February 3, 2023

The biggest crypto news and ideas of the day

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Welcome to The Node. This is Daniel Kuhn, here to take you through the latest in crypto news and why it matters. In today's newsletter:

In the news: 16 Bitcoin developers could stand trial in London early 2023. Binance asks WazirX's corporate parent withdraw any remaining assets held. And a bullish trading indicator – the golden cross – has bitcoin traders giddy.
The takeaway: CoinDesk columnist Ajit Tripathi writes about the difference between "money' and "tech" crypto, and how real differences in decentralization matter for industry advocates.

4 Suits

16 Bitcoin developers could stand trial in London early 2023, following a claim filed by Craig Wright's Tulip Trading Limited that was initially dismissed last March. Wright, who claims to have invented the blockchain, sued prominent devs including Peter Todd, Roger Ver and Pieter Wuille arguing they ignored "fiduciary duties" that the U.K. Court of Appeals found to be a "serious issue to be tried" due to current legal uncertainty. Meanwhile, YouTube star Logan Paul and a number of associates were named in a proposed class-action lawsuit over a yet-to-materialize NFT project called CryptoZoo while the U.S. Department of Justice's fraud unit reportedly opened a probe into crypto bank Silvergate's dealings with FTX. Finally, the U.S. Trustee, a DOJ branch, has denied a request to subpoena Sam Bankman-Fried and associates because it would duplicate efforts and create unnecessary expenses.

By the Numbers

Bitcoin and the S&P 500 benchmark index are on the verge of hitting an easy-to-track bullish technical indicator – the golden cross – that often prefigures a market rally. This measure of the 50-day simple moving average against the 200-day SMA has happened eight times in Bitcoin history. Taking a longer view, crypto-focused venture capital (VC) and other investments dropped to $548 million last month from $6 billion in January 2022, according to CoinDesk data. Deals for privately held, centralized startups took a particular hit, and it's possible the financing plunge does not yet fully reflect potential damage caused by the collapse of FTX in November given the amount of time deals take to construct. Finally, a Wall Street Journal investigation found four men owned 86% of Tether's USDT in 2018 – a massive concentration of ownership for this critical part of crypto's trading ecosystem.

On Offer

Binance has invited Zanmai Labs, the entity operating India's largest crypto exchange WazirX, to withdraw any remaining assets held in Binance wallets, in the latest escalation of a public spat between the firms. "The responsibility ultimately lies with the Zanmai team to make the withdrawals expeditiously," Binance, which reportedly soured on a buyout of WazirX last year, said in a blog. This comes as G-20 President India, which implemented a strict national regulatory regime, discloses details of a crypto plan drafted in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund. Elsewhere, publicly traded bitcoin miner Marathon Digital has sold bitcoin for the first time ever to take advantage of the recent price swing and pay bills. Plus, Mastercard's NFT lead quit and minted his drama-filled resignation as a digital token.

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Sound Bites: Sour Fruits

"It's going to put a real shock of reality into the DAO ecosystem."

– Benjamin Bathgate, partner at Canadian-based law firm McMillan LLP, discussing the Mango Markets lawsuit, on CoinDesk TV's "First Mover"

The Takeaway: Advocates Advance?

For good reasons, the crypto industry has largely focussed on education and advocacy in the United States but the opportunity in crypto is global. This means thinking globally but acting locally. The United Kingdom., European Union and India have a very different institutional architecture than the U.S., and the concerns and dynamics are very different. For example, India merged its versions of the CFTC and the SEC after the famous Harshad Mehta stock market debacle of 1992, while the U.K. reorganized its architecture after the 2008 failure of Lehman Brothers. Understanding these differences and their origins can lead to informed, credible conversations. Ignoring them can lead to an instant loss of credibility.

Let's not delude ourselves into believing that an eventual market rally put bitcoin back in the public's good graces. FTX, as a mainstream brand, has brought the industry significant unfavorable attention, not only from governments but from the voters that elect the governments. While the financial impact is likely transitory, the shift in public perception of the industry has changed the ground rules for crypto advocacy. Whereas advocacy in 2020-2022 focused on legal arguments and political bargaining, advocacy in this new court of public opinion requires a far more thoughtful and measured approach.

One key lesson of 2022 is that "money crypto" and "tech crypto" need to be treated differently. Money crypto in this context includes crypto-financial services such as custody, exchanges, market making, investing and lending. And tech crypto includes open-source, public permissionless innovation such as blockchains, decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFT), Web3 gaming, wallets, tools and infrastructure. Financial stability and consumer protection failures in crypto did not arise from the failure of technology, but the failure of oversight and controls.

Complacency in advocating on behalf of truly decentralized firms will mean adverse crypto regulation across the world that will cripple both Web3 tech and crypto markets. Tech crypto, which continues to drive exponential innovation in fields ranging from art and culture to distributed computing and cryptography, deserves a far better reputation, public perception and popular support than the unfortunate failures of money crypto have allowed us. Therefore, it's time to invest far more energy and talent into policy, education and advocacy than we ever have as an industry.

At some point, all rebellious teenagers have to grow up. For our industry, the time has come.

– Ajit Tripathi is a CoinDesk columnist, and Web3 angel investor and adviser. He has previously worked at Aave, Binance, ConsenSys and Goldman Sachs

Off-Chain Signals

Ex-App Store Director: 'Apple Had a Problem With Crypto From Day One' (Decrypt)
Billionaire Tim Draper Pitches Sri Lanka on Bitcoin, Gets Rejected (Bloomberg – paywalled)
Michael Saylor says Silvergate has been 'responsible' amid crypto collapse (The Block)
WisdomTree reports fourth quarter loss as crypto holdings fall (The Block)
Kraken shutters Abu Dhabi office a year after gaining license (Protos)
NFT wash trade accounts for 6.5% of daily sales volume on OpenSea (Protos)
Ray Dalio warns money is in jeopardy, favors inflation-linked crypto (Markets Insider)

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