Crypto in Play News 2022 July Week 3

US CPI inflation numbers for June 2022 were reported as 9.1% higher than expected forecast of 8.8%

U.S crypto lender Voyager Digital with assets between $1 billion and $10 billion has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, stating liquidity pressures and huge losses from the default of crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital to which it had loaned $650 million. Voyager has paused all withdrawals.
Singapore-based hedge fund Three Arrows Capital that had managed US $3bil worth of investments will be be liquidated after suffering US $200 million losses when Terra Luna tokens they had invested to collapsed in May
Hong Kong-based crypto lender Babel Finance, Singapore-based crypto exchange Vauld, and US-based Celsius Network are also among the platforms that have also paused withdrawals with Babel reaching an agreement with debt holders to restructure its debt, Vauld in talks to be acquired by Defi player Nexo, and Celsius leaving its depositors in limbo.
Links
- https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-retail-sales-beat-expectations-june-2022-07-15/
- https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-tanks-on-highest-cpi-data-since-1981-as-btc-price-dips-under-19k

Crypto lender Celsius Network files for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in US
Celsius Network is a centralized platform that enables users via a user-friendly platform to stake their crypto in exchange for a yield (in the case of BTC approx. 6%)
$1.2 billion deficit is revealed in firm’s balance sheet with user deposits making up the majority of the $4.72 billion liabilities
Celsius debacle was triggered by a combination of the company’s misrepresenting a high risk security investment managed like a hedge fund as a high yield stable investment to consumers and 2) exposure to other coinciding crypto company bankruptcies (i.e. 3AC) and loans from other companies 3) the bear market conditions triggered by the global economic climate
links

last day of June, the EU reached agreement on how to regulate the crypto industry in its 27 countries, approving the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) legislative proposal, including things, such as:
- rules for stablecoin issuers to maintain reserves to cover all claims and provide permanent right of redemption for holders, reserves protected in the event of insolvency
- crypto exchanges will have liability for damages or losses caused to customers due to hacks or operational failures
- crypto lending, DeFi, and NFTs are left out of the new rules for now
A day earlier, European parliament had approved the Transfer of Funds Regulation (ToFR), imposing compliance standards on crypto assets to crack down on money laundering, such as:
- All crypto transfers have to be linked to a real identity
- Crypto asset service providers need to require and store info on customer transfers
The regulations were heavily influenced by recommendations from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global intergovernmental organization, comprising of country-appointed officials that work to develop recommendations for anti-money laundering and financial watchdog policies
links
- https://cointelegraph.com/news/mica-and-tofr-the-eu-moves-to-regulate-the-crypto-asset-market

Ethereum scaling solution Polygon has been selected by Disney’s 2022 accelerator program
Polygon, known as MATIC, is a blockchain framework that focuses on maximizing interoperability and scalability for Ethereum-based decentralized applications, solving Ethereum’s well-known slow transaction speed and high transaction fee problems
This year, the accelerator program focused on augmented reality, nonfungible tokens (NFTs), and artificial intelligence
links
- https://cointelegraph.com/news/polygon-selected-to-participate-in-disney-s-2022-accelerator-program

Ethereum foundation projects that Ethereum’s transition from energy-intensive proof-of-work consensus mechanism to proof-of-stake system will happen in September
The merge could result in the network’s energy use dropped by 99% but will not have a huge impact on Ethereum transaction fees and speeds
Last week, Ethereum’s 3rd and final public testnet successfully transitioned to PoS, indicating a success in the dress rehearsal of the PoS switch
links
- https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2022/07/15/ethereums-merge-projected-for-september-according-to-soft-timeline/
- https://www.coindesk.com/layer2/2022/05/11/merge-testing-on-ethereum-what-is-it-and-why-does-it-matter/

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