Arbitrum
TLDR
NFT Marketplace Opensea is now supported by Arbitrum’s social and gaming chain, Arbitrum Nova
OpenSea Supports Social and Gaming Chain Arbitrum Nova
The Arbitrum ecosystem is the latest blockchain to welcome NFT Marketplace Opensea as it announced that it will now support the specialized social and gaming chain, Arbitrum Nova. OpenSea also supports Arbitrum Nova in joining the Ethereum scaling project’s Data Availability Committee (DAC). Arbitrum Nova, an AnyTrust blockchain, differs from its sister blockchain Arbitrum One, an Optimism rollup, in that transaction data is posted to DAC rather than on-chain. Arbitrum joins the growing list of networks OpenSea including BNB Chain, Polygon, and Avalanche.
Avalanche
TLDR
Amazon Web Services has partnered with Ava Labs to make it easier for individuals to launch and manage network nodes.
Amazon Web Services Partners With Avalanche To Deliver ‘Scalable Blockchain Solutions’
Amazon Web Services has partnered with Ava Labs to help scale blockchain adoption across enterprises, institutions, and governments. The partnership will make it easier for individuals to launch and manage nodes on Avalanche and give the network more strength and flexibility for developers. AWS will support Avalanche's infrastructure and dApp ecosystem. One-click node deployments will be available through the AWS Marketplace.
BNB Chain
TLDR
Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has revealed his intention to bolster Binance’s workforce by 15% - 30%
Binance’s stablecoin BUSD has at times been not fully collateralized according to a blog post from the exchange
Binance To Increase Workforce By 15%-30% Despite Crypto Winter
Binance has openly shared its plans to conduct a hiring drive amidst market turmoil despite rival exchanges cutting back on staffing. The crypto exchange will, or at least is planning to, increase its workforce by 15-30% in 2023, as mentioned by Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao at the Crypto Finance Conference held in St. Moritz, Switzerland. With the new hiring drive, Binance aims to add to the 5,000 workers hired in 2022.
Meanwhile, Coinbase recently announced its plan to fire over 900 of its 4,700 employees. A 20% reduction in the company’s workforce. Kraken, also announced it would be cutting around 30% of its workforce.
Binance’s BUSD Stablecoin Has Not Always Been Fully Collateralized
Binance has acknowledged past flaws in the management of BUSD reserves which at times led to more than $1 billion in missing collateral. At no point were redemptions impacted for users. Binance says that it has improved its process with enhanced discrepancy checks. Data shows that BUSD was often undercollateralized between 2020 and 2021.
Ethereum
TLDR
Over 16 million ETH is unlocking soon as part of the Ethereum Shanghai update planned for March 2023
Consensys has added liquid staking to Metamask
The firm has also announced that it will let go 100 staff members
Ethereum Unlock in March Worth Tens of Billions
A massive tranche of ether (ETH) is unlocking soon. During a meeting on December 8, Ethereum developers decided to make staked ETH on Ethereum’s Beacon Chain available for withdrawal with the Shanghai update as early as March 2023. The Beacon Chain holds $21 billion (over 15.9 million ETH) staked within Ethereum’s Proof-of-Stake (PoS) system. Additional ETH is voluntarily staked into the Beacon Chain daily and cannot be withdrawn until Shanghai activates. By March, the Beacon Chain will far exceed 16 million ETH.
Consensys adds Liquid Staking to Metamask but Cuts 100 More Jobs
ConsenSys, the company behind MetaMask, is adding a staking feature to MetaMask Portfolio, its newly launched one-stop shop for users to view their crypto holdings and send (or “bridge”) them between different blockchains. MetaMask’s new staking feature will allow users to stake via Lido or Rocket Pool, the two leading community-led validator services. The Ethereum software firm has also announced plans to lay off at least 100 employees, according to a source familiar with the matter.
FTX
TLDR
Sam Bankman-Fried has published an article on his new substack explaining FTX’s insolvency.
FTX’s insolvency attorneys have recovered more than $5 billion in various assets
FTX Pre-Mortem
Sam Bankman-Fried is occupying his time during house arrest by writing on his Substack. In his inaugural post, SBF discusses FTX's insolvency and continues to advance the narrative he has been pushing in interviews/articles. SBF claims that Alameda was made insolvent by a quick and targeted crash caused by Binance's CEO. Alameda failed to hedge its market exposure and the series of large crashes before its collapse had led to around an 80% decrease in the market value of its assets. Bankman-Fried claims that a substantial recovery remains possible and that FTX US remains fully solvent and can return all customer funds.
FTX Has Recovered 'Over $5B' in Assets
FTX has recovered more than $5 billion in different assets, not including the $425 million held by the Bahamas. The assets do not include illiquid cryptocurrency tokens which can't be sold without substantially affecting the market for the token. It is still unclear how much FTX owes to creditors. FTX has until March 15 to estimate recoveries for and plan a reorganization.
The court hearing also revealed that Sam Bankman-Fried instructed his lieutenant, Gary Wang, to create a "backdoor" for Alameda to borrow from FTX customers without their permission, Landis said. He added the former CEO created a line of credit worth $65 billion from the exchange to the trading arm.
Terra
TLDR
A Terra community member has allegedly received threats from the Terra Luna Foundation and Do Kwon after a mistake led to him being airdropped $1.5 million worth of LUNA tokens
Terra Accidently sends someone $1.5M worth of LUNA. Kwon threatens to call FBI
Terraform Labs (TFL), the firm behind the now defunct algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) has been accused of running a smear campaign and issuing threats against one of their community members. The issue began in May 2022 when the genesis airdrop was planned after the original ecosystem imploded. In a series of tweets, TFL claimed that Jimmy Le, a community member entrusted with Terra funds, has refused to return funds gained during the genesis airdrop.
The tweets noted that the newly minted token was airdropped to individuals holding the original native token, now called Terra Classic (LUNC). However, an error with CW3 multisig wallets resulted in individual signers receiving LUNA airdrops they should not have. TFL claimed that all other multisig singers returned the accidental airdrop except for Le, who, despite their best efforts, is yet to cooperate with them.
Le, the individual accused of not returning the accidental airdrop, responded to the TFL Twitter and accused them of running a smear campaign against him. He said the firm has deliberately chosen to present one side of the story and lied about their interactions. He claimed he did not refuse to return the accidental airdrop but wanted to make sure about the tax implications because of the tokens he had received. He also allegedly shared personal messages from TFL co-founder Kwon threatening him with various consequences, including personal safety.
Solana
TLDR
Two developers are under investigation by the US Department of Justice after allegedly using a web of 11 pseudonymous identities to build an inflated ecosystem on Solana
Justice Department Probing Saber Labs Founders Over Solana-Based Projects
The US Department of Justice is investigating Ian and Dylan Macalinao, the brothers behind Saber Labs, who allegedly used a web of 11 pseudonymous identities to build an ecosystem of products that double- and triple-counted crypto deposits by passing tokens between themselves. Their effort boosted a key growth metric for Solana by billions of dollars during the height of crypto’s 2021 bull market, and, according to Ian, juiced the price of SOL, the native token of the Solana network.
Boom or Bust?
TLDR
A new NFT project has spurred interest in Crypto Twitter for its unorthodox subject matter
Some Twitter users believed this to be a signal for a return to “degen szn”, a much simpler time in NFT history where high-risk trades and multi-digit gains were the norm
The Return of Degen Season? Pixelated Feetpix NFTs Surge
Feetpix (or Feetpix.wtf), an NFT collection consisting of 10,000 exceedingly simple images of Quentin Tarantino’s favorite appendage, has taken crypto by storm, soaring ahead of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and other blue-chip NFT staples to become the 5th most-traded collection on NFT marketplace OpenSea earlier this week.
Feetpix were originally free to mint, but since their explosion in popularity, the floor price for these pixelated feet pictures has reached 0.147 ETH (roughly $225) with over 20,950 sales since the project's inception.
The project’s creators have been remarkably open with their intentions.
The collection is no more, or less than how it presents itself: an opportunity to “satisfy your deepest and darkest fantasies,” as the collection’s OpenSea description reads. Feetpix’s simplistic website, which offers curious shoppers few answers, is scored to a rhythmic dance track of echoing moans.
Something awoke Crypto Twitter within these NFTs as many began to believe that Feetpix’s success acted as a herald for the long-awaited glory days of high-risk crypto trading (or “degen szn”) had returned.
Whether or not the thrill and titillation spurred by these 10,000 pairs of feet can resuscitate the struggling NFT market is uncertain. Feetpix’s mysterious creators, for their part, derided their own project’s sudden success, scolding Feetpix holders for showing clear signs of sexual deviancy.
Don’t worry. If Feetpix does nothing for you, perhaps some Handpix will.