TLDR CRYPTO 2023-09-13

Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown criticized the crypto industry for fraud and abuse in yesterday’s SEC senate hearing, arguing for stricter oversight and regulation. SEC chair Gary Gensler continued to voice his skepticism about the sector in the hearing. Brown's stance matters because his approval is critical in passing crypto legislation, potentially shaping the industry's regulatory landscape. Any bills regarding stablecoin or crypto market oversight are unlikely to make it without his support.

‘HOLY GRAIL

Franklin Templeton, a leading asset manager, has entered the race for a Bitcoin spot ETF with the "Franklin Bitcoin ETF". The aim of many of these leading institutions applying for ETFs is to attract large institutional investors, which could potentially bring trillions of dollars into the crypto industry. Franklin Templeton's ETF will be based on a mix of cryptocurrency exchange Bitcoin prices to deter price manipulation.

COINBASE PRIME LAUNCHES WEB3 WALLET

Coinbase Prime has announced the launch of its web3 Wallet, allowing institutional and enterprise clients a secure way to transact on-chain. This new offering provides access to crypto, NFTs, dApps, and DeFi - all through an interface integrated into Coinbase Prime. The web3 Wallet provides customers with an easy way to follow web3 activity.

YIELD-BEARING STABLECOIN

Mountain Protocol has publicly announced its launch along with USDM following a financing round led by Castle Island Ventures and several others. The token, USDM, is fully backed by short-term US Treasuries and offers a unique yield-bearing system, allowing even non-US users to earn interest in US Treasuries. Mountain Protocol has also secured a digital asset business license from the Bermuda Monetary Authority.

ON TAP: THE THREE ADDRESS PROTOCOL

In this thread, Punk6529 shares an approach to safeguarding NFTs. He suggests splitting transactions across three addresses: a cold 'Vault' for long-term holding, a 'Transaction' wallet for selling, and a 'Minting' wallet for acquiring new NFTs. This method, called TAP (Three Address Protocol), can help users avoid falling prey to phishing attacks, as it minimizes the risk of a valuable address getting compromised.

FRAX FINANCE THESIS

This thread attempts to explain why Frax Finance is a standout in the DeFi space. Frax Finances features numerous robust revenue channels, innovation, and long-term viability. The protocol includes Frax stablecoin, FraxSwap exchange, and the FraxLend borrowing system. These, along with FraxFerry bridge service and the upcoming FraxChain L2 solution, help to bolster Frax's ecosystem.

ZK ROLLUPS ARE COMING TO BITCOIN. HERE’S ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW

The Bitcoin ecosystem is set to adopt ZK rollups as two new projects, Chainway and Kasar Labs, open source their data availability adapters. ZK rollups provide mathematical validation of transactions without revealing source data, boosting transaction scalability and platform security. Implementation via a Bitcoin soft fork is required for fully trustless bridging. The projects propose the integration of ZK proofs via the Ordinals Protocol, which bypasses a new opcode requirement, improving Bitcoin's flexibility and development potential.

CAPITALISM ONCHAINED

This article predicts that despite current roadblocks, global crypto markets will eventually thrive because they serve to make capitalism more efficient. The author touts the potential of crypto to aid entrepreneurial activities by ensuring digital property rights, creating free markets for all sorts of assets, and speeding up capital flows to match the speed of the internet. This would propel crypto’s growth even in the face of strong headwinds.

MILADY TREASURY DRAINED OF $1M BY DEVELOPER ON TEAM

Yesterday, a developer compromised $1m from part of the Milady treasury, sparking fear and a sharp sell-off of Milady ecosystem assets.

Vitalik Buterin confirmed his recent Twitter hack that led to $691,000 in stolen assets was the result of a SIM-swap attack, an attack vector that has been heavily utilized as of late.

COINEX EXCHANGE HACKED FOR $28M

HK-based CoinEx crypto exchange has suffered a breach, losing 4,946 ETH and 354,762 TRX. CoinEx plans to compensate affected users to remedy the issue.

ONE COIN CO-FOUNDER SENTENCED TO 20 YEARS AND FINED $300 MILLION

Karl Sebastian Greenwood, OneCoin co-founder, was sentenced to 20 years and fined $300 million for defrauding 3.5 million investors in 2014. Co-founder Ruja Ignatova remains on the run after making the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted list in 2022.