Binance.US CEO Brian Schroeder has left the cryptocurrency exchange, and the company has cut one-third of its workforce, according to a spokesperson. It's been a tough year for U.S. crypto exchanges, and Binance.US is feeling particularly pressured. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged the company with securities law violations in June, based on complaints from another U.S. regulator.

"The steps we have taken today will provide Binance.US with more than seven years of financial runway and allow us to continue serving our customers while operating as a crypto-only exchange," the company said in a statement. Stated. "The SEC's aggressive attempts to cripple our industry and its impact on our business are having real-world effects on American jobs and innovation, and this is an unfortunate example of that. .”

Cryptocurrency derivatives exchange BitMEX has launched a prediction market that allows traders to bet on the outcome of real-world events. Prediction markets have been around for a while, but their popularity has skyrocketed thanks to Polymarket. Polimarket, which was fined $1.4 million in January 2022 for unregistered swaps, has been accused of everything from serious things like the winner of the first Republican primary debate to former President Obama's sexuality and an opportunity Russia could exploit. They offer bettors a number of deals, including some ridiculous ones. Will nuclear weapons be developed or aliens exist by the end of 2023? BitMEX's prediction market, which it calls its latest derivatives product, aims for the former rather than the latter, starting with prediction contracts on FTX's bankruptcy debt recovery rate and the likelihood of a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund being approved by October. There is. .17, Sam Bankman Freed could be in prison.

Cryptocurrency exchange FTX has amended its proposal to sell billions of dollars in crypto assets to allay concerns raised by the U.S. Trustee, the bankruptcy division of the Department of Justice. The proposal, filed on Tuesday, would allow FTX to take into account the market-moving effects of the trade ahead of time, as the prospect of crypto players selling as much as $100 million in assets per week has already chilled crypto prices. There is no need to issue a public notice. The US Trustee should initially object to FTX's plans and report any intent to sell Bitcoin (BTC) or Ether (ETH) as widely as possible to give others an opportunity to object. said. As a compromise, FTX agreed to keep the U.S. trustee in the loop, along with a committee representing the exchange's creditors.

This chart shows the change in cryptocurrency market depth since November 2022. Depth refers to the market's ability to absorb large buy and sell orders at stable prices.
The 0.1% depth, which is a collection of buy and sell orders within 0.1% of the midpoint, has recovered more than the 1%, 2%, and 4% gauges, representing a broader range of liquidity. .
The data shows market makers are increasingly providing liquidity in narrow ranges, Kaitaka said.
The overall liquidity situation has worsened since January, making it difficult for whales to execute large orders.

Lukso, a layer-1 blockchain for creative types co-founded by blockchain veterans Fabian Vogelsteller and Marjorie Hernandez, is releasing a beta version of its Universal Profile. This is a feature designed to provide users with a comprehensive "on-chain identity", including a recoverable crypto wallet and profile for interacting with social media applications.

Universal Profiles can be used for all kinds of applications on the blockchain (NFTs, decentralized social media, payments), consolidating a user's activities into one account that goes beyond just a wallet address.

Currently, the most common type of blockchain account known as an Externally Owned Account (EOA) has limited recovery options. If a user loses their private key, their crypto assets are lost forever. EOA accounts also cannot have any information attached to them that can be read by other smart contracts. EOA also prevents transaction fees from being paid by other parties. This means that the user is responsible for providing the gas price.

Lukso's universal profile comes with a recovery option using a smart contract account if you lose your keys, which can be restored via instructions or a key manager.
Additionally, universal profiles can read any information such as photos and videos, which can be attached to the profile and read by other decentralized applications or “dapps” on the blockchain.

The team says the aim of the project is to give brands the opportunity to bring their identity to the blockchain as a way to make Web3 more accessible to the masses.

“We’re trying to onboard 99% of users who haven’t used blockchain yet,” Lukso co-founder and Ethereum veteran Fabian Forgesteller said in an interview. “Because everyone who is currently using blockchain is a niche group of people who have learned to overcome the difficult steps.”

With a universal profile, users no longer have to pay gas fees (transaction fees) on the blockchain. The New Creative Economies Foundation, the organization behind Lukso, allocates a certain amount of his LYX as a user's gas usage and allows users to choose which relay to use to pay their gas bill. Setting up a marketplace. (It's like choosing a mobile plan.)

“We want to have a lot of transaction relay services that have their own business models and compete for users, because then we can get out of the problem.” Vogelsteller told CoinDesk.

Lukso's mainnet went live in May. Since then, around 57,000 validators have operated the network.

Vogelsteller boldly claims that eventually "Lukso will be bigger than Ethereum," but for now he sees it as just an improved version with more user-friendly features.
“It’s Ethereum, but it’s just a fantasy, it’s essentially Ethereum,” he said. “But what Ethereum lacks is easy adoption, ease of use, and a standard kind of capacity.”

Non-fungible tokens tied to the Stoner Cats web series starring Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher were illegally offered and used to finance the series, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) order on Wednesday. NFTs that generate royalties are unregistered securities.

The order states that in July 2021, the production company behind the animated show Stoner Cats 2 (SC2) will collect at least 100,000 Stoner Cat NFTs representing characters from the eponymous web animated show concept. It claims to have generated $8 million in sales. The collection's initial pre- and post-sale art goods "linked the show's success to the value of the NFTs," fueling investors' hopes of profiting from it, according to SEC filings.

“SC2 conducted an extensive media campaign to promote Stoner Cats NFTs before and after the offering, as the NFTs were traded on the secondary market,” the SEC said in its order. Stoner Cats NFT. ”

The company did not admit or deny any wrongdoing in the settlement, but agreed to pay a $1 million fine and destroy any remaining NFTs it held, according to the order. They also agreed to establish a fund to refund individuals who invested in the tokens.

Stoner Cats is an animated web show about anthropomorphic cats who gain "sentience" through exposure to marijuana smoke, according to the series' website. Six episodes were premiered from July 2021 to December 2022. The show will feature Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin as Lord Catchington, as well as voice actors from several Hollywood actors including Kunis, Seth McFarland, Chris Rock, Jane Fonda, Dax Shepard and Kutcher. is appearing.

The order states that the company "will reimburse the actors and artists (as well as the project's producers, management, and technical experts) for all of the proceeds of the offering, as well as all royalties generated from secondary market sales of Stoner Cats NFTs. paid.''

Kunis' production company, Orchard Farm Productions, backed the series, according to the show's website. Orchard Farm executives did not respond to requests for comment.

According to the SEC, Stoner Cats NFT holders were incentivized to trade their NFTs and received a 2.5% royalty on each secondary market transaction involving the collectibles. According to regulators, this led to individuals buying and selling NFTs in at least 10,000 secondary transactions worth more than $20 million. Additionally, at least 20% were resold before the first episode of the Stoner Cats web series aired, the order shows.

This is not the first time regulators have focused on allegations of securities offerings by NFT makers. Last month, the SEC filed an enforcement action against NFT maker Impact Theory.