Sam Bankman-Fried Was About to Sign A $100M Sponsorship Deal With Taylor Swift

Known for several high-profile partnerships with celebrities and sports personalities, the flamboyant Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was in the final stages of negotiating a sponsorship deal worth more than $100 million with 11-time Grammy Award winner Taylor Swift. The failed proposal apparently involved a prospective sponsorship of a tour and a system for tickets that used digital certificates in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).  Citing people familiar with the talks, the report stated that although Swift herself never considered agreeing to promote the exchange, one former FTX employee reportedly said that the exchange had sought a "light degree of endorsement" from Swift on social media. Continue reading.

Wire Network Launches Crypto Wallet Megamask

Third-generation, layer-1 blockchain Wire Network announced on Tuesday the launch of MegaMask, a crypto wallet that seeks to redefine the standard for cross-chain interoperability and asset transfers. The wallet allows users to easily store, display and transfer NFTs, cryptocurrencies, and other digital assets from various blockchains in one wallet. Megamask leverages Wire Network’s new Universal Polymorphic Address Protocol (UPAP), which enables cross-chain transactions without requiring a traditional bridge in order to process the transfers. “This is a major pivot point in blockchain technology as we step away from the vulnerable fragmentation of traditional crypto architecture,” said Ken Dicross, CEO of Wire Network. Full story here.

Maple Finance Severs Ties With Orthogonal Trading For ‘Hiding’ FTX Exposure

Maple Finance has severed its ties with Orthogonal Trading after the latter said it was “operating while effectively insolvent” and had accrued obligations of more than $30 million. According to M11 Credit and Maple Finance, Orthogonal Trading had misrepresented its financial situation to M11 Credit's pool during the previous four weeks before announcing on Saturday that it was unable to make loan repayments. According to a statement released by Maple, “Misrepresentation like this is in violation of Maple’s agreements, and all appropriate legal avenues to recover funds will be pursued including arbitration or litigation as necessary.” Continue reading.

Grayscale Sued As GBTC Drops To A Record-low 43% Discount

Grayscale Investments is being sued by New York-based hedge fund Fir Tree Capital Management for "possible mismanagement and conflicts of interest" at the company's flagship Bitcoin fund. The news was announced as the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust's (GBTC) discount plunged to a record low discount of more than 43% from the underlying Bitcoin value on Tuesday. According to Fir Tree, this is in part because Grayscale issued "an immense number" of units between 2018 and 2021 without giving investors any other way to get out of their positions besides selling shares to other investors. GBTC is a financial tool that enables investors to access Bitcoin without actually purchasing and holding the asset. Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange, is the custodian of the Bitcoin backing GBTC. More here.

Changpeng Zhao Says Binance Earns 90% Of Its Revenue From Transaction Fees

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has said that transaction fees account for 90% of the company's earnings. Zhao said in order to provide a cleaner experience, Binance had eliminated all advertisements from the data site CoinMarketCap, which it had purchased in 2020. "We can turn that back on, that’ll give us $40 million a year. But we don’t need to today," Zhao said. According to a Bloomberg report, Binance's income is anticipated to be around $20 billion in 2021. Details here.

Federal Judge Issues Subpoenas To 3AC Leadership As Controversy Over Terraform Dump Intensifies

An order ordering the delivery of subpoenas to Three Arrows Capital's former leadership, including co-founders Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, has been signed by the federal judge handling the bankruptcy proceedings for the defunct cryptocurrency hedge fund. The subpoenas demand that the founders turn up "recorded information, including books, documents, records, and papers" that pertain to the firm's assets or financial affairs and are in their possession. When Terra Luna, now known as Terra Classic, and its algorithmic stablecoin formerly known as TerraUSD collapsed, the notorious hedge fund—worth $10 billion at its peak—filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy on July 1. Full story here

As recession worries loom, stocks and cryptos like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin decline

> After investors switched to safer assets on Wednesday as a result of bad news from bank executives, Bitcoin fell.
> According to CoinGecko, the top cryptocurrency by market capitalization was trading for $16,813 at the time of writing, a 1.2% 24-hour decline.
> It witnessed a dramatic decline earlier in the day, falling from $17,046 to $16,750 in just two hours, a level not seen since the end of November.
> Following recession predictions and job reduction announcements from senior bank executives, Wall Street traders sold stocks, sending the Nasdaq 100 down 2% and the S&P 500 on track to post its fourth consecutive day of losses.
> The remainder of the cryptocurrency market was primarily trading at a loss.
> Ethereum was selling for $1,229, down more than 2% from the last day.
> The second-largest digital asset earlier also had a significant sell-off. From its all-time high of $4,878, it has now dropped by 74%.
> Moreover, Dogecoin, the first "meme coin," and the eighth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, took the heaviest damage: its price was $0.095 at the time of writing, down 4.2% over the previous 24 hours.