Daily Digest - 6 June 2023

Headlines

▌SEC filed 13 charges against Binance and Changpeng Zhao, including improper handling of customer funds

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed 13 charges against Binance and Changpeng Zhao, including mishandling customer funds and misrepresenting its operations to regulators and investors.

The SEC said that Binance has been commingling billions of dollars in customer funds and secretly transferring them to a separate company controlled by Changpeng Zhao. Additionally, Binance misled investors about the adequacy of its systems to detect and control manipulative trading practices. The SEC also said Binance did not do enough to restrict U.S. investors from using the unregulated exchange.

▌Binance.US: The SEC’s lawsuit is groundless and will actively defend itself

Binance.US issued an official statement on its social media, stating that the SEC’s lawsuit is groundless and will vigorously defend itself. It also stated that the SEC’s lawsuit is “unreasonable whether it is based on facts, laws, or the committee’s own precedent.” , will seek congressional intervention to pass bipartisan legislation to create a workable regulatory system for digital assets.

In addition, Binance.US also stated that in the past two and a half years, Binance.US has been in sincere contact with the SEC, and the goal of our contact has always been the same: actively cooperate to formulate a clear and practical regulatory framework that enables Businesses like ours can grow, create jobs, and provide American consumers with secure access to their digital assets.

Policies

▌Australian Central Bank: In the future, CBDC may be available for non-residents and outside the issuing jurisdiction

The Reserve Bank of Australia has published a submission into its inquiry into the Digital Assets Act, which seeks to regulate cryptocurrency exchanges, custody services and the issuance of stablecoins.

The RBA's filing in late May said the bank saw potential in the new form of money, while recognizing they needed a strong regulatory framework.

Stablecoin activity in Australia has been relatively limited to date, although in the future it is possible that stablecoins will play a more important role in the financial system. The RBA has said that it supports the development of regulatory arrangements for stablecoins, and will also provide investors and users with appropriate guarantees and protections, and that the future CBDC may be available for use by non-residents and outside the issuing jurisdiction.

Cryptocurrency

▌Tether announces investment in $1 billion renewable energy project in El Salvador

Tether announced a $1 billion investment in Volcano Energy, a renewable energy project in El Salvador. Volcano Energy is a 241 MW renewable energy park in Metapan, including 169 MW of photovoltaic solar and 72 MW of wind energy. The energy generated will power a bitcoin mining farm in El Salvador, which Tether estimates has a computing power of more than 1.3 EH/s, which would put Volcano Energy’s cumulative bitcoin mining hash rate among the top 20 mining pools operating globally List.

Tether Chief Technology Officer Paolo Ardoino said the investment marks the stablecoin issuer’s intention to promote investment in renewable energy production and mining infrastructure.

▌AI-related cryptocurrency assets are on the rise after the launch of ChatGPT

A study by researchers at the Blockchain Research Lab in Hamburg, Germany, shows that after OpenAI launched ChatGPT, artificial intelligence-related cryptocurrency assets are on the rise.

According to the researchers: “Despite the bearish state of the overall cryptocurrency market, the launch of ChatGPT had a significant impact on the performance of AI-related crypto assets. Using the combined difference-in method, we find that the average price of an AI-related cryptoasset rose by at least 10.7% within a month of launch. "