Crypto's first insider trading case - What you need to know about it đ
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This is Cryptonite, your twice-a-week shot to stay updated about the crazy world of crypto. We hit you with whatâs relevant, upcoming and funny â minus the FUD.
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Former Coinbase employee charged in first crypto insider trading case đ¨
Ishan Wahi, an ex-Coinbase product manager, has just been charged with fraud and insider trading for around $1.5 million. Itâs the first ever case of insider trading related to cryptocurrencies.Â
Whatâs happening - Coinbase, one of the worldâs largest crypto exchanges, lists new coins from time to time on its exchange. When they do, the newly listed coinsâ value skyrockets.
Ishan Wahi knew which tokens would be listed, and would feed this news to his brothers Nikhil Wahi, and friend Sameer Ramani, both of whom have been charged with the same crimes. They did this for up to a year.
The story gets better thoughâŚ
Coinbase asked Ishan to come in for a meeting and he immediately got suspicious and booked a flight to India to escape. He got caught while doing so and he with his accomplices now faces up to 40 years in prison.Â
Our take: Digital or not, a crime is still a crime. It takes time, but the law tends to catch up. With the ledger aspect of blockchain technologies, your track stays on the chain. What you do never goes away. Letâs try to be smart and make good decisions.Â
Amazon.eth gets $1,000,000 bid đľ
We might be in a bear market, but Eth domains are hot at the moment, with over $20 Million in sales volume over last month itself. Now Amazon. eth has a $1m bid.Â
Whatâs happening? In the early days of the Internet, domain registry i.e buying domains like .com, .net etc were confusing and companies took time to figure it out. Looking at this, random people would register domains based on the fact that these larger companies would want to buy them later. Similarly, now people are buying ENS domains based on expectations that companies like Google or Apple would be interested to get their addresses.
Our take: Â With ENS domains growing big, it shows how early we are to the market. When the internet first started, people were scrambling to register domains. As Ethereum grows bigger, more people are likely to connect the real world and the blockchain. So catch âem while you can.
Minecraft says no to NFTs đ đ˝ââď¸
Minecraft, one of the largest games on the planet right now, announced it will block the use of NFTs and blockchain technology on its game and stop the creation of NFTs.Â
Whatâs happening -Â In Minecraft, NFTs would allow players to get awarded once they completed missions. Each of these NFTs then had a resale value or would act as a digital ownership token. This meant that some players would have access to items and some wouldnât.
Minecraft didnât like this as it already has assets in the game and âstrives to provide a marketplace where the values can be recognizedâ aka its easy to earn them and isnât unfair to other players.
Some very large NFT projects were hurt by the ban though. For example, NFT Worlds, a project that allowed users to âownâ their created worlds within Minecraft. The holders could invite other users to it and allow them to buy a piece of their virtual land. To date, the project had generated over $75 million in transaction volume at today's crypto prices.
Similarly, there were several well-known NFT projects making it big, and building on the Minecraft servers. Now theyâve practically been sent to the bin.Â
Why care: NFTs and Play to earn games are still finding their niche in the gaming world. We think both game creators and NFT believes will find a way to meet in between once these projects find a better utility than just making money.
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DISCLAIMER:Â
None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.