Headlines
▌V God: BITE and most Meme coins are "garbage coins"
Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, said on the Reddit forum that BITE and most Meme coins are "shitcoins". He believes that these tokens have no redeemable cultural or moral value and may bring huge economic losses to investors. V God also stated that he opposed endorsement of these projects to the greatest extent.
Policies
▌U.S. Department of the Treasury: Committed to cracking down on Russian sanctions evasion, including illegal encryption transactions and money laundering schemes
The U.S. Department of the Treasury issued an announcement stating that members of the Multilateral Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs (REPO) Task Force have targeted cryptocurrencies as targets for Russian entities to evade sanctions. Since the Russian military's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the REPO task force has blocked or frozen more than $58 billion worth of sanctioned assets, and members of the REPO team have been working to "combat Russia's sanctions evasion," including Illegal crypto transactions. The task force said that REPO will continue to identify, locate and freeze the assets of sanctioned Russians with the goal of depriving the Kremlin of the funds it needs to wage its illegal war.
Cryptocurrency
▌Cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin was accused by New York State regulators of operating without a license
The New York Attorney General has launched another lawsuit against the cryptocurrency industry, accusing KuCoin, one of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency exchanges, of operating without a license in the state. KuCoin, based in the island nation of Seychelles, failed to register as a securities and commodities broker-dealer in New York and falsely represented itself as an exchange, New York state top law enforcement official Letitia James said in a statement Thursday. Additionally, the suit alleges that Ethereum, Luna, and TerraUSD are all securities.
▌Aave’s cancellation of the BUSD stablecoin lending proposal was supported by DAO members
Members of the Aave Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) overwhelmingly supported the cancellation of Binance’s BUSD stablecoin lending. The proposal aims to substantially increase the cost of borrowing BUSD while reducing its accrual to lenders. These actions are aimed at discouraging the use of BUSD. The vote comes as more and more market participants abandon BUSD amid regulatory uncertainty. The proposal’s author, Zeller, wrote in the proposal that BUSD’s circulating supply would “trend toward zero over time,” making it necessary to delist it. At press time, Aave held nearly $11 million in BUSD liquidity from lenders and had lent $7.6 million in the stablecoin.
▌Starbucks will launch 2,000 NFTs on its Web3 Odyssey platform, each priced at $100
Starbucks will launch a limited edition Siren Collection Stamp for users of the beta version of its Web3 Odyssey platform, providing up to 2,000 NFTs, each priced at $100. Each unique piece of artwork is inspired by the brand's mermaid logo, and each user can purchase up to two premium NFT stamps, each with 1,500 bonus points that can be used to upgrade the user's Odyssey account for future rewards. It was previously reported that Starbucks launched a closed beta version of Odyssey in December last year, issuing free reward NFTs to early adopters.