It’s a chicken, it’s a airplane, no, it’s a crypto whale

Observe me on Twitter @Jacqmelinek for breaking crypto information, memes and extra.

Welcome again to Chain Response.

Earlier this week, I took a have a look at what some main crypto whales’ wallets have been doing, the place they parked their funds and the way their exercise indicators motion within the broader market.

I examined six wallets, which have been supplied to TechCrunch by on-chain portfolio knowledge from Nansen. The wallets are price nearly half a billion {dollars}, with nearly all of their belongings allotted on the Ethereum blockchain, the knowledge confirmed.

A majority of the wallets embody “wrapped” crypto belongings, which is a tokenized model of the unique coin that holds the identical worth. For instance, there’s bitcoin (BTC) and wrapped bitcoin (wBTC) and an investor would personal the latter in the event that they needed to make use of bitcoin on the Ethereum community, which it doesn’t function on. It could, although, by way of the wrapped model.

Total, these whales are typically risk-off, given the bulk are holding liquid staking tokens, stablecoins and wrapped bitcoin and ether, signaling a conservative mindset.

There have been additionally some shocking points to some of the wallets, which we dive into additional right here.

This week in web3

Former SEC chair Jay Clayton feels ‘overwhelming majority’ of crypto tokens are securities (TC+)

The definition of a safety is “deliberately broad and versatile,” Former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton mentioned. However, there’s an opportunity that one thing as soon as labeled a safety, “won’t all the time be a safety.” So what might trigger that shift? Current utility versus future utility, Clayton mentioned. Take broadway present tickets for instance: If somebody purchased 1,000 tickets for $10 and instructed their family and friends they’d have the ability to resell these tickets for $100 or $1,000, then it’s a safety, he mentioned. “However in case you simply purchase the ticket 10 years later, it’s only a ticket.”

Hong Kong eyes stablecoin regulatory regime by 2024

Whereas the Western world debates easy methods to regulate stablecoins, Hong Kong is forging forward with a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies pegged to conventional monetary belongings. The Hong Kong Financial Authority (HKMA) is within the strategy of looking for feedback from the general public concerning stablecoins and goals to introduce a regulatory framework by the top of 2024, mentioned town’s Undersecretary for Monetary Providers and the Treasury, Joseph Chan Ho-lim, in line with native media.

London lures a16z’s first worldwide workplace with ‘predictable’ crypto regs

US VC big Andreessen Horowitz — which has about $35 billion in belongings below administration — is to open its first (sure, the primary) worldwide workplace in London, led by one of many agency’s common companions, Sriram Krishnan. The workplace will concentrate on supporting the event of crypto, blockchain applied sciences and related web3 startups. a16z has dedicated $7.6 billion to crypto startups globally.

Robinhood’s choice to restrict crypto buying and selling makes good sense (TC+)

Client buying and selling and funding app Robinhood is transferring to limit the holding and buying and selling of sure main cryptocurrencies on its platform, barely every week after the U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee’s lawsuits in opposition to crypto exchanges Binance and Coinbase. After reviewing Robinhood’s most up-to-date quarterly outcomes, we really feel that the choice is backed by some quantity of purpose.

US DoJ fees two Russians for hacking crypto change Mt. Gox

The U.S. Division of Justice has charged two Russian nationals for hacking and inflicting the following collapse of Mt. Gox, one of many largest and hottest crypto exchanges. In an unsealed indictment, the DoJ named Alexey Bilyuchenko, 43, and Aleksandr Verner, 29, of hacking the change and conspiring to launder about 647,000 bitcoins, price about $17.2 billion right this moment. Mt. Gox shutdown in 2014 after submitting for chapter when the theft was revealed, after which was ordered to liquidate.

The most recent pod

For this week’s episode, Jacquelyn interviewed Patrick Kaminski, the director of digital innovation for web3 and metaverse at L’Oreal, and Manon Cardiel, head of strategic planning and partnerships inside web3 and metaverse at L’Oreal.

Patrick is the chief behind NYX Skilled Make-up’s GORJS DAO, which launched in mid-January with hopes of mixing the NFT world and the wonder trade within the metaverse. Whereas Manon labored on the GORJS challenge, she additionally helped launch NFT collections for corporations like Mugler and Yves Saint Laurent.

L’Oreal is greatest identified for its magnificence merchandise, however the over 100 yr outdated firm can be residence to a plethora of manufacturers that many people use and personal like Maybelline, Yves Saint Laurent, Armani, Kiehls, Valentino, Prada, CeraVe and extra.

We mentioned why L’Oreal needed to get into the web3 ecosystem, what it’s like incorporating a DAO into a standard model and the way different manufacturers and firms are – or aren’t – entering into the cryptosphere.

We additionally dove into:

• Rising model loyalty
• Client demand and suggestions
• Manufacturers skepticism of NFTs, metaverse
• Recommendation to manufacturers trying to get into web3

ICYMI: We had a bonus episode! Jacquelyn interviewed Paul Grewal, chief authorized officer at Coinbase.

Grewal has been at Coinbase, the second largest crypto change globally, for nearly three years. Beforehand he was the vp and deputy common counsel at Fb, amongst different roles.

Final week, the SEC sued Coinbase for securities legal guidelines violations, simply at some point after the SEC sued Binance, the world’s largest crypto change.

We acquired into:

• Potential crypto laws from Congress
• U.S. companies sentiment towards digital belongings
• Way forward for belongings listed on its change
• Binance’s SEC case

Subscribe to Chain Response on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite pod platform to maintain up with the newest episodes, and please depart us a overview in case you like what you hear!

Observe the cash

1. Gensyn raised $43M in spherical led by a16z for blockchain-based AI protocol
2. Ironforge raised $2.6M for its Solana-focused interface
3. Crypto funds resolution BoomFi raised $3.8M to enhance crypto and fiat settlements
4. Interoperability protocol Connext raised $7.5M to assist devs construct multi-chain apps
5. Collectibles.com raised $5M seed spherical to launch web3 neighborhood and market

This record was compiled with info from Messari in addition to TechCrunch’s personal reporting.

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