Reconciling decentralization is the aim of MakerDAO’s endgame. At least according to the protocol’s founder, Rune Christensen. The latest phase of the Endgame was unveiled on May 15, when Christensen unveiled two new stablecoins: NewStable and PureDAI. Both tokens are meant to eventually replace DAI, which currently commands a $5.4 billion market cap, placing it in third overall for the sector. “From the moment Dai started scaling, it has been straddling two worlds,” wrote Christensen in a post titled Reconciling the two opposing paths for Decentralized Stablecoins. “One world is the culture of pure decentralization as introduced with Bitcoin. The other is the desire to fulfill the original purpose of DAI by delivering utility and value to real people at scale.” Christensen elaborated on the idea of the stablecoin trilemma, which claims that maintaining a stable peg while also being fully decentralized and scaling to large sizes, is not feasible.
Circle Internet Financial — the company behind the world’s second-largest stablecoin, USD Coin — announced its plans to move its legal base from the Republic of Ireland to the United States. The shift comes amid tightening cryptocurrency regulations in the United States. According to Bloomberg, a spokesperson for Circle confirmed on May 14 that the company had filed court paperwork for the move, but the specific reasons were not disclosed. The decision aligns with Circle’s recent step toward going public — it submitted plans for an initial public offering (IPO) confidentially through a brief press release in January.
Alexey Pertsev, a developer of Ethereum mixer Tornado Cash, has been found guilty of money laundering by a Dutch court and given a 64-month prison sentence. A Dutch judge at s-Hertogenbosch court stated that Tornado Cash is “intended for criminals” and that “the criminal user is fully facilitated.” In turn, the developer has been convicted of laundering $1.2 billion in illicit assets. Between July 9, 2019, and Aug 10, 2022 the court said that Pertsev made “a habit of committing money laundering” with Tornado Cash and that he should have been more suspicious about the possible criminal origins of transactions on the platform.
Genesis recently secured court approval to distribute $3 billion in cash and crypto to its creditors, according to a recent filing, representing approximately 77% of the value of customer claims – however Digital Currency Group (DCG) will not be included in the list of entities paid out. Genesis Global Holdco LLC, the holding company of Genesis, and its subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York in January 2023 due to significant losses from the collapses of Three Arrows Capital and FTX, with over $3.5 billion owed to its top 50 creditors.
The fate of spot Ether exchange-traded funds could be decided this week by a single vote from Gary Gensler, the chair of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission — if history is any indication. In January, the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs came down to a five-commissioner panel. Two crypto-friendly commissioners, Hester Pierce and Mark Uyeda, voted to approve ETFs, while Commissioners Caroline Crenshaw and Jaime Lizárraga voted against them. Gensler also voted to approve it, leading many to believe his vote ultimately secured approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs, which were approved with a 3-2 vote on Jan. 10, 2024.
And that’s all for last week’s news! Wishing you a great week ahead!
With history in the making as El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender on September 7th, 2021, we examine the implications for the country’s financial system, its people, and the global remittance industry.
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