WhaleFin Weekly — Ethereum Successfully Merges to Proof of Stake, and More

Learn about the most recent trends and updates in the crypto industry.

Crypto Industry Updates

Ethereum Successfully Merges to Proof of Stake

• The execution layer of Ethernet (i.e., the previous main network) and the consensus layer of proof of interests (i.e., the beacon chain) triggered the merging mechanism at block height 15,537,393 and produced the first PoS block.
• Ethereum has officially changed from PoW to PoS mechanism.

Source: OKLink

The Largest Proof-of-Work Blockchains Are Dogecoin and Bitcoin

• Dogecoin is now the second-largest proof-of-work blockchain by market capitalization.

Dogecoin is currently valued at $7.8 billion.

• Bitcoin remains the leading proof-of-work blockchain with a market capitalization of roughly $375 billion.
• Ethereum Classic, the most prominent hard fork of Ethereum, advanced to third place.

Source: U.Today

45% of Ethereum PoS Nodes Run by Two Addresses

• Some concerns of centralization follow as data suggest that only two addresses run over 45% of all Ethereum PoS nodes after The Merge.
• The top addresses ostensibly belong to custodians that stake on behalf of many individual users, though some are skeptical.

Source: Zycrypto

BitConnect Promoter Gets 38 Months Prison in $2.4 Billion Ponzi Scam

• The top North American promoter of the BitConnect, a cryptocurrency investment platform, was sentenced to 38 months in prison for running a Ponzi scheme.
• The $2.4 billion Ponzi scheme defrauded at least 4,500 people from 95 countries.

Source: BNN Bloomberg

“Red Notice” Issued for Terra Co-Founder Do Kwon

• A South Korean court has issued an arrest warrant against Do Kwon, the co-founder of the now defunct stablecoin issuer Terraform Labs.
• The warrant included five additional individuals.

Source: Coindesk, Bloomberg News

International Policies and Dynamics

New U.S. Framework on Regulating Crypto

• The Biden White House has just released its first-ever framework on what crypto regulation in the U.S. should look like.
• The framework outlines the ways in which the financial services industry should evolve to make borderless transactions easier, as well as how to crack down on fraud in the digital asset space.
• President Joe Biden issued an executive order last March to call on federal agencies to examine the risks and benefits of cryptocurrencies.

Sources: CNBC

Cryptocurrency Use is a ‘Punishable Offense’ according to Bangladesh Central Bank

• The central bank of Bangladesh has ruled that interacting with Bitcoin is prohibited under the country’s anti-money laundering laws.

The use of cryptocurrencies is a punishable offense.

Source: Coindesk, AFP

New Compliance Rules for Digital Wallets Issued By Central Bank of Argentina

• Customers of companies like Uala, a popular wallet in Argentina, will now be qualified as financial users, having new protections similar to those offered by banks and other financial institutions.

Source: News Bitcoin

Singapore: Three-Year Transformation Plan for Financial Services

• The Financial Services Industry Transformation Map (ITM) 2025 this week by Mr Lawrence Wong, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Deputy Chairman.
• The ITM 2025 lays out the growth strategies to further develop Singapore as a leading international financial centre in Asia.
• The goals include connecting global markets, supporting Asia’s development, and serving Singapore’s economy.

Sources: Finextra

SEC Sues Two Crypto Advisory Firms for Misappropriating Investors’ Funds

• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) just sued two crypto advisory firms and their owner for allegedly misappropriating investors’ funds that they had pledged to invest in digital assets.
• The charges allege that, between February 2017 and May 2021, Creative Advancement LLC and Edelman Blockchain Advisors LLC raised $4.3 million by offering and selling securities to four investors using “false and misleading statements”.
• Both companies are owned by Gabriel Edelman.

Source: Coindesk

EU Global Metaverse Regulation Initiative Plans for 2023

• The European Union will present an initiative to address metaverse technology and all the activities and interactions happening in the metaverse space sometime in 2023.

Source:

South Korea Fines Google and Meta for Privacy Violations

• South Korea levied tens of millions of dollars in fines on Google and Meta for privacy law violations.

It fined Google 69.2 billion won ($50 million) and Meta 30.8 billion won ($22 million).

Source: Reuters

Judge to Appoint Examiner in Celsius Case

• A U.S. bankruptcy judge in the Southern District of New York approved an order to appoint a neutral third party to examine the finances of embattled crypto lender Celsius.
• Lawyers from the Justice Department, securities regulators, and representatives of creditors and consumers seeking to recoup their losses pushed for the examiner
• Source: The Block

NFTs

BAYC

• Anon User “Apes into” BAYC’s 73 Otherdeed NFTs for $200K

Tony Parker’s Charity NFT Series

• NBA Star Tony Parker Launches Charity NFT Series

Epic Games’ NFT Game

• Fortnite Creator, Epic Games Store Launches First NFT Game

The Last POW Block

• The Ethereum PoW Final Block was Used to Mint “The Last POW Block” of the NFT project Vanity Blocks

Immutable’s Guild of Guardians

• Esports Teams to Receive Playable NFT Characters in Immutable’s Guild of Guardians

Sources: CryptoTimes, Twitter, Decrypt , TheBlock , OpenSea , Investing

Industry PoVs

Michael Saylor: Bitcoin is better than physical property for commoners

• MicroStrategy CEO and Bitcoin advocate Michael Saylor highlighted the issues related to transferring the value of physical properties such as gold, company stocks or equity and real estate, making crypto a viable solution.
• Saylor further underscored the high maintenance costs and taxes linked with owning and inheriting physical property over the long term, which, in the case of Bitcoin, do not exist.

Source: Cointelegraph

Jeff Gundlach warns of deflation risk

• Billionaire Jeffrey Gundlach, aka the Bond King, shared his view on when to buy cryptocurrency and called for a change in the quantitative tightening policies of the FED.
• Gundlach warned about the increasing risk of deflation, noting that it’s time to be bearish on the stock market.

According to Gundlach, it is too early to jump on the crypto bandwagon as the Federal Reserve is likely to continue raising interest rates in the short term.

Source: Bitcoin.com

FTX’s Brett Harrison: how regulatory uncertainty holds back the crypto industry

US SEC Chair Gary Gensler made comments that indicate he believes more crypto exchanges and broker-dealers are still in violation of guidelines put in place under former SEC Chair Clayton in 2017.

• FTX US US President Brett Harrison pushed back as he believes that many crypto projects would gladly register with the SEC if a clear framework existed.

Source: The Block

Merkle Science: Ethereum may now be more vulnerable to censorship

• Ethereum’s Merge may make it more vulnerable to government intervention and censorship, according to Coby Moran, the lead investigator of Merkle Science.
• Moran suggested the prohibitive cost of becoming a validator could result in the consolidation of validator nodes to the bigger crypto firms like Binance, Coinbase and Kraken.

Source: Cointelegraph

Gensler: Multiple crypto regulators could ‘undermine’ securities rules

• Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler cautioned that multiple federal agencies overseeing securities could “undermine” market regulation.

“If we end up that there’s multiple federal agencies defining what a security is, and another agency tries to define it, it could undermine what we’re doing”

Source: The Block

Crypto Market

Weekly High

• BTC $22,673
• ETH $1,745

Weekly Low

• BTC $18,231
• ETH $1,280

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