Daily Digest - 3 March 2023

Headlines

▌Bankruptcy lawyer says FTX assets are "seriously short"

FTX is “severely short of assets,” according to a press release detailing a report to be filed Thursday on the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange. Using the latest spot prices, $2.2 billion in total assets were identified in the wallets of accounts associated with FTX.com, of which only $694 million constituted the most liquid "Class A assets," which include fiat currencies, stablecoins, Bitcoin and Ethereum. Other assets include $385 million in customer receivables and significant claims against FTX sister company Alameda Research and related parties. The presentation also revealed that Alameda had a net borrowing of $9.3 billion from FTX.com wallets and accounts. FTX.US also showed a shortfall in assets, with $191 million in total assets in exchange-related account wallets, as well as $28 million in client revenue and $155 million in related party receivables. FTX.US is also due to pay Alameda Research a net $107 million.

Blockchain Application

▌Near Protocol Launches "Blockchain Operating System" to Focus on User Experience

Near Protocol co-founder Illia Polosukhin announced at the ETHDenver industry conference that L1 blockchain network Near Protocol has launched a product-first operating system in which developers can build and users can use it as a platform to interact. According to Polosukhin, the platform is designed to act as a public layer for browsing and discovering Web3 products, including cryptocurrency exchanges, NFT galleries, and social networks. Polusukhin said in an interview that the framework will be compatible with all blockchains (currently supports the Near protocol and the Ethereum Virtual Machine chain), and Near will act as a common entry point. According to the press release, for developers, a decentralized and composable front end provides a way to build and launch better applications and fork existing parts and components faster, while leveraging configuration files, built-in features like payments and notifications and search without having to host anything yourself.

Cryptocurrency

▌Former NBA player Baron Davis: Celebrities will focus more on "utility" tokens

Former NBA player Baron Davis said on Thursday that celebrities may now focus on projects that can bring real utility and returns to users. “Going forward, you’ll see more creative projects from celebrities and athletes,” he said. Davis, who played for seven NBA teams for 13 years, is turning to blockchain technology as he creates his own NFT-based SLiC Images, a platform that will manage digital rights and databases for sports photographers. The project is still under development and will run on the NFT platform Mintbase.

▌Tether CTO: Tether has no contact with Silvergate

Following the major announcement involving troubled U.S. bank Silvergate, at least two cryptocurrency firms took to social media today to announce the impact of the news on them. The bank, which is linked to lender FTX, is now facing increasing scrutiny from capital flight syndicates and regulators. Tether, the stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar and "backed 100% by Tether's reserves," announced today on Twitter that it has no exposure to the Bank of California. According to Tether’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Paolo Ardoino, the stablecoin had no exposure to Silvergate.

▌Giddy allows Polygon users to use USDC to pay Gas fees

Crypto wallet company Giddy is sidestepping the need for Polygon users to hold the blockchain’s native MATIC tokens to pay transaction fees. Giddy said on Thursday that Polygon users can use the USDC stablecoin to pay for gas fees. Giddy's new features illustrate the struggle among crypto wallets for a share of new users. On Wednesday, 0x unveiled a transaction relay API that allows Polygon and Ethereum wallets to be used for payments without holding their respective native gas tokens. Robinhood has signed up for the API, highlighting the growing competition for a frictionless payment experience.