ETH Staking for Institutions

Good morning. Another bridge protocol has been exploited for $200 million, Binance.US tries to play by the SEC's rules, and Coinbase offers ETH staking for the big boys. All that and more in the CT5 today!

Market Update (as of 8:21am ET):

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Top 5:

1. Coinbase Prime adds Ethereum staking for US institutional clients. The exchange is now giving institutional firms access to yield from ETH staking in addition to staking offerings already provided for Solana, Polkadot, Cosmos, Tezos and Celo. The staking process can be initiated from the customer firm's wallet on Coinbase Prime with rewards accruing to that same wallet. Withdrawal keys are held in Coinbase's cold storage custody vault and all staking transactions are required to go through a consensus process before being executed.

2. Dubai-based OTC crypto exchange attracts sanctioned traders. Traders sanctioned by Western countries are flocking to Coinsfera to get in on the crypto action. The OTC exchange based in Dubai is becoming the top exchange for Russians, Iranians, and other sanctioned individuals and entities according to a report from Bloomberg. “Customers that use Coinsfera’s crypto exchange procedures are not constrained by trade restrictions,” the company said in a statement responding to the Bloomberg report. The company also operates offices in London, Istanbul, and Pristina.

3. SEC charges 11 in alleged $300M crypto pyramid scheme. The scheme, called Forsage, was launched in January of 2020 and "claimed to allow investors to enter into lucrative deals powered by smart contracts that operated on the Ethereum, Tron and Binance blockchains." However, in a shocking turn of events, funds from new investors were being used to pay off earlier investors. The SEC's charges listed former Russian residents Vladimir Okhotnikov, Lola Ferrari, Mikhail Sergeev and Sergey Maslakov as founders of the scheme along with three US-based promoters. The scheme raised $300 million from unsuspecting investors and the three founders are still on the lam.

4. Nomad Bridge drained of nearly $200M in exploit. The cross-chain token bridge Nomad was attacked and exploited for $200 million on Monday. The loss represents nearly all value that was in the protocol. @samczsun provides a breakdown of the attack below, but the TLDR is that after a routine update to one of Nomad's smart contract protocol's there was an easily exploitable issue that resulted in Nomad being drained of all their funds.

5. Binance.US delists token after SEC labels it a security. Last month the SEC brought insider trading charges against former Coinbase employees and declared that several of the tokens being traded were securities. Of those nine tokens, only one, Amp, was listed by Binance.US. The exchange made the decision early this week to delist the token starting August 15th which triggered a 10% drop in price.

Updates and other stories:
- CryptoPunk Ethereum NFT sales jump 248% after Tiffany launch...Read More
- Marathon doubles loan borrowing capacity to $200M as mining rigs sit idle...Read More
- Helium founder downplays criticism that it mischaracterized relationships with Lime, Salesforce...Read More

Top Sharers of the Crypto Top 5:
1. Donna Y. - Nashville, TN
2. Jake Y. - Greenville, SC
3. Forrest H. - Evansville, IN

External Resources:
1. Cryptopedia from Gemini - if you see a word, acronym, or phrase in this newsletter that you don't understand, there's a good chance you can find an explanation here
2. Crypto Explainer+ - intro level courses on Bitcoin, Ethereum, decentralized finance, NFTs, and more
3. Crypto Jobs! - looking for a new job? Check out this page from Anthony Pompliano with hundreds, if not thousands of listings

Disclaimer: The information contained in this newsletter shall not be understood or construed as financial advice. I am not an attorney, accountant, or financial advisor, nor am I holding myself out to be, and the information provided is not a substitute for financial advice from a professional who is aware of the facts and circumstances of your individual situation.