Voyager Digital Sued for Charging Hidden Fees

PLUS: Gensler's crypto advisor, "left facing" Bored Apes and more |

The biggest crypto news and ideas of the day  Dec. 31, 2021 If you were forwarded this newsletter and would like to receive it, sign up here. Sponsored by     Welcome to The Node.   Questions? Feedback? We'd love to hear from you! Simply reply to this email.   –Daniel Kuhn Today's must-reads Top Shelf BON VOYAGE? Publicly traded cryptocurrency exchange Voyager Digital is facing a class-action lawsuit over alleged hidden fees being charged on its trades, according to a lawsuit filed in a federal Miami court on Dec. 24. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of a Florida resident, alleges that the "commission-free" platform employs various methods to charge secret commissions on trades, including by keeping the spread between the "bid" and "ask" prices intentionally wide, allegedly causing more than $1 billion in damages. Voyager says the lawsuit lacks merit.    SECURITY BLANKET: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler has hired a senior adviser specializing in cryptocurrency. Corey Frayer, who has more than a decade of experience working within congressional machine including fronting Sen. Sen. Sherrod Brown's crypto proposals, will assist the agency establish a regulatory framework for crypto. Meanwhile, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce told CoinDesk TV in an interview published Thursday that the U.S. doesn't need a dedicated crypto regulator – as some in the industry, like Coinbase, have called for. Pierce added the federal securities watchdog may take a closer look at NFTs in 2022. The full interview is well worth your time.    AN APE'S REFLECTION: Two Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) parody projects launched Wednesday have ignited plagiarism accusations, several trading bans and a robust supply of ape-themed memes. The two collections – both named PHAYC, a play on "fake" and "BAYC" – appear to be identical copies of the original BAYC collection (one of the most successful NFT projects to date), but with each ape's profile mirrored to the opposite side ... or "left-facing." Part pastiche, part social commentary on greed and intellectual property laws, the two projects sold out within hours of launch.    BLOCKCHAIN EXPOSURE: Sberbank, Russia's largest bank, has introduced what it said is the country's first exchange-traded fund (ETF) to provide exposure to companies involved in the blockchain industry. The so-called Sberbank Blockchain Economy ETF, which trades under "SBBE," tracks the "Sber Blockchain Economy Index," giving investors exposure to crypto trading firms, including Coinbase, Galaxy Digital and a host of other crypto mining, consulting and financial companies.   BINANCE IS BACK? On Wednesday, Binance emailed users saying it could continue operating in Ontario after successfully working with Canadian regulators. On Thursday, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) said, in fact, the exchange is "not authorized to offer trading in derivatives or securities to persons or companies" in Canada's most populous province. Binance, which previously alerted its Ontarian users it would shut down operations by Dec. 31 in the province, now says remedying this recent "miscommunication" is a top priority as it continues to seek a fully licensed status. A message from Nexo When it comes to buying, borrowing or earning on your crypto, you won't find and easier, safer way to do it than Nexo. Right now you can earn $25 worth of Bitcoin for each friend you refer. And the best part is that your referral gets $25 in BTC too! How it works? It's quite simple – sign in to your Nexo account, copy your unique link and start referring like your life depended on it!   And here's what'll happen next: you and your referrals will both get $25 in BTC within 30 days of them passing Advanced Verification and topping up the equivalent of $100 or more of any asset supported on the Nexo platform.   There's no limit on the number of people you can refer, so invite as many friends as you'd like! Join Nexo and start earning free BTC with your friends! What others are writing... Off-Chain Signals ICANN is blocking 23 gTLD transfers over blockchain fears (Domain Incite) Polygon co-founders say they've gotten rid of C-suite positions (The Block) Dreaming of the Perfect Metaverse ETF (Sam Reynolds/Blockworks) The Metaverse's Dark Side: Here Come Harassment and Assaults (NYTimes) A message from Horizen Happy Holidays from the Horizen Team! Join our holiday giveaway to win some $ZEN!   Horizen is the zero-knowledge network of blockchains powered by the largest and most decentralized node system. Its blockchain deployment protocol, Zendoo, is live on mainnet as of Dec. 1st, 2021!     Zendoo enables developers and businesses to deploy private and public blockchains with unmet scalability, flexibility, and throughput to support any real-world needs. Sponsored Content   Circle: Growth of Dollar Digital Currency Creates New Investment Opportunities for Businesses   In November 2021, the total value of dollar digital currencies surpassed $127 billion, according to a U.S. Treasury Department report. It has kept going up. A month later, it's more like $158 billion by CoinMarketCap's count, up staggeringly from $28 billion in January. Of that total, $42 billion can be ascribed to USD coin (USDC), a project from Circle that for months has been among the 10 largest market capitalizations of any cryptocurrency regardless of category.   Now that we're in the season of dollar digital currencies, Circle is working to make this innovation more accessible for B2B use around the world. The Chaser... The Node A newsletter from CoinDesk Were you forwarded this newsletter? Sign up here. See Previous Editions Copyright © 2021 CoinDesk, All rights reserved.  250 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10003, USA Manage your newsletter subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe from all CoinDesk email