Daily Crypto News | August 23rd, 2022

Welcome to Barmy’s Daily Crypto News – August 23rd, 2022

1. Lenders must now be paid 15 ETH under the BendDAO contract..

The contract for lending protocol BendDAO has run out of Wrapped Ether (wETH). Only 15 wETH and an estimated 15,000 Ether (ETH) remain in the contract at this moment to be paid to lenders.

In a Twitter discussion, researcher NFTStatistics.eth broke down the problem and pointed out that platform users who borrowed nonfungible tokens (NFTs) now had to pay 100% interest on the ETH they borrowed. Additionally, there is an increase in the debt secured by NFTs.

The researcher also pointed out that many of the defaulting NFTs that were utilized as collateral today had no bids. Due to dropping NFT floor prices, mounting debt, and high interest rates, more NFTs that are set to default and go up for auction are now listed on the platform’s alert list.

The NFT industry as a whole isn’t doing any better, though. The recently created GameStop NFT marketplace has suffered as floor prices of BAYC and Mutant Ape Yacht Club collections have fallen, with its daily fee revenue falling below $4,000 as a result.

2. Voyager creditors oppose a plan to keep $1.9 million in employees.

The committee of unsecured creditors of Voyager Digital Holdings has submitted a motion to object to the company’s plan to retain its personnel by providing them with financial incentives to do so.

In order to disperse $1.9 million to 38 important workers who are regarded to be essential to the exchange’s operations, the Key Employee Retention Plan (KERP) was submitted by Voyager Digital on August 2 to the United States Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York for approval.

The idea was rejected by the creditors of the exchange, nevertheless. The creditors detailed their concerns to the planned KERP and its associated relief grants in a motion submitted on Friday.

In addition to these, the creditors’ filing mentioned that the present crypto winter enables the business to hire from a pool of talent that is currently available. They said that a number of recently-terminated professionals could fill their roles “given the recent reductions and layoffs across the industry.”

The cryptocurrency exchange declared bankruptcy in July and disclosed that it owes money to more than 100,000 creditors. The company claims that this action is a component of a recovery strategy that, when put into action, will return value to its customers.

3. FCA emphasizes limited role as unregistered businesses remain in business.

Only seven companies registered in 2022 and received permission under the Money Laundering Regulations: eToro UK, DRW Global Markets LTD, Zodia Markets (UK) Limited, Uphold Europe Limited, Rubicon Digital UK Limited, and Wintermute Trading LTD. The seventh, registered under FORIS DAX UK Limited, is Crypto.com. Crypto.com joined a list of confirmed 37 companies having the go-ahead to provide services in the nation as the most recent company from the bitcoin ecosystem to register with the FCA.

For anti-money laundering (AML) purposes, the FCA has also established a list of U.K.-based companies that continue to engage in “crypto asset activities” without being registered with the FCA. The lengthy list primarily includes businesses that provide a range of bitcoin trading and foreign exchange services.

In order to give the FCA the ability to oversee enterprises functioning in the sector and implement AML and counter-terrorism financing legislation, new cryptocurrency-specific regulations were put in place in January 2020.

The FCA also stated that its ability to register bitcoin exchanges with UK addresses for anti-money laundering purposes was constrained. The TRR was created to enable crypto firms that were already striving to register to keep their temporary trading licenses throughout the procedure, it was further noted.

Even while the FCA acknowledged that it lacks the power to take action against unregistered operators in the nation, it nonetheless keeps an eye on these businesses. The spokeswoman emphasized that the U.K. Parliament controls the boundaries of regulatory jurisdiction and ultimately decides what is regulated.

4. Issuers of stablecoins possess more US debt than Berkshire Hathaway does.

By May 2022, stablecoin companies like Tether, Circle, and others controlled more short-term US government debt than Berkshire Hathaway, the company founded by Warren Buffett.

The stablecoin companies Tether, Circle, and others held more T-bills than Warren Buffett’s massive investment company Berkshire Hathaway did in its entirety, accounting for 2% of the market for U.S. Treasury bills.

Treasury bills are debt instruments that are frequently utilized by businesses as a cash equivalent on company balance sheets since they are thought of as low-risk assets. Earlier this year, Tether committed to reducing its reliance on commercial paper while purchasing US Treasury bills.

The decision was made in the midst of ambiguity around algorithmic stablecoins caused by TerraUSD (formerly UST) losing its peg to the US dollar in May 2022.

The 1:1 peg is guaranteed by holding cash and common cash equivalents, as opposed to algorithmic stablecoins, which rely on algorithms and smart contracts to support their U.S. dollar backing. Examples of such asset-backed stablecoins include USDT and USDC.

5. Invesco Introduces a Metaverse Fund.

A massive fund for investing in businesses using metaverse technology has been established by the investment management behemoth Invesco. The Invesco Metaverse Fund, according to the report, will make investments in small, medium, and large-cap businesses around the world that are focused on metaverse technologies like virtual worlds, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), augmented reality, play-to-earn (P2E) gaming, and artificial intelligence (AI).

Following a flurry of businesses and organizations entering the metaverse this year, Invesco announced the creation of a metaverse fund. For instance, a recent news highlighted the signing of an MOU by South Korean electronics giant Samsung with a dozen companies to introduce the “Galaxy NFT [non-fungible token] ecosystem.”

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