Crime, Punishment & A few Positives
We’re making today’s post free for all readers on Substack, to give you an idea of what you’re missing through the week… happy reading!
Let’s face it this is dispiriting, there are so many crypto V1.0 types in jail or under charges that it’s difficult to see the wood for the trees in the benefits of crypto and blockchain. The problem is the dubious end of the spectrum involves numerous identities who are reluctant to ship out.
However, CZ will soon be shipping out with his sentencing at month’s end: The Next Crypto Sentencing: Binance's "CZ" Set For April 30 (Axios). More immediately, the record holder for sentencing in the crypto wave so far has begun his marathon term: Turkish Crypto Chief Starts 11,196-Year Prison Sentence (Finextra). You may recall Faruk Fatih Ozer, the former boss of failed Turkish cryptocurrency exchange Thodex, who as we reported in EI 2758 was lucky to escape with ‘just’ 11196 years when prosecutors sought a 40,562 year sentence.
Meanwhile in Nigeria, the government continues to double down on the Binance executive detained there as well as his escaped colleague:
Binance And Its Detained US Exec Face More Charges In Nigeria
Cointelegraph
Binance And Its Detained American Staffer Face More Charges In Nigeria
WSJ
Court To Arraign Binance Executives For Money Laundering On Thursday
Vanguard News
Meanwhile, Binance Requests Release Of Detained Employee In Nigeria (Crypto News) is falling on deaf ears as Nigeria Teams With Interpol To Return Missing Binance Exec (Protos) as we mentioned yesterday.
Other stories on the same topic include: Binance Says Compliance Chief Detained In Nigeria Has No Decision-Making Power At Firm (CoinDesk) / Binance Releases Statement Ahead Of Its Execs’ Court Trial In Nigeria (CoinGape).
In more positive news for what was formerly CZ Inc, Binance Sets Up Polish Entity to Serve Belgian Clients (PYMNTS). There is also an apparent positive as Talos And Coinbase Derivatives Open New Avenue For Institutional Crypto Derivatives Trading (PR Newswire).
Approved: Green-X Digital Asset Exchange Approved Listing Of US Based Dignity Gold Security Token DIGau (Morningstar) and good news for creditors as FTX Estate Aiming To Begin Creditor Repayments By The Close Of 2024 according to Eyewitness News in the Bahamas where FTX was based.
Another stablecoin is coming from the Van Eck clan on this occasion: Van Eck Heir To Launch New USD Stablecoin With $12M VC Backing (CoinTelegraph). Nick van Eck, the son of founder Jan van Eck is set to launch a new USD-backed stablecoin after closing a $12-million funding round albeit the product will not be available in the US until regulation is clearer there.
After the discussion just a few days back that Bitthumb was preparing for an IPO in Korea, come some ghastly numbers: Bithumb Posts 57% Annual Loss Soon After Delayed IPO (CoinTelegraph) with Annual Sales Revenue ₩1.358 billion -57.6% and Net profit ₩243 billion -74.5%
In what will likely be his swansong in the role, SEC Chair Gary Gensler Signals That Disclosure Will Be A Key Issue In The Year Ahead (NBC Chicago) which bodes ill for those in crypto still trying to avoid being bound by SEC remit. Meanwhile a GOP Commissioner makes an apposite point: SEC's Closed-Door Policy Stifling Crypto Innovation — Hester Peirce (Cointelegraph) which is that the SEC is so busy with Chairman Gensler’s vast agenda of expansion that nobody in the agency has any bandwidth to consider new ideas.
Finally today, I always thought it was clear that crypto nirvana was always a libertarian dream that could not meet reality head-on and survive. This is seemingly not clear to many in the world of crypto V1.0. Thus Argentina’s President Milei calling for regulation of “VASP” entities is common sense but many crypto kiddies are having an e-pram toy throw. That is frustrating as without some form of coherent regulation the world simply doesn’t function. Given how so many pixels of Bitcarnage are devoted to the incarceration and other penalties for crypto infringements it is odd that so many disparage Milei for acting like a sensible, coherent, reforming President: Argentina President Milei Disappoints Some Bitcoiners As Crypto Registration Rule Begins (Yahoo Finance).
From our sister publication, EI Weekend:
IPOVID LIVESTREAM
NEXT WEEK TUESDAY! Season 23: Episode 06
IPO-VID Livestream 138
Guest: Tom Caldwell
Tuesday, April 9th, 2024: 1700 UK, 1800 CET, 1200 EST
"Exchanging Investments - Tom Caldwell"
Thomas S. Caldwell has been in the investment industry since graduating from McGill University in 1965.
Mr. Caldwell is President, CEO & Director of Urbana Corporation, a publicly traded investment company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Canadian Securities Exchange (“CSE”). He is also a past Chairman of the CSE, “The Exchange for Entrepreneurs”.
Mr. Caldwell is a Retired Honorary Colonel of The Lincoln and Welland Regiment and was a Governor of the Toronto Stock Exchange who is recognized as one of the world’s foremost investors in securities exchanges.
Urbana Corporation and its affiliated companies and investment pools were the second-largest owners of the New York Stock Exchange prior to the NYSE’s demutualization.
IPO-VID LIVESTREAM PODCAST
In the IPO-VID podcast episode #136, Patrick L Young was joined by former IPO-VID guest, University of Iceland Professor and seasoned statistician, Gunnar Stefansson.
Listen as Gunnar discusses "Smileycoin - The Happy Face Of Crypto" delivering education with some fabulous additional function.
Now available from multiple different podcast sources:
EI Website
Spotify
Google Podcasts
Apple Podcast
EI WEEKLY PODCAST
India Starts T+0,
Aquis Powers Ahead,
SGX changing CCP rules,
JSE IPOs Rising.
VICTORY OR DEATH
20 years on from the first fintech bestseller “Capital Market Revolution!”… “Victory Or Death” is a must read book for anyone interested in the intersection of Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and FinTech as part of the whole future of finance.
*Paid link, as an Amazon Associate, Exchange Invest earns from qualifying purchases.
FINANCE BOOK OF THE WEEK
In response to reader’s queries, we have added a book of the week column to the EI weekend edition - interesting books pertaining to exchanges and markets, investment et al.
- Anybody can sign up for EI Weekend for free at ExchangeInvest.com.
This week’s book was written by our IPO-VID 131 guest, polyglot commodities trader, musician, author & widely read columnist, Brad Schaeffer:
“Life in the Pits: My Time as a Trader on the Rough-and-Tumble Exchange Floors” recalls those last, most glorious days when red-faced alphas in colorful jackets performed thousands of transactions per hour, even as computerized trading heralded the floors’ ultimate demise. Schaeffer recalls the uneasy camaraderie of working right next to fierce competitors, the sheer intensity of dealing in stacks of money changing hands with a simple scream or hand signal, and the hijinks, excesses, and collection of characters as colorful as the jackets they wore, giving the reader an intimate look into what life was like down in the financial mosh pits.
Get the book here.
*Paid link, as an Amazon Associate, Exchange Invest earns from qualifying purchases.
Suggestions welcome if you would like to nominate a book for us to cover!
Our next Book of the week will be unveiled Saturday in the EI Weekend Edition.
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