Voyager’s $1B deal with Binance.US moves forward after deal with Feds

April 20, 2023 Coin Telegraph

US Federal Trade Commission Investigates Marketing Schemes of Crypto Firm Voyager

February 22, 2023 Bitcoin.com

LinksDAO likely to put in ‘compelling offer’ to buy Scottish golf course

February 22, 2023 Coin Telegraph

If the final tally remains in favor of the purchase, the LinksDAO acquisition committee will officially put out a “compelling offer” to purchase the golf course.

The decentralized autonomous organization (DAO)-operated golf startup, LinksDAO, may soon put in an offer to purchase the newly marketed Spey Bay Golf Club in Scotland worth about $900,000.

LinksDAO — self-described as a “global group of golf enthusiasts” that is on a mission to build the “world’s greatest golf community” — officially opened the proposal vote on Feb. 20, which came after a few weeks of informal deliberation.

It would be the DAO’s first ever golf course purchase.

few things in life are more fun than doing what you said you were going to do, regardless of adversity

i will love the @linksdao core team, contributors and members forever for delivering 110%

bear markets mean nothing when passion meets greatnesshttps://t.co/1iqvi1sHIx pic.twitter.com/qQGLYxlB9F
— Mike Dudas (@mdudas) February 21, 2023

While voting officially closes on Feb. 22 at 12pm Eastern Time, over 88% of the 4,100 LinksDAO token holders have already voted in favor of the proposal.

If the final tally remains in favor of the purchase, the LinksDAO acquisition committee will meet with the relevant parties required to construct a “compelling offer” for the purchase of the club “with the full intent of successfully purchasing the golf course,” the proposal stated.

*The current voting tally of LinksDAO token holders on the proposal to put in an offer for the Scottish golf course.* *Source: LinksDAO*

The authors of the proposal — “Bez”, “Jim”, “cbruce”, and “nickwalkermsu” — explained that while much of the DAO’s research efforts have gone into finding a suitable golf course purchase in the United States, “this listing was too special to ignore.”

“In our search for our first golf course to purchase, we have identified a promising property in Scotland called Spey Bay Golf Club. This vote is to determine if we should move forward with submitting an offer and working to purchase the course.”

The authors added that the course is “playable today,” and that its high ceiling to low price ratio makes it a worthy investment.

“Even a price of triple the ‘guide price’ would be cheaper than most mediocre courses we have assessed thus far in the US,” the authors explained.

As such, LinksDAO compressed the voting window to 48 hours in order to act swiftly on the potential purchase and hopefully get good price for the club:

“The timing of the sale requires us to act now should we decide to participate in the process. [...] We intend to execute this purchase while maintaining velocity on our efforts to acquire course(s) in the US.”

LinksDAO is expecting to pitch an offer in the vicinity of $900,000, which is said to be roughly its current market value, according to Golf Business News.

The 18-hole golf course is located in Fochabers, about 3.5 hours away from Scotland's capital city of Edinburgh.

The DAO explained the potential purchase would be financed with capital from its fundraise and that it would transfer funds from its treasury to a corporate bank account to support ongoing operations.

The authors of the proposal noted that this would occur within 30 days of the purchase.

#ForSale, Spey Bay #Golf Course, #Morayshire (including club house and caravan park). A fantastic opportunity to purchase an 18-hole links course (designed by the legendary Ben Sayers) located on the beautiful #Moray #coast. https://t.co/TavZpZ0hrZ
#Scotland pic.twitter.com/lXz6Xgml5v
— Strutt & Parker Scotland (@struttsscotland) January 26, 2023

LinksDAO officially established itself as a DAO in January 2022, which came on the back of a $10.5 million fundraising effort where more than 9,000 of its “leisure” and “global” membership NFTs were sold on OpenSea in a short 24 hour period.

There are now 5,302 owners of LinksDAO memberships, which are issued on the Ethereum network, according to nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea.

The average floor price of the memberships is 0.29 Ether (ETH), or about $480 at current prices.

While it is not known how much is in the LinksDAO treasury, the LinksDAO market cap is currently $4.34 million, according to CoinGecko.

Welcome to LinksDAO, @StephenCurry30 - See you on the 1st tee! ⛳️
— Links (@LinksDAO) January 10, 2022

NBA superstar Stephen Curry is a notable figure to have invested in a LinksDAO membership. However it is not known whether he is still a token holder.

Digital Gold Traded for Digital Rubles by Russia’s Rosbank

February 9, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Genesis entity going up for sale as DCG makes creditor pact

February 6, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Bankruptcy

Digital Currency Group (DCG) plans to hand Genesis its stake in the Genesis Global Trading business entity which will then be sold, pending court approval.

Genesis Global has announced it has reached an "agreement in principle" with Digital Currency Group (DCG) which will eventually see its crypto lending and trading arm sold as part of restructuring efforts.

According to a Feb. 6 press release, DCG would contribute its equity in Genesis Global Trading, a trading subsidiary business, to Genesis Global Holdco, the holding entity for Genesis — bringing all Genesis-related entities under the same holding company.

After the transactions are final — pending necessary court approval — Genesis will seek to put its then-owned Genesis Global Trading entity up for sale.

Crypto exchange Gemini also agreed to contribute $100 million for its Gemini Earn users who have funds frozen with the bankrupt firm.

Genesis is currently restructuring as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings stemming from a liquidity crisis in November 2022, brought on by the bankruptcy of crypto exchange FTX.

Genesis Global Trading was not included in the company's Chapter 11 filing at the time saying the business would "continue client trading operations."

At an initial bankruptcy hearing in January Genesis lawyers expressed the firm was looking for a quick resolution to it's creditor disputes and were optimistic the company would come out of Chapter 11 proceedings by late May.

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.

SEC Charges Gig Economy Platform for $2.6 Million Unregistered Coin Offering

December 26, 2022 Bitcoin.com

ApeCoin geo-blocks US stakers, two Apes sell for $1M each, marketplace launched

November 25, 2022 Coin Telegraph

ApeCoin geo-blocks US stakers, two Apes sell for M each, marketplace launched

Ape

The U.S. made the list of regions blocked from using an upcoming website for ApeCoin staking with the related DAO claiming regulations are to blame.

United States-based ApeCoin (APE) holders could miss out on staking rewards after the U.S. was added to a list of regions geo-blocked from using an upcoming APE staking service.

Blockchain infrastructure company Horizen Labs, which is building the site on behalf of the ApeCoin decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), revealed the news in a Nov. 24 update regarding ApeStake.io on Twitter, saying “unfortunately, in today’s regulatory environment, we had no good alternative.”

Ape Staking Update: Big thanks to the talented community devs for their helpful improvements. Bug Bounty AIP delayed us a bit, so we shortened the pre-deposit period by a week to keep our original 12/12 go-live. Alternate front-end sites going live. See card. pic.twitter.com/mgmP7X3SwQ
— Horizen Labs (@HorizenLabs) November 24, 2022

Canada, North Korea, Syria, Iran, Cuba, Russia, and the Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine, Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk are also on the block list.

There are likely ways to get around the geo-block. The update noted the website is only an interface to interact with the Ethereum-based open-source smart contract, and “several other” interfaces are being crafted by parties such as exchanges and DeFi platforms.

Prominent Twitter user “Zeneca” told their 312,00 followers that those from regions geo-blocked by ApeStake.io will still be able to stake by interacting with the smart contract directly or using another interface without geo-blocks. Those in blocked regions could also use a virtual private network (VPN) to spoof their location.

The decision to block U.S. users likely resulted from the probe in October by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into APE creator Yuga Labs. The regulator is investigating if the company’s nonfungible tokens (NFTs) act more like securities and are subsequently violating federal laws.

Two Bored Ape NFTs sell for nearly $1M each

Meanwhile some Bored Apes are still fetching high prices even during the depths of Crypto Winter. An NFT from Yuga Labs’ flagship Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection sold for 800 Ether (ETH), or almost $950,000 at the time of sale on Nov. 23.

BAYC #232 was sold to pseudonymous NFT collector “Keungz” — who seemingly has multiple Yuga Labs NFTs according to their OpenSea profile — by Deepak Thapliydal.

Thanks @dt_chain for the good deal⚓️#NewNFTProfilePic NFT by @BoredApeYC pic.twitter.com/CgIy73fBx5
— Keungz ❤️ Memeland ‍☠️ YGPZ ‍♀️ (@keung) November 23, 2022

Thapliydal is the CEO of Web3 infrastructure company Chain and gained notoriety for making the Guinness World Records for buying the “most expensive NFT collectible” after purchasing CryptoPunk #5822 for 8,000 ETH, or $23.7 million, on Feb. 12.

The sale of BAYC #232 was closely followed by another on Nov. 24 for BAYC #1268 between two unidentified wallets for 780 ETH, or almost $940,000 at the time of sale.

The sales are significant as the NFTs sold far above the current floor price for the collection which has seen a decline over the past months.

According to data from NFT Price Floor, the minimum price for a Bored Ape at the time of writing is just under 63 ETH, or about $75,600, and is 80% down in U.S. dollar terms from its May 1 all-time high of 144.9 ETH, or over $391,000 at the time.

ApeCoin DAO launches marketplace

The community-led DAO made up of ApeCoin holders has launched its own marketplace to buy and sell NFTs from the Yuga Labs ecosystem.

The aptly named ApeCoin Marketplace built by NFT infrastructure firm Snag Solutions was launched on Nov. 24 and supports transactions of the BAYC, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Bored Ape Kennel Club, and Otherdeed NFT collections.

In a Nov. 24 Twitter thread Snag Solutions CEO, Zach Heerwagen, said the marketplace “includes unique features” specifically for NFT communities including the ability to stake APE.

1/ The custom marketplace includes unique features built specifically for the BAYC and Otherside communities, including ApeCoin staking and NFT metadata integrations. pic.twitter.com/mem2ZsXNkt
— Zach | Zheerwagen.eth (@ZHeerwagen) November 23, 2022

The marketplace “respects royalties while heavily reducing fees” according to Heerwagen. A 0.25% slice of each sale is held in a multi-signature wallet and used to fund DAO initiatives.

The marketplace’s support for royalties comes as some other NFT marketplaces such as the Solana (SOL)-based Magic Eden and Ethereum-based LooksRare stopped enforcing creator royalties by default.

Others such as OpenSea have continued to enforce royalties and even created a tool to help NFT creators with on-chain enforcement of royalties, allowing them to blacklist the sale of their NFTs on royalty-free marketplaces.

sale