Translated by elcreto

Xangle’s Take on the Market This Week

• The market plunged as Fed's hawkish remarks douse risk appetite and the SEC cracks down on centralized exchange Kraken.
• DeFi was down 0.2%, holding up better than other sectors. The Graph’s 61% spike in value that came along after its strong 4Q earnings report propped up the performance of the sector.

Top Stories & Takeaways

SEC Files Lawsuit Against Kraken for Offering Staking-As-A-Service, Which It Deems a Security

• The U.S. SEC sued CEX Kraken for sale of unregistered securities on the 9th.
• Kraken has offered staking services for cryptocurrencies, including Polkadot ($DOT), Ethereum ($ETH), Cosmos ($ATOM), and Cardano ($ADA).
• The SEC classified Kraken’s staking service as a security on grounds that i) Kraken’s staking program is a passive, rather than an active, investment opportunity, where the defendant performs all necessary efforts on behalf of investors to obtain the promised return and that ii) pooling of client assets improves the chances of higher returns that are not available to investors who stake solo.

Xangle’s Take: Staking is a consensus mechanism that acts as the mainstay of almost all blockchain projects with Bitcoin being the only exception. Though the SEC did not go as far as to purport that the act of staking itself may be considered a security, the security designation, we believe, signals its intention to bring it under the regulatory framework governing securities. Looking ahead, whether or not the SEC goes on to classify other CEXs’ staking programs like Coinbase’s cbETH and Binance’s bETH as securities needs to be watched closely. Once DAOs are institutionalized over the coming years, security designation of liquid staking derivatives (LSD) may also be determined.

Link: SEC Complaint Against Kraken | Twitter Thread (Highlights)

Mainnet

Optimism Bedrock Upgrade 

Optimism, a layer-2 scaling solution built atop Ethereum, announced its first-ever major upgrade, Bedrock.

Link: Bedrock Explainer (Official)

DeFi

Uniswap DAO Debates Launch on BNB Chain

Despite some resistance to the much-debated cross-chain bridge solutions, Uniswap’s community governance has passed a proposal to deploy Uniswap V3 on the BNB chain.

Link: Related Twitter Threads | Vote Tally

Lido Unveils V2

Liquid staking service Lido released V2, offering two major upgrades: staking router and ETH withdrawals.

Link: Lido V2 - Twitter Announcement

NFT

Starbucks Odyssey Stamp FP Hits Record High of $1,400

The floor price of "Holiday Cheer Edition 1 Stamp" (NFT) on the Starbucks Odyssey marketplace—currently in beta—reached as high as $1,400 at one point in trading.

Link: Odyssey Participant’s Review | Starbucks Odyssey Market

Hype Swells Around Bitcoin NFTs

The craze for Bitcoin ordinals, such as Ordinal Punks and On the Edge of Oblivion, is sending their prices to the moon.

Link: Related Tweet

Game/Metaverse

The Sandbox Signs MOU with Saudi Arabia

The Sandbox and Saudi Arabia’s Digital Government Authority (DGA) signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on metaverse projects.

Link: The Block’s Report

Marblex Unveils Game Lineup

The launch of Everyone's Marble: Metaworld will be pushed back from 1Q to 2Q, according to the Marblex team.

Link: Marblex.io

WEMIX’s New Game Lineup

Three new Anipang IP-based games—Anipang Blast, Anipang Touch, and Anipang Coins—will be added to WEMIX PLAY by end Q1 2023.

Link: WEMIX PLAY

Research

Operation Choke Point 2.0 Is Underway, and Crypto Is in Its Crosshairs: Nic Carter

The author writes that the Biden administration has chosen an agenda reminiscent of Obama-era financial regulations to keep crypto in check.

Link: Nic Carter’s Article

Previous Xangle Weekly Reports

• [Weekly Xangle] Ethereum Shanghai Upgrade, WeMade MIR M, and Rally Shutdown
• [NFT Weekly] MetaKongz Price Surge, Hype for Checks & On-chain Analysis!
• Ethereum Revenue Growth Trend, Uniswap BNB Chain