🔫HEX founder Richard Heart lands in SEC crosshairs!
🃏 BALD Meme Coin Drama: Is Sam Bankman-Fried Involved?
🧑⚖️No Escape for Terraform: Judge Upholds SEC's Fraud and Securities Charges!
🤥 Coinbase CEO vs. SEC - Who's Telling the Truth?
Good Morning Banter Fam,
The world of DeFi is experiencing some intense moments surrounding the events at Curve Finance!
Turns out, the founder, Michael Egorov, took a risky $100 million loan to purchase a mansion in Australia using nearly half of the supply of $CRV tokens as collateral. Unfortunately, the current price of $CRV is hovering dangerously close to a level that could spell trouble for him (and Curve Finance). The interest rate on his debt from Fraxlend has skyrocketed to a jaw-dropping 81.20%, doubling every 12 hours.
In response to the situation, Egorov launched a new Curve pool to attract liquidity and ease the pressure. However, the outcome of this situation could have significant implications for the entire crypto market, as Curve Finance is one of the largest and most interconnected protocols in DeFi.
Traders and investors are keeping a close eye on how this unfolds and what it means for the broader crypto landscape. You can read more of the details in this great post by Delphi Digital.
Crypto Kingpin Richard Heart Accused of $1 Billion Fraud by SEC
The clock may be ticking for Richard Heart.
The SEC is targeting Heart, also known as Richard Schueler, for supposedly running three unregistered crypto offerings and deceiving investors out of $12.1 million. Heart promoted his HEX token, PulseX asset trading platform, and PulseChain asset network on platforms like YouTube, claiming they were lucrative opportunities. Despite providing disclaimers that his offerings weren't securities, the SEC says he knew better, pushing HEX as a mind-blowing investment.
To make matters worse, the SEC accuses him of splurging investor money on lavish stuff like sports cars, Rolex watches, and a massive black diamond. The lawsuit is looking for fines and a way to recover the ill-gotten gains from Heart, Hex, PulseX, and PulseChain. Richard Heart, a U.S. citizen, is said to be hanging out in Helsinki, Finland.
Market update 🌍
Top 100 coins Daily Performance - Banter Bubbles
Newswatch 📰
Ripple Ruling Irrelevant: Terraform's Battle with SEC Moves Forward
Not so fast, justice may still be served for the victims of Terra Luna! The Judge for the Terraform Labs case will not be swayed by the decision in the XRP case.
Terraform's motion to dismiss has been denied by Judge Jed Rakoff, who explained that the recent Ripple ruling does not apply to Terraform's case. In a 50 page report, the judge clarified that Ripple and Terraform are distinct cases. Despite Terraform's arguments, the court upheld the fraud and unregistered securities offering charges brought by the SEC, as the Howey test treats all purchasers equally, regardless of the market they bought the tokens from.
BALD Meme Coin Drama: Is Sam Bankman-Fried Involved?
The meme coin BALD has caused quite a stir, with on-chain data suggesting interactions between the meme coin's deployer contract and a wallet linked to Alameda Research, Sam Bankman-Fried's trading company. While it appears to be someone from Alameda, it's unlikely to be Bankman-Fried himself due to his restricted internet access as part of his bail conditions.
BALD's meteoric rise on Coinbase's Base blockchain, which is not officially open to the public yet, attracted millions in trading volumes. However, the rug-pull by the BALD deployers left many holders in a difficult situation, with prices plummeting 90% as they rushed to exit.
News tidbits:
Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis says “ Biden’s war on Bitcoin and crypto will come to an end when I become president.”
Ethical Hacker retrieves 2,879 ETH (~$5 million) from Curve Finance and returns funds.
SEC vs. Coinbase part 2: Did the Regulator Really Want to Strip 249 Tokens?
Data of The Day
with Paddy the Pirate
At the beginning of every month, I perform an analysis of the leading L1/L2s. Tracking their fundamentals month-on-month is a valuable exercise that can help us spot trends and identify where most of the on-chain activities occur. The key performance indicators that we will monitor every month are daily active addresses, daily transactions, TVL, DEX volumes, and stablecoin market caps:
The above analysis shows KPIs relative to fully-diluted valuation (FDV). This gives us an indication of which chains are potentially under or overvalued. There were some significant swings in July. Pay attention to the chains with the biggest moves up/down the rankings for each KPI.
Below is what caught my attention:
Flow (FLOW) became significantly more undervalued on a DAA basis.
SUI (SUI) jumped an astounding 12 spots into first place, becoming the most undervalued chain on a daily transactions basis.
Fantom (FTM) climbed four spots to become the most undervalued chain on a daily DEX volume basis.
Next, we take a deeper look at each KPI, looking at the most substantial percentage changes:
These were the changes that caught my attention:
Aptos (APT), SUI (SUI), and Canto (CANTO) experienced the greatest growth in both DAA and daily transactions.
Starknet and zkSync grew in TVL as airdrop farmers injected liquidity throughout July. Cardano (ADA) and Solana (SOL) also displayed decent growth in this KPI.
Once again, Starknet and zkSync experienced significant increases in DEX volumes as a result of airdrop farming activities. Fantom (FTM), Flow (FLOW), and Solana (SOL) also had strong DEX volume growth in July.
Near (NEAR) displayed good growth in the stablecoin market cap.
Another key takeaway for me is that liquidity is drying up. This occurrence can be seen via significant decreases in DEX volumes and stablecoin market caps across many of the biggest chains.
Banter’s take
Amidst the turmoil unfolding at Curve Finance, the DeFi community is well aware of the significant implications that massive dumps of CRV could have on the entire crypto market, given its close ties with other major protocols such as Aave. With the CRV price teetering on a precarious threshold and Fraxland's interest rates skyrocketing, the plot is just thickening. As this narrative continues to unfold, keep a close watch because the results of this incident will strongly affect the entire market.
Stay tuned for the latest updates from the Main Show!
Gabriel
Awesome news letter, a good way to start the day.