Celsius CEO arrested
Celsius CEO arrested
Mashinksy gets arrested by the DoJ, BNB chain upgrades and Arkham faces new allegations
No matter the period, even during a boiling-hot summer crypto never sleeps — many companies are in fact ready to launch their innovations or secure their stack against the rampant number of exploits we’re witnessing in the space.
Meanwhile, many are left to deal with the remnant of last year’s downfall — with Celsius and FTX leading the way. Today we’ll delve into the arrest of Alex Mashinsky, the former CEO of Celsius
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In today’s issue:
Weekly market performance
Crypto news round-up
Upcoming catalysts
One tool you should try
Further readings
Last month, when major institutions filed for Bitcoin ETFs, prices surged with Bitcoin at the forefront. However, in the last two weeks, the upward trend in prices has subsided. It is intriguing to observe that during this period, Defi 1.0 protocols have outperformed Ether, which is typically regarded as a benchmark for smart contract crypto projects. This could indicate that the DeFi niche is finally reclaiming some stability and market dominance within the crypto industry.
Mashinsky arrested by the U.S. Department of Justice
According to someone familiar with the case that chose to remain anonymous, former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinksy has been arrested this morning following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ).
The case is not public yet, but it is conceivable that it involves shady practices and perhaps fraud for trying to deceive investors.
Nevertheless, lawsuits have been piling up for the former CEO and the company. NY’s Attorney General Letitia James sued Mashinksy as soon as January, and the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued both entities today.
Celsius has been one of the giants that went bankrupt in 2022, declaring a $1.19B deficit. Many other crypto companies had to deal with shortages of liquidity due to exogenous and endogenous (namely TerraUSD free fall) market conditions, with FTX recording $8.6B in customers’ unaccounted funds.
GHO Mainnet Launch
The Aave governance, following extensive community discussions and testing on Ethereum's Goerli testnet, is finally voting on the launch of GHO — a decentralized stablecoin — on the Ethereum mainnet. If approved, Aave V3 users will be able to mint GHO with their collateral, bringing more competitiveness to stablecoin borrowing and generating additional revenue for the Aave DAO. The proposal will also allow the Aave DAO to adjust GHO's interest rate through decentralized governance.
The voting period for the proposal will end tomorrow, and is currently leading with a 100% approval rate. With the vote expected to conclude, we can anticipate the launch of GHO on the Ethereum mainnet on the 15th.
Stay tuned and subscribe to get the next DeFi Dive, where we will delve into the details of how GHO works, discussing and explaining its functioning and role in the space.
BNB Chain upgrades
In an effort to strengthen the ecosystem’s security, the BNB Beacon Chain will undergo the “ZhangHeng” hard fork on the 19th of July, requiring 2/3 of validators to upgrade their clients.
The upgrade won’t require additional actions from regular users, and presents a couple new security-focused features.
The BEP-255 proposal leads the way, introducing an asset reconciliation tracker — that is, if there’s a mismatch between the changes in balances and token supply, the chain is halted until the issue is figured out.
This aims to address the recent BNB bridge exploit, adding a backstop to prevent it from happening again. Other changes include various bug fixes, with a focus on the “Rogue Key attack” issue that could hard the correctness of the fast finality mechanism of the chain.
Microsoft partners with Axelar for interchain solutions
Microsoft has come together with Axelar to develop and deliver blockchain interoperability solutions. Through their partnership, Microsoft customers will have access to Axelar's cross-chain stack via the Azure cloud marketplace. This collaboration aims to make blockchain integration more accessible for web3 and enterprise developers, providing them with Axelar's blockchain interoperability tools such as the General Message Passing cross-chain software stack and AxelarJS software development kit.
Axelar focuses on enabling secure communication across different chains through a programmable interoperability layer on the Cosmos network, serving as a bridge. Additionally, Microsoft and Axelar plan to explore solutions involving the connection of private and public blockchains, as well as leveraging and integrating with Microsoft's OpenAI services on Azure.
Arkham intelligence facing new allegations
By announcing its own token launch via a launchpad on Binance and its own retroactive airdrop, Arkham drew the attention of much of the crypto scene to itself, but the findings that followed put the company in a bad light. The first breakthrough that began to circulate was that anyone could have traced an account's email from its referral link, jeopardizing users’ privacy. Arkham's CEO apologized for the incident and announced that they had fixed the problem.
Criticism then followed about the new feature announced by Arkham, allowing anyone to post cash offers to those who can dox addresses. In the following hours, a 2021 Crypto Leaks investigation re-emerged in which Arkham was accused of being paid by a competitor to publish a false and defamatory report on ICP.
As if this was not enough, clues floating around indicate that the CEO was part of the "Leverage Research" cult, and that Arkham received support from Palantir, an entity that works with the FBI and CIA.
Source: Decrypted
Unprecedented trading volumes on Synthetix
Synthetix, a prominent decentralized exchange specializing in perpetual derivatives and the primary competitor to GMX, has gained significant traction during this period. The surge in activity can be attributed to the success of Synthetix Perps, enhancements made to platforms like Kwenta.io and PolynomialFi, improved user experience, more competitive trading fees, and cost reductions resulting from Optimism's Bedrock upgrade.
Lens Protocol V2 to be introduced during ETHcc — link
Arkham announces Binance Launchpad and airdrop for its users
ETH’s L2 Mantle Network proposed the establishment of a $200M ecosystem fund — link
Bitrefill is the go-to tool for those looking to live on crypto. Allowing you to pay in crypto at restaurants, hotels, airline companies, grocery stores, bookstores, gas stations, and phone refills — they have them all, and many more.
The platform lets you exchange cryptocurrencies anonymously for gift cards that can buy you pretty much everything. On their blog, they often post about the potential behind Bitrefill — showing real-world applications, such as how to pay your bills in crypto.
Arthur Hayes says Bitcoin will be the currency of AIs
Some digging on USDC de-pegs by CJ
The robust incentive group research, powered by the Ethereum foundation
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Disclosure: Authors may own crypto assets named in this newsletter. Stay on-chain is meant for informational purposes only. It is not meant to serve as investment advice. Please consult your investment, tax, or legal advisor before making investment decisions.