Trouble at Coinbase, Lawsuits from Binance

Good morning. The SEC is investigating Coinbase for listing unregistered securities, Tether has regained its dollar peg, and Binance's CEO sues Bloomberg for defamation. That's all right here, right now in the CT5!

Market Update (as of 8:06am ET):

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Top 5:

1. Aptos closes $150 million round led by FTX Ventures, Jump Crypto. The blockchain firm founded by former Meta employees that want to bring blockchain to "billions" of people. Aptos announced plans to bring back the Diem blockchain to create the “safest and most production-ready blockchain in the world.” Today's announcement highlighted gaming, social networks, media and entertainment and finance as the verticals the Aptos blockchain is built to support. CEO Mo Shaikh says the company is building the next generation layer 1 and that "current blockchains are not fit for purpose when it comes to mass web3 adoption.” The $150M funding round was led by FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto.

2. SEC probing Coinbase for allegedly listing securities. The SEC's investigation, which pre-dates the insider trading lawsuit from last week, is focused on whether Coinbase allowed U.S. persons to trade unregistered securities listed on the exchange. According to the report from Bloomberg, the SEC's scrutiny of Coinbase has increased since the exchange expanded the number of tokens available for trading (currently more than 150 tokens are available for trading in the US). During las week's insider trading scandal, the SEC identified 7 tokens that the Commission believes are securities and that Coinbase also lists for trading. Coinbase fired back with a blog post calling on the SEC "to develop a workable regulatory framework for digital asset securities."

3. Binance CEO sues Bloomberg’s Hong Kong partner for defamation. On Monday Changpeng Zhao (CZ) sued Bloomberg Businessweek’s Hong Kong publisher Modern Media CL for defamation over an article that portrayed him as running a Ponzi scheme. The article in question was originally titled "Can Crypto's Richest Man Stand the Cold", but in a Chinese translation of the title from the local Hong Kong publisher the title was changed to “Zhao Changpeng’s Ponzi Scheme". After the article was published, CZ demanded a retraction and filed a motion for discovery against Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. This is not the first time that Binance has taken aggressive action to protect its image - the company has filed lawsuits against Forbes and Sequoia on similar defamation claims.

4. Moonbeam now lets you swap tokens between Polkadot and Cosmos. Moonbeam, a smart contract parachain based on Polkadot, has partnered with Osmosis, a decentralized exchange on the Cosmos network , to enable cross-chain token swaps between the Polkadot and Cosmos ecosystems. The connectivity is supported by the Axelar Network protocol which serves as a bridge network and cross-chain communication platform. DOT, the native token of the Polkadot blockchain, will be the first token supported on the cross-chain bridge.

5. Tether finds stable dollar peg after Terra's collapse. Tether (USDT), the world's largest stablecoin, has regained its dollar peg after more than two months fighting to recover from the Terra collapse. Tether has held the peg since regaining the dollar mark on July 20th. During the past two months, tether's market cap has taken a $16 billion hit as holders of the token redeemed the asset. It appears tether has passed this "stress test", but many are still critical about the quality of assets backing the stablecoin.

Updates and other stories:
- US stablecoin bill delayed, but draft language may soon emerge...Read More
- Lido DAO votes no to selling $14.5 million in LDO tokens to Dragonfly Capital...Read More
- Titanium Blockchain CEO pleads guilty in $21M securities fraud case...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.