Manifest Destiny for Binance?

Good morning. BAYC NFTs stolen, further collateral added to backstop the Tron stablecoin, and Binance.US expanding from sea to shining sea. All that and more in the CT5!

Market Update (as of 9:12am ET):

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Top 5:

1. BAYC Discord compromised, NFTs totaling 200 ETH stolen. Over the weekend BAYC's project manager, Boris Vagner, had his Discord account hacked leading to the theft of 200 ETH worth of Bored Ape NFTs. It's the third time BAYC has been hacked leading to frustration from users and calls for the project to hire a full-time security manager. Alarm bells were first sounded by @NFTherder in the below tweets:

2. Binance.US sets end-of-year deadline for nationwide availability. Binance.US is one step closer to providing crypto trading capabilities nationwide. On Friday, Idaho became the 46th state to allow residents to buy, sell, and trade crypto on the Binance.US platform. The remaining holdouts include: Hawaii, New York, Texas, and Vermont, but a spokesperson from Binance indicated that might not be the case for long, saying, “our goal is to demonstrate our compliance-first mindset and secure the remaining licenses so we can provide our services in all 50 states by the end of the year.”

3. Justin Sun’s Terra-like stablecoin now boasts backing in bitcoin, Tether, Tron. The Tron blockchain's stablecoin, USDD, is now reportedly over-collateralized with a collateral ratio of 226.1%. Data was provided by Tron DAO, the organization responsible for maintaining USDD collateral. Tron DAO also promised to maintain a minimum collateral ratio of 130% for USDD. The collateral mix backing USDD now includes 14,040.6 bitcoin, 240 million USDT, and approximately 1.9 billion Tron (TRX), the native token of the Tron ecosystem.

4. Geothermal: Kenya’s solution to crypto mining’s energy demand. KenGen, an energy producer in the east African country, is planning to offer surplus geothermal power to bitcoin miners. Kenya is one of the top three geothermal energy-producing countries in the world and Kenyan's are among the top users of the Bitcoin network globally according to Chainalysis. Geothermal energy, which accounts for 39% of KenGen's total output, offers an opportunity for miners to reduce their carbon footprint amid concerns about Bitcoin's proof-of-work consensus mechanism and energy requirements.

5. Forces opposed to crypto in D.C. about to make a big move? According to @CatilinLong_, a group of regulators are considering a proposal that would slow the growth of licensed crypto institutions in the US and incentive unregulated crypto activity. The proposal being considered builds on an SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin that was released earlier this year and would require companies to account for crypto held by intermediaries for customer safeguarding as on-balance sheet assets and liabilities, rather than off-balance sheet. Potential impacts include:

- significantly increasing the capital requirement for U.S. crypto intermediaries
- Rendering useless the money transmitter licensing regime currently used by most U.S. crypto intermediaries

Updates and other stories:
- FTX overtook Coinbase in bitcoin volume for first time ever in May...Read More
- 'Move-to-earn' application Stepn suffers cyber attack after upgrade...Read More
- PancakeSwap price rises 9% as Binance Labs purchases tokens...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.