FATF Crypto Concerns - The WAGMI Journal #19
DeFi innovations will most likely exist outside of the US.
In today’s issue:
The crypto market is slightly down with the global crypto market cap fluctuating around the $3 trillion mark. Discord cancels its crypto plan (at least in the short-term) due to pushback from its community. I’ve previously mentioned that crypto as a brand needs a massive revamp, as even Gen Z is becoming extremely skeptical of it; fairly so, because of the recent money grab shenanigans that their influencers have tried to do with crypto, especially NFTs. In other news, FATF guidance wants to target developers, Terra is set to burn $4.5 billion in LUNA, and Twitter is forming a new crypto team.
Starting today, our daily issue will be sent out before 9 am EST.
We’re continually improving our content — based on our readers’ suggestions, we are working to add:
a section showing open interest and other trading-related metrics 24-h changes
a section showing newly released projects
Please reach out if you have any other ideas or would like us to recap a segment of the market.
- Curated by Marco Manoppo (@manoppomarco)
📰Market News
⎆FATF Wants the People Behind DeFi Protocols Held Accountable
In short, the new FATF guidance is not good for the broader crypto industry. Launching a truly global stablecoin will be much more difficult and the team/developers behind DeFi protocols are also under a lot of risks. If regulators act based on the FATF guidance, I don’t see any future for DeFi founders within the US. This is because, in FATF view, almost all DeFi platforms are still Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP).
If I’m advising a DeFi platform, the angle would be to become pseudo-anonymous founders, rapidly decentralizing via tokens and conducting audits proving that the team doesn’t have majority control, and target the non-US market.
⎆Terra to Burn $4.5 Billion in $LUNA Tokens
89 million LUNA tokens are set to be burned after the Terra community voted on it earlier this week. The proposal was put forward by Terra Co-Founder, Do Kwon, with the intention to change the LUNA value accrual mechanism. After the vote was passed, 520,000 LUNA (or approximately $25M) was burned, with the remaining ~88 million tokens to be burned over the next two weeks. Additionally, Do Kwon also mentioned (in May 2021) that the token burn is also being utilized as a revenue generation event to bootstrap Ozone Protocol, an upcoming insurance platform for Terra’s DeFi ecosystem.
⎆Twitter Forms New Crypto Team
Jack Dorsey and Twitter have been extremely involved with the crypto community for the last few years. Unsurprisingly, Twitter is now ramping up its web 3.0 efforts by forming a new crypto team led by Tess Rinearson. On her announcement tweet thread, Rinearson outlined a few plans for the near future such as dApps, virtual goods, and currencies within the Twitter ecosystem. Additionally, the new team will also be working with Blue Sky, Twitter’s decentralized social networking project.
👨🏻💻Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
Trailblazer THORChain Accidentally Front-runs THORSwap Community in Latest Woe
Tether’s USDT to Launch on Avalanche
Wormhole Supports Polygon Ecosystem
PsyOptions to Build European Options With Serum Core
SEC Halts Token Registration for First Legally Recognized DAO
Keep3r Fixed Forex: $1bn TVL, zarp.cash Collaboration, and ZAR Launch
The University of Cambridge to Launch Decentralized Carbon Credit Marketplace on The Tezos Blockchain
'This is Up From Zero Just a Matter of Months Ago:' QCP Says Its DeFi Option Trading Has Hit $250 Million a Week
🏛Governance - Active Proposals
Tokemak - FIP-38: Tokamak Reactor and Swap
Fei - FIP-41: LUSD Auction
Gitcoin - dGTC Workstream Q4 Budget Proposal
🦮NFT & Metaverse
Tencent Shares Its Metaverse Vision for the First Time
Now Disney's Going in on the Metaverse, Too
Country Music Association to Release NFT Collection for Its Latest Award Show
Beeple's "Human One" Sculpture And NFT Sells For $29M
Solana-Based GameFi Title Genopets to Partner With Yield Guild Games
At Least 77% of NFT Art Sales Going to Male Creators: Study
Pixlr Genesis Users Are Building the 'Louvre of the Metaverse' With NFTs
Top Sales (Last 24-h); Source: https://dappradar.com/nft
📈Deal Flow & Capital Raise
Izumi Finance - $2.1M Unknown Round
Zebec Protocol - $6M Unknown Round
CoreWeave - $50M Unknown Round
MineOne - $20M First Funding Round
⚖️Regulatory Update
SEC Stops Wyoming-Based DAO From Registering 2 Digital Tokens
Crypto Adoption Numbers in India Could Be ‘Exaggerated,’ Says RBI Governor
MakerDAO’s Christensen Turns Optimistic After US Stablecoin Report
Indonesia’s Religious Leaders Declare Crypto Illegal for Muslims: Report
📚Noteworthy Reads
SBF’s Thread on Coinbase’s Q3 Earnings
Steven Johnson’s Post on Blockchain Promises
Ryan Watkins’ Thread on Building a Smart Contract Platform
Feel free to reach out to manoppomarco@gmail.com — feedbacks and constructive criticisms are much appreciated.
DISCLAIMER:
All the information presented on The WAGMI Journal publication and its affiliation is strictly for educational purposes only. It should not be construed or taken as financial, legal, investment, and any other forms of advice. Writers, authors, and contributors of The WAGMI Journal may hold any assets mentioned in the issue.