Welcome back chain reaction.
Earlier this week, Binance.US halted its $1.3 billion deal to buy the assets of crypto broker Voyager Digital due to a “hostile and uncertain regulatory climate”.
The announcement comes about nine months after Voyager declared bankruptcy. At the time, the US-based company — and its subsidiaries — said in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in the Southern District of New York that it had between $1 billion and $10 billion in assets and more than 100,000 creditors.
In a court filing on Tuesday, Voyager’s lawyers said the company retains all rights to the $10 million good faith deposit from Binance.US to Voyager, as well as the reverse termination fee owed by the US-based cryptocurrency exchange.
“While our hope during this process was to help Voyager clients gain access to their cryptocurrencies in kind, the hostile and uncertain regulatory climate in the US has resulted in an unpredictable operating environment affecting the entire US business community,” Binance said. statement on Tuesday.
The downturn is the latest headache for Voyager, which has been trying to raise capital through asset sales so it can pay off creditors after declaring bankruptcy last year. The company also had an agreement with FTX, which agreed to buy Voyager’s assets but then collapsed in November (and filed for bankruptcy, too).
After Binance.US terminated the asset purchase agreement, Voyager He said “The development is disappointing,” but its Chapter 11 plan allows the company to return cryptocurrency and cash directly to customers through its platform.
In line with plan, we will now move quickly to return value to customers via direct distributions. We will provide more information about the next steps and any actions customers need to take in the coming days.”
This week on web3
OpenSea’s next journey is to help Web 2.0 brands navigate web3 (TC+)
OpenSea, one of the largest NFT marketplaces, is known for its trading platform, which allows users to buy and sell digital assets. OpenSea Chief Business Officer Shiva Rajaraman said the company continues to expand its product footprint to attract other audiences such as Web 2.0 brands.
Crypto Wallet Phantom to release public multi-line support for Ethereum and Polygon
Phantom, a crypto wallet for Solana blockchain users, will start supporting the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains in a public launch across browsers, iOS and Android on Monday, May 1 at 9 a.m. EST, the company exclusively told TechCrunch. Support for the two new blockchains was originally scheduled to be introduced in the first quarter of 2023, but has been delayed. Phantom CEO and co-founder Brandon Millman told TechCrunch that multi-string integration will be available to its 3 million users.
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is suing the SEC over a rule-making petition
The exchange said on Monday that Coinbase had filed a petition to force the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to respond to a months-old petition asking whether the securities regulator would allow regulation of the industry using existing SEC frameworks, escalating its tensions with the regulator that has stepped up enforcement action and warnings against it. Crypto companies, including the US giant.
What happens to cryptocurrencies when they die? (TC+)
As the crypto industry matures, one often overlooked consideration in estate planning for your assets is often overlooked at the pass. Since a lot of crypto assets are held in hot and cold wallets and guarded by private keys (among other security elements), that money can be lost virtually forever without a plan. “The call to action is doing it,” said Jaime Herren, an attorney at Holland & Knight. “Don’t think you are too young to plan your assets.” (Of course, this advice also applies to people with traditional ancestry, too.)
Coinbase’s Layer 2 Blockchain Plans for Mainnet Launch 2023
Coinbase’s blockchain has been operating in the testnet, a test phase of the blockchain network, since late February. It doesn’t share “official timelines,” but Jesse Pollack, Base Lead and Head of Protocols at Coinbase, revealed exclusively to TechCrunch that Base plans to launch its mainnet in 2023. “It’s soon, we’re working hard,” Pollack said. Along with the decentralization goals, the rest of the year is really about making sure we get there as quickly as possible.”
latest pod
In last week’s episode, Jacqueline interview Jesse Pollack, the Base Administrator and Head of Protocols at Coinbase. Base is an Ethereum-focused Layer 2 blockchain launched by Coinbase in February this year.
Pollack previously led all retail engineering at Coinbase, including building Coinbase, Coinbase Pro, and Coinbase Wallet. In a past life, Pollack started Clef, a 2FA mobile app and was an engineer at BuzzFeed.
A number of crypto companies, platforms, marketplaces, and infrastructure companies have committed to building on Base. Those who plan to participate include Blockdaemon, Chainlink, Etherscan, Quicknode, Aave, Animoca Brands, Dune, Nansen, Magic Eden, Pyth, Rainbow Wallet, Ribbon Finance, The Graph, Wormhole, and Gelato, to name a few.
We talked a lot about Base and where it’s headed in the future, as well as how regulations could affect the blockchain and the mainnet launch timeline; Pollack shared that he is aiming for 2023.
We also dive into:
- decentralization base
- Internationally growing developers
- Coinbase’s role in Base
- Tips for developers
participation in chain reaction on apple podcast, Spotify Or your favorite capsule platform to keep up with the latest episodes, and please leave us a comment if you like what you hear!
Follow the money
- Now worth $500 million, Cosmose is ditching Stripe to embrace its near-encryption solution
- Digital asset provider Zodia Custody has raised $36 million
- Izumi Finance has raised $22 million for a multi-chain DeFi protocol
- Cata Labs has raised $4.2 million for its blockchain-focused liquidity protocol
- Animoca Brands’ TinyTap has raised $8.5 million for its educational games
This list was compiled with information from Messari as well as TechCrunch’s own reporting.
For a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and hottest crypto stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday at 12pm PT, head over to TechCrunch. Subscribe here.
Follow me on Twitter @employee For breaking crypto news, memes and more.