Metropolitan Museum of Art Agrees to Return FTX Donations Worth $550 000

Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met), the world’s largest museum, has announced plans to return $550,000 to the Bahamian crypto exchange FTX. Before the collapse of FTX, the Met group received a substantial donations from the crypto exchange.

According to the court, FTX West Realm Shires donated $300,000 to Met last March. In May 2022, the Met team received another donation from FTX totaling $250,000. It was reported that West Realm Shires Services supported the FTX US team in delivering crypto services and products.

Metropolitan Museum of Art Returns $550000 to FTX

Afterward month before the crypto exchange filed for Chapter 11 of bankruptcy protection, the FTX team engaged in lengthy negotiations with Met. At the meeting, “good faith, arm’s length negotiations,” the Met team agreed to return the donations it received from the bankrupt crypto exchange.  

The Met’s June 2 announcement came when the crypto exchange seeks to restore the funds from debtors. Led by the new chief executive John Ray III, the FTX team is clawing back political and business donations to compensate customers who suffered losses following the crypto exchange’s closure.

Per the court document, the crypto exchange donated around $93 million from March to November last year. The court report illustrated that FTX funded 180 US politicians in the previous election.

Earlier experts from the largest financial Twitter platform, Unusual Whale, stated that out of the 180 candidates, only 19 intend to return political donations. A few days ago, the Oregon representative Lori Chavez DeReme returned $1000 to FTX.

Will Politicians and Business Return Donations to FTX?

After scrutinizing the list of politicians supported by FTX, the market watch team noted that the democratic political party “Protect our Future PAC” (POF) received $27 million from FTX.

In a recent publication, the Berkeley-based non-profit firm Alignment Research Center announced plans to return the $1.25 million it received from FTX as a grant. The Alignment team argued that the funds belonged to FTX customers and creditors and should be returned. 

A report from The Logic news site revealed that the University of Toronto has already returned $500000 to FTX. Before this, ProPublica had revealed its intentions to return $1.6 million to the crypto exchange.

Initially, the FTX team led by the founder Sam Bankman Fried and his brother Gabriel had agreed to support ProPublica to establish a $5 million Family Foundation. The FTX agreement stated that the crypto exchange would support ProPublica in the next three years to build a strong future for the community.

In December, the FTX team announced that most beneficiaries requested the troubled crypto exchange to guide them on ways to return the funds. The statement revealed that the FTX team would take legal action against debtors who would fail to repay the outstanding balances.

FTX Reveal Plans to Recover Funds

In the meantime, under the new management, the FTX team restored assets worth $6.2 billion. It was reported that FTX’s new CEO had been tasked to lead the recovery of the firm assets and develop ways to increase the shareholder’s value.

On the other hand, the outgoing FTX CEO would face criminal trial in October. Bankman-Fried was accused of engaging in financial crimes contravening Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations. 

Referring to the court filing, Bankman-Fried is accused of misuse of customer funds. He was accused of acquiring personal assets such as real estate, luxurious fashion brands and living lavishly using customer funds.

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Neal Stephenson’s Lamina1 Set to Launch an Open Metaverse

A recent update issued by Neal Stephenson founder of Lamina 1 reveals that the firm will work closely with best-performing tech companies to launch an open metaverse. The report stated that Lamina 1 team would hire professionals from HTC, Mira and Qualcomm to develop the proposed metaverse.

The Lamina 1 team believes that blockchain technology has massive potential to support the development of the open metaverse platform.

Benefits of Open Metaverse

Speaking at an interview with a local news site the chief executive of Lamina 1 Rebecca Barkin outlined the L1 roadmap for creating the open metaverse. In her address, Barkin stated that the L1 team plans to utilize blockchain technology and gaming knowledge to create an open metaverse.

Initially after exploring the gaming world, Stephenson believes that the concept behind video games had great potential for creating the proposed metaverse. Barkin added that the L1 team plans to invest in creating an open metaverse platform built with high fidelity. Unlike the primary games such as cartoon features and walled garden, the L1 metaverse would enable the user to utilize their digital assets appropriately in the virtual space.

As such Barkin stated that most of the featured games in the proto-metaverse platforms such as the Roblox are non decentralized. It implies that Roblox player has minimum control of their user account.

Barkin noted that the proto-metaverse platform ensures that the available digital assets remain locked within the platform. Hence there will be no need to use cryptos on the Roblox. 

According to Barkin, the L1 proposed metaverse would be developed using revolutionary infrastructures to ease the interoperability capabilities. Primarily the expected metaverse would allow the user to be in complete control of their digital assets.

Barkin argued that the L1 team plans to take an opposite approach from Roblox by allowing the user to maintain ownership and value of the crypto assets.

Will Lamina 1 Partners Support the Firm to Develop Open Metaverse?

Before the launching of the Lamina 1 mainnet in Q2 Barkin confessed that Stephenson and the team plan to explore the metaverse and virtual reality space. Criticizing the metaverse approach undertaken by Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta Barkin regretted that the tech firm failed to support the growth of metaverse. She added that despite Meta being commandeered by Zuckerberg and his team, less efforts were made towards the development of the metaverse space.

In 2022 Zuckerberg and his team invested in developing an open metaverse aiming at improving the interoperability of the platform. The team also invested in developing heavy metaverse hardware. Based on Barkin’s observation, the Zuckerberg metaverse project failed to meet people’s expectations.

She stated that Zuckerberg’s idea of people wearing a headset while undertaking their daily activities failed to materialize due to changes in consumer preference. Barkin noted that most people were against the idea of wearing a headset all day. 

Lamina 1 Seeks for Business Partners

Presently the L1 team has collaborated with industrial heavyweights such as HTC and Qualcomm to debut a unique open metaverse. In an earlier report, the L1 team confirmed participation in the upcoming Qualcomm Snapdragon Space XR event. During the event, the L1 team would have the opportunity to work with the world-class infrastructure development firm Croquet.

On the other hand, Viverse developers from HTC would support the L1 team to create innovative user-generated tools. Under the partnership agreement, the L1 group allowed HTC to utilize its proprietary tools to enable the players to have control of their digital assets in gaming. The HTC team plans to adopt the L1 blockchain technology to create a cross-platform for asset distribution.

Irrespective of this the quest to transform the virtual compelled the HTC team to seek a partnership with the popular XR hardware company in January.

In the meantime, the L1 team will work with Interverse gaming company to improve the XR sports platform. While the HTC team would support L1 to develop the interoperable asset.

Barkin stated that the L1 open metaverse has motivated the firm to join efforts with experts from Mira World company. She argued that the Mira team has unique blockchain-powered user-generated infrastructures including ecommerce, an exclusive VR tourism that can be utilized in the L1 new metaverse project.

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FuturBTC Review – Is futurbtc.com Scam or a Legit Crypto Broker?

FuturBTC Review

Beginning your trading journey is going to be the toughest of all the challenges that you will face as a trader. Once you have begun trading, things will start to fall in place for you. One of the first challenges you will come across is finding a broker you can trust.

You will usually have to ask around to get a few good recommendations. Or, what you can do is you can read this FuturBTC review and go ahead with a trustworthy broker right away.

By reading the FuturBTC review, you can cut short the research process, which can take weeks and months for some traders. Also, you can know a lot about this company in the review before you even land on the website. So, let’s go ahead.

Does It Adhere to AML and KYC?

Before you can call an online trading services provider trustworthy or not trustworthy, you have to confirm if it adheres to AML and KYC. AML stands for anti-money laundering whereas KYC stands for know your customer.

Both policies have been designed to help online brokers recognize their traders, have them properly identified, and as a result, stop illegal entities from using their platforms. Futurbtc.com broker adheres to these policies to make sure its trading platform is used only for legal trading activities. As a result, you can feel safe while trading with this broker.

How can you feel safe? Well, you will have this sense of security that your platform is not being used for anything illegal. Furthermore, you can rest assured that your broker isn’t going away for allowing suspicious activities on its platform.

Does It Offer Proper Trader Security?

Trader security is the most important concern that every online broker has to deal with. If you find a broker that doesn’t care about your security, you should quit the idea of signing up with it at all. Now, you can be happy about the fact that Futur BTC broker cares about you and offers you security in every possible way.

You sign up and provide your personal details with peace of mind that every bit of your data will be protected through encryption. You can access your trading account on any devices or even public computers because your sign-ins are 2FA authorization protected.

You will not have to fear someone using your account because FuturBTC broker has account monitoring feature in place to identify unusual trading activities. When that happens, it notifies you immediately and takes the needed action to protect your account.

Is It Transparent?

Transparency is crucially important for any online broker and the trader should get a sense of it when they sign up with their broker. I’m sure you are going to feel that way when on Futurbtc.com trading platform because this team puts in a lot of effort in keeping things transparent.

You have to read and understand the terms of service and privacy policy before you agree to sign up. The account types are given in a table that tells you every feature you will be getting with each account type. Each market has a table of spreads that are applicable to each asset.

Your deposits and withdrawals don’t attract any commissions. Futur BTC trading platform also makes sure you know about any fees that might affect you in any way.

Can You Trade Many Assets?

One of the things you will notice about some deceptive platforms is that they keep touting and shouting about a particular asset or market. They try to make you believe that trading in a certain market will make you rich in no time.

However, that’s not going to happen when you land on the website of FuturBTC trading platform. This broker is serious and doesn’t make any such promises. It only believes in delivering and hence it has more to offer than to talk about.

Use this platform to trade in half a dozen different asset categories, and make your crypto trading dream come true. Pick precious metals or go with natural commodities like gas and oil if you prefer to trade in those markets. Just one platform is enough for all of that.

Is FuturBTC Scam or Legit?

The sole purpose of me writing this FuturBTC review was to see if traders find this broker trustworthy. Every point I have discussed in the review is in the context of trustworthiness. You can see that the broker covers its ground well, and its features are proof that it’s a reliable platform.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to knowing how trustworthy a platform is, you have to look into its trading, security, and compliance features. I did that and found the company doing a great job in all of those aspects. Now, the only thing left is you trying a demo account to get a feel of trading with this broker and then deciding to sign up.  

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Crypto.com Secures “Major” Operational License in Singapore

Top crypto trading platform Crypto.com has received what it describes as a major Payment Institution (MPI) License from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. In a blog post on 1 June, the exchange said the license is for Digital Payment Token (DPT) services.

The platform will now continue to extend its Digital Payment Token (DPT) services to customers in Singapore where it has its global headquarters.

“The Monetary Authority of Singapore is recognized globally as a regulator that ensures responsible innovation of the digital assets sector,” said Kris Marszalek, CEO of Crypto.com.

“We are proud to receive the license from a regulator that prioritizes consumer protection, safety, and security. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with MAS and leading at the forefront of crypto in our home market of Singapore,” he added.

Crypto.com is a crypto exchange known for its strict compliance with regulatory standards of countries where it operates. It has over 80 million users around the world, who enjoy the high security and privacy that the platform provides.

Crypto.com Furthering Crypto Adoption

Crypto.com’s primary aim is to make financial services available to all by facilitating crypto adoption, and this license is a big step towards achieving this. MAS had issued an in-principle or preliminary license in June last year, but is giving a full license to the crypto giant this time.

Indeed, Singapore has over the years been a crypto hub, and this license further demonstrates its commitment to the industry.

“Singapore continues to be a hub for blockchain and fintech innovation. The Major Payment Institution license underscores our ongoing commitment to build with the Web3 community in Singapore,” said Chin Tah Ang, General Manager, Singapore of Crypto.com.

Crypto.com has a number of other licenses it secured before now. It had in November 2022 obtained a Major Payment Institution license for e-money issuance, account issuance, cross border and domestic money transfer services from the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Similarly, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) in France licensed the company as a Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP) in September 2022. It also has business licenses from the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), to name a few.

The Need for Regulatory Compliance

There are many crypto exchanges seeking licenses in different jurisdictions. However, Crypto.com seems to be getting more licenses, mainly because of its strict regulatory compliance. It is one of the exchanges that adhere to strict regulations wherever they operate, and that is something other exchanges should emulate.

As countries seek to make the crypto space safer for their people, they will continue to go hard on regulations, and the exchanges interested in complying with such regulations will gain more acceptance. Crypto.com will definitely secure more licenses in places like Hong Kong which have become leading crypto hubs.

The government is already working on licensing companies as it released its regulatory guidelines recently. Such hubs will receive more interest from crypto exchanges and other digital platforms going forward, and those companies with the most willingness for compliance will receive more acceptance.

With proper crypto regulation, the world is also more likely to believe in the industry and what it stands for. This is critical in encouraging crypto adoption, which is something Crypto.com aggressively pursues in order to bring about financial inclusion the world over.

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Circle Launching USDC on Arbitrum Network to Increase Transaction Speed

The Massachusetts-based crypto payment company Circle updated the Twitter community on June 1, plans to launch an itself-own stablecoin pegged to the US dollar USDC.e. The tweet revealed the Circle’s stablecoin would be centred on the Arbitrum network.  

A subsequent tweet from Circle and Arbitrum revealed that the new stablecoin would be available in the market from June 8. The Arbitrum network has popularity due to its massive capability to provide a scaling solution for the Ethereum network.

Feature of the Arbitrum Network

Notably, the Arbitrum network holds approximately 65% of the total value locked (TVL) on the Ethereum network. According to L2Beat data, the Arbitrum network expedites the transaction speed and reduces the charges.

The L2Beat report illustrated that the Arbitrum network utilizes the Optimistic Rollup technology. They noted that the Optimistic Rollup technology engages in rolling up multiple transactions before sending the data to the Ethereum network through a single transaction.

Considering these developments, it is worth mentioning that most Layer 2 networks, such as the Arbitrum network, are usually centred on top of the Layer 1 network, such as Ethereum. Mostly the Layer 2 network provides users with a platform with low fees and fast transactions. 

This has prompted most Layer 1 user to move their assets to Layer 2 through a process known as bridging to tap into the endless benefits of L1. 

Importance of Launching USDC on Arbitrum Network

Reflecting on the June 1 tweet, the Circle team stated that the new stablecoin would be renamed USDC.e. The tweet expanded on the features of the new stablecoin and the changes that would be made on the Arbitrum network.

In the meantime, the Arbitrum team confirmed that minimal changes would be conducted on the Arbitrum Bridge. However, the Arbitrum bridge would experience changes after the launch of the native stablecoin.   

In an official blog post, the Arbitrum Foundation outlined the benefits of the stablecoin on its network. The post stated that the USDC centred on the Arbitrum network would provide the institutional investors with on and off-ramping services through the Circle platform.

Reportedly the USDC native token is expected to work closely with the Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP). The expected interaction between the CCTP and the stablecoin would replace the lock-and-mint bridge by increasing the burning rate of the USDC located on the native chain. 

The minting process is expected to occur at the destination chain Arbitrum network, where new USDC will be generated. Over the year, the CCTP has been utilized to unify liquidities and has supported multiple transactions conducted on the blockchain network. 

USDC Market Performance

The post stated that the user would be required to burn the USDC on the native chain, and the information would be shared with the Circle team for further confirmation. This process has eliminated the minting of the USDC.e and locking the USDC. 

Recently the USDC and Circle group has been making headlines after the depegging of the stablecoin when the major banks in the US were battling liquidation. It was reported that during the closure of Silicon Valley, the  USDC and its parent company lost over $3.3 billion.

Irrespective of this, in 2022, Coingecko data indicated that the most stablecoins pegged to the US currency, such as USDC and Tether (USDT), experience losses in market share. The data shows that the dollar-backed stablecoin market capitalization was $45 billion last year.

As of this publication, these stablecoins’ market capitalization plummeted to $28 million. 

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Binance Suspends Australian Dollar Deposit and Withdrawals

Leading crypto exchange Binance has suspended Australian Dollar (AUD) deposit and withdrawals via bank transfer. This is coming in the midst of issues with the exchange’s banking partner responsible for processing such transactions.

The partner has given Binance users in Australia up to 17:00 June 1, 2023, AEST to withdraw their funds. The payment provider, PayID AUD had two weeks ago, announced it was halting support for Binance’s AUD deposit and withdrawals.

In an announcement by Binance Australia on Twitter today, the exchange said it will not be able to process AUD deposits and withdrawals after 1 June.

“We regret to inform you that AUD deposits and withdrawals by bank transfer are no longer available to Binance users in Australia. Binance has ceased all AUD trading pairs as of June 1. In order to facilitate withdrawals and trading activities after June 1, you can convert AUD balances to USDT.”

Luckily, use of credit and debit cards as well as peer-to-peer trading is still available and is not affected. Binance is already working on finding a replacement for PayID, but in the mean time, deposit by bank transfer will halt at any moment.

“You can still buy and sell crypto using credit or debit card, and our Binance P2P marketplace will also continue to operate as usual. We understand from our third-party payment service provider that Bank Transfer withdrawals will also be impacted, and we will advise users on [a] timeline when this is confirmed,” Binance added.

The exchange however assures that customers funds are safe with “the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), an insurance fund that offers protection to Binance users and their funds in the event of extreme situations.”

Crypto Payment Processors becoming Scarce

Binance is facing issues with a payment processor in Australia for the first time, but this is just one of many cases in recent times. In the US for example, many leading crypto exchanges including OKX had to suspend USD deposits following a series of bank collapses.

Although this is perceived as an attempt to frustrate the crypto industry in the US, Australia doesn’t seem to be working against crypto. If anything, it is working to develop the industry by putting in place adequate regulation that makes the environment conducive for crypto companies to thrive.

Crypto users in Australia will now have to make do with other available options of trading crypto on Binance, or consider using other exchanges until a suitable replacement is found.

Binance Not Leaving Australia

Binance recently moved out of Canada, the home country of it founder and CEO, Changepeng Zhao. This decision was made due to the harsh new rules regulators in Canada came up with for crypto companies. Bybit has followed in the same path by announcing its movement out of Canada as well.

However, Binance isn’t considering moving out of Australia since regulations in the country are quite friendly, and more recent developments seek to turn it into a crypto hub. This will likely attract more crypto exchanges, and so there’s no reason for Binance to leave.

The same cannot be said of the US, where even indigenous exchanges like Gemini and Coinbase are either moving out, or increasing their presence outside the country due to bad regulatory approach. Places like Dubai and Australia will be the next destination for them in the near future.

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M80 Seed Funding Round Nets $3M for Expanding Web3-Powered Esports

An official update issued by the M80, the prominent gaming company, on May 31, confirmed to raise $3 million in a seed funding round. The M80 team announced that the funding round was led by the ExpertDojo team in partnership with VT Tech firm and Practical venture capital.

The company revealed that the funds generated would stimulate Web3 growth. Additionally, the M80 team plans to widen its market presence by introducing competitive esports and improving content creation. The funds would be redirected to branding the consumer’s products.

M80 Funding Round

Over the past, the M80 has gained popularity due to the creative esports groups integrated into best-performing games such as the Valorant, Siege, Rocket League, and the recently launched Street Fighter. The M80 team has occupied a significant market dominance in gaming since the firm has employed professionals who worked in the best-performing esports company. 

Reportedly the current chief executive of M80, Marco Mereu, and Nate Schanker, work at the XSET, a world-class esports organization.In a recent study conducted to examine the suitability of the current export ecosystem, Mereu believes that soon the industry will overcome the prolonged storms.

Recently the esports sector has been battling layoffs, stock price fluctuation, teams of sale, and changes in striking players. In an email conversation, Mereu regretted that the unbearable economic pressure had limited the expansion of the esports industry.

He stated that the existing economic uncertainty had compelled key players in the esports sector, including the publishers, and brands, to explore effective strategies to support the firm operations. However, Mereu noted that in the past few months, multiple changes have been implemented to improve the sustainability of the industry.

Strategies to Improve Esport Industry

In an interview with Startland News, Mereu announced that despite having a small group, the M80 has strived to maintain strong financial stability. He mentioned that, unlike larger corporations with a higher overhead cost, M80 had invested more in building customer relationships to retain existing fans and attract new ones.

The M80 team has implemented a unique approach to boost customer experiences. Most esports firms have primarily adopted follower count and hyper-growth strategies to reach a larger audience.

Besides the strategies applied to increase the number of clients, the M80 team has adopted a friendly culture to motivate the stakeholders to support the growth of the esports sector. The M80 has implemented the latest Web3 technologies to revolutionize the gaming sector.

In an earlier report, the M80 team revealed plans to explore the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) technology. A DAO is a decentralized community with similar interests and the right to vote using the crypto token.

The M80 team plans to invest in developing packaged goods with features corresponding to digital products with real-time utility. Such packaged goods will utilize Web3 blockchain technologies to meet market needs.

Mereu confirmed that the gaming and esport sector would continue to grow to serve a large group of audiences across the world. He stated that roughly 3 billion people depend on the gaming and esports sectors.

Elsewhere the chief executive of the community gaming Chris Gonsalves stated that the crypto and tech sector has massive potential to transform the esports industry. However, Gonsalves has urged firms to explore practical strategies to improve the esports sector.

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