- Crypto.com Delists Tether’s USDT Stablecoin for Canadian Users
Crypto.com, one of the world’s top exchanges by volume, will delist Tether’s dollar-linked stablecoin, USDT, from its trading platform for users in Canada, according to an email sent by the firm to customers.
The company made the decision “in accordance with instructions from the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) as part of our pre-registration undertaking for a restricted dealer license,” a spokesperson for the exchange said in the email.
All USDT trading pairs, transactions, deposits and withdrawals will be delisted by 1 p.m. ET on Jan. 31, the email continues. All remaining USDT user deposits on the exchange after that time will be converted to Circle-issued USDC.
Crypto.com’s action comes as regulators around the world are increasing their scrutiny of centralized exchanges in the wake of the collapse of FTX and as competition between the top stablecoins grows.
- US Arrests ‘Mutant Ape Planet’ NFT Creator in $3M ‘Rug Pull’ Scheme to Defraud Crypto Investors
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday that Aurelien Michel has been charged with “defrauding purchasers of ‘Mutant Ape Planet’ NFTs, a type of digital asset, of more than $2.9 million in cryptocurrency.”
The defendant is a French national residing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). He was arrested Wednesday at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
The Mutant Ape Planet (MAP) NFTs were marketed and sold with false promises of numerous rewards and benefits, including exclusive opportunities for additional investments, giveaways, merchandise, and other rewards, the DOJ detailed, elaborating:
After selling out of the NFTs, the purchasers were ‘rug pulled’ … Millions worth of the NFT purchasers’ cryptocurrency was diverted for Michel’s personal benefit.
Mutant Ape Planet is a collection of 6,799 unique mutant apes that has no relationship with the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club, a different set of monkey-themed NFTs.
- Crypto’s Foot Fetish? Pixelated Feetpix NFTs Surge
Fear not, weary souls of crypto who see no end to suffering in sight—ostensibly erotic, pixelated feet pics are here, and they may have saved the day.
Feetpix (or Feetpix.wtf), an NFT collection consisting of 10,000 exceedingly simple images of Quentin Tarantino’s favorite appendage, has taken crypto by storm, soaring ahead of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and other blue-chip NFT staples to become the 5th most-traded collection on NFT marketplace OpenSea on Tuesday.
The project has done 640 ETH—about $855,000—in trading since its debut three days ago, with the majority of that volume coming in the last 24 hours alone. Feetpix were initially free to mint. The collection’s floor price has since jumped to 0.135 ETH, or about $180. So far, the collection has seen over 16,000 transactions.
https://decrypt.co/118877/feetpix-foot-fetish-nft-degen-season
- Crypto service Tap Global becomes first 2023 listing on UK stock exchange
UK crypto app Tap Global has become the first 2023 listing on the Aquis Stock Exchange (AQSE), according to a Jan. 10 press release from the company. The listing was accomplished through a reverse takeover by Quetzal Capital.
Tap provides fiat banking services, a crypto swap service that sources crypto from partner exchanges and access to staking and DeFi protocols to UK and EU residents. The app is regulated as a bank by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission.
Quetzal acquired the company by trading 20.5 million British pounds ($24.9 million) of its own stock to Tap Global shareholders in exchange for ownership, and it raised another 3.1 million pounds ($3.8 million) by issuing new shares. These funds will be used to “increase marketing spend and drive international expansion,” according to the press release.
- Ethereum Software Firm ConsenSys to Cut Upwards of 100 Staff
ConsenSys, the developer of the crypto wallet MetaMask, plans to lay off 100 staffers or more, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The New York City-headquartered Ethereum studio currently has about 900 employees. The planned cuts are understood to be in the process of being finalized, and the exact number is not known at this point, said the person.
It’s adding to what’s already a bad week for crypto employment, with U.S. exchange Coinbase also announcing cuts of 20% of its staff, or around 950 jobs, on Tuesday. CoinDesk estimates nearly 27,000 jobs have been lost across the industry since April of last year.
ConsenSys declined to comment.
https://www.binance.com/en/news/flash/7358434
- DCG’s Barry Silbert Talks About Genesis in Letter to Shareholders
Barry Silbert, the head of crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group (DCG), gave his shareholders more details about his company’s Genesis Capital lending division that was forced to halt customer withdrawals in the aftermath of FTX’s November collapse.
Writing in a letter to investors, Silbert (whose firm owns crypto trading firm Genesis, asset manager Grayscale, CoinDesk and other companies) said that “this past year has been the most difficult of my life – both personally and professionally. Bad actors and repeated blow-ups have wreaked havoc on our industry, with ripple effects extending far and wide.”
He noted DCG has cut jobs and is winding down its crypto asset manager HQ.
- Tron’s USDD Stablecoin Experiences Fluctuations Again, Drops Below $1 Parity in Early 2023
There have been some slight fluctuations in USDD’s price at the start of the new year, as the stablecoin has dipped to the 97-cent range on a few occasions in 2023. After Terra’s stablecoin depegging event in May 2022, USDD started to slip slightly below the $1 peg, causing anxiety in the crypto industry. A number of other stablecoins saw similar deviations. On June 19, 2022, USDD reached a low of 92.8 cents per unit, but the stablecoin managed to regain the $1 peg, trading between 98 cents and 99 cents per unit.
Tron’s USDD Stablecoin Experiences Fluctuations Again, Drops Below $1 Parity in Early 2023
Tron’s USDD stablecoin 30-day view against the U.S. dollar on Jan. 10, 2023.
In mid-Dec. 2022, USDD deviated from the $1 parity, and Tron’s Justin Sun said that the team deployed more capital. USDD has seen fluctuations in value since Dec. 11, 2022, and it reached a low of $0.971 on Dec. 13, 2022, according to coingecko.com statistics. Last week, a similar instance occurred as the USDD price dipped to $0.972 per unit on Jan. 6, 2023. Charts show that USDD’s action four days later on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023, indicates that the stablecoin slid to a low of $0.977 per unit during the past 24 hours.
- BONK NFTs Boom—But Solana-Based Meme Token Is Down 69% Since Peak
UBONK fever is still raging in the Solana community, as an NFT collection inspired by the dog-themed meme token launched, quickly sold out, and now is trading for 10 times the original sale price. However, the actual Solana-based BONK token is still shedding value after last week’s surge, now down 69% from the peak price.
BONKz, a Solana NFT collection co-created by the contributors behind the BONK token, debuted this morning on the Magic Eden marketplace and sold through all 15,000 of the tokenized profile pictures (PFPs) in a matter of hours.
The NFTs sold for 16.25 million BONK apiece—just $26 worth—but they’re commanding a significant premium on the secondary market. Currently, the floor price (or price of cheapest listed NFT) on Magic Eden is 17 SOL, or about $280. Already, the project has yielded about $913,000 worth of trading as measured in SOL.
https://decrypt.co/118853/bonk-nfts-surge-solana-based-meme-token-down-69
- Crypto exchange Zipmex probed by Thai SEC amid buyout
The cryptocurrency exchange Zipmex is the focus of a new probe by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Thailand for a breach of local rules.
A Bloomberg report revealed that local authorities are looking into activities that they believe may violate business rules for digital asset service providers. This includes its offerings of certain digital asset products.
According to the Thai SEC, Zipmex has until Jan. 12 to clarify whether it has been functioning as a “digital asset fund manager without permission” in Thailand. If true, the firm would have needed to obtain a permit before conducting business in the country.
Zipmex is currently in the process of being acquired by V Ventures, a subsidiary of Thoresen Thai Agencies PCL, for around $100 million. The exchange allegedly plans to unfreeze customer accounts using funds from the acquisition by April 2023.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-exchange-zipmex-probed-by-thai-sec-amid-buyout
- Crypto Markets Today: Coinbase Announces More Job Cuts Amid Market Jitters
Crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) said it’s planning to reduce headcount by around 950 employees as part of a restructuring that it expects to be complete by the end of the second quarter.
This article originally appeared in Crypto Markets Today, CoinDesk’s daily newsletter diving into what happened in today’s crypto markets. Subscribe to get it in your inbox every day.
This figure would amount to around 20% of Coinbase’s workforce, which sits at about 4,700 according to the company’s website.
In a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Tuesday, Coinbase said it is responding to “ongoing market conditions impacting the crypto economy.”
The company expects the restructuring to cost $149 million to $163 million, including $58 million to $68 million in cash charges related to employee severance.
Coinbase began shedding jobs in June when crypto’s bear market started to take hold. CEO Brian Armstrong said at the time that the company had “grown too quickly” during the crypto bull market, expanding to more than 5,000 employees from 1,250 at the start of 2021. The firm began by cutting 1,100 jobs, equivalent to 18% of its workforce at the time, followed by another 60 in November as the crypto winter grew even colder with the collapse of rival exchange FTX.
