• Sam Bankman-Fried is facing new criminal charges for his alleged involvement in the FTX crime family.
• He was portrayed as a genius, but the facts reveal he was thinking zero steps ahead.
• Many of the crypto wunderkinds who ascended to fame in 2021 had leveraged relationships and theatrical self-representations to create a dumb person’s idea of what a smart person looks like.

Sam Bankman-Fried Facing New Criminal Charges

Sam Bankman-Fried is facing new criminal charges related to his alleged involvement with the FTX crime family. The charges raise further questions about Bankman-Fried’s endgame and how he expected to escape the consequences of his actions.

The Genius Cosplay

Bankman-Fried has been represented in media and among peers as some kind of genius. This narrative has also been extended to other crypto “wunderkinds”, such as Do Kwon of Terra and Su Zhu of Three Arrows Capital, who have leveraged credentials and relationships to create an impression that they are smarter than they really are.

The Reality Behind the Facade

When examined more closely, however, it becomes clear that these people were putting on an act – an impression – rather than actually possessing any great intelligence or insight into their respective fields. In fact, many have made decisions that show little forethought or long term strategy – suggesting that their “genius” might be overstated.

A Zero Step Strategy

The new charges against Bankman-Fried support this notion; his seeming attempt to curry favor in Washington D.C., for example, suggests he was not thinking too far ahead when it came to planning his escape from legal repercussions for his actions.

Conclusion

Ultimately, then, it appears that many of the crypto personalities who rose up quickly during 2021 were simply putting on a show – creating an image of genius without backing it up with actual substance or foresight into the risks they were taking with their respective projects or strategies.

– OKX, a crypto exchange, announced plans to hire 1,500 new employees which would bring their total headcount up to 5,000.
– The exchange released a proof of reserves report showing $8.6 billion in ‘clean assets’ and an overcollateralization reserve ratio of 104% for Bitcoin (BTC), 104% for Ether (ETH) and 102% for USDT.
– According to CryptoQuant data, OKX has the cleanest reserve compared to Binance’s 94% and Huobi’s 61%.

OKX Plans Expansion Despite Crypto Winter

Crypto exchange OKX plans to increase headcount by 30%, growing by 1,500 people to about 5,000 over the next 12 months. OKX Director of Financial Markets Lennix Lai discusses why and how the firm is expanding despite crypto winter.

February Proof-of-Reserves Report

Data from CryptoQuant maintains that reserves are 100% clean, compared to 94% for Binance and 61% for Huobi. OKX proof of reserves for February 2023 shows it is overcollateralized with a reserve ratio of 104% for bitcoin (BTC), 104% for ether (ETH) and 102% for USDT. The exchange says that over 175,000 unique users have visited its proof-of-reserves page since it launched the initiative late last year.

Clean Assets

In January, the exchange released a report stating it had $7.5 billion in clean assets. The cleanliness of assets refers to a metric developed by CryptoQuant which measures how reliant an exchange is on its native token.OKX continues to have an entirely clean reserve according to CryptoQuant data while Binance’s “cleanliness” comes in at 94% while Huobi has 61%.

Native Token

In an interview with CoinDesk in January, Haider Rafique, OKX’s chief marketing officer said that OKX has “never used a native token to finance the company.” He added that “the native token was always designed to engage our most active customers and give them a way to seek discounts through activity on the platform.”

Conclusion

OKX continues its expansion plan despite current market conditions as it releases another successful proof of reserves report backed up by its own metrics as well as independent third party sources such as CryptoQuant data

• Paxos, the issuer of Binance USD (BUSD), has burned more than $700 million worth of BUSD tokens since Monday.
• The burn was due to mounting regulatory pressure from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York Department of Financial Services.
• This represents 6% of the total BUSD in circulation, as its market capitalization is expected to decrease over time.

Stablecoin Issuer Paxos Burns $700M Binance USD

Paxos, the issuer of the $16 billion Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin, has burned more than $700 million worth of BUSD tokens since Monday amid mounting regulatory pressure from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and New York Department of Financial Services (DFS). This represents some 6% of the total coins in circulation as its market capitalization is expected to decrease over time.

Burn Is Due To Regulatory Pressure

The burn started less than two hours after an announcement on Monday that Paxos would stop issuing the cryptocurrency due to regulatory pressures by both SEC and DFS, according to blockchain data from Nansen. Transactions totaling $703 million worth were transferred from a Paxos Treasury crypto wallet to a burn address within 27 hours starting Monday morning, essentially removing them from circulation.

BUSD Backed By Short-term Treasuries And Cash-like Assets

BUSD is a dollar-pegged stablecoin backed by short-term treasuries and cash-like assets so holders can redeem it 1:1 for a U.S Dollar anytime according to regulation from DFS – New York’s main financial regulator. Changpeng Zhao, chief executive of Binance – world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume – tweeted that the market capitalization “will only decrease over time.”

Wells Notice Sent By SEC To Firm For Unregistered Securities

News broke on Monday morning that SEC had sent a Wells notice to Paxos as they were issuing unregistered securities, signaling an imminent enforcement action from regulator which triggered this move by firm itself pre-emptively reducing coin supply in order stay compliant with rules & regulations set forth in their license agreement with DFS .

Paxos Stops Issuing Cryptocurrency Amid Regulatory Pressure

The maneuver is a sign that investors are exiting quickly as redemption at this scale happened within 27 hours since announcement was made on Monday morning making it one of quickest such exits seen recently across crypto markets

• Stargate Finance’s token STG surged 13% following its partnership with Trader Joe.
• The project also recently passed a token re-issuance proposal due to security concerns related to Alameda Research.
• Bitcoin and Ether traded slightly in the red at the time of writing.

Stargate Finance’s Token Surges

Stargate Finance’s native STG token surged 13% over the past 24 hours following its announced plan to team up with Avalanche-based decentralized exchange Trader Joe to unlock omnichain fungible tokens. STG has recently climbed from roughly 60 cents a day ago to 92 cents, according to crypto data aggregator CoinGecko, rising about 50% in the past seven days and 150% this year.

Trader Joe Partnership

The partnership with Trader Joe means that Stargate will support the increasingly popular JOE token, without requiring Trader Joe to maintain a liquidity pool on the platform. On Monday, Trader Joe announced its integration with LayerZero, making JOE a multichain token to be natively sent between blockchains.

Token Re-Issuance Proposal

STG’s climb also follows the Stargate DAO’s passage of a proposal to reissue the token and airdrop it to all STG holders. This was due to security concerns stemming from its entanglement with Alameda Research, the trading arm of disgraced crypto exchange FTX. Alameda had purchased 10% of the total STG supply from the Stargate Community sale on March 17, 2022 and committed to lock up all these tokens until March 2025; however recent on-chain transfers revealed that “Alameda does not have full control of its wallets and that a malicious actor or hacker is misappropriating Alameda’s funds.”

Bitcoin & Ether Trading Slightly in Red

At the time of writing Bitcoin and Ether traded slightly in red.

Conclusion

Stargate Finance’s native token STG has seen impressive growth over the past 24 hours following an announcement of a partnership with Trader Joe as well as passing a re-issuance proposal due security concerns related to Alameda Research. Bitcoin and Ether traded slightly in red at this time.

• Coinbase NFT has temporarily paused new collection drops, in order to focus on “features and tools” for its NFT marketplace.
• This comes after a rumor was circulating on Twitter that the marketplace would be shutting down.
• Coinbase NFT confirmed that they are not shutting down the marketplace, and are simply reallocating their resources to other areas within the platform.

Coinbase NFT, the non-fungible token (NFT) platform of the crypto exchange Coinbase, announced Wednesday that it is temporarily pausing the release of new collections in order to focus its efforts on other features and tools within its NFT marketplace. This announcement came after rumors had been circulating on Twitter that the marketplace was shutting down.

In a tweet, Coinbase NFT confirmed that they were not shutting down the marketplace, and instead are redirecting their resources to other areas within the platform. “We recently shared that we are pausing creator Drops on the NFT marketplace to focus on other features and tools that creators have asked for,” Coinbase NFT clarified. “To be clear: We are not shutting down the Coinbase NFT marketplace.”

The decision to pause new collection drops was further clarified by Coinbase NFT partner Jessica Yatrofsky, who announced that her upcoming NFT collection would no longer be dropping on Coinbase NFT. “I had been privately informed that [the] marketplace was shutting down,” Yatrofsky said. Coinbase NFT reiterated that they were not shutting down the marketplace, but rather pausing Drops to focus on other facets of the platform.

Coinbase NFT has become a popular platform for users to buy, sell, and trade non-fungible tokens, with a range of creators, collectors, and enthusiasts taking part in the marketplace. With the decision to pause new collection drops, Coinbase NFT is reallocating its resources to create new features and tools that creators have requested, such as an improved user experience and expanded options for monetizing and displaying their artwork.

Coinbase NFT’s decision to pause new collection drops is also a reflection of the ever-growing NFT space, which is seeing more and more projects and creators entering the market. With the increased competition, Coinbase NFT is taking a step back to focus on developing the best possible experience for their users.

Although Coinbase NFT is pausing Drops for now, the company has made it clear that they are not shutting down the marketplace. Instead, Coinbase NFT is looking to create a better user experience by focusing their efforts on the features and tools that creators have requested. This pause will allow Coinbase NFT to develop an even more comprehensive platform for NFT users, while giving creators the tools they need to make the most out of their artwork.