Top stories

Binance Publishes Merkle Tree-Based Proof of Reserves

Binance announced official proof of reserves (PoR) system. The company is starting with BTC reserves. Right now, Binance has a reserve ratio of 101%. It means Binance has enough Bitcoins to cover all users' balances. 

Kraken CEO critiqued the move by saying, “I’m sorry but no. This is not PoR. This is either ignorance or intentional misrepresentation.”

MetaMask to Collect User IP and Ethereum Wallet Addresse

MetaMask will begin collecting users' IP addresses and Ethereum wallet addresses during on-chain transactions.  Consensys, the company that owns MetaMask, further explained that this only apply when users use MetaMask's default Remote Procedure Call (RPC) application Infura.

Edward Snowden Calls MetaMask’s New Policy Update A “Crime”

Elon Musk Confirms Bankman-Fried Owns 0% of Twitter

Elon Musk has clarified that Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), FTX’s co-founder and former CEO, currently owns 0% of Twitter.

The confirmation followed an article published by Bankman-Fried-backed publication Semafor indicating that SBF owns a $100 million stake in the social media platform.  “Neither I nor Twitter have taken any investment from SBF/FTX. Your article is a lie.” Elon Musk responded.

FTX Started Bankruptcy Proceedings

FTX started its bankruptcy proceedings at the Delaware Court.The bankruptcy filing revealed that FTX owes its 50 biggest unsecured creditors around $3.1 billion.

As part of the recent bankruptcy filing, the defunct crypto exchange FTX, along with 101 of the 130 affiliated companies, announced the launch of a strategic review of their global assets. The review is an attempt to maximize recoverable value for stakeholders.

Crypto weekly price action

Bitcoin briefly topped $16,500 again on Friday afternoon, up from Monday's low and narrowing the gap to its Nov. 10 recent near-term high. Ethereum perked above $1,200 Friday, up more than 11% from a Tuesday low, and about 10% from a Nov. 10 high.

Fundraising and investment

Binance Allocates Another $1B for Its Crypto Recovery Fund

Binance announced the Web3 Industry Recovery Initiative (IRI). Binance allocated another $1 billion for its industry recovery fund, effectively increasing the size of the fund to over $2 billion. Aptos Labs, Jump Crypto, along with other prominent crypto companies joined Binance's initiative and will contribute $50 million to the fund.

Fasanara Capital Lands $200M Canadian Pension Fund Mandate

Fasanara Capital, an alternative credit and venture capital investor, has landed a strategic $200m mandate from one of Canada’s largest pension investors. The cash will be used to lend to fund invoice receivables, working capital facilities, short-term SME loans, as well as other speciality finance loan products.

CoinFund Launched $300 Million Fund Targeting Crypto and Web3 Startups

Web3 investment firm CoinFund recently launched a $300 million fund targeting early-stage crypto and web3 startups. CoinFund is also looking to raise an additional $250 million fund specifically for seed-stage investments.

Fenix Games Raises $150M for Blockchain Game Publishing

Fenix Games has raised $150 million to create a new kind of publisher for blockchain gaming.Fenix Games plans to acquire, invest and publish both existing games and blockchain games of the future. The investors include Phoenix Group and Cypher Capital.

Research and technology

Vitalik Buterin Suggests Using ZK-SNARKs for Refined Privacy

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed the concept of using ZK-SNARKs for improved privacy. He also considers that this would refine the Merkle tree transfer-based proof-of-reserves. Binance CEO mentioned his team will carry out this implementation in addition to making it open-source.

Seedless Self-Custody: On MPC and Smart Contract Wallets

The unraveling of FTX and Celsius are the latest in a long list of incidents that remind the industry “not your keys, not your coin”, triggering a flight to non-custodial wallets. Despite common “this vs that” framing, MPC and smart wallets are not competitive, but rather complementary in the long term.

Full List of Cryptocurrency Exchange Hacks 2011-2022

A complete list of cryptocurrency exchange hacks, starting with the most recent major hack of the Binance exchange, where hackers stole BNB tokens totaling $ 570 million, and ending with the Mt. Gox, which during the period from 2010 to 2014.

FIFA World Cup | Price Analysis of 40 Football Fan Tokens

The FIFA World Cup is in full swing, which football fan tokens are the most popular? Which tokens have the best price performance? What factors are influencing football fan token price? Can we predict the fan tokens price? Here are the answers.

Viral Quotes

“WSJ giving foot massages to a criminal.”

— Elon Musk, talked about Wall Street Journal’s coverage of Sam Bankman-Fried

“Sam Bankman-Fried was in the business of buying people and news agencies.

Apparently it worked.  He’s not in jail and media silent.”

— Juanita Broaddrick, Author of "You'd Better Put Some Ice On That"

“You were my family. I've lost that, and our old home is an empty warehouse of monitors. When I turn around, there's no one left to talk to.”

—  Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of FTX, apologized to employees

“FTX management lied about not taking user money, it was a sort of a Ponzi scheme. The Terra Luna project was mismanaged like the Lehman brothers. The Luna founders did not walk away with lot of money after it collapsed.”

—  Changpeng Zhao, Binance CEO

“Crypto exchanges can and do fail. Even if a crypto exchange is licensed in Singapore, it would be currently only regulated to address money-laundering risks, not to protect investors.”

—  Monetary Authority of Singapore