Arijit Sarkar
The first G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting under India’s presidency discussed key financial stability and regulatory priorities. India urged member nations to understand the macro-financial implications of crypto assets and recommended formulating a coordinated global policy.
India’s Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, has historically supported creating crypto regulations in partnership with other jurisdictions — given the global reach of crypto assets. Under India’s G20 Presidency, this narrative is now a part of mainstream discussions.
During the FMCBG meeting held on Feb. 24–25, G20 members discussed the potential of technology innovations while emphasizing balancing associated risks. Key discussions included financial stability and regulatory priorities, policy approaches for advancing financial inclusion and productivity gains for the G20.
In her closing remarks, Sitharaman welcomed support for reforms related to crypto assets. Specifically, the finance minister called for a coordinated effort “for building and understanding the macro-financial implications,” which could be used to globally reform crypto regulation.
She further thanked the International Monetary Fund for releasing a comprehensive paper on the macro-financial implications of crypto assets. On an end note, Sitharaman underlined the need for coordination among the G20 nations “to support responsible technological innovations and safeguard the stability of the financial system.”
The Board of Control for Cricket in India recently released a 68-page advisory asking the Women’s Premier League to refrain from crypto advertising and sponsorships:
“No franchisee shall undertake a partnership or any kind of association with an entity that is in any way connected/related to an entity that is involved/operates, directly or indirectly, in the cryptocurrency sector.”
This follows a men’s cricket Premier League ban introduced in 2022. Before the ban, the Indian Premier League had collaborated with at least two local crypto exchanges: CoinSwitch Kuber and CoinDCX.
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Arijit Sarkar
While FTX customers worldwide patiently await a conclusion to the FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) litigation, users of FTX Japan have started withdrawing all of their funds.
On Nov. 7, 2022, crypto exchange FTX and its subsidiaries slowed fund withdrawals after Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, announced the crypto exchange would liquidate its substantial holdings of FTX Token. The domino effect forced Liquid Group — a Japanese crypto trading platform owned by FTX since February 2022 — to halt withdrawals on Nov. 15, 2022.
However, to some investors’ delight, FTX Japan resumed withdraws on Feb. 21 — which involved moving funds from the defunct exchange to a Liquid Japan account. Days later, a popular crypto trader from Japan, Hibiki Trader, confirmed to have successfully withdrawn all of their funds.
A rough translation of the above tweet reads:
“All payments completed! To be honest, at first, I felt like I had given up. I would like to express my gratitude to the people in FTXJP for their efforts, as they know the part that was really overlooked.” — Hibiki＠Trader (@Whiskey_bonbon_) February 25, 2023
A day after resuming funds withdrawals, FTX Japan revealed that users withdrew roughly 6.6 billion yen ($50 million).
While a community member responded by saying, “congratulations on your escape! ! !” many are yet to witness a total redemption of their funds. The reimbursement process is expected to come with delays due to the sheer number of users impacted by the FTX collapse.
Numerous community members have confirmed that all their money has been paid out. However, the FTX investors watching from the rest of the world remain hopeful of a similar outcome.
Following the accusations against SBF, a federal judge ordered a superseding indictment unsealed containing 12 criminal counts.
A new superseding indictment against FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried containing 12 charges was unsealed in Manhattan federal court — Reuters Legal (@ReutersLegal) February 23, 2023
As Cointelegraph reported, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams accused Bankman-Fried of eight conspiracy charges related to fraud, and four charges for wire fraud and securities fraud.
SBF’s criminal trial is due to begin in October, while FTX’s bankruptcy case is ongoing.
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Brian Quarmby
According to data from Nansen, nonfungible token (NFT) whale Jeffrey Hwang — known colloquially as Machi Big Brother — dumped 1,010 tokens for 11,680 Ether or $18.6 million, in the space of 48 hours.
In a Feb. 25 Twitter thread, Nansen’s simian psychometric enhancement technician, Andrew Thurman, highlighted the trading activity over the previous two days and noted that it’s “likely the largest NFT dump ever.”
The major selling event included 90 Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs, 191 Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) NFTs and 308 Otherdeed NFTs, to name a few.
In what's likely the largest NFT dump ever, in the past 48 hours Machi has sold 1,010 NFTs, including:
- 90 BAYC for 5707 ETH
- 191 MAYC for 3091 ETH
- 112 Azuki for 1644 ETH
- 308 Otherdeed for 582 ETH
But he's not registering much profit for these collections. Why?
— Andrew T (@Blockanalia) February 24, 2023
However, Machi Big Brother promptly bought back 991 NFTs, with Thurman theorizing it could be a play to either book some profits while also conducting “one big wash trade to generate huge Blur airdrop profits” or a “pretty naked market manipulation. ”
Machi is reportedly one of the biggest receivers of the Blur (BLUR) token airdrop from upstart NFT marketplace Blur, which recently ousted OpenSea from being the top-ranked NFT platform in trading volume.
On Feb. 14, the project started dishing out its first round of airdrops to the community, with the amount of airdropped tokens depending on the user’s level of platform engagement and Ethereum-based NFT trading activity.
On Feb. 17, blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intel indicated that Machi had received 1.8 million BLUR, cashing it out for $1.3 million.
Machi is currently not holding any $BLUR - like others, he sold it all.
In total, he received $1.3M for his 1.8M Blur tokens, selling at an average price of $0.707.
It took 38 separate transactions for him to completely sell his $BLUR! — Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) February 16, 2023
As such, Machi could score some fresh BLUR tokens in the next round by ramping up NFT trading activity, while other whales may be looking to do the same.
Looking at the floor prices of top collections that Machi initially dumped, BAYC, MAYC and Otherdeed NFTs have seen their prices drop 7.77%, 9.2% and 8.16% in the past 24 hours, according to data from NFT Price Floor.
“One man’s quest for an airdrop is wrecking some markets,” Thurman noted in a subsequent post.
FWIW my "partial cashout" theory doesn't seem to be panning out -- he hasn't sent anything to Binance in a while — Andrew T (@Blockanalia) February 25, 2023
At the time of writing, BLUR’s price is $0.79, declining 17.7% in the past seven days, according to CoinGecko.
On Feb. 22, the Blur team tweeted that the project will soon airdrop $300 million of tokens in its second round.
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This Daily Dose was brought to you by Cointelegraph.
