In the wake of the FTX collapse that sent shockwaves down the entire crypto industry, Binance has revealed an Industry Recovery Initiative, a $1 billion fund to help affected crypto companies. The truth remains that the crypto community would need a long process to recover from this drawback. But significant steps like this taken by Binance are in the right direction to rebuild trust and infrastructure.
Also, in what has received a lot of flak, SBF, CEO of the defunct FTX, has confirmed that he would show up in person to speak at the New York Times DealBook Summit on November 30. A lot of important questions are to be asked and answered till then.
Here are a few major stories from the crypto space this week.
El Salvador to launch bitcoin bonds
The El Salvadoran Minister of the Economy has introduced a bill enabling the Bukele government to raise $1 billion to build out its proposed Bitcoin city.
The Bitcoin bonds project, also known as Volcano bonds, was initially introduced by the Bukele government back in 2021. The plan was to use the bonds to raise around $1 billion to build a Bitcoin city at the foot of the Colchagua volcano. The hydrothermal energy emitted by the volcano would be tapped and used to supply a crypto-mining farm.
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After some delays, a 33-page bill has now been submitted by Maria Luisa Hayem Brevé, the Minister of the Economy. The bill will establish a National Digital Assets Commission that will oversee the regulation of all parties involved and the public offering process. According to a CoinTelegraph post, the bill could be approved before Christmas.
Binance $1b industry recovery funds
Binance announced that it is committing $1 billion to help companies in the crypto industry remain operational on Thursday. The leading exchange wrote that it has a “responsibility to lead the charge when it comes to protecting consumers and rebuilding the industry.” To that end, it has established the Industry Recovery Initiative (IRI), allowing struggling cryptocurrency companies to request financial support.
Binance has contributed $1 billion worth of crypto to the initiative and may increase that amount to $2 billion if needed. The IRI is also taking contributions from other companies. Several participants have already committed $50 million to the program, including Polygon Ventures, Animoca Brands, Jump Crypto, Aptos Labs, GSR Markets, Kronos, and Brooker Group.
Binance expects more participants to enlist soon, adding that it is working on providing a way for traditional financial companies to join the initiative without using crypto.
United States seizes crypto scam websites
The United States Department of Justice has seized seven websites used by fraudsters to perpetrate a cryptocurrency scam known as “pig butchering.” Pig butchering is a confidence trick scammers are using to steal cryptocurrencies.
Con artists will reach out to potential victims via dating apps, social media websites, or random text messages. Upon developing a relationship with the victims, fraudsters then convince them to make a cryptocurrency investment. After making a sequence of investments, victims are subsequently blocked by the perpetrators who abscond with the stolen funds.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia seized seven domain names associated with the scam. Between May and Aug. 2022, scammers managed to induce five victims into depositing cryptocurrencies into sites they believed to be the Singapore International Monetary Exchange. The victims’ losses amounted to a total of $10 million.
SBF to speak at an event
Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has confirmed he will show up at a New York Times DealBook Summit even though the crypto community is not amused with his role in the FTX saga.
Yesterday, SBF tweeted that he would show up in person to speak at the event, which will be coming up on November 30. NYT columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin manages the annual event. It delves into current business and policy news headlines, and SBF is currently a hot topic.
Sorkin retweeted SBF’s appearance pledge adding his own commentary. “There are a lot of important questions to be asked and answered,” he said before adding, “nothing is off limits.”
Related post:
The aftermath of the FTX: Is blockchain doomed to die?
This would be the FTX founder’s first public appearance since he filed for bankruptcy earlier this month.
Crypto exchange lays off staffs
Lemon Cash, a crypto exchange, has announced a layoff of 38% of its 100 staff to make the company sustainable in this crypto winter. Marcelo Cavazzoli, the CEO of Lemon Cash, announced the layoff in a Medium post with the title “open letter to the community.” He expressed his pain in the letter and cited the “challenging international context” for the layoff.
“There is an international context of which we are a part and to which we have to adapt. The startup investment market is in a recessive period and we know it will continue like this for a while,”
The market is witnessing a full bear market, and the global macroeconomic situation is forcing tech management to rely on extreme measures like layoffs. Coinbase is reported to have laid off around 1000 team members this year. According to a CoinGecko report released on November 14, the crypto sector saw 4,695 layoffs which makes up 4% of the entire tech industry.
Here is all from us this week; see you next week.
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