Daily Digest - 3 January 2023

Headlines

▌Dogecoin Foundation announced the establishment of a new developer fund

The Dogecoin Foundation and its board of directors recently announced the establishment of a new developer fund, and the foundation has allocated 5 million DOGE to the fund to promote the development of the DogecoinCore platform. The development fund is understood to be managed by existing core developers and board signatories. All payments will be tracked and reported on all social media platforms used by the Foundation during each release cycle.

Cryptocurrency

▌Standard Chartered Bank: Bitcoin may fall to the low of $5,000

For some market participants, the worst is yet to come. In a previous research note, Standard Chartered said Bitcoin could fall to as low as $5,000. The forecast is one of the bank's list of "surprises" that have been "undervalued" by the market, with a plunge of 70% from current prices. In Standard Chartered's nightmare scenario for 2023, yields plummet along with tech stocks, and while the Bitcoin sell-off decelerates, the damage has already been done. Eric Robertsen, the bank's global head of research, said more and more cryptocurrency companies and exchanges found themselves illiquid, leading to further bankruptcies and a collapse of investor confidence in digital assets, which will happen in the coming year. The odds are non-zero and largely outside the market consensus or our own baseline view.

▌Gemini founder Cameron Winklevoss issued an open letter to DCG founder Barry regarding blocked funds

The co-founder of crypto exchange Gemini has accused Digital Currency Group CEO Barry Silbert of “bad faith stall tactics” as their respective companies lock horns over a business disagreement precipitated by FTX’s multi-billion-dollar implosion late last year.Cameron Winklevoss blasted Silbert in an open letter posted to Twitter, alleging crypto broker Genesis Global Capital and its parent company, DCG, owe Gemini’s clients $900 million. The letter alleges Gemini has awaited word on a repayment agreement for six weeks to no avail. DCG is also CoinDesk’s parent company.

Silbert responded, tweeting that DCG delivered to Genesis and Gemini’s advisers a proposal on Dec. 29, 2022, and has not had any response.

▌SushiSwap CTO said that due to design flaws and lack of resources, the lending platform Kashi and the token Launchpad MISO will be abandoned in Q1

Ethereum-based decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol SushiSwap has made the decision to shut down Kashi, its lending protocol, and Miso, its token Launchpad. Founded in 2020, SushiSwap allows customers to swap, lend, and borrow cryptocurrencies using their own external wallets, such as MetaMask, in contrast to centralized exchanges such as Coinbase. Explaining the move, the group’s chief technology officer (CTO) Matthew Lilley said in a tweet that Kashi “had a number of design flaws, ran at a loss, and had a lack of resources to dedicate to it.”

▌Bitcoin core developer Luke Dashjr said that his PGP key was leaked, loses nearly $3.5mil in BTC, CZ offered help

Luke Dashjr, who claims to be “the longest contributing Bitcoin Core developer,” revealed that an unknown hacker had raided “basically all” of his Bitcoin holdings on New Year’s Day. The total sum of Bitcoin stolen is unknown, but in a Twitter thread, Dashjr tracked “some of it” to a wallet address that received a little under 217 Bitcoin, or about $3.6 million at today’s price. Dashjr blamed the hack of his Bitcoin wallet on a compromised PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) key and later, in a Reddit discussion, he stated that the attacker’s IP came from a ColoCrossing server. He was at a loss to explain how his cold wallets were compromised, but he said the last time he’d accessed them was in September.