This Week in Crypto
August 11, 2023
Welcome to This Week in Crypto, where we dive into some of the major headlines in the crypto industry. Today, we are taking a look at the following:
Key Takeaways
- Worldcoin under pressure over security concerns
- Y00ts migrate to Ethereum
- Bittrex settles with US SEC
Worldcoin Under Pressure
Worldcoin (WLD), an ambitious crypto project launched by the CEO of OpenAI — the company behind ChatGPT — is under significant pressure over some security concerns. As the project has deployed Orbs around the world that allows users to scan their faces and retina in exchange for Worldcoin Wallet that grants them free tokens on a regular basis, there has been a growing list of concerns over the project’s ability to keep this information safe from being mismanaged. Last week, the local office of Worldcoin in Nairobi has been raided by Kenyan officials. This week, a similar event is unfolding in Argentina.
It is not only various governments that have raised concerns. Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, has also shown public concern over the security and privacy of Worldcoin. Such concerns are only natural, as the faces and retina can be misused to create fake IDs, access biometric-locked information, unlock smartphones, and more.
In the midst of the current drama, Worldcoin (WLD) has shown less-than-optimal price performance, the price plummeting nearly 80% below its all-time high from nearly 10 days ago.
Y00ts Migrate to Ethereum
The popular NFT project Y00ts is migrating once again. The project initially launched on Solana, then over concerns about the future of the chain and adaptability, migrated to Polygon. Now, they are migrating again to Ethereum for further compatibility with other NFT collections such as DeGods.
The second migration, while not technically complex, has brought further confusion to the Y00ts community. Some community members have opted to sell their collections, most notably a single wallet holding many DeGods NFTs deciding to sell all of its DeGods — a combined valuation of over $1.5 million USD.
Currently, the trading volume of Y00ts and DeGods is around 70% of the past trading volume when both projects were trading on Solana.
Bittrex Settles with US SEC
Bittrex has been struggling with the US SEC, as it has been on SEC’s radar for offering unregistered securities. After lengthy discussions, Bittrex and its CEO have announced that Bittrex and the US SEC have agreed to settle, with Bittrex paying a fine of over $24 million USD to the US SEC and agreeing to improved terms in order to align with the current regulations.
While this may be an end to the lengthy saga between Bittrex and the US SEC, this move is signaling that most exchanges fully understand the complexity of going into a legal battle against the US SEC, and would often choose the easier, out-of-court option if given the chance.
Amidst growing concerns that the US SEC is becoming increasingly powerful, projects and exchanges within the Web3 space are paying particular attention to the US SEC while hoping for more clear guidelines from the US government. Currently, since the previous proposal to regulate the crypto market and DeFi markets have failed to pass in the House of Representatives, there have been no significant move within the US government regarding regulatory guidelines for crypto assets.
