Welcome to another news article! Pfoe, what a volatile week it has been, again. So much has taking place in the crypto world, which is exactly what we’re going to be talking about today!
In this issue:
1. The $258 billion lawsuit strengthens Elon Musk’s support for Dogecoin.
2. Ukraine is the third non-EU nation to join the European Blockchain Partnership.
3. The Magic Internet Money token devalues as the LUNA domino effect continues.
4. Coinbase is the target of class-action lawsuits over unstable stablecoins. GYEN, USTC.
5. Massive layoffs, hiring, and firing as cryptocurrency values fall precipitously.
6. Russia seems prepared to mine Bitcoin using flare gas.
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Even a $258 billion class-action lawsuit claiming a crypto pyramid scheme did not prevent Elon Musk from continuing to express his public support for Dogecoin (DOGE).
Thursday, a New York district court received a class action lawsuit against the world’s wealthiest man, Elon Musk, and his firms, SpaceX and Tesla, for an alleged DOGE-based Ponzi scheme. The complaint claimed $258 billion in total damages from Musk and asked the court to find that DOGE trading in the United States constitutes gambling.
The lawsuit failed to connect with the cryptocurrency community, as entrepreneurs started to mock the action. Musk was unfazed by the claim, as he doubled down on his support for the Dogecoin environment in the preceding tweet.
On Saturday, Dogecoin founder Billy Markus, who is no longer involved with the project, expressed his vision for Dogecoin that goes beyond the hoopla, advising the developers to place more emphasis on its usability and security. Markus suggested a “more currency-like” response, to which Musk agreed.
After Norway and Liechtenstein, Ukraine became the third non-EU nation to join the European Blockchain Partnership (EBP), an effort developed by 27 member states to provide cross-border public services.
Friday, the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation declared the country’s intention to join the EBP as an observer. With the ultimate objective of merging its digital economic space with the EU, Ukraine intends to develop its blockchain network relationship with other nations.
Ukraine’s desire to join the EBP goes back to July 2021, when Oleksii Zhmerenetskyi, chairman of the parliamentary group Blockchain4Ukraine, and Konstantin Yarmolenko, creator and CEO of Virtual Assets of Ukraine, sent a letter to Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.
The letter expressed Ukraine’s desire to join the EBP and European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI). Later, Von der Leyen affirmed the possibility of Ukraine joining the EBP as an observer.
During a crypto winter, Magic Internet Money (MIM), a dollar-pegged stablecoin of the Abracadabra ecosystem, loses $1. MIM was de-pegged on Friday at 7:40 p.m. EST, and its price fell to $0.926 within three hours.
According to the Twitter account @AutismCapital, the death spiral of Terra’s Luna Classic (LUNC) and TerraUSD Classic (UST) harmed investors and various crypto enterprises, including the MIM token ecosystem of Abracadabra.
AutismCapital said that Abracadabra accumulated $12 million in bad debt as a result of Terra’s unforeseen collapse “because liquidations were unable to satisfy the protocol’s MIM commitments.”
Sestagalli went back on his assertion by disclosing the address of the treasury holding $12 million in assets and requested that investors verify it using on-chain data.
Autism Capital said that Sestagalli’s bad debt was incurred five days ago and provided a screenshot of his Discord conversation.
Coinbase acted irresponsibly by listing the stablecoin TerraUSD Classic (USTC) and failed to disclose its financial relationship with Terraform Labs. This is the second class action suit filed by Coinbase. In November, GYEN (GYEN) was depegged.
The lawsuit filed on Thursday alleges Coinbase acted negligently by failing to do due diligence on Terraform Labs before listing USTC and by misrepresenting TerraUSD Classic’s risk as an algorithmic stablecoin. The lawsuit compares Coinbase’s stablecoin information to that of Robinhood, Gemini, and Kraken and finds that “rather than presenting TerraUSD as uncollateralized, algorithm-controlled, and very risky, Coinbase misrepresented it as just another stablecoin.”
Milberg Coleman Bryson Plaintiffs and classes are represented by Phillips Grossman and Erickson Kramer Osborne. This company also represents the plaintiffs in a case filed on May 13 against Coinbase and GMO-Z.com Trust over the depegging of the GYEN stablecoin in November.
One week after being listed on Coinbase, the value of the GYEN plummeted dramatically, causing some user accounts to be frozen. Several clients allegedly lost “incalculable millions” of cash, as stated in the complaint. The lawsuit alleges that GMO-Z.com failed the plaintiffs and the class in several ways, beginning with the creation of the stablecoin.
According to the lawsuit, Coinbase Ventures, the company’s investment arm, was one of Terraform Labs’ leading backers, which was additional incentive not to disclose USTC’s volatility.
This week, many in the crypto community have been riveted to their screens with their eyes fixed to the financial markets. However, this is not the case for everyone, as many are enduring the hardships of abrupt unemployment.
Twitter and LinkedIn were also flooded with condolences and words of support for those relieved from their obligations. Others expressed thankfulness, newfound vision, and thoughts, while others voiced annoyance, perplexity, and wrath.
As freshly laid-off talent uses social media to inform the world of their plight, a number of organisations have stepped up to give job interviews to people in need.
Binance has been loud on social media, promising 2,000 jobs to replace the tens of thousands that have just been eliminated. Changpeng Zhao, or CZ, the company’s CEO and president, gave further assistance to the newly accessible talent pool.
Despite its scepticism over the legalisation of cryptocurrency trade and payments, the Russian government continues to create ties with key actors in the cryptocurrency mining sector.
Gazprom Neft, the state-owned gas company in Russia, has partnered with BitRiver, the biggest crypto-mining colocation services provider in Russia, to provide hosting services for significant crypto mining operations. The firms announced on June 16 that Gazprom would furnish BitRiver’s partner data centres with energy produced from related petroleum gas.
BitRiver will construct a digital infrastructure based on oil fields from which Gazprom will supply crypto mining services using flare gas as part of the agreement.
Vadim Yakovlev, the first deputy CEO of Gazprom, highlighted that the company’s economic strategy does not include cooperation with digital assets.
Gazprom is both one of the main gas providers to the European Union and one of the largest oil and gas enterprises in Russia. As of 2019, the oil company allegedly rated as the world’s third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide.
According to the release, flare gas-powered cryptocurrency mining initiatives are particularly applicable while operating in new oil fields that lack an established gas transmission infrastructure. As such resources are connected with excess power and unprofitable flare gas logistics, a second alternative is to establish these developments on isolated oil fields in Siberian areas.
That’s it for now! Thanks for reading todays newsletter! Be sure to have a look at the Blog section to read our previous editions as well! Have a look at our Guides section if you’re interested in learning more about crypto! And finally, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter!