Crypto Market Overview February 15th | Dex-Trade

Alan Lane of Silvergate Encouraged SBF Scams

A class-action lawsuit was filed in the District Court for the Northern District of California on February 14 against Silvergate Bank and its CEO, Alan Lane, in which the defendants were charged with “aiding and abetting” a “multibillion-dollar fraudulent scheme orchestrated by Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF)” using tools from FTX and Alameda Research. The lawsuit was filed by a group of lawyers representing a San Francisco-based FTX user who, like all other clients of the bankrupt crypto exchange, had an amount of about $20,000 frozen. The plaintiff in the case is Soham Bhatia, who alleges that Silvergate Bank, its parent Silvergate Capital Corporation (SCC) and CEO Alan Lane knew that FTX and Alameda Research were using their clients' funds for personal purposes. Therefore, Bhatia accuses SCC of hiding the “the true nature of FTX” from its customers: “By aiding, abetting, encouraging and substantially assisting the wrongful acts, omissions and other misconduct alleged above, Defendants acted with an awareness of their wrongdoing and realized that their conduct would substantially aid the accomplishment of their illegal design.” The authors of the claim require compensation for damages and compensation for the damage caused. However, the document still needs to be approved by the district court before it can be considered.

 

CZ “Predicts” a Global Transition to Non-Dollar Stablecoins

According to Binance CEO and Founder, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the cryptocurrency industry may soon shift from U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins to algorithmically-backed stablecoins with other assets across the board. “The amount of pressure put on stablecoins is quite significant. Multiple agencies are applying pressure there. That will shrink the USD stablecoin market, so the industry is exploring its options.” Recently, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched local repressions against the issuer of the stablecoin Paxos and the Kraken crypto exchange. However, USDT, USD Coin, BUSD, and DAI still account for more than 10% of the global cryptocurrency market capitalization, despite the fact that fiat-backed stablecoins are quite successful in avoiding such manipulation by governments. Therefore, CZ believes that the industry may be flooded with other assets and algorithmically based stablecoins in the near future: “I think we’ll see more euro- or other, Japanese yen, Singapore dollar-based stablecoins.” By the way, on Monday, the New York State Department of Financial Services ordered Paxos Trust Co. suspend the issuance of BUSD. At the moment, it is known that the company intends to comply with the requirements of the regulator on February 21. In addition, Paxos management has promised to cut all ties with Binance.

 

Snoop Dogg Donates 22 NFTs to the Museum of Art

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) accepted a gift from a digital art collector under the pseudonym Cozomo de' Medici (the alter ego of iconic rapper Snoop Dogg on Web3). The rapper donated 22 NFTs from his personal collection to the museum. At the moment, it is known that the exposition, which includes new exhibits, will be permanent. At the same time, the CEO of LACMA, Michael Govan, has already stated that the collection of blockchain exhibits donated to Cozomo is the first and, accordingly, the largest in the history of the American art museum. Meanwhile, the “mysterious collector” and NFT lover already has a huge following (about 278,000 followers) and has amassed an impressive collection of digital artifacts worth about $17 million back in 2021. As for the collection for LACMA, the museum's permanent collection now includes works such as CryptoPunk #3831 (estimated at about $2.1 million), Woman no. 001 by Yam Karkai, A feeling i can't get a finger on by Claire Silver, Fragments of An Infinite Field #972 by Monica Rozzolli, and an AI-generated artwork by ArtBlocks. By the way, Cozomo de’ Medici has already received the title of “grand patron of the digital arts” from LACMA representatives. A little more and Snoop Dogg will be canonized...