FlowBank, an online Swiss bank that offered customers exposure to crypto, has been shut down and put into bankruptcy by Switzerland’s financial regulator.

The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) announced its decision to shutter FlowBank on Thursday, saying the lender “no longer had sufficient capital for its operations as a bank” and that minimum capital requirements had been “significantly and seriously breached.” FINMA also said that there are “well-founded concerns that the bank is currently over-indebted,” with “no prospect” of a restructuring.

In a letter to customers posted on FlowBank’s website, the bank said FINMA’s decision to shut it down had been made yesterday. Walder Wyss, a top Swiss law firm, has been appointed by FINMA to serve as bankruptcy liquidators for the bank.

FlowBank launched in 2020 and had extensive crypto ties, including partial ownership by crypto asset manager CoinShares which, in 2021, purchased a 9% stake in the bank for $11.8 million. After CoinShares’ investment, the bank began offering its customers the ability to buy, sell and hold crypto and other tokenized assets directly from their FlowBank accounts.

Earlier this year, it was reported that Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, would allow larger traders to hold their crypto assets at FlowBank or Sygnum, another crypto-friendly Swiss bank.

According to a document posted on FINMA’s website, FlowBank customers with up to 100,000 Swiss francs (approximately $111,710) in deposits are considered protected, and will receive their money back within seven working days.

The future of customers’ crypto deposits, however, is less clear. FINMA has said that it is up to the liquidator whether the cryptocurrencies are classified as custody assets that will be treated like securities in the bankruptcy process, or whether they will be treated as “claims on the bank.”

FlowBank could not be reached for comment. All webpages for the bank route to the letter informing clients about the bank’s shutdown. The bank’s Twitter account has been deactivated.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler said that the final approvals for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) trading Ethereum's ether {{ETH}} should be finished this summer, he told senators in a budget hearing on Thursday.

Gensler told a subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee in a hearing justifying the market regulator's budget that the process is going smoothly after the initial approval of a group of ETFs. The agency had previously granted the initial round of applications but he said the final registration requirements – filings known as S-1s – are now being handled at the "staff level."

Once those filings are approved, the new ETFs can be listed, opening the wider markets to easy-to-trade funds that hold actual ether, much like the earlier establishment of bitcoin spot ETFs that hold {{BTC}}.

When asked directly whether ETH is a commodity, Gensler didn't respond with a yes or no, maintaining the uncertain position his agency has held on that asset. At the same hearing, when asked whether it's a commodity, Commodity Futures Trading Commission chief Rostin Behnam responded, "Yes."

Read More: SEC's Gensler Shrugs About New Crypto ETFs Strolling Through His Agency's Gates

People in the know on the issuance of social influencer Andrew Tate’s daddy (DADDY) meme tokens are apparently sitting on $45 million in unrealized value, wallet tracking service Bubblemaps alleged in an X post.

While wallets directly connected to Tate have not sold any DADDY tokens since their issuance on June 9, some other wallets seemingly purchased 30% of the token’s supply before it was promoted widely on X.

“On June 9th at 21:24 UTC, @DaddyTateCTO sent 40% of the $DADDY supply to @Cobratate,” BubbleMaps posted. @Cobratate is Tate’s official X account. “But here's the catch: 11 wallets, funded through Binance with nearly identical amounts at the same time, bought 20% of $DADDY on June 9th, before @DaddyTateCTO's first tweet.”

Two other clusters tracked by Bubblemaps hold another 10% of the token’s supply, worth $30 million at current prices.

5/ Two other clusters, holding 10% of the total supply, are connected through wallet 4SfQWh.Both clusters bought before Andrew Tate’s first tweet and are currently holding $16M at the current price.https://t.co/nC7Q0jLDxW pic.twitter.com/3F9yNslFVO

— Bubblemaps (@bubblemaps) June 12, 2024

As such, trading pools of the tokens have just over $2.4 million in available liquidity, meaning the positions cannot be realized for their entire value as of Thursday.

Tate’s own wallet, which has not sold tokens as of Thursday, holds $65 million worth of the tokens at current prices.

This is the first crypto token the controversial social media star appears to be directly involved in—an association that helped move the token to a $240 million market capitalization just three days after going live. DEXTools data shows that prices are up 55% in the past 24 hours.

DADDY is the latest in a line of celebrity-backed tokens that have started to make rounds in the meme coin ecosystem. Unlike previous instances where celebrities were marketing projects or protocols, these tokens are actively issued, backed, and promoted by famous personalities, mainly on X.

In May, American media personality Caitlyn Jenner and rappers Iggy Azalea, Trippie Redd, Lil Pump, and Davido all launched tokens using the Solana-based Pump Fun application. Most of those launches are down 90% from highs.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero is expected to get nominated to be the next Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chair.

Kristin Johnson, another Democratic commissioner, will also be nominated for the role of Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions at the Treasury Department, at the same time.

She has been outspoken when it comes to crypto, once commenting that the mood in Washington was to "get it right," when it came to regulation.

The White House is expected to nominate U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero as the next Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) chair and Kristin Johnson to a senior Treasury post, media outlets have reported.

Goldsmith Romero, one of the CFTC's three Democratic commissioners is expected to have her first hearing on July 8, Reuters said on Thursday.

She is the sponsor of a Technology Advisory Committee that includes members stablecoin issuer Circle, blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs and Cryptocurrency custody firm Fireblocks. The committee was created to protect U.S. citizens from cyber attacks, ensure "responsible development of digital assets," Goldsmith Romero said at the time.

She has been outspoken when it comes to crypto, once commenting that the mood in Washington was to "get it right," when it came to regulation.

Goldsmith Romero will replace Martin Gruenberg, who is stepping down in response to a report that stated that the FDIC had to make changes to address widespread sexual harassment and other misconduct, published last month. The report recommended that new officials be appointed to change the FDIC's culture.

The FDIC is an independent body created by the U.S. Congress that is meant to help maintain stability in the financial system. The FDIC's inspector general said the body had not given banks clear enough guidance when it came to crypto in October last year, following the failure of some crypto banks. The FDIC was expected to give clearer guidance and support to banks this year. The agency has also come down on various crypto companies for making false claims about customer protections.

Johnson, another Democratic commissioner, will also be nominated for the role of Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions at the Treasury Department, at the same time, a source told Reuters. Johnson has come out and said that Binance's CFTC penalties were heightened because of the regulators prior warnings for crypto firms to comply.

CoinDesk sent a comment request to the CFTC, FDIC, and the Treasury.

Crypto markets have seen $12 billion of net inflows year-to-date, the report said.

The bank said that the majority of the $16 billion inflow into spot bitcoin ETFs likely came from existing digital wallets on exchanges.

JPMorgan said it was skeptical that the pace of inflows will continue for the rest of the year.

Digital assets have seen $12 billion of net inflows year-to-date, and if flows continue at the same pace the number could grow to $26 billion by the end of the year, JPMorgan (JPM) said in a research report on Wednesday.

Spot bitcoin {{BTC}} exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have led the way, attracting $16 billion of net inflows, the report said. This number, when combined with Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) futures flows plus capital raised by crypto venture capital funds, increases the total inflow into digital asset markets this year to $25 billion.

Still, not all of these inflows are new money entering the crypto space. “We believe there has likely been a significant rotation away from digital wallets on exchanges to the new spot bitcoin ETFs,” analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote.

This rotation is evidenced in the drop in bitcoin reserves across exchanges since the spot ETFs launched in January, which is estimated at 0.22 million bitcoin or $13 billion, the bank said.

“This implies that the majority of the $16 billion inflow into spot bitcoin ETFs since launch likely reflects a rotation from existing digital wallets on exchanges,” the authors wrote. Using this assumption reduces the net flow into digital assets year-to-date to $12 billion from $25 billion, the bank said.

This $12 billion net inflow is stronger than last year but is notably lower than during the bull run of 2021/2022, the report added.

Given how high the bitcoin price is relative to miners’ production cost or relative to the cost of gold, JPMorgan said it is skeptical that inflows will continue at the same rate for the rest of the year.

Read more: Crypto Mainstream Adoption Has Increased in Recent Months, Canaccord Says

Memecoins embody the “Wild West” image of DeFi. Thanks to the stratospheric success of tokens like Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB), the memecoin market collectively boasts a market cap of $54.4 billion – a number that would’ve seemed outrageous when these assets first emerged. And yet here we are.

As recently as March, memecoin trade volumes hit levels last seen just prior to the last crypto bubble’s implosion in 2022. This resurgence highlights a familiar trend: traders are easily swept up in hype and FOMO, to the extent that they make impulsive investment decisions based on pure instinct and greed. In Digital Asset Valuation Framework, the team at HashKey Capital and I set out the case for applying fundamental valuation frameworks and high-level technical analysis to navigate the market’s inherent volatility and avoid the pitfalls of memecoin mania.

Without putting too fine a point on it, now more than ever we must deploy robust frameworks and exercise cold-eyed judgment to discern genuine value in this most turbulent of markets. This is doubly true for institutional investors looking to gain a sustainable edge and long-term value accretion in digital assets.

The Importance of Fundamental Analysis

In any financial market, there are times when speculative hype can overshadow rational investment strategy. See the dot-com bubble, subprime mortgage meltdown, and countless other examples.

In crypto, speculative hype is on steroids, propelled by endless chatter on socials and a sense that the next moonshot token is right under your nose. Financial Times correspondent Joshua Oliver has written a new book about this phenomenon (“Hype Machine”) focused largely on Sam Bankman-Fried and the cautionary tale of FTX.

See also: Dan Kuhn - In Defense of Meme Coins

Fundamental analysis provides the necessary grounding to understand the intrinsic value of a digital asset, beyond the smokescreen of publicity and propaganda disseminated by clever marketers, hubristic project founders, self-motivated airdrop farmers and the rest.

Critical factors to consider when weighing up the merits of a Web3 investment include the project team’s track record, the underlying technology used, the practical use cases of what is being built, and tangible evidence of real-world adoption.

This kind of old-school, meat-and-potatoes analysis enables investors to look beyond brief bursts of market excitement and evaluate the long-term viability of a project. It’s an approach based less on short-term trading gains and more on sustainable value creation. That said, many projects with zero long-term viability can still enrich some investors.

Beyond Memecoins

The allure of memecoins is understandable, even setting aside the incessant media buzz and viral marketing. Although often ridiculed for their lack of substantive value, memecoins have surprised the world with their performance. A staggering 12,000% increase in the value of DOGE in the first five months of 2021 is just one example of this (although the price had fallen by 80% by mid-December). More recently, Dogwifhat and Pepe have produced similar results – the former helped liquid fund Stratos post a 137% return in Q1.

While memecoins typically lack fundamental value and utility, their fortunes wane according to the conviction of traders who participate in speculation. That doesn’t mean one can simply will a memecoin into value, however. Engaging in memecoin markets without thorough analysis and a clear understanding of the risks involved is effectively gambling, not investing.

The importance of fundamental analysis – particularly in these volatile markets – cannot be overstated. These tools empower investors to make decisions based on meticulous research and solid evidence, rather than a reckless impulse to chase the next improbable moonshot

Meaningful valuation frameworks – including those that can be used to value memecoins, too – can help provide a more grounded understanding of market dynamics in times of volatility. By using these techniques, we can all see the hype for what it is – “fairy dust,” to quote McConaughey’s wired character in “Wolf of Wall Street,” that might be magical for a lucky few, but ineffective for nearly everybody else.

Note: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CoinDesk, Inc. or its owners and affiliates.

I asked someone the other day why he was building in crypto. His response: "To make a lot of money. Why else?" Jaded. I used to brush those people off to the side thinking they just don't get it.

Last month, I was selected to talk at the New Voices stage at Consensus 2024 about public goods funding, a tiny niche of crypto that I had dedicated the majority of my Web3 career to pursuing. I knew so much about this topic and was eager to share it with the world. But as I started writing it all down on paper, it all felt too intangible. Do any of us get it?

Sophia Dew, tech lead at the Public Goods Network, was a speaker on the “New Voices” track at Consensus 2024.

I started drafting my talk, explaining how money powers incentives and therefore powers how world-changing innovation enters the world. When government funding for research took off in the 1950s, it led to breakthroughs in science, medicine and technology. Similarly, the growth of venture capital over the past few decades, led to the acceleration of startups and innovative companies. My argument: crypto is powering a bottoms-up scalable way of distributing funding into areas that need it most. At least, this is the hope. However, trying to find mainstream, tangible examples has been few and far between.

Of course, that's not to say there aren't any. I know several passionate projects that are making this a reality, such as GainForest, tackling deforestation through a transparent and automated system that distributes funding directly to locals who show proof of conservation efforts. Or VoiceDeck, enabling journalists to receive retroactive funding through community-driven decision making. I was part of several quadratic funding rounds on Gitcoin that distributed millions of dollars in matching funds to projects based on the number of unique donors. These projects inspired me for what blockchain could do for the world. Yet, at the same time, I was disheartened that this was just a tiny, tiny, tiny sliver of what the focus of this industry is all about.

I spent the latter half of last year leading the technical development and adoption of Public Goods Network, a Layer 2 blockchain aimed at creating sustainable and durable funding for public goods through sequencer fees. We were competing with a lot of other blockchains to incentivize builders, fill up blockspace, and grow out our ecosystem. The most effective tactic available was money. Ecosystems were racing to allocate capital in the hopes of increasing the overall value of the chain.

Some of these programs were effective — such as Optimism’s RetroPGF. This mechanism retroactively funds the most impactful projects based on the collective wisdom and decision making of the community. RetroPGF was the first large-scale, mainstream funding mechanism I witnessed of how crypto is now powering a coordinated, transparent, and tamper-proof way of distributing funding into areas that need it most.

In my opinion, this was a crazy-successful experiment. Each round was run like a scientific experiment, with hypotheses and control variables, so that they get better and better at accurately assessing and rewarding impact every time. Soon after, other blockchain ecosystems followed suit, such as Filecoin and Celo, who ran RetroPGF rounds for their communities earlier this Spring.

As exciting as this was, I still wondered why the main adopters of these funding mechanisms were other blockchain ecosystems. Was everything this niche of crypto doing just for improving blockchain grant programs?

My answer: yes and no.

Public goods funding mechanisms are typically dismissed as simply DAO tooling or a social good initiative. However, in the race to scale and capture market share, these mechanisms have become a competitive advantage. Blockchain ecosystems are dogfooding these novel tools and protocols at an unprecedented speed. As these open-source tools get better, it becomes easier for any ecosystem (not just blockchains) to fund what matters to them.

Onchain ecosystems are made up of thousands of people from all around the world who are designing novel forms of economic and governance structures around their shared goals. This is a big deal. For the history of humankind, these systems were designed top-down. But now, blockchain enables bottoms-up global networks to design systems that align with their values.

We are building technology that has the potential to completely revolutionize how capital flows through society and how power and money is concentrated. While right now, blockchain-based funding mechanisms are still in their infancy, as the industry matures, we will begin to see ecosystems rivaling the size of nation-states, rally incentives and allocate capital towards areas that need it most.

To those trying to grow an ecosystem, I encourage you to run experiments and share your learnings publicly. Collective knowledge is how we as an industry can realize these goals faster.

To outside speculators, I urge you to thoroughly examine the governance and economic models powering these blockchains. Are tokens being distributed in ways that benefit an entire ecosystem, or just a centralized group of decision makers? Understand the levers and drivers that power these systems and recognize that your decisions have an impact on how they are designed.

I know when people talk about blockchains potential for rewriting economies and governance systems, it's often dismissed as an intangible and futuristic goal. But it’s not — it’s happening right now. And, it's being supercharged through some healthy blockchain competition.

Note: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CoinDesk, Inc. or its owners and affiliates.

The fundraise included a grant from the Foundation and external investment by Electric Capital.

Nuffle Labs will use NEAR to offer rollups via NEAR's Data Availability (NESR DA) and Fast Finally Layer (NFFL) products.

NEAR Foundation, the non-profit steward of the blockchain ecosystem of the same name, has formed Nuffle Labs with $13 million in funding.

The spinout is aimed at advancing NEAR's modularity and bringing more decentralized development to the ecosystem, according to an emailed announcement on Thursday.

"As an independent entity, Nuffle Labs will now be able to make agile decisions, ensuring that NEAR Modular products remain competitive," the announcement said. "Strategically positioned between the NEAR Foundation, Ethereum, and EigenLayer ecosystems, Nuffle Labs will leverage strengths from multiple platforms to enhance efficiency and resilience in the NEAR ecosystem."

The fundraise included a grant from the foundation and external investment by Electric Capital. Also participating were Canonical Crypto, Fabric Ventures, Robot Ventures, Caladan and Lyrik Ventures.

Nuffle Labs will use NEAR to offer rollups via NEAR's Data Availability (NESR DA) and Fast Finally Layer (NFFL) products.

Read More: Near Protocol's Token Almost Doubles in a Week, Ahead of Nvidia's AI Conference

Film.io aims to bring filmmakers and fans closer to the creative process by forming blockchain-based communities.

Launched in 2022 by Consensys, VillageDAO harnesses the power of Web3 communities to provide customer support and service to dApp users and developers.

Ethereum developer Consensys has announced that Film.io, a startup that uses crypto power to democratize the Hollywood studio system, will be the first partner to join VillageDAO, a smart contract framework and service provider for Web3 communities, formed within ConsenSys back in 2022.

Ethereum brings together a vast ecosystem these days, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) have had the power to ignite that community and drive various projects and fundraising ideas of all sorts.

A clear target for some degree of decentralization, the Hollywood studio system is a highly evolved series of gatekeeping intermediaries and the result is a world where storytelling and creativity is systematically stifled, points out Bryan Hertz, co-creator of Film.io.

“Film.io is a decentralized community that filmmakers can build around their own film project and really choose their own path,” said Hertz in an interview. “They can seek funding, distribution, as well as assistance from the community in developing their project, whether it's improving the idea or even getting assets recreated, like movie posters or things like that, doing it In a decentralized way.”

From a Film.io perspective, Hertz said he sees film projects with budgets ranging from half a million dollars to $30 million-plus, which he expects to increase as more studios come on board the platform.

VillageDAO, originally incubated within Consensys back in 2022 and now planning a life of its own, can offer a brand like Film.io a better managed environment than the likes of Discord, said Consensys managing director Dror Avieli.

“Discord is a great tool to some degree, but it can quite quickly become a kind of Wild West where you encounter many different levels of behavior and quite a bit of chaos,” said Avieli in an interview. “We believe in creating an environment with better technology, better procedures and better funding, and overall better community management and support.”

As VillageDAO’s first official partner, Film.io will have a designated white-label portal on the

VillageDAO platform: The Film.io Village. To kick off the partnership, Film.io, and VillageDAO are rolling out a “Community Expert'' certification program that allows Film.io members to support the existing community and assist in onboarding new users, the companies said.

This article originally appeared in First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily newsletter, putting the latest moves in crypto markets in context. Subscribe to get it in your inbox every day.

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Bitcoin held its ground above $67,000 during the European morning following the Fed's hawkish interest rate projections on Wednesday. The U.S. central bank left rates unchanged on Wednesday and predicted just one reduction this year, which sent bitcoin lower. Following a dip toward $67,000 during the Asian morning, BTC ticked back upward swiftly before trading between $67,200-$67,800. At time of writing, bitcoin is sitting above $67,900, up 0.16% 24 hours ago. The CoinDesk CD 20, meanwhile, is down 0.34% in that time. Ether has fluctuated either side of $3,500, currently 1.1% down in the last 24 hours.

Paxos has laid off 65 people, amounting 20% off its staff, according to a report by Bloomberg. CEO Charles Cascarilla said that the layoffs “allows us to best execute on the massive opportunity ahead in tokenization and stablecoin" and the company is in a "very strong financial position to succeed." Paxos intends to gradually discontinue its settlement services in commodities and securities. Instead, it will concentrate more on asset tokenization and stablecoins, Bloomberg reported. Paxos has a balance sheet of around $500 million, according to disclosures from its various stablecoins. However, the company took a hit last year when the New York Department of Financial Services forced it to stop minting Binance's BUSD in early 2023, which had a market cap of $16 billion at its peak.

Curve’s CRV token plunged 30% in early Asian trading hours as some loan positions supposedly tied to its founder, Michael Egorov, started to automatically liquidate, leading to sudden selling activity. Data tracked by Lookonchain and Arkham show Egorov’s addresses have taken out a cumulative loan of nearly $100 million worth of stablecoins, mostly crvUSD, against $140 million in CRV collateral. A Debank profile tracking Egorov’s wallet shows he has borrowed from Inverse, UwU Lend, Fraxlend, and Curve’s LlamaLend using CRV tokens as collateral. Total holdings across tracked wallets are down 50% in the past 24 hours. In the early Asian hours, several loans were repaid on Inverse and Llamalend with FRAX, DOLA, and CRV tokens.

Chart of the Day

The chart shows the number of CRV held in wallets tied to centralized exchanges spiked 57% early Thursday to record highs above 480 million.

The rise shows investor intention to sell Curve's CRV token, which traded 30% lower at press time.

Source - CryptoQuant

- Omkar Godbole

Trending Posts

MicroStrategy Proposes $500M Convertible Notes to Boost Bitcoin Stash

Australia's Treasury to Include Stablecoin Rules in Crypto Bill Draft, ASIC's Warning For Crypto Entities

ERCOT CEO: Texas' Power Grid Needs Larger Increase Than Expected to Handle AI, Bitcoin Mining

MicroStrategy proposes $500 million debt sale to boost BTC stash.

The Nasdaq-listed firm currently holds 214,400 BTC.

Nasdaq-listed business intelligence firm and bitcoin holder MicroStrategy (MSTR) announced Thursday that it intends to offer $500 million aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2032, proceeds of which will be used to acquire additional bitcoin and on other corporate affairs.

The notes will be unsecured, senior obligations of MicroStrategy, and interest will be paid semi-annually in arrears on June 15 and December 15 of each year, beginning on December 15, 2024. The offering is subject to market conditions, and there is no guarantee about when or on what terms it may be completed. Subject to certain conditions, the company may redeem for cash all or a portion of the notes on or after June 20, 2029.

Individuals believed to be qualified as institutional buyers by Rule 144A of the Securities Act of 1933 will be eligible for the private offering.

MicroStrategy currently holds 214,400 BTC worth over $14 billion and is the highest public-listed bitcoin holder. The company began accumulating the leading cryptocurrency in 2020, adopting it as a reserve asset.

Australia's regulators are looking to include stablecoin legislation into its legislative bill for the digital assets sector.

A representative of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said they had held meetings with regulators like the SEC about their legal positions on crypto.

Australia's regulators have provided rare updates on their plans for the digital assets sector, including plans to introduce a draft framework for stablecoins and hinted that more enforcement is on its way against unlicensed entities during an event in Sydney on Wednesday.

The event, Digital Assets: Anchoring the Digital Economy, was hosted by Blockchain Australia, the nation's policy body for the industry.

Australia's Treasury previously announced plans to release draft legislation to cover licensing and custody rules for crypto asset providers by the end of 2024. Now, that draft could include a framework to regulate stablecoins.

"The digital asset platform reforms have been allocated a drafting spot with The Office of Parliamentary Counsel (responsible for drafting and publishing Australian laws) that would see the exposure draft released before the end of this year," said Chris Adamek, director of the Australian Treasury's digital asset policy unit.

"Within that drafting slot, there are various reforms and each has a different priority to the payments reforms, which would include our proposed framework for regulating stablecoins sit within that same slot, and they'll be sort of done one after the other. Given that overlap, reps (representatives) are hoping that both of them will be released at the same time."

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said it was assisting the government in providing advice to colleagues in the Treasury and that it was having regular meetings with peers across the world including the EU, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and North America to understand more about the cases they have filed against digital asset firms.

"We are actively monitoring cases overseas and interacting regularly with our overseas peers," said Dr Rhys Bollen, senior executive leader of digital assets at ASIC. "We had an hour on the phone with the SEC this morning talking about some of the work that they're doing and what we can learn from that. We have run half a dozen (cases) already that interact with the digital assets and crypto assets base and we do have more."

Additionally, ASIC's representative said it has and will provide guidance but it is also subject to the law, warning crypto entities to fall in line with the precedents set in the recent cases it has filed against crypto entities in front of an audience of industry goers.

"When did you last review the tokens that you list on your platform? When was the last time you reviewed the products and services that you are making available? How recently have you consulted with your lawyers about where the law currently sees the most current understanding based on cases over the last six months or so. If you haven't done that in the last four months you need to consider where you are," Bollen said.

Bollen also said ASIC would be appealing recent judgements that, at least in part, were in favor of crypto entities such as Block Earner and BPS Financial Pty Ltd (BPS). In recent times, ASIC has sued Binance Australia and social investing platform eToro, while major banks of the nation have imposed partial restrictions on crypto citing scams.

Blockchain Australia has now rebranded to become the Digital Economy Council of Australia (DECA) and will include a membership category for banks.

Read More: Australia's First Spot Bitcoin ETF With Direct BTC Holdings to Go Live on Tuesday

June 12: Minima, describing itself as the only blockchain lightweight enough to run entirely on mobile and device chips, says it's working with Influx Technology to integrate a data tracker into a McLaren GT4 – a capability that could improve racing performance as well as prevent cheating. According to a press release: "Data points on over 20 parameters including vehicle ignition timing, braking, oil pressure, engine temperature, steering angle and rotation, as well as gear switching, are collected by the ‘DePIN Data Logger’ in real time…. Minima's innovative blockchain design secures the hash of the data, proving its history and integrity, while the actual data is stored on the device or in cloud storage, independent of validators' permissions. Due to the low requirements to validate the data on the blockchain, any IoT device can operate a full node and collect its data. This allows data to be verified by other nodes on the network while being stored on the device itself."

Protocol Village is a regular feature of The Protocol, our weekly newsletter exploring the tech behind crypto, one block at a time. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday. Project teams can submit updates here. For previous versions of Protocol Village, please go here. Also please check out our weekly The Protocol podcast.

Paxos has laid off 65 people as it increases its focus on tokenization.

CEO Charles Cascarilla wrote in a company email that the firm is in a "very strong financial position to succeed.”

Digital assets company Paxos has laid off 65 people, or 20% of its staff, according to a report from Bloomberg.

In an all-hands email obtained by Bloomberg, its CEO Charles Cascarilla said that the layoffs “allows us to best execute on the massive opportunity ahead in tokenization and stablecoin" and the company is in a "very strong financial position to succeed"

Paxos has a balance sheet of around $500 million, according to disclosures from its various stablecoins.

However, the company took a hit last year when the New York Department of Financial Services forced it to stop minting Binance's BUSD in early 2023, which had a market cap of $16 billion at its peak.

In August 2023, PayPal announced that Paxos was its partner in launching a PayPal-branded stablecoin.

Paxos intends to gradually discontinue its settlement services in commodities and securities. Instead, it will concentrate more on asset tokenization and stablecoins, Bloomberg reported.

Texas recently revised estimates of how much capacity its grid will need, citing demand from AI and bitcoin mining.

The political climate towards these two industries is souring because of increased energy demands, while Trump is doubling down on his support for mining.

Texas' grid will soon need to dramatically expand to meet growing demand from bitcoin miners and artificial intelligence data centers, while the political climate towards both these industries may be souring.

Speaking to the Texas Senate Business and Commerce Committee Wednesday, Pablo Vegas, the CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages the state's power grid, said that demand from these two industries is testing the grid forcing officials to revise estimates for how much energy it will need to produce by the end of the next decade.

“We're trying to put together a puzzle that kind of illuminates how this market can work for the next five to ten to fifteen years," Vegas is quoted by local media as saying.

Vegas said that within the next six years capacity needs to grow from 85,000 megawatts to 150,000 megawatts. Initially the expectation was that the grid only needed 130,000 megawatts in this time frame.

Bitcoin mining and AI data centers will be responsible for more than half of the added growth on the Texas grid, he said. Data centers for AI workloads use significantly more power than their peers because of the intensity of the workload.

Research from Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam projects that AI could be responsible for as much electricity consumption as bitcoin in just a few years.

All this comes as political climate towards bitcoin and AI's power consumption is souring.

State Sen. Jose Menendez (D-San Antonio) said during the testimony that it was "inherently unjust" mining operations and AI data centers could move to the state to take advantage of its low cost of energy while everyday Texans were "making tough decisions about costs".

In a post on X, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wrote that these two industries "produce very few jobs compared to the incredible demands they place on our grid" and that the Texas Senate would be taking a closer look.

"I’m more interested in building the grid to service customers in their homes, apartments, and normal businesses and keeping costs as low as possible for them instead of for very niche industries that have massive power demands and produce few jobs," he wrote. "We want data centers, but it can’t be the Wild Wild West of data centers and crypto miners crashing our grid and turning the lights off."

In December 2022, the Canadian province of British Columbia enacted an 18-month moratorium on new crypto mining operations citing the low number of jobs they create compared to the high energy demand. A provincial court upheld that ban earlier this year (the moritorium is scheduled to expire by the end of July).

All this comes as Republican front runner Donald Trump doubles down on his support for the bitcoin mining industry.

"Bitcoin mining may be our last line of defense against a CBDC. Biden’s hatred of Bitcoin only helps China, Russia, and the Radical Communist Left. We want all the remaining Bitcoin to be MADE IN THE USA!!! It will help us be ENERGY DOMINANT," Trump said in a recent post on the social media platform Truth Social.

CRV plunges as Curve founder faces multi-million dollar liquidation risk.

Founder Micheal Egorov has taken a CRV-backed cumulative loan of nearly $100 million, data tracking firms said.

Lending protocol Curve’s CRV token plunged 30% in early Asian trading hours as some loan positions supposedly tied to its founder, Michael Egorov, started to automatically liquidate, leading to sudden selling activity.

Data tracked by blockchain analytics firms Lookonchain and Arkham show Egorov’s addresses have taken out a cumulative loan of nearly $100 million worth of stablecoins, mostly crvUSD, against $140 million in CRV collateral.

A Debank profile tracking Egorov’s wallet shows he has borrowed from Inverse, UwU Lend, Fraxlend, and Curve’s LlamaLend using CRV tokens as collateral. Total holdings across tracked wallets are down 50% in the past 24 hours.

Wallet transactions show that Egorov is actively taking steps to mitigate risks. In the early Asian hours, several loans were repaid on Inverse and Llamalend with FRAX, DOLA, and CRV tokens. Some of the addresses also conducted several swaps between CRV and tether (USDT), the data shows.

The liquidation of such a large position started to put pressure on other DeFi protocols as CRV is used as a trading pair and ballast in trading pools across the ecosystem.

One address on Frax Lend, a different lending and borrowing protocol, saw $3.3 million in liquidated positions as CRV prices fell.

This is the second time Egorov’s borrowed positions have created ripples in the crypto market. In 2023, an exploit of several Curve lending pools caused CRV prices to suddenly dump – putting over $100 million at risk of being liquidated.

At the time, DeFi bigwigs such as Tron founder Justin Sun stepped in to supply liquidity and prevent bad debt, acquiring millions in CRV at a discount to prevent the risk of collateral damage across the crypto ecosystem.

BTC tends to rally after softer-than-expected CPI releases, 10x said.

The Fed will eventually signal more rate cuts, the research firm added.

ETF inflows resumed Wednesday as U.S. inflation came in lower-than-expected.

10x Research continues to advocate bitcoin even as the leading cryptocurrency trades under pressure following the Fed's hawkish interest rate projections.

On Wednesday, the U.S. central bank left the benchmark borrowing cost unchanged in the range of 5.25%- 5.5% as expected. However, it predicted just one rate reduction this year, down from three in March. Given the softer-than-expected CPI release early in the day, the Fed's new rate prediction likely spooked markets, sending bitcoin lower.

The leading cryptocurrency by market value has pulled back to $67,400 since the Fed released rate projections, reversing the post-CPI jump to $70,000, CoinDesk data show.

Still, 10x Research maintains a positive outlook on bitcoin, expressing confidence that the rally will soon resume.

"Our recommendation remains unchanged: to stick with the winners (Bitcoin) and avoid others (such as Ethereum). Our previous analysis has shown that a lower CPI number tends to lift Bitcoin prices, and we anticipate this trend will continue," Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, said in a note to clients on Thursday.

The U.S. consumer price inflation rate was flat in May, missing the consensus estimate for a 0.1% rise and down from 0.3% in April. The year-on-year rate was 3.3%, matching estimates and down from April's 3.4%.

Per Thielen, the slowdown in inflation has historically attracted huge inflows into the U.S.-listed spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds. Provisional data from Farside Investors show the ETFs amassed $100 million on Wednesday, snapping a two-days outflows streak.

Thielen explained that the ETF flows dried after the debut on Jan. 11 as December CPI came in higher, weakening the case for Fed rate cuts. The flows resumed in February, pushing bitcoin higher.

"ETF flows turned positive at the end of January but only started to accelerate slightly ahead of the CPI data release on February 13. But when inflation again increased to 3.2% on March 12, Bitcoin ETF inflows stopped as the market priced out the narrative of 2-3 rate cuts," Thielen noted at the end of May.

Thielen expects the Fed to signal more rate cuts later this year as inflation has already peaked.

Former President Donald Trump is calling for a domestic bitcoin mining industry to develop in the U.S. Perhaps with a bit of hyperbole, the Republican presidential candidate said Tuesday he wants “all the remaining” bitcoin – about 2.1 million units – to be produced in the U.S., arguing it would help the country become energy independent and counter the development of a central bank digital currency.

This is an excerpt from The Node newsletter, a daily roundup of the most pivotal crypto news on CoinDesk and beyond. You can subscribe to get the full newsletter here.

Note: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CoinDesk, Inc. or its owners and affiliates.

The announcement, made on his Truth Social social media platform, followed a talk between Trump and Bitcoin Magazine CEO David Bailey in front of representatives from leading bitcoin mining firms CleanSpark, Riot Platforms, Marathon Digital at the former president's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

The latest in a series of increasingly pro-crypto statements – including a pledge to defend the right of self-custody, accept crypto campaign donations and “keep Elizabeth Warren and her goons away from your Bitcoin” – has drawn mixed reactions from crypto advocates. Perhaps that is not so surprising, given how polarizing the former president (whose favorability rating never stood above 50%) is in the U.S.

However, this is arguably the first time since 2019 – when Trump said he was “not a fan” of Bitcoin – that the former reality star missed the mark on crypto. The idea of onshoring bitcoin mining is all well and good, and has been happening ever since China banned the practice in 2021. But, if you take Trump literally, calling for all bitcoin miners to be located in a single region suggests a profound ignorance of what Bitcoin is, how it works and why it’s powerful.

Geopolitical signal?

However, that’s just one opinion. There are many others. Bitcoin Magazine’s Alex Bergeron, for instance, argues Trump’s statement is a powerful signal for the importance of crypto.

“We absolutely want the world's most powerful man to signal to every other power brokers that Bitcoin mining is a geopolitical issue. That's how you get everyone to start mining. That's how you decentralize the network,” Bergeron wrote, responding to climate change expert and co-founder of the Bitcoin Policy Summit Margot “jynurso” Paez.

Paez argued that centralizing hashrate production in any one country – specifically one where politicians and regulators have in recent memory been hostile to crypto – is perhaps unwise. President Biden’s administration, for instance, has floated the idea of a steep 30% bitcoin mining tax.

In any event, it’s unlikely the hashrate would ever centralize in any one region, given that there are bitcoiners the world over, who would be difficult even for the President of the United States to prevent from mining.

See also: Why, for Some, Crypto Is a Defining Political Issue | Opinion

So the real question here is whether the U.S. attempting to dominate the bitcoin mining trade through government support or even subsidy would inspire other governments to incentivize domestic mining. It’s far-fetched, but global leaders do often look to the U.S. to set agendas. The problem is Trump’s notably low standing among said global leaders.

So whether this campaign platform actually moves the needle on bitcoin mining is difficult to say. Especially because it’s impossible to say whether Trump’s pro-crypto statements should be taken as pandering or flattering. He is certainly a divisive figure among bitcoiners – and not even just the progressive ones.

Lying with dogs

Many see it as frankly embarrassing to be buddying up with any politician, putting aside Trump’s Napoleonic sized ego. Bitcoin writer and privacy advocate L0la L33tz, for one, wrote a whole essay about the subject, arguing that politicians cannot be trusted, that Trump failed to deliver on many of his previous campaign promises, and that Bitcoin doesn’t really even need political support.

See also: The Biden Administration Is Easing Up on Crypto (a Vibes Analysis) | Opinion

“When your morals can be bought, you are not a patriot – you are a sell out,” L33tz wrote.

Apart from being an internally consistent take considering the “Bitcoin ethos,” it’s worth noting that L33tz’s position is also likely long term optically best for the industry development.

It may seem expedient to fall in with the Republican party standard-bearer given that most political support comes from the right. But I think the view of someone like Uniswap's Marvin Ammori (who debated big-time Trump supporter Ryan Selkis at Consensus 2024 last month) – that the crypto industry should strive to be neutral and apolitical – is likely the better strategy.

I’ve argued before that it’s inevitable for crypto, as a cause celeb, to become an issue for the right to defend and left to vilify. But should you want it to be?

The Ethereum layer-2 project Optimism has been all smiles since its launch in late 2021 – but with a missing tooth. Namely, it lacked the "fault proofs" critical to making the project an "optimistic" rollup; these are critical for challenging malicious transactions. As of this week, the gap has finally been filled in. Read on.

ALSO:

Crypto-lending comeback

Top picks from the past week's Protocol Village column: Biconomy, Ripple, XRP Ledger, Axelar, Lido, Mellow Finance, Symbiotic, Covalent, Arthur Hayes, Cardano, Charles Hoskinson.

Solana takes action against the creeping problem of frontrunning and "sandwich attacks."

Polygon's Community Grants Program worth 1B POL tokens.

ZKsync, with newly stylized project name, sets criteria for next week's ZK token airdrop.

This article is featured in the latest issue of The Protocol, our weekly newsletter exploring the tech behind crypto, one block at a time. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday. Also please check out our weekly The Protocol podcast.

Network news

MISSING TOOTH FILLED IN: Optimism, the Ethereum layer-2 project, provides the technological foundation for some of the biggest names in blockchain, including the Coinbase exchange's popular Base blockchain and Worldcoin's World Chain, from OpenAI founder Sam Altman. But for years, blockchains that used Optimism's technology were built according to a false underlying premise: that they "borrowed" Ethereum's security apparatus. In reality, it wasn't the case, because they lacked a crucial piece of functionality known as "fault proofs" – used to challenge actors suspected of malicious behavior. On Monday, that long-promised tech finally came to Optimism's mainnet, CoinDesk's Margaux Nijkerk reported Tuesday. “We literally deleted the entire system essentially, re-architected it, and rewrote the entire thing,” Karl Floersch, CEO of OP Labs, said in an interview with CoinDesk. “That was brutal, but absolutely the correct decision.” The achievement might blunt some of the project's most truculent criticism; similar "proof" technology is used by all layer-2 rollup networks, including Optimism competitors like Arbitrum. Without fault proofs, users who deposited funds into Optimism needed to trust the rollup's "security council" to return their funds – a system vulnerable to potential human error or bias. With fault proofs, users should only need to trust Ethereum's security. For now, though, the Security Council will remain intact and could still intervene in the event that the fault-proof system goes down.

BACK FOR MORE? The crypto lending sector is recovering from the crypto winter, which blew up several large players, thanks to spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and creditors getting some of their assets back from bankrupt companies, CoinDesk's Aoyon Ashraf reports. The sector spectacularly imploded in 2022 as crypto prices dove, with firms including Celsius, BlockFi and Genesis filing for bankruptcy. Since then, digital-asset prices have soared, with the CoinDesk 20 Index up more than 200% since the end of 2022. "What I'm seeing is that this market has come back roaring," Mauricio Di Bartolomeo, co-founder of crypto lending firm Ledn, told CoinDesk during a recent interview at the Consensus 2024 conference in Austin, Texas.

ALSO:

After a UK court ruled in March that Craig Wright was not the creator of Bitcoin and didn't author the original blockchain's whitepaper, as he had claimed, he's now being asked to cover costs of the legal proceedings. The Crypto Open Patent Alliance's (COPA) legal representatives last week asked Judge James Mellor to grant that Wright pay 85% of the costs the group incurred in the legal proceedings.

Almost $19 billion worth of cryptocurrency has been stolen in thefts dating back to 2011 and the industry continues to grapple with rising blockchain-related crime, according to a report from Crystal Intelligence.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and crypto could add a combined $20 trillion to the global economy by 2030, asset manager Bitwise said in a report on Wednesday.

Protocol Village

Top picks of the past week from our Protocol Village column, highlighting key blockchain tech upgrades and news.

Schematic of Biconomy's 'Delegated Authorization Network' (Biconomy)

1. Biconomy, a Web3 infrastructure company, launched a new "Delegated Authorization Network," or DAN, "enabling the safe delegation of on-chain activities to AI agents," according to the team. A press release added: "Biconomy DAN operates by granting AI projects approved access to user's 'Delegated Auth' keys stored on an EigenLayer AVS (Actively Validated Services), ensuring true autonomy without compromising on security." A blog post is here.

2. Ripple Labs, the primary developer behind the XRP Ledger, announced Wednesday that its previously announced XRPL EVM Sidechain has launched, including an integration with the interoperability project Axelar. According to the team: "The XRPL EVM Sidechain brings Ethereum compatibility to XRP Ledger, unlocking DeFi and RWA tokenization opportunities. The Axelar Bridge will ensure seamless asset transfers between XRPL and EVM Sidechain, with wXRP as the native asset."

3. A new initiative from Lido DAO will see Lido's partnering with Mellow Finance, a platform that lets users generate yield by depositing into restaking "vaults," and Symbiotic, a permissionless restaking protocol. Mellow curators Steakhouse, P2P Validator, Re7 Labs and MEV Capital are each introducing vaults that accept stETH in tandem with Tuesday's announcement.

4. Covalent, provider of a decentralized network for indexing blockchain data, announced that BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes has been named as a new strategic advisor. Hayes, who currently serves as chief investment officer of Maelstrom, "will be leading the development of the Ethereum Wayback Machine, ensuring that all Ethereum and EVM rollup data will shape AI with a preformat and verifiably secure pipeline," according to the team.

5. The Cardano network is set to move into the final phase of a multiyear program to become a wholly decentralized blockchain ecosystem later this month, co-founder Charles Hoskinson said in an X post Monday.

Solana Heavyweights Wage War Against Private Mempool Operators

(Danny Nelson)

A group of Solana (SOL) validators are facing financial penalties for allegedly facilitating economic attacks against crypto traders.

Over 30 validator operators were kicked off the Solana Foundation Delegation Program over the weekend, a source familiar with the matter said. While they remain validators on the network, they're no longer eligible to receive what amounted to payout boosters for validating transactions on the Solana blockchain. Many of the operators were Russians, another source said.

The purge escalates a months-long shadow war between heavyweights of the Solana validator ecosystem and an underground economy of validators believed to be exploiting traders for profit through what's known as a "sandwich attack," whereby bots frontrun and backfill trades that haven't yet been executed.

"Enforcement actions are on going as we detect operators participating in mempools which allow sandwich attacks," a representative for the Solana Foundation said Sunday.

Read the full story by CoinDesk's Danny Nelson

Money Center

Fundraisings

Ava Protocol, formerly OAK Network, secured $10 million in seed funding ($5.5 million initial and $4.5M seed+ rounds) to develop its Eigenlayer AVS for private autonomous transactions on Ethereum.

Squads Labs Raises $10M Series A, Unveils Smart Wallet for Public Testing on iOS

Polygon Creates New Grants Program, 1B POL Unlocked Over 10 Years

How to Fund Open-Source Generative AI? With Crypto

Deals and grants

Robinhood to Buy Crypto Exchange Bitstamp, in $200M All-Cash Deal

Tether Expects to Invest Over $1B in Deals in the Next Year: Bloomberg

Core, an Ethereum-compatible layer-1 blockchain project that relies on Bitcoin for its security setup, "is launching the BTCfi Summer Hackathon, a 12-week event designed to ignite innovation in the Bitcoin economy," according to the team.

Layer-2 network Polygon is starting a Community Grants Program to encourage builders to build in its ecosystem, Polygon Labs said on Tuesday. The program aims to place 1 billion POL, Polygon’s soon-to-rebrand MATIC token, into the hands of developers over the next 10 years. The program went live Tuesday with 35 million tokens, worth $23 million at current prices, eligible for distribution.

Data and Tokens

ZKsync’s ZK Airdrop is Coming ‘Next Week,’ Here's What to Expect

Rune Christensen Explains Why He Wants to Remake Maker and Kill DAI

Defi Protocol UwU Lend Suffers $19.3M Expolit: Arkham

AI-Linked Crypto Tokens Underperform as Apple's Event Fails to Impress Traders

Iggy Azalea Says MOTHER Tokens Can Soon Be Used to Buy Phones

Meme Sector Sees Sharp Selloff as GameStop Losses Extend to 60%

Calendar

June 11-13: Apex, the XRP Ledger Developer Summit, Amsterdam.

July 8-11: EthCC, Brussels.

July 25-27: Bitcoin 2024, Nashville.

Aug. 19-21: Web3 Summit, Berlin.

Sept. 19-21: Solana Breakpoint, Singapore.

Sept. 1-7: Korea Blockchain Week, Seoul.

Sept. 30-Oct. 2: Messari Mainnet, New York.

Oct. 9-11: Permissionless, Salt Lake City.

Oct. 21-22: Cosmoverse, Dubai.

Oct. 23-24: Cardano Summit, Dubai.

Oct. 30-31: Chainlink SmartCon, Hong Kong

Nov 12-14: Devcon 7, Bangkok.

Nov. 20-21: North American Blockchain Summit, Dallas.

Feb. 19-20, 2025: ConsensusHK, Hong Kong.

May 14-16: Consensus, Toronto.

Terraform Labs and former CEO Do Kwon have agreed to pay the SEC $4.5 billion in disgorgement, prejudgment interest and civil penalties.

The settlement must still be approved by the New York judge overseeing the case.

The agreement would also permanently ban Kwon and Terraform Labs from buying and selling crypto asset securities.

Terraform Labs and its former CEO Do Kwon have agreed to a settlement agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that would see them forking over a combined $4.5 billion in disgorgement and civil penalties.

The settlement agreement, which was filed Wednesday, would also permanently ban Kwon and Terraform Labs from buying and selling crypto asset securities – including all of the tokens in the Terra ecosystem.

In addition to their proposed final judgment, lawyers for the SEC filed a letter with the court urging the New York judge overseeing the case, U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff of the Southern District of New York (SDNY), to approve the settlement agreement.

“If approved, the proposed judgment will send an unmistakable deterrent message to not only those who engage in brazen misconduct, but also to all those who seek to evade the requirements of the federal securities laws by crafting new standards of behavior for crypto assets that fall under the purview of the federal securities laws,” the lawyers wrote. The SEC declined to comment further.

A representative for Terraform Labs declined to comment on the proposed settlement or what it means for Terraform Labs’ future.

In April, a New York jury found Kwon and Terraform Labs liable on civil fraud charges brought against them by the SEC in connection with the $40 billion implosion of the Terra ecosystem in May 2022. Kwon – who is still in custody in Montenegro where he awaits a decision on his extradition to either the U.S. or his native South Korea to face criminal charges for his role in Terra’s collapse – was not in attendance for the trial.

According to court documents, Kwon and Terraform Labs’ current CEO, Chris Amani, both agreed to the terms of the settlement on June 6, though the settlement agreement must still be approved by the New York judge overseeing the case before it is made binding.

Of the $4,473,828,306 that Terraform Labs and Kwon must pay to the SEC in disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and civil penalties, Kwon must pay at least $204,320,196 out of his own pocket. The steep penalty is slightly lower than the SEC’s first settlement offer of $5.3 billion in fines, but much higher than the virtual slap on the wrist – a $1 million civil penalty and no disgorgement or injunctions – Terraform Labs suggested to the court in its April memorandum of opposition to the SEC’s motion for final judgment.

During Terraform’s trial, Amani testified that the company, which is currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, had approximately $150 million in assets remaining.