THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO

  • Three Arrows Capital was ordered by the court to liquidate. A British Virgin Islands court ordered the liquidation after creditors sued the cryptocurrency hedge fund for failure to repay debts. Three Arrows Capital is considering its options and seeking legal advice in the British Virgin Islands. This came days after the hedge fund defaulted on a $670 million loan.

  • SEC rejects Grayscale ETF. It’s a blow to crypto that will be battled in court. Citing outstanding concerns including market manipulation and fraud in crypto, the SEC denied Grayscale’s application to convert its $12.9 billion trust fund to an ETF. A lawsuit against the SEC has been launched by Grayscale. The ensuing legal case may be one of the most important legal battles in Bitcoin’s history.

  • Bitcoin falls below $19,000 again as pressure mounts on crypto firms. Investors are also worried about rampant inflation which is forcing global central banks to raise interest rates. That is also sparking fears of a recession in the U.S. and other countries. Meanwhile, major crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital fell into liquidation, adding further woes to the market.

  • FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried says ‘no active M&A conversations with Robinhood’. The comment came after a Bloomberg article said FTX is exploring whether it may be able to acquire the digital trading platform. He said that they are excited about Robinhood’s business prospects and potential ways they could partner with them but there are no active M&A conversations with Robinhood. Read more here.

  • Coinbase seeks licenses in Europe as it looks to ramp up growth outside the U.S. Coinbase plans to hire a regional manager to oversee its European operations, Nana Murugesan, the firm’s vice president of international, told CNBC. The company is in talks to get regulatory approval in various countries, including France, said Katherine Minarik, Coinbase’s vice president of legal. Read more here.

  • Crypto exchange CoinFlex won’t lift its withdrawal freeze yet. The exchange has been trying to raise $47 million in USDC since Tuesday through the sale of a token called Recovery Value USD, or rvUSD, in an attempt to allow withdrawals to resume. On Tuesday, CEO Mark Lamb tweeted that Roger Ver, an early crypto investor, had defaulted on financial commitments to CoinFlex, alleging that Ver owes the exchange $47 million USDC.

  • Napster plans a crypto comeback. The UK-based company plans to launch its own token, $NAPSTER, which music fans can use to buy tickets and experiences from artists on its new platform, said Matt Zhang and Napster’s Chief Executive Officer Emmy Lovell. The streaming platform’s revamp is part of a take-private acquisition by Hivemind Capital Partners, former Citigroup Inc. executive Matt Zhang’s crypto venture. Read more here.

  • Crypto lender Genesis may be facing a loss of hundreds of millions. The losses at the top digital-asset lender are at least partially due to its exposure to Three Arrows Capital and Babel Finance. The precise amount of losses at Genesis isn’t yet known as the company tries to salvage some of its losses by seeking partial repayments from counterparties. Some losses may have been offset through hedging, according to the report.

  • MicroStrategy buys 480 Bitcoin worth $10 million in the middle of Crypto’s big chill. The firm purchased the coins between May 3 and June 28 for about $20,817 each, according to paperwork filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday. The bulk of MicroStrategy’s purchases would have taken place over these last two weeks. The acquisition represents MicroStrategy’s smallest Bitcoin buy in over a year. Read more here.

  • Azuro raises $4 million for a ‘Decentralized Sportsbook Protocol'. The DAO announced that it has raised a $4 million funding round. Hypersphere, Gnosis, Merit Circle, Quiet Capital, and Formless Capital were all participants in the round. The ultimate goal of the project is to replace traditional bookmakers like sportsbooks and to disrupt the $200 billion betting industry.

  • FTX closes in on a deal to buy BlockFi for $25 million. The crypto exchange is close to finalizing a term sheet to buy BlockFi and a deal is expected to be signed by the end of this week, three sources familiar with the situation told CNBC. The price tag is 99% below BlockFi’s last valuation, leaving equity investors in BlockFi “wiped out” and writing off the value of their losses.

  • Polygon deploys a custom blockchain scaling system called 'Avail'. The scaling solution allows developers to launch application-specific blockchains on the Polygon network. The enhancement will enable larger smart-contract blockchains such as Ethereum to be able to quickly scale and operate across other networks. It's intended to help larger blockchains scale and work together using a novel, modular approach.

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