The Winklevoss Twins Have HAD IT

Plus Belarus bans p2p transactions

Author

Nathaniel Whittemore
July 05, 2023

The Breakdown First Five - Wednesday July 5, 2023

Welcome back to The Breakdown First Five — the 5 most interesting and/or important stories in bitcoin, crypto, and markets to start your day.

5. Binance Australia offices searched

The Australian financial regulator has sent a team of investigators to Binance offices in the country according to anonymous Bloomberg sources. The regulator had previously canceled the derivatives licensing held by the exchange amid suggestions retail customers had been given access to restricted derivatives products and leveraged trading. The regulator could not confirm the search, but said its review of the company’s derivatives business “is ongoing”.

4. Uncorrelated Asset

Bitcoin is no longer correlated to stocks according to analytics firm Block Scholes. After spending most of the last two years with a strong positive correlation, Bitcoin has reached its lowest correlation with the S&P since July 2021. Prior to 2020, Bitcoin was largely uncorrelated with broader asset markets, often expressing a mild negative correlation. Uncorrelated returns are highly prized for hedge funds, but often disappear during high volume periods.

3. Karma

Disgraced Three Arrows Capital founder Kyle Davies has pledged to donate “future earnings” from new exchange OPNX to creditors of the failed hedge fund. He referred to the plan as a “shadow recovery process”, but no formal details are known. 3AC liquidators recommended he “engage in the court-ordered activities already underway."

2. Belarus to ban P2P transactions

After years of crypto-friendly policy, Belarus will move to ban peer-to-peer crypto transactions in an effort to reduce fraud. Instead, customers will be forced to use locally registered crypto exchanges. The state hopes to make crypto “unprofitable for fraudsters” to withdraw money obtained by criminal means. According to the government around $8.7M in transactions linked to crime have taken place so far this year.

1. Best and Final Offer

Cameron Winklevoss is done playing around. Almost 8 months into the Genesis bankruptcy, Gemini is sick of playing games with DCG CEO Barry Silbert. Winklevoss wrote a scathing open letter to Barry, attaching a $1.4B restructuring proposal and a list of lawsuits representing the alternative. Nothing moves fast in bankruptcy court, but Genesis could be entering the endgame.

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Thanks for reading -NLW