In the contest to build DeFi projects, Etherem-based startups have the edge on their Solana counterparts.

About a fifth of Ethereum projects closed down over the last two years, according to a report from Lattice, a venture capital fund. That’s better than the 26% of Solana projects that foundered.

The researchers looked at blockchains with at least 15 crypto startups that raised funds during 2022.

BNB Chain-based projects were the least likely to remain active, with one-third of teams ceasing operations.

Speculative capital

Lattice said an influx of speculative capital during the bull market drove projects to over-extend themselves.

Many of those projects blamed the brutal market decline caused by events like the Terra ecosystem collapse and the FTX bankruptcy for forcing them to shut down, according to public statements from their founders in their closure notices.

The report also noted that nearly 80% of seed-stage Ethereum-based startups had shipped products since 2022, while just over 60% of Solana projects could say the same.

While Solana’s price has climbed 32% this year, the report stands as a grim reminder of crypto’s brutal two years that preceded 2024′s rally.

Market crash dampened VC interest in follow-ups

Investors poured over $5 billion into nearly 1,200 crypto startups in 2022, a 150% increase from 2021, according to Lattice.

That’s lower than DefiLlama’s figure of $19.5 billion which comes from a broader accounting of crypto VC deals whereas Lattice only considered blockchains where at least 15 projects secured funding.

Nearly 30%, or $1.4 billion, went to seeding Ethereum-based startups while early-stage Solana projects attracted 7%, or $350 million.

The buzz around things like NFTs, the metaverse, and web3 gaming buoyed the influx of capital. Understandably, many crypto entrepreneurs decided to capitalise on those trends, which may have been a mistake.

“Chasing narratives can get you rekt,” Lattice Capital Co-Founder Regan Bozman tweeted. “$700 million went into gaming seed rounds but Gaming and Metaverse had some of the highest fail rates and likelihood to be active without anything shipped.”

Gravy train

When the excitement waned from scandals and industry failures, the gravy train ceased to run. That made it harder for startups to raise more money. Only 12% of the 2022 cohort have raised follow-up funds.

While 72% of the teams that bagged funding have launched a product since 2022, 18% have either failed to ship or have shut down.

Ethereum-based startups from the period were the most successful in shipping products as 80% of them did so, compared to only 61% of their Solana-based counterparts.

Things are improving

As previously reported by DL News, VCs are predicted to splash $12 billion to back crypto projects in 2024 with some of that funding likely to go towards seeding new startups.

Lattice identified an uptick in investments in privacy-enhancing technology, artificial intelligence, and DePIN which stands for decentralised physical infrastructure networks.

Earlier this year, global asset manager Franklin Templeton tipped Solana as a leading network for DePIN.

Osato Avan-Nomayo is our Nigeria-based DeFi correspondent. He covers DeFi and tech. To share tips or information about stories, please contact him at osato@dlnews.com.

Bitcoin’s plunge — then rebound — following Iran’s attack on Israel was predictable.

Asset management giant BlackRock advised cryptocurrency investors in a nine-page report that geopolitical events tend to have such an effect on markets.

While Bitcoin, the top cryptocurrency with $1.2 trillion market, value has yet to fully recover its losses, BlackRock suggests it’s just a matter of time. Bitcoin is trading at $61,190, down 2.3% in the past day, according to CoinGecko.

Released in September, Larry Fink’s laser-eyed Bitcoin screed issued a tried-and-tried-again pitch that Bitcoin, much like gold, is an excellent hedge for events like those occurring in the Middle East today.

That’s because a chart from that report shows how Bitcoin rallied double digits 60 days after major geopolitical events, including the US airstrike on one of Iran’s military commanders in 2020 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

For example, 60 days after the airstrike, Bitcoin rose 20%, while gold only rose 6%. The S&P 500 fell 7% during the same period.

Stick it on your wall and come back in 60 days https://t.co/uuIW3pW6Bc pic.twitter.com/ipxifRvtyX

— James Van Straten (@btcjvs) October 1, 2024

That’s also why BlackRock, the $10 trillion investment firm, which manages the industry’s largest spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, recommended a “modest allocation” to diversify investor portfolios.

BlackRock’s analysis means that crypto investors must wait until November 30. BlackRock is not alone.

“These medium-term correlations with risk-on assets may reflect current investor sentiment toward cryptocurrencies,” Jacob Joseph, senior research analyst at CCData, told DL News.

“As Bitcoin adoption grows and it is increasingly viewed beyond its speculative nature, it has the potential to evolve into a global monetary alternative or a distinct portfolio diversifier, as noted in BlackRock’s latest report.”

Crypto market movers

Bitcoin dropped by 2% over the past 24 hours to trade at $61,196.

Ethereum dropped by 4% to $2,437.

What we are reading:

OpenSea axed NFTs that behaved like securities for years before SEC scrutiny — DL News

How North Korea infiltrated the crypto industry — CoinDesk

EigenLayer’s EIGEN token unlock goes live with $7.2bn FDV — Unchained

Franklin Templeton’s onchain money market fund launches on Aptos — The Block

DeFi reduces crypto thefts by a quarter as total hacks top $2bn this year — DL News

Liam Kelly is a DeFi correspondent at DL News. Reach out at liam@dlnews.com.

Ripple bulls rejoiced after crypto fund manager Bitwise Asset Management filed for a spot XRP exchange-traded fund in the US.

“You’ve heard of the Fed Put. This is like the Trump Call,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Balchunas said of the development late Tuesday on X.

In derivatives markets, call options are-all or-nothing bets on an asset hitting a certain price. If an asset hits the call’s price, it pays out big.

Companies deciding to file for crypto ETF approvals — whether XRP, Solana, or any others — are de facto bets on Donald Trump winning the presidency, Balchunas said.

That’s because a Trump win would ensure the departure of anti-crypto Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler.

At a Bitcoin conference in July, Trump promised to fire Gensler if he wins the election.

If Gensler goes, “anything’s possible,” Balchunas said.

But if Vice President Kamala Harris wins, new crypto ETFs probably won’t get approved.

“The ‘call’ expires worthless,” he said.

XRP is a crypto asset developed, issued, and partially managed by US-based company Ripple Labs. The crypto is pegged to facilitate faster cross-border transactions, and is frequently listed as an upstart competitor to the Swift system.

Bitwise is the only asset manager to file an application for an ETF for XRP.

But it’s not the first time a firm has submitted a filing for a crypto ETF beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum.

In June, asset manager VanEck filed with the SEC for a spot Solana ETF.

Despite the SEC rejecting VanEck’s associated 19b-4 application in August, Matthew Sigel, the firm’s head of digital assets research, said the application “remains in play.”

‘Start the clock ticking’

Since 2020, Ripple has been fighting SEC claims that it raised $1.3 billion by selling XRP as an unregistered security.

A 2023 ruling found XRP isn’t a security when traded on public exchanges, but institutional sales violated securities laws by promising profits based on Ripple’s efforts, making them investment contracts under US law.

In the US, securities must be registered to ensure investors get full disclosure and legal protections, which Ripple allegedly bypassed.

In August, the case ended with Ripple ordered to pay a $125 million fine.

Although the judge presiding over the case ruled that secondary sales of XRP on crypto exchanges were not securities offerings, that may not matter for Bitwise’s XRP ETF application.

“This isn’t about whether the SEC thinks XRP is a security or not,” Katalin Tischhauser, head of investment research at crypto bank Sygnum, told DL News. “The SEC’s stance needs to change on what they regard as an acceptable surveillable market.”

The SEC has previously argued that no spot crypto ETFs can be listed on US exchanges until there is a highly correlated, regulated futures market for the corresponding asset.

Such a market, Tischhauser said, only exists for Bitcoin and Ethereum and no other crypto asset.

Bitcoin and Ethereum are the only crypto assets with regulated futures markets on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Tischhauser said Bitwise’s XRP ETF application was likely done to “start the clock ticking” in the hope that there will be a change in the SEC’s stance after the election.

Inevitable?

Bitwise’s filing comes after Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse said after the approval of Ethereum ETFs earlier this year that ETFs for XRP and other crypto assets were “inevitable.”

“People don’t just want exposure to one commodity,” Garlinghouse said on Fox Business News at the time.

But whether there is enough demand to warrant an XRP ETF isn’t clear.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs launched in January exceeded expectations, attracting some $18 billion of fresh capital.

However, the more recent Ethereum ETFs have underperformed, experiencing $572 million of outflows since their July launch.

Investment manager Grayscale’s XRP Trust has just $1.5 million worth of assets under management, compared to over $73 million in its Solana Trust.

Since the SEC initiated its lawsuit against Ripple Labs, XRP has dropped from the second-biggest crypto asset to the seventh-biggest.

Tim Craig is DL News’ Edinburgh-based DeFi Correspondent. Reach out with tips at tim@dlnews.com.

Restaking, one of the buzziest ideas in DeFi this year, has swelled to a $15 billion market.

It’s huge with so-called DeFi degens, risk tolerant crypto investors who hungrily seek out the highest yields on their assets. In recent months, several DeFi protocols have pivoted to restaking to cash in on the trend.

But Lido, the biggest DeFi protocol with $25 billion of deposits, was strangely absent from the party.

“It’s not a priority,” Kean Gilbert, Lido’s institutional relations lead, told DL News.

Instead, Lido will focus on catering to institutional investors over DeFi degens by further expanding its flagship product called stETH — a tradable version of staked Ether.

“Institutions aren’t bullish on restaking because it’s not mature yet,” said Gilbert.

Institutional investors refer to small hedge funds, family offices, venture capitalist firms, investment funds and trading firms.

Restaking is a way to repurpose staked tokens — like Ether — to secure other networks and earn their owners additional rewards.

But development is slow. Despite staking protocols like EigenLayer promising users increased yields, the protocol still hasn’t implemented this feature.

Expanding stETH

Lido is the biggest so-called liquid staking protocol. It lets investors stake Ether for a 3% annual yield while receiving stETH, a tradable version of their staked Ether they can use in DeFi.

The stETH token already accounts for a whopping 70% of the Ether liquid staking market.

But Lido wants more, and institutional investors are a relatively untapped group of users.

“The priority is to double down on stETH and liquid staking, and add as much depth as possible,” Gilbert said.

Liquidity is a top priority. Funds and family offices need to know there’s enough stETH sloshing around to let them exit their positions at a moment’s notice, should the need arise.

“They want to know how much they can sell, and how long it takes to sell,” Gilbert said.

Analysts have previously pointed to stETH’s declining liquidity as a potential issue. Currently, there’s only $198 million of stETH liquidity across decentralised exchanges, a 30% drop since the start of the year.

The fear is that if many stETH holders suddenly need to sell their tokens there won’t be enough liquidity for them to do so. This could cause the asset to break its peg from Ether and set off a cascade of liquidations.

The likelihood of such a situation impacting institutions is limited, Gilbert said. Why? Because many of the funds that use stETH do over-the-counter transactions, selling directly to each other bypassing the open market.

“If people felt there wasn’t enough depth there, they definitely wouldn’t use it,” Gilbert said.

Segregated pools

Liquidity is one thing. There are other things institutions have to consider, too.

Some are cautious of Lido’s stETH or other liquid staking tokens due to strict regulatory requirements. A 2023 report from Northstake found that around 1% of deposits to top liquid staking protocols came from illicit sources.

Even though it’s a small amount, it could cause problems for regulated institutions that need to adhere to strict anti-money laundering regulations.

Lido is looking at building out additional features, like segregated staking pools with know-your-customer checks, specifically for institutional clients affected by such regulations, Gilbert said.

To be sure, for many of Lido’s existing institutional clients, the lack of AML checks hasn’t prevented them from using the protocol.

“We believe Lido is already institutional-grade,” Gilbert said. “Around 25% of our total value locked today is actually institutional capital.”

TVL is a metric that tracks how much crypto is locked up in a DeFi protocol’s smart contracts, or in all DeFi protocols running on a given blockchain.

Looking for leverage

Another consideration is to ensure investors can use stETH in every way they want to.

At the top of many institutional investors’ wishlists is leverage. Top DeFi lending protocol Aave already has an established market for borrowing and lending stETH.

Lido’s recent partnership with digital asset software firm Fireblocks gives institutions even more options.

Institutions holding stETH can now use it as collateral on crypto exchange Bybit and crypto derivatives exchange Deribit through Fireblocks.

“We want to create as much opportunity for stETH holders, from an institutional perspective, to do as many cool things as they possibly can,” Gilbert said.

While giving institutions the option to take on leverage is great for luring them in, there are also downsides.

Leverage has also greased the wheels of every major crypto crash.

Tim Craig is DL News’ Edinburgh-based DeFi Correspondent. Reach out with tips at tim@dlnews.com.

Investors are fleeing equities and crypto as Israel girds for an attack from Iran.

The worldwide market cap of all cryptocurrencies has fallen about 5.5% since Monday, according to data from CoinGecko.

Ethereum and Solana were the biggest losers among top 10 cryptocurrencies, falling below $2,500 and $150, respectively.

Sirens went off across Israel around 19:30 local time, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, with explosions heard in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

The missiles launched just hours after news broke that Iran was preparing to strike Israel over its repeated bombing of allied Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The attack has flamed long-running fear that Israel’s campaign against Iranian proxies in the Middle East — a group that includes Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen — could lead to direct conflict between the two regional powers.

Lekker Capital founder Quinn Thompson said the prevailing sentiment was that Iran would keep its response relatively muted, given the likelihood that an all-out war would boost the electoral odds of Republican Donald Trump in the United States presidential election in November.

“Nonetheless, markets are a discounting mechanism, and even if there is only a 20% chance of a major escalation in the middle east, given how bad of an outcome that is for markets, they must re-rate pricing to reflect that,” Thompson told DL News.

“On top of this it is a big week for economic data culminating in another jobs report on Friday so it’s also fair to expect some routine hedging ahead of that as it is.”

Stocks fell on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq dropping 1.5% after markets opened. Meanwhile, investors fled to more conservative assets like bonds, the dollar, and gold.

While Bitcoin is often called “digital gold” by its proponents, it too suffered losses Tuesday, briefly dropping below $62,000.

Thompson said that was to be expected. In both stocks and crypto, there was a lot of optimism, and many assets were priced too high based on technical indicators, he explained.

Because the market was already overconfident and assets were overbought, according to Thompson, it made them more likely to drop when any bad news hit.

Aleks Gilbert is DL News’ New York-based DeFi correspondent. You can reach him at aleks@dlnews.com.

The stakes are sky high ahead of the US electorate’s vote on November 5.

Bernstein once painted the US election as a choice between Bitcoin reaching $90,000 under Donald Trump or the cryptocurrency plunging to $30,000 with Kamala Harris.

The Wall Street research firm has since changed its tune, saying”momentum should continue regardless of election outcome.”

That’s a dramatic about-face.

The 180 comes on the back of the industry’s $204 million spending spree to sway crypto-friendly politicians in Washington.

With both Republicans and Democrats now making genial overtures towards the sector, one could argue that they’ve gotten exactly what they’ve paid for.

A crypto election

The amount of money put into the industry’s lobbying efforts — as well as the more than $1 billion placed on election bets on crypto gambling platform Polymarket — highlight the importance of the crypto sector in the election.

Under Joe Biden’s term as president, Democrats talked up their anti-crypto army; supported the “off-ramping of crypto companies” during the 2023 banking crisis; and endorsed Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler’s anti-crypto campaign, Bernstein noted last week.

The SEC’s data shows it has brought some 158 cases against firms and individuals involving crypto. Over half of these were levied under Gensler.

In Trump, crypto pundits saw an end to that campaign. The former president has loudly thrown his weight behind crypto. Among other things, he’s pledged to create a national Bitcoin stockpile, and to send Gensler packing.

That created the origin of the Trump Trade. This summer, the narrative that his winning the White House for a second term would propel Bitcoin gained momentum.

Then Biden bowed out, making Harris his heir apparent. Her campaign saw her quickly overtake Trump in the polls. To some, like Lekker Capital Co-Founder Quinn Thompson, that was the end of the Trump Trade.

They argued that other factors — like the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates or conflict in the Middle East — had a bigger impact than whoever ended up in the Oval Office.

Harris didn’t say anything about crypto in the first two months of her campaign, an indicator that she might continue the Biden Administration’s crypto crackdown.

That’s changing. Last week, Harris said that she’s backing the development of digital assets. While some industry pundits labelled the comments as “hollow words,” they “did feel some relief with both candidates signalling support,” Bernstein analysts Gautam Chhugani, Mahika Sapra, and Sanskar Chindalia wrote.

They added, however, that “crypto market sentiment under a Trump win would be stronger, since it would indicate a fresh policy start and likely broader regulatory support.”

Crypto market movers

Bitcoin dropped by 1.1% over the past 24 hours to trade at $62,901.

Ethereum dropped by 1% to $2,583.

What we’ are reading

Bitcoin’s price seen hitting record as soon as this week: ‘Expect fireworks’ — DL News

$1.1B Celestia Token Release to Boost October’s Crypto Unlocks to Nearly $2B — Milk Road

BlackRock Exec Says Ethereum Narrative Is Less Easy to Digest: Report — Unchained

MicroStrategy’s Stellar Performance Won’t Lead to S&P 500 Inclusion Anytime Soon — Milk Road

UK regulators open sandbox to unlock a $14tn tokenisation bonanza — DL News

Eric Johansson is DL News’ News Editor. Got a tip? Email at eric@dlnews.com.

It looks like the DeFi community got the message.

In recent years, decentralised finance projects have been a top target for cybercriminals and hackers. And blockchain security experts have been urging the community to be more guarded.

Sure enough, DeFi hacks have fallen by a quarter In the first nine months of 2024 compared to all of 2023, according to data from TRM Labs.

It’s centralised exchanges and custodians that have been fleeced the most.

Hack hauls

The theft of $2.1 billion in digital assets in the first three quarters of 2024 has already exceeded all of 2023 by 5%, according to TRM Labs.

“We have essentially seen hack hauls double in 2024, as of September 30, compared to the same period in 2023,” Ari Redbord, global head of policy and government affairs at blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs, told DL News.

Redbord said crypto hacks were happening at a record-setting pace reminiscent of 2022, where investors lost $3.8 billion.

According to web3 security firm Cyvers, hacking incidents involving centralised exchanges and custodians have grown about 1,000%, to $401 million, over last year.

Most of those losses came from the DMM Bitcoin Exchange breach where suspected North Korean hackes stole a staggering $305 million from the platform.

The Türkiye-based crypto exchange lost $55 million in June and other affected platforms include Lykke and Rain Exchange.

Private key leakage

Those CEX losses share a common theme ― an attack on the platform’s infrastructure that ultimately exposed the private keys of their crypto wallets.

Private keys are alphanumeric text strings used to sign crypto transactions. When exposed, they can be used to steal funds from a victim’s wallets.

CEX platforms either manage their private keys in-house or assign the responsibility to a third-party protocol.

Access control

Regardless of the key management strategy used, access control is a major concern and web3 security experts previously warned of gaps existing in the security models being used by crypto companies.

“Attacks have evolved their tactics to exploit these weaknesses, capitalising on the gaps in access control and leveraging advanced techniques like phishing and social engineering to gain unauthorised access,” Meir Dolev, chief technology officer of web3 security outfit Cyvers, told DL News.

Many CEX hacks from crypto’s pre-DeFi era bore hints of insider involvement.

Third-party key managers became the solution to rogue employees leaking private keys to hackers.

Still, Dolev said these private key custody protocols can be just as vulnerable.

High-profile hacks

That vulnerability was already a concern from last year as it was the cause of some high-profile hacks including the $41 million stolen from crypto casino platform Stake.

“The solution to this evolving threat landscape lies in multi-layered security measures,” Dolev said.

“Companies should not rely solely on third-party services but instead adopt a hybrid approach that combines internal key management practices with robust external solutions.”

Osato Avan-Nomayo is our Nigeria-based DeFi correspondent. He covers DeFi and tech. To share tips or information about stories, please contact him at osato@dlnews.com.

OpenSea’s disclosure last month that it was being investigated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission sparked outrage in the crypto industry.

“Absurd,” said Kraken founder Jesse Powell.

“Unamerican,” tweeted Tyler Winklevoss, the CEO of Gemini.

Devin Finzer, the co-founder and CEO of OpenSea, also weighed in.

“We’re shocked the SEC would make such a sweeping move against creators and artists,” he wrote in response to an SEC letter warning of a potential enforcement action.

Jokes spread online depicting the Mona Lisa, Pokemon cards, and digital sports tickets as the SEC’s next potential targets. They mocked the idea that images and artwork could be construed as securities, and subject to federal laws.

But OpenSea, one of the largest global marketplaces for NFTs, has taken actions that suggest it has been aware for years that some NFT collections listed on its site are more than just art, according to three former employees of OpenSea, as well as company documents seen by DL News.

Delisted and disabled

OpenSea has regularly delisted or disabled non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, that may behave like financial instruments. It has targeted “anything which promised returns, had a token, or could be construed as a security in any way,” a person familiar with the practice told DL News.

The company issued a vocabulary guide directing employees to avoid using financial terms such as “broker,” “shares,” “trading” or “exchange,” in their communications, according to one company document.

While crypto leaders may scoff at the idea that NFTs are securities and ridicule Gensler and the SEC, OpenSea’s longstanding efforts to weed out problematic collections complicates the narrative. Aware of potential problems, the company acted.

A spokesperson for OpenSea declined to comment on questions sent by DL News for this article.

OpenSea’s tangle with the SEC comes as the venture struggles to recapture the mojo that drove the NFT space to such giddy heights in 2021. OpenSea’s revenue multiplied more than 18 times between the second and third quarter that year, to $167 million, according to an internal document.

Now, as the popularity of Bored Ape Yacht Club and other NFTs wane, OpenSea’s monthly volume has plunged about 55% in the last 12 months, to $36 million, according to Dune Analytics.

Through it all, OpenSea has laboured to screen the many NFT collections that have been listed on its platform.

Disabled turtles

In October 2021, OpenSea disabled trading of a collection called DAO Turtles after finding the pixelated images of the shelled amphibians violated its terms of service, according to social media posts by DAO Turtles.

That meant visitors to OpenSea could still see the NFTs, but they couldn’t buy or sell them.

OpenSea told DAO Turtles’ team that NFT collections could not use the platform to carry out financial services such as ”listing, or buying securities” and similar instruments, or fundraising, according to a screenshot of an email.

While OpenSea did not provide any details on precisely why DAO Turtles raised a red flag, the NFTs were more than images on a blockchain.

Owners could collect royalties from future releases, and receive an associated cryptocurrency called Turtleshells, according to an archived version of the project’s website.

Not just art

Other collections OpenSea delisted or disabled on its site for violating the prohibition on financial assets include Steady Stack, and Yaypegs, said a former employee.

The teams behind DAO Turtles and Yaypegs did not respond to requests for comment. A representative for Steady Stack could not confirm why the collection was delisted.

Non-fungible tokens don’t just represent art. Many stand in for physical objects, virtual real estate, and more.

Regulators have been building cases that NFTs can be securities or regulated financial instruments. In May 2023, former OpenSea employee Nate Chastain was convicted in the first-ever NFT insider trading case.

“We have a strong responsibility to our community, and we take any breach of trust incredibly seriously,” wrote Finzer after Chastain resigned.

And archived versions of OpenSea’s website show that it hosted three collections that the SEC later slapped with securities-related charges.

The collections — Impact Theory, Stoner Cats, and Flyfish Club — settled with the SEC without admitting or denying allegations.

Terms of service

From the get-go, OpenSea addressed the financial capabilities of NFTs in its terms of service.

“WE ARE NOT A BROKER, FINANCIAL INSTITUTION, OR CREDITOR,” reads the earliest archived copy of its terms of service from August 2018, which was printed in all caps to hammer the point home.

Two years later, in October 2020, OpenSea added clauses that prohibited users from “any financial activities subject to registration or licensing, including but not limited to creating, listing, or buying securities, commodities, options, real estate, or debt instruments.”

‘Can you use an NFT to make a securities offering? Absolutely.’

Philip Moustakis, securities lawyer

The marketplace also barred any assets “that are redeemable for financial instruments or that give owners rights to participate in an ICO or any securities offering.”

ICO is an acronym for an initial coin offering, a token distribution practice the SEC targeted around 2018.

In 2022, the SEC began to send OpenSea information requests, The Verge reported in August. As part of that process, the company received a Wells notice, which is a notification the agency sends to the target of a potential enforcement action. Finzer said in August that OpenSea received the notice “recently.”

Securities offering

If the SEC sues OpenSea, it would have to show that certain NFT collections the company listed are unregistered securities, said Philip Moustakis, a New York-based securities lawyer at Seward & Kissel.

“Can you use an NFT to make a securities offering? Absolutely,” he told DL News.

Moustakis added that it’s not about the technology, but rather the offering, or the initial sale of objects, which can be pieces of paper, computer code, or even citrus groves.

Generally, the SEC follows legal guidance that an asset is a security if purchasers have a “reasonable expectation of profit from others.”

On September 19, users sued OpenSea for allegedly offering NFTs that behaved like financial instruments.

“NFTs are treated like securities by OpenSea despite being unregistered with the SEC,” said the complaint, which is being managed by Adam Moskowitz, a lawyer behind some of the largest class-action lawsuits in crypto.

OpenSea rejected the claim.

“Conjuring from thin air a purported class action lawsuit based on our disclosure of an SEC Wells notice won’t make the allegations in the complaint true,” said an OpenSea spokesperson. “We refute these allegations and look forward to defending against this baseless lawsuit.”

‘Whack-a-mole’

It fell to OpenSea’s Trust and Safety compliance team to police the huge volume of content hitting the site day in and day out. The NFT marketplace’s legal and moderation teams were “dedicated beyond belief” and used computer programmes to sift through the flood of content hitting the site, said one former staffer.

“But if you’re ingesting every NFT on many blockchains, it’s just whack-a-mole,” they said.

In the third quarter of 2023, OpenSea delisted more than 20,000 collections that directed users to websites that were likely steal users’ crypto, according to an internal document.

‘If you’re ingesting every NFT on many blockchains, it’s just whack-a-mole.’

Former OpenSea employee

The platform also dealt with users attempting to list collections that purported to give purchasers membership to “an exclusive wealth club,” one person said.

And it wasn’t always easy to parse whether a user was buying an NFT for the art or for its promised rewards, said another ex-staffer.

(The three former employees asked not to be named because they were not authorised to speak publicly about OpenSea’s internal policies.)

NFT issuers were not happy when they got flagged.

“We engaged constantly with people who were mad about their collections not being able to trade because we’d delisted them for potential financial elements,” another former employee said.

Employees in an all-hands meeting were instructed to watch what words they use when talking to each other or the public about NFTs, according to an internal document.

Instead of “profit,” employees were instructed to say “appreciation” or “value change.”

‘Fun ride’

DAO Turtles did promise to “bring value” to its holders, according to its site, and OpenSea took action.

When users could no longer buy or sell DAO Turtles NFTs on the platform, the collection cratered.

“Our project has been frozen on OpenSea quite early on, which killed our momentum completely,” wrote the DAO Turtles team in a May 2022 message on Discord.

Almost one year later, DAO Turtles released a video game based on its moribund NFT collection.

“This brings our story to an end,” wrote the team at the time. “It was a fun ride.”

Ben Weiss is a Dubai Correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at bweiss@dlnews.com.

A version of this article appeared in our The Decentralised newsletter on October 1. Sign up here.

GM, Tim here.

EigenLayer’s token hits the market.

Mango Markets settles with the SEC.

How two DeFi founders turned their rivalry into a bromance.

EIGEN token trades

Six months after EigenLayer airdropped its token, holders can finally sell it.

On Tuesday, the Eigen Foundation, the non-profit that manages the EIGEN governance token, upgraded EIGEN’s code to make it tradable.

Traders are flocking to EIGEN hoping to profit from the volatility.

Bulls have a decent amount going for them:

Estimates put only 2.5% of EIGEN’s supply as available for trading.

EIGEN unlocks for the protocol’s team and investors won’t begin for one year.

The wider crypto market is pumping.

There are also reasons to be cautious:

Whales hold a lot of tokens. The top wallet has over 2.5 million.

Most airdropped tokens this year have failed to rally.

EIGEN’s fully-diluted valuation is already over $7 billion.

Tokens that launched at similar high valuations to EIGEN have performed poorly.

The EIGEN token’s May launch was marred by controversy.

Recipients criticised the confusing communication surrounding the announcement, the small number of tokens allocated for the airdrop, and the decision to exclude US users.

In response, EigenLayer addressed the confusion and increased airdrop allocations for small users.

SEC ends Mango DAO

The US Securities and Exchange Commission announced Friday a settlement with the companies behind Solana DeFi protocol Mango Markets.

Mango DAO, Blockworks Foundation, and Mango Labs agreed to collectively pay fines of $700,000 without admitting or denying the allegations from the SEC.

The settlement also stipulates the organisations shut down the Mango DAO collective that governs the protocol.

They agreed to destroy their MNGO tokens, to request the removal of MNGO from trading platforms, and to refrain from soliciting any trading platform to allow trading in or offering or selling MNGO.

Separately, pseudonymous Mango DAO member Daffy plans to file a legal complaint against two of the DAO’s leaders — John Kramer and Max Schneider — over alleged fraud.

A DeFi bromance

Stani Kulechov, the founder of Aave, and Rune Christensen, the co-founder of Sky, haven’t always seen eye to eye.

Neither have their communities.

But that’s all in the past, the protocol’s founders told DL News in interviews.

The two DeFi giants are now working closer than ever.

“We have this DeFi renaissance moment where people are looking back at what’s been built in DeFi and what actually has legs and fundamentals,” said Kulechov.

“That’s Aave, and that’s Sky.”

“It’s about sending a message to the broader space,” said Christensen. “Sky and Aave can figure out how to work together.”

This week in DeFi governance

VOTE: Arbitrum DAO increases security with treasury time lock extension

VOTE: Uniswap DAO onboards Forse by StableLab as a data service provider

VOTE: Jupiter DAO decides what to do with 215 million unclaimed tokens

Post of the week

Crypto Twitter sums up EigenLayer and its EIGEN token.

Ah yes, another project using blockchain technology, which nobody can explain the purpose of, valued in the billions of dollars

Bidding

— Sisyphus (@0xSisyphus) October 1, 2024

What we’re watching

Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, founders of disgraced crypto trading firm Three Arrows Capital, have spun up a new memecoin investing fund and launched a token for it.

run it back @threearrowzcap

— 朱溯 🐂 (3/AC) (@zhusu) September 27, 2024

Got a tip about DeFi? Reach out at tim@dlnews.com.

Euphoria is in the air. China’s stimulus, mixed with the Federal Reserve’s slash in interest rates earlier this month, is causing investors to ditch haven assets and pile into riskier bets.

Prices of US Treasury bonds — the safest bet out there — have tumbled. That means issuers of those government bonds on the blockchain are seeing less demand as yields drop from as high as 5%.

“Falling rates do change the investment thesis,” said Timo Lehes, co-founder of Swarm, a trading platform offering tokenised versions of bonds and stocks on the blockchain.

No matter.

Swarm and rivals, including Centrifuge and Backed Finance, say this year is the true test of the market for bringing private debt, bonds, equities, and real estate onto the blockchain. Boston Consulting Group estimates that opportunity will reach $16 trillion by 2030.

The US government bond possibilities alone are huge — the Treasury market is worth some $29 trillion.

Cheap transactions

The value of Treasuries that have moved onchain has more than doubled since the start of the year — fuelled in part by BlackRock, JPMorgan, and Franklin Templeton getting more investor offerings onchain.

The promise of cheap, transparent, and more efficient transactions will keep the demand coming, issuers say.

“Equities and indexes have been unexplored onchain,” David Henderson, Backed Finance’s head of marketing, told DL News. “Corporate bond ETFs — which we’ve tokenised — offer a similar risk profile to Treasuries with better yields.”

Higher-risk products

Pundits argue that blockchains can replace creaky financial rails riddled with middlemen. Tokenised versions of Google stock, barrels of oil, and real estate can be seamlessly settled at the speed of the internet.

There’s also a suite of higher-risk products on the blockchain for DeFi lovers to pile into.

“We expect onchain investors, who naturally have a higher risk tolerance, to explore opportunities further up the risk curve,” Bhaji Illuminati, CMO of Centrifuge, told DL News.

“This could mean shifting towards other safe assets, such as AAA-rated collateralised loan obligations, or showing a growing appetite for private credit deals.”

At just $4 billion, tokenised Treasuries are barely a blip in the $119 trillion bond market.

And as rates fall, some investors will be lured away.

Stablecoin lenders on Aave, for example, can earn up to 6%. At the beginning of August, it was just 2.4%.

Henderson says that as investors weigh their appetite for risk amid another Fed cut in November, they’ll have a broader swathe of tokenised assets to choose from.

Liam Kelly is a DeFi Correspondent for DL News. Got a tip? Email him at liam@dlnews.com.

The election of Shigeru Ishiba as Japan’s new Prime Minister on Monday has sent Japanese stocks and other risk assets tumbling.

Bitcoin, which traded as high as $66,300 over the weekend, sunk 4% to around $63,500.

The reason: Ishiba has previously supported the Bank of Japan to raise interest rates. He also backs other hawkish policies, such as raising corporate taxes.

In July, Japan’s central bank raised interest rates for the second time this year, wiping out billions of dollars from the crypto market.

Investors fear another hike could be even worse.

Contrary to the market reaction, Steven Glass, an analyst at Sydney-based investment firm Pella Funds Management, said Ishiba’s election increases his firm’s resolve that Japan’s central bank won’t further raise interest rates.

“The BoJ is highly unlikely to increase its policy rates,” Glass said on CNBC’s Squawk Box. That’s because the Japanese economy couldn’t endure another rate hike, nor is inflation high enough to warrant it, he said.

The election news comes after Bitcoin rallied some 20% in September, defying market expectations.

A 0.5% interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve and monetary stimulus from the Chinese government has loosened financial conditions, boosting riskier assets like crypto.

Given how impactful the Japanese yen is on crypto markets, the latest rally could be curtailed.

‘Important macro variable’

BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes has talked about the impact of Japan’s economic policy on the crypto market.

“The yen is the most important macro variable,” Hayes previously told DL News. It will determine the prices of crypto, tech stocks, and US debt going forward, he said.

In May, Hayes argued that Japan’s weak yen could ignite a crypto rally that sends Bitcoin to new heights.

But when the Bank of Japan raised interest rates in July, it strengthened the yen, forcing Japanese investors to unwind carry trades by selling US stocks and bonds.

The result was a sharp selloff of stocks globally.

Bitcoin didn’t escape the carnage, dropping below $50,000 for the first time since January in the aftermath.

While raising rates can help combat inflation, it also often strengthens a country’s currency. This makes exports less competitive, which could be a problem for Japan’s export-heavy economy.

Still, any sign that the Bank of Japan will raise interest rates again could start another selloff.

With more US interest rate cuts predicted for the rest of the year, crypto bulls are in control — at least for now.

Tim Craig is DL News’ Edinburgh-based DeFi Correspondent. Reach out with tips at tim@dlnews.com.

A version of this story appeared in our The Guidance newsletter on September 30. Sign up here.

The crypto industry has pumped $204 million into the 2024 US election — and it’s worked.

The industry is closer than it’s ever been in winning commitments from lawmakers on key issues.

The respective teams of Vice President Kamala Harris and her Republican challenger, former President Donald Trump, appear convinced that catering to crypto is important in winning the battleground states on November 5.

Harris shocked crypto when she designated blockchain as an important component in maintaining US tech competitiveness.

Presumably, her campaign believes this is a way to reach young male voters — and to win over Wall Street, which is bullish on tokenised assets.

Trump, meanwhile, has embraced the industry in his own way — by rapidly forming a DeFi project with his sons called World Liberty Financial and selling tokens. The upshot is that it may not matter who wins in November — the US will have a new president who campaigned on a pro-crypto stance.

This is a true turnaround. The Biden Administration is home to crypto’s most powerful sceptics, namely Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

Now, it seems the next administration is open to the bipartisan legislation the industry so urgently wants.

Crypto’s staggering political spending

Crypto-focused political action committees have raised more than $204 million, according to a spending tracker.

PACs have spent about $120 million — much of it on ads attacking crypto-sceptic candidates.

Crypto spending in the past three election cycles — $129 million — amounts to 15% of all known corporate contributions since 2010, according to a report by consumer rights advocates Public Citizen.

Crypto interests trail only the fossil fuel industry in spending, the report said.

To be sure, it’s unclear precisely what either Harris or Trump thinks about crypto. Neither candidate has outlined any clear policy agenda on digital assets.

Neither shows a deep understanding of the tech.

Trump’s dubious DeFi project, which seems of a piece with his launch of dubious $100,000 souvenir watches, stoked criticism that his support of crypto is self-serving.

Harris’s opponents in crypto dismiss her support as hollow words.

We’ll only know the finer details of policy once a new president is installed.

Still, whoever the next president is, crypto has already won the elections.

Reach out to me at joanna@dlnews.com.

A project by UK regulators to unlock what analysts call a $14 trillion opportunity — the tokenisation of financial assets — is open for business.

The Bank of England, and the Financial Conduct Authority on Monday opened applications for their Digital Securities Sandbox. They urged UK-based firms to sign up.

The sandbox essentially allows the firms that provide the plumbing of the financial markets — stock exchanges, for instance — to take advantage of exceptions to existing financial regulation so they can tinker with blockchain technology.

Financial institutions believe blockchain could speed up settlement, the processes that happen after the sale of a financial asset, reducing risk and making transacting cheaper for investors.

Blockchain could “improve efficiency and reduce costs in wholesale markets, benefiting industry and investors,” the FCA said.

Since this tech could introduce new risk, experiments should be done in conjunction with regulators, the watchdog added.

Firms’ blockchain experiments will be “live,” the FCA said, and regulators intend the wider financial ecosystem to engage with them as they would with normal services.

If these experiments are successful, the regulators will make their changes to the rules permanent.

Huge potential

Regulators and the private sector see huge potential for blockchain technology in making financial markets more efficient.

Financial giants like BlackRock, as well as central banks, are getting excited about tokenisation.

And no wonder. Consultant Oliver Wyman estimates that tokenised assets could top $14 trillion by 2030.

The UK regulators announced the sandbox in January, and consulted with the financial industry on how it would work.

It’s important to get it right — a parallel project in the EU has been largely a failure. That’s partly because of design flaws, as the project did not allow for tokenised settlement.

Crypto market movers

Bitcoin is down 3% today to trade at $63,823.

Ethereum is down 1.2% in the last 24 hours, trading at $2,620.

What we’re reading

Gary Gensler Reiterates in Speec that Coinbase, DeFi Should be Defined as ‘Exchanges’ — Unchained

MicroStrategy’s Stellar Performance Won’t Lead to S&P 500 Inclusion Anytime Soon — Milk Road

FTX Bankruptcy Estate Reveals Up to $230 Million Will be Set Aside for Certain Shareholders — Unchained

China’s ex-finance minister calls crypto ‘crucial aspect’ of digital economy — DL News

Joanna Wright is a regulation correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email at joanna@dlnews.com.

Tether recently assisted the US Department of Justice (DOJ) in seizing over $6 million tied to a Southeast Asian crypto-confidence scheme.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino commented: “We stand ready to collaborate with government agencies and deliver all necessary tools to ensure that global bad actors are brought to justice.”

The scam in question involved fraudsters mimicking legitimate platforms to deceive investors, funnelling funds into illicit wallets.

Tether froze the funds before the scammers could move or launder them through more complex networks, setting up the DOJ to then recover them.

This is the latest in Tether’s push to shed its controversial image.

In May, Tether partnered with blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis to further curb USDT’s use in money laundering, fraud, and terrorism financing.

Despite past criticisms, including a United Nations report that linked $17 billion in Tether on the Tron blockchain to underground exchanges, the company has been proactive in freezing wallets associated with criminal activity.

To date, Tether reports it has blocked over $1.8 billion in USDT tied to illicit activities.

At a 2024 economic forum in Beijing, former Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao urged China to rethink its crypto approach amid accelerating US policies.

He acknowledged the risks but stressed the importance of staying updated on global shifts, stating, “We must fully recognise its risks and the harm it poses to capital markets, but we must study the latest international changes and policy adjustments because it is a crucial aspect of digital economy development.”

Zhu noted that the US has made significant policy changes this year, including the approval of 11 Bitcoin ETFs.

He even quoted former President Donald Trump, who has been advocating for embracing crypto to prevent China from taking the lead in the sector.

Trump’s opponent, Kamala Harris, has also recently adopted a stance on clear-cut and progressive crypto regulations.

This call for a policy shift echoes comments from Tron founder Justin Sun, who urged China to reconsider its stance on crypto following Trump’s endorsement of Bitcoin.

Sun tweeted in July, “China also needs to step up... US policies have warmed. China should make further progress.”

While China maintains a cautious stance, it has taken small steps towards becoming more open to crypto.

Chinese investors can still purchase crypto through Hong Kong-based firms, and in April, three Bitcoin ETFs were launched in Hong Kong.

FTX crypto holders are expected to recover only 10-25% of their lost assets according to recent court documents shared by self-proclaimed FTX creditor activist Sunil Kavuri.

The documents revealed that FTX will transfer 18% of forfeited funds from the US Department of Justice into a special “Preferred Shareholder Remission Fund.”

The $230 million-capped fund will compensate FTX’s preferred shareholders — investors who held equity in the company before its collapse.

While these shareholders stand to benefit, many FTX crypto holders are frustrated, as their recoveries are expected to be much lower.

In response to his post, one user echoed the sentiment: “Disgraceful, we have been scammed twice!”

Kavuri also pointed out that repayments will be calculated based on the asset prices at the time of FTX’s bankruptcy filing. For example, Bitcoin was priced at around $16,000 at the time, compared to its current value of $65,000, while Solana was valued at $17, far below its current price of $160.

In August, FTX and its affiliate Alameda Research were ordered to pay $12.7 billion to victims of the fraud.

The company was revealed to have misused customer funds for personal investments and political contributions, leading to its downfall in late 2022.

Founder Sam Bankman-Fried was subsequently sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in the massive $11 billion fraud.

Crypto market movers

Bitcoin is down 0.2% today to trade at $65,546.

Ethereum is down 1.2% in the last 24 hours, trading at $2,643.

What we are reading

Worldcoin’s eyeball-scanning stations were gamed by hustlers who exploited the homeless — DL News

Ethena Launches New UStb Stablecoin Backed by BlackRock’s Tokenized Fund — Milk Road

MicroStrategy’s Stellar Performance Won’t Lead to S&P 500 Inclusion Anytime Soon — Milk Road

BlackRock’s spot Ethereum ETF surpasses $1 billion in value for the first time — The Block

Crypto welcomes back CZ after ‘gm’ tweet — DL News

Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has been released after serving a four-month sentence related to his guilty plea for enabling money laundering at the exchange.

To the amusement of many in the crypto community, Zhao marked his return with a simple and obligatory “gm” tweet on X.

gm

— CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) September 28, 2024

Zhao’s lighthearted tweet quickly sparked a wave of responses welcoming him back and reciprocating his salutations. This included TRON founder Justin Sun:

gm

— H.E. Justin Sun🌞(hiring) (@justinsuntron) September 28, 2024

Others took to cracking jokes and making memes about his time in the clink:

CZ is back pic.twitter.com/yLqMNKRTu0

— $JANI (@JaniOnSOL) September 28, 2024

While CZ may no longer have a direct hand in the daily workings of Binance, many consider him to be a pioneer who continues to leave his mark on the crypto industry — ‘4′ better or worse.

The legend is back 🙌 💪
Welcome CZ pic.twitter.com/cIq7vd3QCv

— BITCOIN EXPERT INDIA (@Btcexpertindia) September 28, 2024

Senator Cynthia Lummis cautioned that the United States is falling behind in regulating digital assets, especially compared to the European Union, during a recent interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box.

“The EU is ahead of us,” Lummis stated, stressing the importance of the US taking the lead in financial services and digital asset regulation.

She went on to criticise the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its heavy-handed enforcement strategy, particularly under Chair Gary Gensler.

“They’re regulating by enforcement actions with penalties against the industry,” she said, noting the absence of clear rules for the sector.

Lummis also predicted a shift in leadership at the SEC depending on the outcome of the 2024 election, particularly if Donald Trump wins.

She believes that Congress must step in and create a comprehensive regulatory framework.

“Congress needs to regulate this and weigh in,” she emphasised, advocating for a clear distinction between assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which she argues are clearly commodities.

Lummis suggested that Republican leadership in the Senate would accelerate progress.

“Tim Scott, as chair of the Banking Committee, would push for a statutory framework for digital assets,” she added.

She concluded by stating that empowering the Commodity Futures Trading Commission with additional resources would ensure proper oversight, contrasting it with the current fragmented approach that hampers the industry’s potential for growth.

Canada’s securities regulator has extended the compliance deadline for crypto trading platforms, pushing it to the end of 2024.

This follows ongoing concerns over the risks of fiat-pegged stablecoins, with the CSA citing investor protection as a priority.

Initially set for October, the new deadline grants exchanges more time to align with regulatory requirements or propose safer alternatives.

Stablecoins, often used for their 1:1 peg to traditional currencies, have become a regulatory headache, especially after past collapses like TerraUSD that left investors vulnerable.

If platforms fail to comply by year-end, they could face penalties, including being barred from offering certain products to Canadian users.

Major global players such as Binance, KuCoin, and Poloniex have already been forced to exit Canada over the past few years.

Binance left Canada in May 2023, citing difficulties with new regulations such as a trading limit and restrictions on stablecoins like USDT.

KuCoin and Poloniex were banned in Canada in 2022 following enforcement actions by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC). Both exchanges failed to meet Canadian securities law requirements.

Despite the challenges, licensed exchanges like Kraken, Coinbase, and Bitget continue to operate under these tighter regulations.

Crypto market movers

Bitcoin is down 0.3% today to trade at $64,681.

Ethereum is down 0.3% in the last 24 hours, trading at $2,673.

What we are reading

Mango Markets companies settle with SEC over sale of unregistered securities — DL News

China Eyes $142 Billion Lifeline for Struggling Banks — Milk Road

Crypto Industry Braces for Wave of SEC, CFTC Actions as Fiscal Year Draws to a Close — Unchained

Polygon exec on how firm will lure Wall Street in $16tn tokenisation land grab — DL News

Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao released from custody on Friday: Bloomberg — The Block

The US Securities and Exchange Commission announced Friday a settlement with the companies behind Mango Markets, a DeFi protocol on Solana.

In the settled charges, the SEC alleged that the MNGO governance tokens for Mango DAO, the digital cooperative that controls the trading protocol, were unregistered securities.

It said that Mango DAO and Blockworks Foundation, an associated nonprofit, had therefore issued and sold unregistered securities when they sold the tokens.

The agency also alleged that Blockworks Foundation as well as Mango Labs, one of the developers behind Mango Markets, acted as unregistered brokers of various cryptocurrencies sold through the DeFi protocol.

These cryptocurrencies included Solana, said the filed complaint.

Mango DAO, Blockworks Foundation, and Mango Labs agreed to pay a fine of $700,000 without admitting or denying the allegations from the SEC. The three companies have also agreed to destroy their MNGO tokens.

“Since the inception of our crypto enforcement program, our view has been that the label ‘DAO’ does not change the reality of who is behind a project, what activities they engage in, or whether their activities need to be registered,” Jorge Tenreiro, acting chief of the SEC’s Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit, said in a statement.

The head of growth at Mango Markets did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Eisenberg exploit

The settlement follows a proposal passed in August from Mango DAO in which members agreed to destroy their MNGO tokens and pay a fine to the SEC.

It also comes on the heels of the successful prosecution of Avraham Eisenberg, a crypto trader who exploited the Mango Markets protocol to the tune of $110 million in October 2022.

In April, Eisenberg was convicted of fraud. He is still awaiting sentencing.

His trial put to test the legal theory that, in the wild west of DeFi, Eisenberg’s exploit of Mango Markets was merely a successful trading strategy.

A jury, however, said that Eisenberg’s $110 million attack was, in fact, old-fashioned market manipulation.

Shortly after Eisenberg’s October 2022 exploit, the total value of crypto deposited on Mango Markets dropped to zero, according to data from DefiLlama.

In September, developers affiliated with Mango Markets announced the launch of Fill City, a new trading protocol on Solana.

Ben Weiss is a Dubai Correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at bweiss@dlnews.com.