Restructuring plans reveal Babel Finance's $225 million losses during crypto market dip
Helium caught lying that Lime and Salesforce use their network
Helium is a common name that comes up when people are pressed to provide examples of web3 use cases. The New York Times ran a feature on the company in February 2022, titled "Maybe There's a Use for Crypto After All", where Kevin Roose lavished praise on the company and wrote that they had "largely avoided the hype and inflated claims that surround many crypto projects" (oops) and repeated the false claim about a Lime partnership (double oops). Lime said that the Times never contacted them to fact-check the claim; meanwhile, Helium founder Amir Haleem prominently points people to the article with a pinned tweet.
However, a recent Twitter thread by Liron Shapira drew attention to the fact that the company's total monthly revenue from network usage is only $6,500 — raising questions about the feasibility of hotspot operators actually earning much in the way of rewards (as the rewards are distributed based on network usage).
Following the publication of Binder's article, Helium quietly removed Lime's logo from their website, along with that of Salesforce, a CRM software company. Salesforce also confirmed to The Verge that they had no partnership with Helium, and that the graphic on the Helium website where Salesforce's logo was displayed as a user of Helium was "not accurate".
Regulators order Voyager to stop saying they're FDIC insured
The Federal Reserve and the FDIC sent a cease-and-desist to Voyager, asking them to remove the misleading statements about deposit insurance. It would have been nice if this had come a bit earlier — perhaps before people had deposited money into accounts with the company and could no longer get it out.
Nirvana Finance drained of $3.5 million
The attack caused the project's ANA token to plunge in value by 80%, and the project's NIRV stablecoin to lose its dollar peg, falling to $0.08. Nirvana Finance tweeted, "Please be advised: ANA has lost its collateral, and NIRV has lost its peg. Until the thief restores funds, these tokens will not have exchange value. Be very careful with trading NIRV & ANA, as they currently have no guaranteed value."
They also tweeted at the hacker, promising to stop investigating the hacker's identity and to pay a $300,000 "bounty" in exchange for the funds back. They wrote, "You have not taken money from VCs or large funds — the treasury you have taken represents the collective hopes of everyday people."
The project had promised its users over 60% APY, and its Twitter account described ANA as "the balanced risk investment with adaptive yield".
No more Dune or DAO for the Dune DAO
The DAO has stumbled along somewhat since its January victory, encountering issues with making the bible viewable to DAO members without breaking copyright laws, a diminishing treasury due to declining crypto prices, and controversy after Soby was linked to the Remilia Collective.
After all that, the project leader suddenly and apparently unilaterally announced a plan where members could redeem their SPICE for ETH, and stated that they would be removing project leaders, converting the DAO to a private company, and selling the Dune bible (likely at a major loss). It was nice knowing you, SpiceDAO.
KuCoin announces "Anti-FUD Fund" to track down and sue critics
In his Twitter thread, Lyu outlines how the fund will "implement Anti-FUD education", "motivate and acclaim industry leaders and influencers who are always responsible, delivering trusted information", and "effectively trace FUDers who intentionally spread FUD and take legal actions against them if needed".
Something tells me his list of "industry leaders and influencers" to "acclaim" won't include those who are rightfully skeptical of crypto.
OFAC has been investigating Kraken over suspected sanctions violations
- "Kraken, a U.S. Crypto Exchange, Is Suspected of Violating Sanctions", The New York Times
CEO of Titanium Blockchain Infrastructure Services pleads guilty to securities fraud
Crypto platform Immutable lays off 17% of its gaming division staff
The fired employees quickly began preparing a legal fight against immutable, questioning whether their firing was legitimate when many of the people who were sacked were about to reach the vesting date for more than $1 million in stock options.
- "Australian crypto platform Immutable sacks 6% of staff despite plans to 'hire aggressively'", news.com.au
- "Sacked crypto unicorn staff plan legal challenge to redundancies", The Australian Financial Review
Brazilian authorities challenge NFT company Nemus after it claims ownership to land in the Amazon, allegedly pressures Indigenous people to sign documents they could not read
On July 20, they issued a press release claiming that "the World's First Non-Fungible Territory has been officially renamed by indigenous people in Brazil in coalition with Nemus". The company claims to own 41,000 hectares (~100,000 acres) of land in the Amazon.
On July 25, Brazil's Federal Prosecution Office (MPF) issued a statement that they had demanded Nemus provide proof of ownership of the areas they claim, clarification on the projects they've been promising online they would undertake, and proof that they've received authorization by the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) or any other public body that would allow them to operate in the area and engage with various Indigenous groups.
According to the MPF, members of Indigenous groups in the area reported the company had violated their rights. They also explained that Nemus had expressed to them their plans to use heavy machinery to open an airstrip and build a road in order to access Brazil nut groves in the area. Apurinã leaders alleged that company representatives had pressured Indigenous people who do not read well to sign documents, and did not provide them with copies.
- "MPF aciona empresa que vende ativos digitais (NFTs) de áreas da Amazônia", Ministério Público Federal (in Portuguese)
- Press release by Nemus