The Bankman is Fried

📢 Sponsor | 💡 Telegram | 📰 Past Editions

SBF is found guilty on all charges. He’s facing up to 115 years of jail time.

It’s surreal to think that this post-FTX saga is finally coming to an end. Now, the crypto industry can finally move forward. Dare I say… the bottom is in.

In Today's Email:

• What Matters: SEC subpoena PayPal 👨‍⚖️

• Founders Highlight: Austin of Alongside ⚖️

• Deal Flows: Ekubo $12M raise 💰

BROUGHT TO YOU BY

NEAR

Dive into the future at NEARCON ‘23, hosted by NEAR, the engine powering an open web. Join us in Lisbon, Portugal from November 7-10th to explore the latest in: Venture capital, Decentralization, and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Witness NEAR's booming ecosystem with over 2.6M unique active wallets and 25M transactions in the past 30 days.

Highlights include:

• Discovering NEAR's Blockchain Operating System (B.O.S), the heartbeat of an open web.

• Engaging with top partners like Google Cloud and Cosmose AI, pioneers in "Shoppertainment”, and Sweatcoin, the app that rewards your fitness journey.

• Connecting with innovative projects like Mintbase's NFT platform and PlayEmber's gaming studio.

Ready to step into the Web3 evolution?
Click to unveil what NEARCON ‘23 has in store for you.

Launchy readers get 50% off! — Use the code: LAUNCHYFRIENDS at checkout.

or register for the NEARCON Hackathon, includes free entry to NEARCON

Indulge in 4 days of deep dives, hands-on building at the NEAR IRL Hackathon, and networking with industry trailblazers. This year’s NEARCON IRL Hackathon theme is “Step into the Open Web”.

Come hack together apps and experiences that explore how NEAR is paving the way for a truly open web. $140K+ in prizes are up for grabs.

WHAT MATTERS

SEC Subpoenas PayPal Over PYUSD Stablecoin

State of play: On Wednesday, PayPal received a subpoena from the SEC, requesting the production of documents relating to its PayPal USD stablecoin (PYUSD).

• PayPal disclosed the information that the SEC has sent a subpoena on page 43 of its Q3 financial report with the SEC.

• PayPal holds a BitLicense, a business license for virtual currency activities issued by the NYDFS.

• According to Etherscan, PYUSD's launch has seen modest adoption, with a total supply of ~159M tokens.

SEC subpoenas are investigative tools for information gathering and don't inherently lead to legal or regulatory action. Yet, in Paxos' case, previous SEC scrutiny culminated in a cessation of new BUSD token issuance.

PYUSD was launched by PayPal in partnership with Paxos, the former issuer of Binance’s BUSD.

• The SEC issued Paxos a Wells Notice in February over allegations that BUSD is an unregistered security.

• In the same month with the Wells Notice issuance, Paxos ceased minting new BUSD tokens following instructions from the NYDFS.

• The SEC alleged in June that Paxos' BUSD, issued for Binance, is an unregistered security.

Why it matters: The vagueness of the Howey Test for securities could extend the definition to various assets — potentially even decentralized stablecoin.

For builders and investors: After not achieving the intended outcomes with XRP and spot bitcoin ETF, the SEC seems to be shifting its focus to PYUSD, probably because they successfully scared Paxos on the BUSD case.

BUILDER-INVESTOR HIGHLIGHT

Austin Diamond, Co-Founder & CEO of Alongside

Austin Diamond is the Co-Founder and CEO of Alongside, an a16z-backed crypto index platform that offers investor exposure to the top 15 cryptocurrencies through a single token ($AMKT).

Previous backgrounds: Before establishing Alongside, Austin accrued experience in business development, product, growth, and operations roles within various non-crypto companies between 2014 and 2021.

• He started in business development in 2014 at Partnered, a company that connected leading brands and emerging tech companies.

• In 2017, he worked in product and growth at Omni Rentals & Item Management for a year and 7 months.

• In 2019, he served as VP of operations at the Longevity Fund, a seed and Series A VC fund investing in companies developing therapies for age-related diseases.

The big idea: Alongside focuses on offering accessible crypto index products for long-term investments by eliminating intermediaries.

Take a peek at our referral reward at the bottom of this issue. Share this newsletter and receive our list of 100 smart crypto investors' wallet addresses 👇

INSIGHTS

Aragon Association to Dissolve

Aragon Association, the legal steward of the Aragon project, which is an open-source software used to maintain and create DAOs on Ethereum, is set to dissolve — enabling ANT token holders to redeem their tokens for ETH.

• The Aragon Association plans to liquidate its treasury of 86,343 ETH, worth $155M, allowing the redemption of each ANT token for 0.0025376 ETH.

• Users will have until November 2, 2024, to swap their tokens and after the redemption period, all ANT tokens will be burned.

• The Aragon Association will retain $11M from the liquidated treasury for dissolution expenses and regulatory uncertainties.

Any remaining funds after the dissolution will finance a new product-centric structure by the team.

DCF GOD criticized Aragon Association's moves to take 100% of the unclaimed funds for themselves and outlined more favorable solutions for ANT holders:

DEAL FLOWS

Uniswap Invests $12M in Ekubo

Deal flows slowed down this week 📉 — we saw $35M+ in deals.

Uniswap DAO has expressed support in a temperature check for a plan to allocate 3M UNI, valued at $12M, from its reserves to decentralized exchange Ekubo for a 20% stake in a possible governance token.

• The Snapshot vote recorded 21M UNI tokens supporting and 12M opposing, resulting in 63% of the voting tokens backing the decision.

• 97% of the affirmative vote was concentrated among five token holders, with the total number of voters exceeding 3,500.

• Ekubo, a DEX operating on Starknet, holds $2.5M in its smart contracts according to data from DefiLlama.

• Wintermute expressed opposition to the proposal, citing the implied valuation of $60M for the tokens as their reason.

• Keyrock criticized the rapid progression of the Uniswap investment proposal, arguing that due diligence longer than 2-3 weeks is necessary before allocating UNI for market sales as a VC investment.

Deal flows in the past week:

• Vaas, $2M Pre-Seed Round

• Trips, $2.5M Pre-Seed Round

• Access Protocol, $1.2M Seed Round

• Kana Labs, $2M Seed Round

• Surf Protocol, $3M Seed Round

• Toposware, $5M Seed+ Round

• Anapaya, $1.9M Private Round

• The Network State Company, $2.5M Unknown Round

• Modulus, $6.3M Unknown Round

• Ekubo Protocol, $12M Uniswap Investment

QUICK BITES

• SBF is guilty on all counts.

• Coinbase beats Q3 estimates.

• Singapore reshapes its crypto hub.

• Aragon Association to dissolve itself.

• PayPal faces SEC subpoena over stablecoin.

• SafeMoon Execs charged in the US with fraud.

• Coinbase launches futures for US retail traders.

• Binance to shut down Ruble payment partnership.

• HK plans to target tokenization with new regulatory requirements.

• Tether extends debt financing to Northern Data capped at $610M.

• Swiss bank launches bitcoin and ether custody and trading services.

NOTEWORTHY READS

• An Ape’s Prologue’s read on SOL breakpoint rally.

• ABCDE’s read on expanding Friend Tech’s economic model.

• GSR’s read on the great staking debate: Lido dominance and Ethereum.

If you enjoy reading this issue, please consider subscribing. It takes 1 minute of your time but it would mean the world to us 🙇

Disclaimer: All the information presented in this publication and its affiliates is strictly for educational purposes only. It should not be construed or taken as financial, legal, investment, or any other form of advice.