fit - source
in the depths of a bear market, it is becoming clear the institutions are indeed here - source
A budding uptrend is taking shape in crypto - source
Wassielawyer on FTX solvency - source
Algod on CZ/SBF - source
Clash of the Titans - Binance and FTX Ordeal Explained by Crypto Twitter - source
30 second summary of the FTX drama that is blowing up in crypto - source
2023 in macro might look a lot like 2001 - here is why and what it implies for markets - source
Evidence that FTX might have provided a massive bailout for Alameda in Q2 which now came back to haunt them - source
Zhu Su opens up about failure - source
DegenSpartan on FTX - source
Won't be long before regulatory requirements for centralized crypto companies to keep customer funds in segregated accounts - source
Cobie potential FTX solution - source
Abridged Uniswap history lesson - source
Changes in the stablecoin positioning that went largely unnoticed - source
Alameda DeFi debt obligations - source
FTX liquidity crunch in 10 charts - source
Intern notes on UpOnlyTV stream ft/ Do Kwon - source
2022 was a wild ride for crypto - source
CZ note sent to all Binance team globally - source
Reason for so many liquidations & bankruptcies due to old behavioral TradFi patterns - source
The long term legitimacy of crypto as an industry is in real danger for the first time - source
Message from SBF on FTX slack that got leaked (Cobie) - source
Unspoken issue facing the Solana ecosystem are the wrapped Sollet tokens, namely soBTC - source
Zhu Su - widely known alameda had been internalizing (take other side) ftx client liquidations for years - source
Sequoia on first meeting SBF - source
FTX investors - source
FTX Contagion List - source
What happens now that CZ passed on FTX bailout? Who could save FTX? - source
SBF apology - source - degenspartan
Cobie - Oh no! Anyways - source
SBF will be facing up to serious financial crimes - source
Wendy Wang from Huobi on SBF - source
Situation on what was going on internally with Sam/FTX - source
How FTX and Alameda managed to outpace everyone on volume growth - source
Two options for FTX: A) bankruptcy B) token - source
Memes:
SBF was the bad guy and Gary Gensler was the good guy all along? - source
FTX/Binance due diligence drowning - source
SBF just played a league game - source
Caroline Ellison was barking orders to hold the line on FTT, fired and escorted out - source
More likely to happen than you getting your money back from FTX - source
SBF wrote a 700 word thread and managed to leave everyone even more confused about what actually happened - source
Fucking CZ/Bicycle meme - source
Jonah hill plays sam in the subsequent movie made after all this shit unfolds - source
Website goes down - source
Mislabeled accounts - source
Hitler getting rugged by SBF - source
Martin Shkreli tells Do Kwon jail is not that bad - source
Do Kwon posts that Sam bent the knee - source
Collage of SBF memes - source
Reach out to me on tweeter
Smart money stabling is different from the previous data. The highest was about 36% before, but now it is about 42%. The data is fraudulent