Welcome back to Chain reaction.
Earlier this week, Binance.US broke its $1.3 billion deal to buy the assets of crypto broker Voyager Digital due to a “hostile and uncertain regulatory environment”.
The announcement comes about nine months after Voyager filed for bankruptcy. At the time, the US-headquartered company — and its two subsidiaries — said in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in New York’s Southern District that it had between $1 billion and $10 billion in assets and more than 100,000 creditors.
In a lawsuit on Tuesday, Voyager’s lawyers said the company reserves all rights to Binance.US’s good faith $10 million down payment to Voyager, in addition to a reverse termination fee owed by the US-based crypto. -exchange.
“While our hope throughout this process was to help Voyager’s clients access their crypto in kind, the hostile and uncertain regulatory environment in the United States has introduced an unpredictable work environment that impacts all of corporate America,” Binance said. .US in one statement on Tuesday.
This backout is the latest headache for Voyager, which has been trying to raise capital through asset sales so it can pay back creditors after it filed for bankruptcy last year. The company also struck a deal with FTX, which agreed to buy Voyager’s assets, but then collapsed itself (and also filed for bankruptcy) in November.
Following the termination of the asset purchase agreement by Binance.US, Voyager said the “development is disappointing”, but the Chapter 11 plan allows the company to return cryptocurrency and cash directly to customers through its platform.
“In line with the plan, we will now act quickly to return value to customers through direct distributions. We will provide more information in the coming days about next steps and any actions customers need to take,” Voyager added.
This week in web3
OpenSea’s next journey is to help Web 2.0 brands with web3 (TC+)
OpenSea, one of the largest NFT marketplaces, is known for its trading platform, which allows users to buy and sell digital assets. But the company continues to expand its product footprint to appeal to other audiences, such as Web 2.0 brands, said Shiva Rajaraman, OpenSea’s chief business officer.
Crypto wallet Phantom to release public multichain support for Ethereum and Polygon
Phantom, a crypto wallet for Solana blockchain users, will begin supporting the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains with a public launch in browsers, iOS and Android on Monday, May 1 at 9 a.m. EST, the company told MinRegion exclusively. Support for the two new blockchains was originally planned for the first quarter of 2023, but has been delayed. The multichain integration will be available to its 3 million users, Brandon Millman, CEO and co-founder of Phantom, told MinRegion.
Crypto exchange Coinbase is suing SEC over regulatory petition
Coinbase has filed a petition to force the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to respond to a months-old petition asking whether the securities regulator would allow the industry to be regulated using existing SEC frameworks, the exchange company said Monday, allowing tensions escalated with the regulator ramping up enforcement actions and warnings against crypto companies, including the US giant.
What happens to your crypto when you die? (TC+)
As the crypto industry matures, an often overlooked consideration is wealth planning for your wealth when you succeed. Since many crypto assets are held in both hot and cold wallets and guarded by private keys (among other security elements), these funds can be lost virtually forever without a plan. “The call to action is to do it,” said Jaime Herren, attorney at Holland & Knight. “Don’t think you’re too young to plan your wealth.” (This advice, of course, also applies to people with traditional wealth.)
Coinbase’s layer-2 blockchain Base plans for mainnet launch in 2023
Coinbase’s blockchain Base has been live in testnet since late February, a test phase of the blockchain network. It doesn’t share “official timelines,” but Jesse Pollak, the leader of Base and head of protocols at Coinbase, revealed exclusively to MinRegion that Base plans to launch the mainnet in 2023. “It’s coming, we’re working hard on it,” Pollak said. “It’s our number one priority next to the decentralization targets and the rest of the year is about making sure we get there as quickly as possible.”
The latest pod
For last week’s episode, Jaquelyn interviewed Jesse Pollak, the leader for Base and head of protocols at Coinbase. Base is an Ethereum-focused layer 2 blockchain launched by Coinbase in February this year.
Pollak previously led all retail engineering at Coinbase, including building Coinbase, Coinbase Pro, and Coinbase Wallet. In a past life, Pollak started Clef, a 2FA mobile app and was an engineer at BuzzFeed.
A number of crypto companies, platforms, marketplaces, and infrastructure companies have committed to building on Base. Those planning to join include Blockdaemon, Chainlink, Etherscan, Quicknode, Aave, Animoca Brands, Dune, Nansen, Magic Eden, Pyth, Rainbow Wallet, Ribbon Finance, The Graph, Wormhole, and Gelato, just to name a few to name a few.
We’ve talked a lot about Base and where it’s headed in the future, as well as how regulation could affect the blockchain and the mainnet launch timeline; Pollak shared his ambition for 2023.
We also dove into:
- Decentralizing base
- Developers growing internationally
- Coinbase’s role in Base
- Advice for developers
Subscribe Chain reaction on apple podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to stay up to date with the latest episodes, and leave us a review if you like what you hear!
Follow the money
- Cosmose, now valued at $500 million, is leaving Stripe to use Near’s crypto solution
- Digital asset custody provider Zodia Custody has raised $36 million
- Izumi Finance raised $22 million for its multichain DeFi protocol
- Cata Labs raised $4.2 million for its blockchain-focused liquidity protocol
- Animoca Brands’ TinyTap has raised $8.5 million for its educational games
This list was compiled using information from Messari and MinRegion’s own reporting.
To get a roundup of MinRegion’s biggest and most important crypto stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday at noon PT, register here.
follow me on twitter @Jacqmelinek for breaking crypto news, memes and more.