Daily Bullets 💊: Tornado Cash Sanctioned - Regulators Coming Down Hard!

💊 M6 Daily Bullets 💊 Monday, August 8th

The crypto markers are seeing a little bit of oomph today. Bitcoin tagged $24k and ETH was able to kiss $1800 before retracing. Let’s see if we see any follow through. The biggest developing narrative we see today is that on the regulatory front with the US officially sanctioning Tornado Cash. This, in addition to recent developments by the US Department of Justice and SEC to label certain cryptos as securities highlight that crypto is at the stage where this type of regulation feels inevitable. The suits are coming. Crypto exchanges and entities are also in the process of declaring sides in the upcoming potential PoW forking of Ethereum after the merge 

⛓ Crypto News: 

• The U.S. Treasury Department has barred all U.S. persons from using Tornado Cash, alleging its use in laundering stolen crypto funds by North Korean hackers poses a national security threat

• Three crypto exchanges so far will allow traders to speculate on tokens for anticipated Ethereum fork. Poloniex and MEXC listing tokens tied to a possible miner-led fork of Ethereum. BitMEX - futures derivative product. Huobi, Gate, Digifinex, and OKX evaluating official support

• Cryptocurrency lending platform Hodlnaut has frozen withdrawals, deposits and token swaps after facing "difficult market conditions"

• The victim of an email-based cyberattack, cross-chain protocol deBridge Finance says its investigation shows the action likely came from the North Korea-associated Lazarus Group

• Galaxy Digital eyeing growing via mergers and acquisitions, particularly in the area of tokenization - despite $554M loss

• Beanstalk stablecoin relaunches four months after $182M exploit

• Forked versions of the Ethereum blockchain, including PoW forks, will not be supported by the Chainlink protocol

• Polygon-Based Web3 Game Dragoma Supporters Fall Victim to $3.5M Rug Pull

• Redacted v2 launch on August 8 - transition from a bond-centric, dilutive token model to a model focused on producing real yield for rlBTRFLY holders 

• Ren has integrated Kava to provide native BTC and more cross-chain support

• zkLend - Artemis test is live

• Arweave ecosystem is launching 6 new services and protocols

•  New ACA Staking Program, Altair rewins parachain slot on Kusama, Polkadot Weekly Digest

• ​​Aston Martin has announced the implementation of crypto payments on its official online store

• BitMEX, one of the longest running derivatives exchanges in the crypto market, is moving into traditional financial markets with the launch of perpetual swap contracts tied to foreign currencies

• Crypto.com receives South Korean regulatory licenses after buying local firms

---

📊 Data: 

• Nansen Smart Money Holdings Token Inflow and Outflows: Tracking what the whales are up to...

- Inflow: WETH ($23.3M), USDC ($9.7M), USDT ($6M)

- Outflow: WBTC ($6M), aWETH_v2 ($1.4M), APE ($775k) 

Nansen NFT Hot Contracts:

• The Awakened Woman: $471k

• Webaverse Genesis Pass: $296k

• ProjectAtama: $95k 

---

🎓 Research:

• Wu Blockchain - Weekly Project Update: Aptos Update, Optimism Bedrock, Polygon unlock and Top 10 Projects - source

• Delphi - The Complete Guide to Rollups - source

• Variant Fund - Sufficient Decentralization: A Playbook for web3 Builders and Lawyers - source

• Nansen - How Is Smart Money Playing The Bounce? - source

• What the Ethereum Merge Means for Crypto Projects and Investors - source

• A Framework for Web3 Infrastructure - source

• Manifold Finance and how they aim to target the $650m+ MEV industry - source

• Messari - State of Metaplex Q2 2022 - source

• Messari - State of Decentral Games Q2 2022 - source

• Bankless - The AMM Edition (Part I) | DeFi Download - source

• USDT, US Banks & More Coincidences - source

• Derivatives markets & products - source

• Web3 — Tokenised Communities vs. Tokenised Economies - source

---

🖼 NFTs/​Metaverse News:

• Animoca Brands releases the TOWER Token Web Store - currently available in Phase 1, allowing players to purchase in-game items for Crazy Defense Heroes using the $TOWER token on the Polygon network

• Luxury jewelry retailer Tiffany & Co. debuted and sold out all 250 NFTiffs in about 20 minutes. Each NFT sold for 30 ETH, or about $50,000, generating some $12.5M in revenue

• Netflix Builds Metaverse Experience from Netflix’s new action movie “The Gray Man” in Decentraland

• Coca-Cola has distributed the new NFT collection launched on Polygon, among participants that joined its metaverse last year

---

🌍 Crypto Twitterverse:

Hasu⚡️🤖 @hasufl

after some reflection, here's my take on a eth pow fork 1. many, incl me, have predicted for years that miners would fork ethereum to extract the final juice out of their investment. it doesn't take nostradamus to see this.

Jack Niewold 🫡 @JackNiewold

IS A CIVIL WAR COMING TO CRYPTO? Ethereum's merge is coming, and with it comes the risk of a blockchain fork that could split the network in two. So, what are the odds of a viable Ethereum fork? How could it happen? And what does it mean for crypto investors? Read on:

Risk DAO @Risk_DAO

1/ What would be the effect of ETH-PoW (ETH1) on L2 and alt-chains lending markets? Depending on the value of ETH1, it could impact the correctness of the L2 ETH price oracle, the DEX liquidity of $ETH, or both. Each affects the stability of lending markets.

Galois Capital @Galois_Capital

Acknowledge that ETH1 can have value and try to work together to reach a minimally damaging situation. Supression didn't work for ETC, but you may think it can work here because forking state is difficult. Also EF and RHG have less dumping power than back then.

Barry Silbert @BarrySilbert

@Galois_Capital fwiw, our full support is behind ETH PoS, in addition to ETC, and have zero intention to support any ETH PoW fork. ETH miners should move to ETC to maximize their revenue long term. simple as that

Sisyphus @0xSisyphus

Sudoswap : Uniswap for NFT : shitcoin gambling enablement the difference is one had a token prior to product launch and raised no outside money; Uniswap was only forced to launch a token out of necessity [Sushi] and is a corporate entity

찌 G 跻 じ Goblin 𝙎𝙚𝙣𝙥𝙖𝙞 of the 𝙃𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙞 @DegenSpartan

another cefi lender halting user withdrawals

Hodlnaut @hodlnautdotcom

Dear users, we regret to inform you that we will be halting withdrawals, token swaps and deposits immediately due to recent market conditions. We have also withdrawn our MAS licence application. Here is our full statement https://t.co/5KfHUBzWsn Our next update will be on 19 Aug.

Haym Salomon @SalomonCrypto

(1/25) MEV, Flashbots ⚡️🤖 and the Future of @ethereum Looking to understand Maximum Extractable Value and the existential risk it presents to The World Computer? Want to know what's being done to address it? Your primer for the next market-defining narrative of crypto.

Daniele never asks to DM @danielesesta

1/ Liquidity is the backbone of DeFi and we built @PopsicleFinance to make it simple for our users to manage and profit off of it. Here are some lessons we’ve learned and where we’re heading.

Edgy - The DeFi Edge 🗡️ @thedefiedge

If Crypto has ever affected your Mental Health, read this:

---

📈 Fundraises: 

• Multi-blockchain platform Geeq has received a $25M 'capital commitment' from alternative investment group Global Emerging Markets

• Social gaming platform INK Games Raises $18.75M 

• FiNANCiE, a crowdfunding platform that utilizes blockchain, Raises $5.8M

---

Momentum 6 offers research, analysis, and coverage of the fast-paced Crypto space. 

The Crypto space never sleeps. Each day is filled with an overwhelming amount of information spread across various sources. 

This newsletter offers a Crypto-native perspective and a one-stop shop for everything you need to stay updated on the daily goings on in the Crypto world.

Subscribe to receive our brief daily and extended weekly newsletter along with in-house research content!

Please Share, Leave Feedback, and Follow us on Twitter, Telegram, and LinkedIn to stay connected with us.