Daily Digest - 28 March 2023

Headlines

▌CFTC asked the court to issue 4 orders including "prohibiting Binance and its executives from continuing to violate CEA and CFTC regulations"

The CFTC has filed a civil suit against Binance in Illinois federal court, and is requesting permanent injunctions prohibiting CZ and other executives from further soliciting US customers or working with US clients.

The lawsuit also accuses Binance of failing to register as a commodities merchant and for helping customers to evade Binance’s access controls.

▌The British Treasury cancels the release of government-backed NFT

The U.K. Treasury is cancelling its plans to release a government-backed NFT that aims to make the U.K. a global hub for cryptocurrencies. Originally proposed by UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak when he became Chancellor of the Exchequer in April 2022, the Royal Mint has been tasked with issuing the NFT in summer 2022. In a statement on Monday, UK Economy Secretary Andrew Griffith said the plan was not moving forward and would continue to be reviewed.

Policies

▌US Regulators Investigate Wrongdoing with the Management of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank

The US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has launched an investigation into the behaviour of managers in the bankruptcy of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. FIDC Chairman Martin Gruenberg said in prepared remarks at Tuesday's Senate hearing, "It is remarkable that these two banks were allowed to fail. Shareholders lost their investments, unsecured creditors suffered losses. The board of directors and most executives were all fired.

Gruenberg said the FDIC could investigate and hold directors, executives, professional service providers and "other institutional affiliates" accountable for losses related to the bank, as well as for any wrongdoing in the bank's management .

Cryptocurrency

▌BlockFi will refund more than $100,000 to California customers

The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) announced on Monday that BlockFi has approved a request to distribute $103,471 in refunds to its California customers through its service providers. The decision, which is subject to bankruptcy court approval, comes after a DFPI investigation found that the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency lender "failed to notify" borrowers in a timely manner that they could stop repayments after the company suspended withdrawals on its platform loan. As a result, BlockFi’s California borrowers wired loan repayments worth at least $103,471 to the lender’s servicers. Following the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, BlockFi froze customer withdrawals and deposits in wallets and interest accounts on November 11, 2022. The exposure to FTX eventually led to BlockFi filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy two weeks later. According to the DFPI announcement, a hearing on the refund request will be held on April 19.

▌The MakerDAO community approved a comprehensive set of rules on Monday

MakerDAO’s community on Monday approved a comprehensive set of rules outlining how Maker, a $7 billion lending platform, will operate and make decisions in the future. According to Maker’s governance website, the approved proposal includes the Maker Guiding Principles written by Maker founder Rune Christensen, laying a new foundation for the protocol’s governance, development and reserve investment, which was supported by about 76% of voters. Maker is a lending platform that issues the $5.3 billion stablecoin DAI, backing its value with borrowers’ digital assets and, increasingly, real-world assets such as the liabilities of traditional financial institutions such as banks. The platform is led by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) called MakerDAO, which governs the platform through proposals, community discussions and voting. Investors holding the platform’s governance token Maker (MKR) can participate in voting, with their choices weighted by the number of tokens they own.