CoinSmart Crypto Recap March 9, 2023

crypto recap

Welcome to the CoinSmart crypto recap. Let’s look at the hottest stories that came up this past week. Here is an overview:

  • Silvergate is shutting shop.
  • Major Shiba Inu update is coming soon.
  • Grayscale-SEC drama reaches new heights.

Silvergate shuts down

Silvergate Capital, the crypto bank, announced it’s winding down operations and liquidating its accounts. Silvergate and Signature Bank are considered the two main banks for the crypto industry. A company spokesperson said:

“In light of recent industry and regulatory developments, Silvergate believes that an orderly wind down of Bank operations and a voluntary liquidation of the Bank is the best path forward.”

All deposits will be fully repaid. Centerview Partners will act as Silvergate’s financial advisor, while Cravath, Swaine & Moore will provide legal services. Like many other bankrupt companies, Silvergate was badly affected by the FTX debacle.

Major Shiba Inu update coming soon

Shytoshi Kusama, Shiba Inu’s pseudonymous developer, has announced an update on the progress of the much-anticipated Shibarium project. Shibarium is the layer-2 protocol built on the Ethereum (ETH) network, similar to Polygon (MATIC). Shytoshi updated their Twitter bio with the following:

“Top Shib community member. Not financial advice, do your own research, but… *whispers* SHIBASWAP is the official DEX of Shibarium. You probably already knew that because you’re one smart pup.”

According to the project’s whitepaper, ShibaSwap aims to provide a safe place for traders to trade their crypto assets in a decentralized environment. ShibaSwap also allows holders of SHIB, BONE, and LEASH to stake their coins or provide liquidity to the DEX to earn rewards.

Grayscale-SEC drama reaches new heights

Grayscale recently sued the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the latter’s rejection of its spot Bitcoin ETF. During a court hearing, Grayscale argued that the SEC’s denial of its ETF application was “arbitrary.” They also pointed out that Grayscale is “asking to be regulated” by the SEC by offering a spot Bitcoin ETF.

Judge Neomi Rao asked SEC several questions about futures prices, contrasting with spot prices: 

“It seems to me that [what] the Commission really needs to explain is how it understands the relationship between bitcoin futures and the spot price of bitcoin … it seems to me that … one is just essentially a derivative. They move together 99.9% of the time. So where’s the gap, in the Commission’s view?”

The panel of judges seemed largely skeptical about SEC’s reasoning.

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