Banksy NFT Scammer Returns Funds!: Crypto News Recap, Sept. 1
Crypto News

Banksy NFT Scammer Returns Funds!: Crypto News Recap, Sept. 1

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Plus, find out what's going on with Tether, with the former US president, and with LedgerX and FTX.

Banksy NFT Scammer Returns Funds!: Crypto News Recap, Sept. 1

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A Tizzy Over Tether

This musing may be for those that are already in the know, because if we have to start with a long history of Tether and the NYC courts, this newsletter won’t fit into your inbox. 

To condense the past Tether drama into one sentence: Tether is a stablecoin that claimed to be 1:1 to the dollar, people doubted them, no one audited them, people thought they manipulated BTC’s price by printing more Tether, Tether changed tune to say they were backed by less than 75% in dollars, Tether and crypto exchange Bitfinex paid $18.5B fine to NYAG without admitting wrongdoing for anything. Oh, and Tether and Bitfinex are connected by having overlapping directors and structures and they may or may not have helped each other out in an allegedly unlawful manner after an $850M theft from the exchange back in 2018. That’s two sentences, sorry.
(If you want to dive deep into Tether’s murky past, take a look at our history of Tether).
As of today, Sept. 1, Tether has a market capitalization of over $65B and is one of the main stablecoins used for getting in and out of the crypto markets. And if you’ve processed all of the above, you can understand that the crypto media (and probably anyone in finances in general) should still be pretty curious about how Tether operates. 
That curiosity peaked for crypto news outlet Coindesk last week, and they requested a copy of the stablecoin’s asset reserve composition for Tether Options Limited from the New York Attorney General under the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL).

Tether and Bitfinex’s attorney did not like this. They didn’t like this enough that they filed a petition to prevent Coindesk (and anyone else that filed under the FOIL) from seeing these documents.

The question here is — why?

Tether’s petition claimed that releasing this information would hurt their business interests, and would give their competitors an advantage by revealing their “at least three secret and competitively sensitive types of data.” 

Coindesk claims that they are only seeking the information about Tether’s reserves backing, nothing else. 

We’ll have to wait and see which side FOIL will fall on in this case — will Coindesk get the reserve backing numbers, or will Tether get to maintain its “competitive advantage as a leader in the industry”? Will Tether ever release their reserve breakdown on their own, as their $18.5B settlement requires?

Check back in next week (or month, or year) for the next episode in the Tether vs. the people saga.

An NFT Scam with an Unexpected Twist 🎨

A crypto scammer who stole $340,000 after hacking Banksy’s website and selling a fake NFT has returned the funds. Well-known collector Pranksy had paid 100 ETH for the bogus artwork. They have now been made whole… minus fees. Describing the refund as “totally unexpected,” the victim appeared to take the news in their stride — writing: “#PranksyGotBanksyd.” Learn more

Trump Calls Crypto ‘A Disaster Waiting to Happen’ ₿

Donald Trump — the former (and possible future) U.S. president — has doubled down on his criticism of crypto. He has warned investors to stay away from such assets, telling Fox News they hurt the dollar by threatening its position as the world’s reserve currency. Meanwhile, the Biden administration wants U.S. crypto firms to report foriegn buyers’ transactions. More here.

Major League Baseball Brings NFT Trading Cards to Avalanche ⚾

Trading card giant Topps is bringing its 2021 collection of digital baseball cards to the new Avalanche blockchain. The 2021 Topps MLB Inception NFT Collection launches on September 9 on ToppsNFTs.com, the company’s new DApp. ToppsNFTs.com “removes the need for special wallets or token apps” while providing a single marketplace, it said. What’s on offer.

Crypto Exchange FTX.US Buys Derivatives Platform LedgerX 📈

The U.S. arm of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX cryptocurrency exchange has acquired crypto derivatives platform LedgerX. Crypto futures and options have seen growing scrutiny from regulators around the world recently. Bankman-Fried called derivatives a “somewhat misunderstood area” of DeFi on Monday. Get the story here.
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