TL; DR
- Genesis Reaches an agreement in principle with DCG and key creditors to convert $1.1 billion worth of debt into convertible preferred stocks.
- Lawyers for SBF have reached an agreement with prosecutors regarding bail conditions, allowing SBF to use various messaging apps.
- Binance will suspend all US dollar transfers starting February 8th, Binance.US will not be impacted.
- Yuga Labs has reached a settlement and resolution with Thomas Lehman, who created a website and smart contracts for RR/BAYC, an imitation of BAYC.
- 38% of members of four Senate committees on crypto-related matters, including the Senate Banking Committee, have received campaign funds from FTX.
- A16z has delegated about 40 million UNI voting rights to external groups with no conditions attached.
- Crypto bank Juno has resumed most of its services except for crypto payments and L2 deposits/withdrawals.
- DCG (Digital Currency Group) has sold approximately a quarter of its Grayscale Ethereum Trust fund shares at half price, raising $22 million.
- File Sharing Service WeTransfer Partners with Blockchain Platform Minima on Mobile NFT Solution,
- The CoW Swap is suspected to have been attacked and the contract address has transferred over 110,000 DAI.
- North Korean hackers stole crypto assets worth between 630 million to over 1 billion dollars last year, setting a historical record.
1. Digital Currency Group (DCG) and Genesis creditors, holding or representing over $2 billion in debt, have reached a preliminary agreement. DCG will convert the $1.1 billion bonds due in 2032 into convertible preferred stock issued by DCG as part of Genesis’ bankruptcy plan. DCG will also finance its existing 2023 term loan with a new primary secured term loan paid out in two installments, valued at approximately $500 million. As part of the deal, DCG plans to sell the equity of Genesis Global Trading, Genesis’ crypto trading division, to Genesis Global Holdco, consolidating all Genesis entities under one holding company.
Additionally, as part of the agreement, Gemini has agreed to provide up to $100 million in additional funds to Earn users as part of the plan. Prior to these transactions being completed, Genesis will initiate the sale process for Genesis Global Trading and explore other value-maximizing deals, and the agreement remains subject to final documentation and necessary court approval.
2. The legal team of Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of FTX, and prosecutors have reached an agreement to modify the bail conditions regarding electronic communications for SBF, allowing him to use various messaging applications such as FaceTime, Zoom, iMessage, texting, email, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp (for WhatsApp, SBF’s phone must have monitoring software installed), however, SBF is prohibited from using encrypted messaging apps such as Signal during the bail period.
3. Binance is suspending all US dollar transfers starting February 8th, however, Binance.US dollar deposits and withdrawals will not be affected. The founder of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, tweeted that only 0.01% of Binance’s monthly active users use US dollar transfers, but it still remains a poor user experience, and the team is working quickly to resolve the issue.
4. Yuga Labs, the parent company of BAYC, has reached a settlement with Thomas Lehman, who developed the website and smart contract for Ryder Ripps’ BAYC imitation, RR/BAYC. The settlement terms include a ban on Lehman using any BAYC logos in any way, destroying any materials publicly displaying the BAYC logo that he owns or controls, and destroying any RR/BAYC NFTs he owns. Yuga Labs filed a lawsuit against Thomas Lehman on January 20, 2023, alleging his role in coding and developing the RR/BAYC NFT smart contract and the “rrbayc.com” website for the sale of imitation NFTs.
Since December 2021, Ryder Ripps has been investigating BAYC and its creator Yuga Labs, alleging extensive connections between BAYC and internet neo-Nazi culture and launching the RR/BAYC series. In June of last year, Yuga Labs filed a lawsuit against Ryder Ripps, accusing them of copying and selling the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) series of NFTs and diminishing its original products. The case is still ongoing.
5. According to CoinDesk, citing records from the Federal Election Commission, 38% of members in four of the most influential crypto-related committees (Senate Banking Committee, House Financial Services Committee, and the Senate and House Agriculture panels) received campaign funding from SBF, the founder of FTX, and other executives. Approximately one-tenth of them told CoinDesk that they have donated the money to charitable organizations.
6. Eddy Lazzarin, head of data science and engineering for the a16z crypto investment team, tweeted that a16z has delegated approximately 40 million UNI tokens to an outside group with no conditions on how they vote, and will vote with 15 million UNI tokens themselves, which is less than half of what was delegated. Lazzarin added that a16z has already voted on 11 proposals and is one of the most active members in the Uniswap community. The reason for the delegation of voting rights is for a wider range of perspectives, a less centralized voting power, and more community engagement.
7. Crypto bank Juno has now restored most of its core crypto services and has introduced several new features, including support for more than 35 additional cryptocurrencies such as SOL, ADA, SHIB snd DOGE, and the reduction of spreads on new and existing token offerings. The platform now also offers a zero-trading-fee incentive and a rewards program for every dollar traded in non-stablecoin tokens.
Although most services have been restored, crypto payment services and L2 deposit withdrawal services are still being worked on. Juno’s services were temporarily suspended earlier in January due to disruptions from its custodian Wyre.
8. Digital Currency Group (DCG) has started selling its shares in its subsidiary Grayscale crypto trust fund to raise funds to repay Genesis creditors, according to a report by Financial Times, citing US securities filings. The filings show that since January 24th, DCG has primarily sold a quarter of its Ethereum Trust Fund, raising as much as 22 million dollars with a price of about $8 per share, much lower than its market price of $16 per share. Additionally, DCG has started selling smaller shares in its Litecoin Trust, Bitcoin Cash Trust, Ethereum Classic Trust and Digital Large Cap Fund.
As previously reported by Foresight News, DCG reached a preliminary agreement with Genesis creditors, who hold over $2 billion in debt, to exchange an $1.1 billion bond that matures in 2032 for DCG issued convertible preferred stock as part of Genesis’s bankruptcy plan.
9. File Sharing Service WeTransfer Partners With Blockchain Platform Minima on Mobile NFT Solution, allow users to generate NFTs directly from their phone and transfer NFTs without an intermediary.
10. The decentralized trading protocol CoW Swap introduced by Gnosis is suspected to have been attacked. The GPv2Settlement contract was approved for DAI spending through deception 10 days ago, and SwapGuard was triggered to transfer DAI from GPv2Settlement. Chain data shows that over 114,000 DAI has been transferred out of the contract address.
11. A confidential report by the United Nations, cited by Reuters, states that hackers associated with North Korea stole between $630 million to over $1 billion worth of cryptocurrencies in 2022, more than any other year. They targeted foreign aerospace and defense firms, using increasingly complex network techniques to access digital networks involving financial transactions, and stealing information with potential value, including their weapons programs. The report is expected to be released later this month or early next month.