TLDR Crypto 2024-02-12

New York Attorney General Letitia James increased the restitution demand from Gemini Trust and Digital Currency Group to $3 billion over alleged fraud with its Gemini Earn product. Initially, the lawsuit sought only $1.1 billion for allegedly swindling investors. This increase comes from additional investors coming forth claiming they had been defrauded. The complaint accuses Gemini of falsely promoting Earn as a highly liquid investment and misleading investors about Genesis Capital's creditworthiness.

Ex-FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is set to be sentenced next month for fraud charges related to the sudden collapse of his crypto exchange. His former customers are looking forward to full reimbursements of their lost funds. The firm's bankruptcy lawyers expect to fully repay its customers following a resurgence in the crypto market and appreciation of FTX's venture investments. Even with ongoing complexities in disbursing the recovered funds, this positive development is a far better outcome than most had expected.

A new token called CellMates is rolling out a hybrid ERC-20 and ERC-721 token that, similarly to ERC404, provides an aspect of fungibility to NFTs, making them tradeable on both NFT marketplaces and DEXs. Unlike ERC404s and other tokens, this approach allows the same NFT to be traded and retain its attributes and rarity. This differs from the reroll technique that ERC404s utilize upon NFT transfer.

Stride, a protocol focused on liquid staking, has successfully launched stTIA, which has quickly become one of Celestia's largest time lock tokens. Stride's unique focus produces high security and uptime, making it the perfect hub for TIA and stTIA. Hyperlane, an adaptable interoperability solution, is used to interact with the modular ecosystem. Stride and Hyperlane's collaboration on this design promises to provide stTIA access to non-IBC chains within the next two months.

This article investigates transaction fee market mechanisms (TFMs) and issues on both Ethereum and Solana. It discusses how Ethereum's EIP-1559 fee mechanism could not exactly be ported to Solana due to the different engineering and performance goals of the two blockchains. This led to the development of the Program Rebatable Account Write fees and a proposal for the implementation of per-account local fee markets. Continued research and experimentation are needed to improve the efficiency and user-friendliness of TFMs.

This article provides an in-depth analysis of Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) and the latest developments in the vertical. It delves into DePIN's conceptual breakdown and its complexities and opportunities and presents case studies on Helium's 5G network and io.net AI/ML. Despite challenges remaining in the space, there is optimism around DePIN's future and its potential to surpass traditional physical infrastructures due to key success factors such as value anchors, token incentives, and strong community engagement.

Vitalik Buterin argues that as AI advances, cryptography alone is insufficient in protecting you from losing self-custodied crypto funds. One proposal he lays out, particularly effective for personal interactions, is the use of intricate security questions around shared experiences or information known just to the individuals involved. Pairing such strategies with code words, multiple verification channels, and transaction delays can create a robust, human-friendly security approach suited to this expanding threat.

The FTX estate is reportedly planning to sell its subsidiary Digital Custody Inc. to CoinList for $500,000 despite acquiring it for $10 million in 2022. The sale is financed by Terence Culver, the former CEO of Digital Custody. According to FTX's lawyers, the reason for the sale is the company's inability to revive FTX.US, which rendered Digital Custody useless to its business. The deal allows FTX time to find a better offer.

Digital ownership varies widely in meaning, encompassing rights to access, use, and control over online purchases, media, and data. This post walks through different definitions of digital ownership and how we should be thinking about it.

Criticizing those upset by Sotheby's Ether Rocks descriptions, this thread argues the criticism reveals a lack of conviction in a decentralized future and an unnecessary concern for traditional validation.

Solana experienced a 5-hour outage last week. This post from the Solana team provides a detailed post-mortem on the event.

This article dives into the latest trend of digital-asset startups replacing token airdrops with opaque loyalty points programs, attracting users and investment despite unclear benefits and potential regulatory risks.