🛍️FTX Readies Billions for Acquisitions - TWJ #155

SBF goes on a shopping spree.

In today’s issue:

The crypto market is up with a total market cap of ~$1.3 trillion. STEPN is the worst performer (excluding LUNA Classic) in the top 100 in the past 7-d. EU leaders agreed to pursue a partial ban on Russian oil.

In other news, FTX readies billions for acquisitions, STEPN blocks mainland China users, and Mirror Protocol suffers a $90M exploit.

---

We’re continually improving our content, please reach out if you have ideas or want us to recap another market segment.

- Curated by Marco Manoppo (@manoppomarco)

📰Market News

⎆FTX Readies Billions for Acquisitions

Crypto giant FTX stated that it is ready to deploy billions to buy stakes in other companies as it looks to offer more products and become more vertically integrated. This move came as the growth equity market has been hit due to macroeconomic uncertainty.

FTX did the right strategy by raising a significant amount of money prior to the downturns in the global equities market that started happening in May. The firm now has a massive war chest and can go on shopping in an environment with massive discounts.

⎆STEPN Blocks Mainland China Users

Move-to-earn firm, STEPN, which has received a lot of popularity in the past few quarters has decided to block users in mainland China. The move came due to regulatory concerns and caused the GST token in BSC to drop by more than 90%.

Wu Blockchain @WuBlockchain

Stepn officially stated on Twitter Space that the reason for banning Chinese users is that its technical team is located in China and needs to comply with local regulatory policies, will continue to focus on products rather than token prices in the future.

STEPN | Public Beta Phase IV @Stepnofficial

It is Friday the Twitter Discussion Space with @Barndog_Solana . Make sure to follow us on twitter. Like, retweet and comment below to get the chance to win a BSC Genesis NFT Common Shoebox. https://t.co/zbBRB5yem7

⎆Mirror Protocol Suffers a $90M Exploit

Synthetic equity DeFi protocol on Terra blockchain, Mirror Protocol, has experienced a $90M exploit. Reportedly, the exploit might have been happening undetected since October 2021.

FatMan @FatManTerra

Two coffees later, as I was about to give up, I found this. Hold on... What's going on here? A single transaction from October 2021 unlocking one position over and over again - and it actually executed. Here's the transaction: finder.terra.money/mainnet/tx/08D… (9/12)

👨🏻‍💻Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

• Ropsten Merge Announcement

• Mirror Protocol Exploit

• StarkNet Dai Bridge is Live

• StarkGate Alpha New Version - V1.5.0 is now Live on Mainnet

• Stargate Native Gas Deliver

• Sushi Deploy on Kava with $14M Incentives

• DeFi Saver is Live on Arbitrum and Optimism

• Dopex Interest Rate Vault Epoch is now Live

• MPL Staking is Live

• $GEL Lockdrop Program

🏛Governance - Active Proposals

• PoolTogether - PTIP-73 300k PTaUSDC for Project Optimism and Greater Prize Reserves

🦮NFT & Metaverse

• Prada Joining Top Luxury Brands in Web3 With Ethereum NFTs

Top Sales (Last 24-h); Source: https://dappradar.com/nft

📈Deal Flow & Capital Raise

• Quint - $25M Unknown Round

• MeMusic - $1.1M Seed Round

• Ayoken - $1.4M Pre-Seed Round

• DTTCoins - $10M Series A

• Mondu - $43M Series A

• Komon - $2M Pre-Seed Round

• Alloy - $3M Pre-Seed Round

• First Digital Trust - $20M Series A

• Kava & SUSHI - $14M Incentive Program

⚖️Regulatory Update

• Copper's Swiss Unit Approved to Join Self-Regulatory Body VQF

• India 'Fairly Ready' With Crypto Consultation Paper

• Korean Prosecutors Summon All Terraform Labs Staff

• Chinese State Media Signals Tighter Crypto Regulations in Terra Aftermath

• Aussie Consumer Group Calls for Better Crypto Regs Due to ‘Lagging Laws’

• Singapore to Explore Digital Asset Tokenization on Public Chains

📚Noteworthy Reads

• Danny Ryan’s Read on The Risks of Liquid Staking Derivatives

• Wintermute Intern’s Thread on Crypto Market Making

• Teng’s Thread on Short Note on NFTs

Feel free to reach out to manoppomarco@gmail.com — feedbacks and constructive criticisms are much appreciated.