Crypto traders suffer $307m in losses, attorney general sues KuCoin, Vitalik dumps $330,000 in ‘shitcoins’

NY State Attorney General sues KuCoin

New York State Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against crypto exchange KuCoin on Thursday, marking the second time in as many weeks she has sued an exchange for failing to register as a securities broker.

James asserts within the filing that Ethereum’s native token, ETH, is a security – a rare accusation, even among the more passionate regulators working to bring crypto companies to heel.

She sued Hong Kong-based exchange CoinEx, aka. Vino Global, on February 22, on similar offences.

Ethereum co-founder Buterin dumps altcoins with ‘no redeeming cultural or moral value’

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stirred things up on the blockchain again this week, selling 220 ETH worth of altcoins deemed by the developer to “have no redeeming cultural or moral value.”

This week, Buterin sold CULT, BITE, and MOP tokens, according to blockchain analytics firm Peckshield, for a total of around $330,000, and stated on Reddit that investors would likely lose the money they placed in the projects.

‘$BITE and most other coins being discussed on this forum are shitcoins, have no redeeming cultural or moral value, and will probably lose you most of the money you put into them’

“$BITE and most other coins being discussed on this forum are shitcoins, have no redeeming cultural or moral value, and will probably lose you most of the money you put into them,” Buterin wrote. “I anti-endorse these projects to the greatest extent.”

Buterin is a regular recipient of free tokens from coin projects, a tactic utilised by development teams in the hope that Buterin’s popularity will help increase market engagement.

The most famous example of a project airdropping coins to Buterin took place in 2021, when the Shiba INU team sent him an estimated $6 billion in SHIB tokens, of which he donated $1 billion and burnt the rest.

READ NOW: Vitalik’s $1bn crypto maze: How donations for India went through an Alameda wallet and a Puerto Rican account

Crypto traders suffer $307m in losses over 24 hours

The crypto space is in upheaval once more, with upwards of $307 million in liquidations happening between March 8 and March 9.

Traders on exchange Binance alone lost $104 million, with Bitcoin traders apparently hit the hardest.

Long-betters had a particularly bad day. Of the liquidated trading positions, some $282 million were longs, betting on higher prices.

That marks the worst day for long-betters since February 8, which saw long betters lose $254 million.

The selloff comes amidst the collapse of Silvergate Bank on Wednesday, which saw the leading crypto-friendly bank enter liquidation procedures of its own.

NOW READ: Silvergate short seller says he’s betting against Signature: ‘Binance is next’

Bankrupt FTX introduces $4m bonus programme to retain key staff

Crypto exchange FTX may be bankrupt, but that’s not stopping it from introducing a $4 million bonus programme to retain key staff.

FTX filed a document with the District of Delaware Bankruptcy Court this week, which outlines CEO John J. Ray III’s intentions to convince “critical” employees to stay with the firm.

Ray and a team of newly-appointed execs are tasked with unravelling FTX’s allegedly chaotic accounting records. They warned that doing so without the experience and “specialised skillsets” of target employees could hamper their ability to pay creditors.

Aave community approves proposal to phase out BUSD

DeFi lending protocol Aave is pressing forward with plans to delist the BUSD stablecoin, after the protocol’s community approved a proposal to de-incentivise use of the coin on Thursday.

Aave’s decentralised autonomous organisation passed a vote to increase the cost to borrow BUSD, while slashing revenues for lenders, a strategy conceived by the community and composed by member Mark Zeller.

BUSD’s former issuer, Paxos, was ordered to cease minting the stablecoin in February by New York state regulators.

BUSD’s current supply is down to 8.42 billion tokens compared to a November 22 high of 23.47 billion, and the descent shows no signs of slowing.

Ethereum Shanghai-Capella update’s final test booked for March 14

Ethereum stakers will soon be able to withdraw their locked ETH for the first time, with the Shanghai-Capella upgrade’s final test now booked for March 14.

The Ethereum Foundation posted the schedule for the Goerli testnet deployment on Wednesday, which is the third and final round of testing for the most significant upgrade to the network since Ethereum moved to proof-of-stake in September 2022.

If successful, Shanghai-Capella will allow Ethereum stakers – some of whom have had ETH staked in the network since 2020 – to withdraw their tokens freely.

Ethereum’s roadmap deliberately restricted withdrawals until now as a way to strengthen the network as it moved away from the energy-intensive proof-of-work consensus model used by cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

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Bankrupt FTX estate to sell Sequoia stake to Abu Dhabi firm for $45 million – Bloomberg

Senior US House Republican says CBDCs could be ‘Weaponised’ as political tool’ – CoinDesk

Grayscale CEO breaks down his firm’s legal strategy against the SEC – The Block