USDT's entity Tether profited $700 million in Q4 2022.

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Today Optimism has announced OP Airdrop #2.

11.7M OP distributed to over 300k unique addresses to reward positive-sum governance participation and power users of Optimism Mainnet.

Who’s eligible for Airdrop #2

Addresses that have delegated the voting power of their OP tokens.

Addresses that spent more than $6.10 on L2 gas since March 25, 2022 — the average cost of a transaction on Ethereum L1.

A snapshot was taken on Jan 20, 2023 at 0:00 UTC to determine eligibility.

More details on the airdrop: https://t.co/lgLMHqli26

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The long-rumored (and previously reported) exchange startup from 3AC’s founders made its debut yesterday.

Su Zhu said Thursday that a waitlist is now open at a new marketplace for claims trading and derivatives called OPNX.

The platform will use the FLEX token.

Full thread: https://twitter.com/zhusu/status/1623737538950184962

Would you 'consider' opening an account on OPNX exchange or buy FLEX tokens?

👍 Yes. Life is all about giving second chances
👎 No. They should be punished for the wrong doings

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Crypto exchange Kraken has settled with the SEC and agreed to shutter its staking service, as well as pay $30 million in disgorgement and civil penalties.

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Data shows that there are 1,233,728 ETH staked through Kraken, accounting for 7.42% of the total, ranking third in market share, second only to Lido (29%) and Coinbase (12%). Kraken said it would unstake users’ ETH after the Shanghai upgrade.

https://dune.com/hildobby/eth2-staking

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Binance introduced zk-SNARKs to its Proof of Reserves (PoR) Verification System.

Four new tokens have been added to the system: SHIB, DOT, CHZ and SOL, bringing the total number of verifiable assets to 13 popular tokens on Binance.
https://www.binance.com/en/support/announcement/binance-proof-of-reserves-verification-system-upgrade-introducing-zk-snarks-d8e1e2ed54d343c1b40bf812f0914236

🔹Pairs: GFT/USDT and GFT/BTC
🔹Deposit: now open (network: BEP20)
🔹Trading: 10:00 AM on February 13, 2023 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/kucoincom/status/1623987341319884801

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12 years ago BTC hit the $1 mark

@bitcoins

Mastercard launches Bitcoin and crypto rewards card in Spain.

https://twitter.com/bitcoinmagazine/status/1624015624518205440

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It's already Friday and here's something I am proud of. I made a little over $3.27 this week and I am already dreaming of a yacht, am I being overconfident?

Is Staking a Security? In the eyes of the SEC, staking services may be like institutional lending programs

Previously the SEC came after Genesis and BlockFi, fining them after classifying their lending services as a security.

Based on the Howey Test, an asset is deemed to be a security if it has "a reasonable expectation of profits to be derived from the efforts of others."

While in lending programs one is trusting the counterparty that receives the loan and the issuing platform to do proper due diligence, with staking the expected yield comes from the native asset itself and its underlying technical infrastructure.

One could argue that staking assets is not that simple since you can get punished, or "slashed" for inactivity or malicious intents; therefore the expectation of profit to certain extent does derive from the platform managing the staking.

Presumably this is what the SEC believed with regards to Kraken's staking initiative.

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Kraken move should put crypto industry 'on notice,' Gensler says.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler said the agency’s action against crypto exchange Kraken yesterday should put people “on notice,” he said Friday morning on CNBC.

“Those other platforms should take note of this and seek to come into compliance,” Gensler said.

https://www.theblock.co/post/210587/kraken-crypto-industry-on-notice-gensler

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For those of you out there that wasn't a piece of FTX (no, not in the violent sense) some items may be coming up for sale soon that may be of interest.

Liquidators have located half a million dollars worth of office furniture and equipment and 13 storage units in the Bahamas full of FTX's "physical goods."

Although there's little chance of unearthing rare valuables, those office items and whatever is in the storage units will soon be up for grabs, according to a report.

The list of assets also includes $2.4 million in vehicles, of which the report dryly notes "there is no longer a need for the company to maintain the current fleet size."

They are looking to sell them as soon as possible in order to avoid the depreciation of their value.

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Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin donates 99 $ETH ($150,000) to support victims of the Turkey-Syria earthquake.

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As of February 9, 2023, USDC circulation has decreased by 1 billion in the past 7 days, USDC circulation has decreased by 2.2 billion in the past 30 days, and has decreased by 10.4 billion in the past year.

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The United States to announce the January CPI data tomorrow, which is one of the most important data affecting the Fed's monetary policy. The previous value was 6.5%, and the CPI is expected to be 6.3% in January.

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Timeline of UFO Events:

1. Feb 2: Chinese Balloon spotted

2. Feb 4: Chinese Balloon shot down

3. Feb 10: UFO seen over Alaska

4. Feb 11: UFOs shot over Canada

5. Feb 12: UFO appears over China

6. Feb 12: UFO shot over Lake Huron

Is this the beginning of something bigger?

Source: Kobeissi Letter

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Bank of Brazil (Banco do Brasil) now allows citizens to pay taxes using crypto.

https://watcher.guru/news/brazils-oldest-bank-to-allow-tax-payments-using-crypto

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