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British Court allows suing people via NFTs, US Treasury seeks input on crypto order, Lightspeed launches new crypto fund, and more.
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Crypto Market Update 📈
The global cryptocurrency market cap stood at $883.45B, rising 0.11% over the last 24 hours. The total crypto market volume rose 36.82% to $76.28B during the same period.
Bitcoin (BTC): $19,737.57 (-0.24%)
Ethereum (ETH): $1,082.43 (-0.31%)
Tether (USDT) : $0.99 (-0.01%)
Binance Coin (BNB): $228.74 (-0.04%)
Top Stories 📰
1. You just got served...via NFTs.
On Tuesday, a UK court gave the approval to serve legal documents over the blockchain ledger through an NFT drop.
What happened? The High Court of England and Wales allowed Fabrizio D'Aloia, founder of an online gambling company Microgame, to sue Binance, Poloniex, and others, over claims that two anonymous people lured him into depositing 2.1 million USDT and 230,000 USDC into wallets fraudulently cloned on these crypto exchanges. The court allowed D'Aloia to sue them by airdropping the court documents to the two wallets.
“This is so important because it shows the court's willingness to adapt to new technologies and embrace the blockchain and actually step in to help consumers where previous legislation and regulators simply could not do that,” Joanna Bailey, a Giambrone & Partners LLP associate working on the case told CoinDesk.
In addition, the court also said that crypto exchanges were responsible for ensuring that the funds aren't stolen, moved, or taken out of their systems.
But this ain't a first: Last month, law firms Holland & Knight and Bluestone served a restraining order to an anonymous hacker involved in the $8 million LCX hacking case using a “service NFT.”
Amid record collapses, bankruptcies, and soaring inflation, the NFT market is trying its best to hold its ground. Although the broader crypto markets have fallen significantly over the last two months, there have been some fascinating developments in the NFT space.
Why it matters? While courts have previously allowed for lawsuits to be served using Facebook, Instagram, and website contact forms, the new ruling sets a meaningful precedent for the crypto space, which is rife with scams and fraud linked to wallet addresses.
2. The US Treasury needs you
Remember in March when US President Joe Biden signed a crypto executive order, instructing several federal agencies to develop a unified framework for weighing the potential benefits and risks of digital assets?
Well, it's finally here.
The US Treasury, which led the initiative, published a fact sheet last week detailing how it would work with international regulators to address the crypto sector.
Some of the framework's policy objectives include:
promote safe and affordable financial services
reduce systematic risks and safeguard US and global financial stability
mitigate the potential use of crypto for illicit finance
reinforce US leadership in the global financial system
In order to do this effectively, the Treasury further recommended the US to conduct several international engagements and forums.
This comes a month after the Justice Department first published its report issuing policy recommendations for tackling crypto-related crimes. The department proposed cross-border cooperation for information sharing and strengthening anti-money laundering and KYC rules.
But nothing's concrete yet as the agency is now seeking public comments on Biden's executive order.
"In particular, the Department invites input, data, and recommendations pertaining to the implications of development and adoption of digital assets and changes in the financial market and payment infrastructures for United States consumers, investors, businesses, and for equitable economic growth," the document summary reads.
The American public has until August 8 to submit their comments.
A similar inquiry has been launched by the UK Treasury Committee, which asked its citizens to comment on the role of crypto assets in the country by September 12.
Why it matters? For years, the US has received criticisms due to its delayed response to crypto regulation. While it has only recently started aggressively pushing for it, especially with Biden's executive order on digital assets, many within the community argue that they solely focus on payments and don't outline any useful guidelines for crypto.
Deal Street 🤑
Lightspeed raises over $7B across four funds
In 2020, when private markets slowed down amid the pandemic, Lightspeed Ventures closed three funds at over $4 billion. This week, amid the harsh crypto winter, the CA-based venture capital firm once again raised four funds totalling $7.1 billion—including a new crypto fund. Called Lightspeed Faction, the fund will focus on early-stage blockchain infrastructure projects. “Lightspeed has been selectively investing in crypto since March 2013, and we believe that cryptocurrency can have a positive impact on a population of people who are underbanked or unbanked not only in the U.S. but globally,” said Ravi Mhatre, Partner at Lightspeed. Banafsheh Fathieh and Sam Harrison will lead the new team. The latest fundraising brings its total assets under management to $18 billion.
Multicoin Capital raises a $430M crypto fund
While the crypto market stays falling, the capital keeps flowing. This week, Austin-based crypto firm Multicoin Capital has raised $430 million for its third—and largest—fund. Known as Venture Fund III, the fund will focus on the crypto ecosystem, including web3 infrastructure and decentralized finance (DeFi), and invest around $500,000 to $25 million in early-stage projects and up to $100 million in later-stage companies. The announcement comes following a lawsuit claiming that the venture giant was one of the firms illegally profiting from SOL, the Solana ecosystem's native token. Founded in 2017, Multicoin Capital has backed tech and infrastructure projects but is now focusing more on consumer-facing projects. The company's portfolio includes Layer 1 blockchains like Solana and Ethereum and crypto exchanges such as FTX.
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