Thailand to Ban Crypto Payments

The biggest crypto news and ideas of the day

Mar. 23, 2022

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Welcome to The Node.

In today's newsletter: El Salvador delays bitcoin bond launch. Thailand plans to ban crypto payments starting April. And Yuga Labs raises $450 million in funding.

–Daniel Kuhn

Today's must-reads

Top Shelf

STATE LEVEL: El Salvador has delayed the issuance of its $1 million bitcoin bond offering due to unfavorable markets.

The launch, initially scheduled to begin March 15, is being pushed back, according to Finance Minister Alejandro Zelaya, in part due to the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on the price of bitcoin (BTC). The bonds will instead be issued by state-owned thermal energy company La Geo, instead of the government, likely between March and April, Zelaya said.
Around the world, Thailand announced it will ban crypto as a means of payment, though not on "trading," according to the nation's Securities and Exchange Commission. The agency cited money laundering concerns and the central bank's inability to step in and provide assistance as reasons for the ban.

ALL-STAR FUNDS: Two well-known investors, Katie Haun and Tekin Salimi, have raised fresh capital for their new investment funds, as a DAO buys solana (SOL) and Nexo spins out a new venture arm.

Former partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Katie Haun, brought in $1.5 billion for two new Web 3-focused funds for Haun Ventures. Haun told Axios the firm will seek to become a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA), which, if approved, is a move towards removing caps on the amount of money that can be used for token purchases.
Tekin Salimi, a former general partner of crypto venture giant Polychain Capital, is launching a $125 million venture crypto fund called "dao5." Salimi told Coindesk that on one hand "it is a traditional venture fund," but on the other "it's uncharted waters in starting a new form of founder money." The fund would eventually be converted into a founder-owned DAO.
MangoDAO, a Solana-based crypto trading hub, has rejected a plan to buy bitcoin for its treasury and will instead load up on $1 million worth of SOL. The governing body behind Solana's Mango Markets rejected calls to invest any of its $700 million treasury chest in bitcoin as it plans to diversify beyond USDC stablecoins.
Finally, crypto lender Nexo is churning out a new $150 million venture arm aimed at spearheading Web 3 projects and acquisitions.

MASSIVE ROUNDS: Popular NFT project leader Yuga Labs has raised $450 million, while crypto startup Worldcoin is raising $100 million.

Andreeseen Horowitz (a16z) led the round, valuing the company behind the popular NFT project Bored Ape Yacht Club at $4 billion. Funding will be used to build "Otherside," an NFT-based, ApeCoin-powered gaming metaverse.
Meanwhile, Berlin-based Worldcoin is selling Worldcoin tokens to raise capital, and thinks it could be valued at $3 billion.

UNSTABLE STABLECOIN: Solana-based stablecoin protocol Cashio has suffered an "infinite mint glitch" attack, according to developers. The value of Cashio's CASH token, a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, approached zero.

According to a tweet made early Wednesday morning, Cashio said users should not mint any CASH amid the ongoing investigation. While Cashio said it believes it has found the root of the cause, it is urging users to withdraw their funds from pools as soon as possible.

BITCOIN BRIDGE: Avalanche, the smart-contract focused blockchain popular as an Ethereum-alternative, has unveiled its new "core" wallet and a bridge to Bitcoin. The two initiatives are aimed at simplifying the user experience and bringing more assets into the Avalanche ecosystem.

The new wallet will incorporate native Avalanche bridging functionality, which will enable users of the wallet to directly interact with dapps on the Avalanche blockchain. Additionally, bridge applications will help users move assets from one blockchain onto another.

–Fran Velasquez

Overheard on CoinDesk TV...

Sound Bites

"Crypto and DeFi finally have some functionality to be able to support such a broad array of economic activity.""

–Tribe Capital Partner Apolo Ohno, on CoinDesk TV's "First Mover."

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What others are writing...

Off-Chain Signals

US investment bank Cowen launches dedicated crypto division (Cointelegraph)
Acala announces $250 million fund to fuel adoption of a USD stablecoin on Polkadot (The Block)
Microsoft wants more game-makers developing in the cloud (Protocol)
Phishing Exploit Pinches 60 NFTs From Top Collector (The Defiant)
Dubai firm Cypher Capital says launches $100 mln digital asset fund (Reuters)
Everything you need to know about CC0 (Andrew Steinwold/Substack)

Introducing CoinDesk's Mining Week. Our reporters visited crypto mining farms around the world, interviewed key players and crunched network data to shed light on a little-understood industry. Follow along with our continuing coverage .

Bitcoin Mining and ESG: A Match Made in Heaven
As clean energy gradually gets cheaper, mining operations will help subsidize green projects, writes the CEO of mining firm CleanSpark. This op-ed is part of CoinDesk's Mining Week.

Why Do Old-Line Businesses Enter Crypto Mining? Simple: Fat Profits

Even though mining margins have shrunk since crypto prices corrected, for now they're big enough to keep luring entrants from sectors like prepackaged food and anti-aging formulas.

Putting the news into perspective

The Takeaway

Ray Dalio, Sigma Males and the New Grindset

Early this week my colleague Danny Nelson reported that billionaire investor and author Ray Dalio's Bridgewater hedge fund, one of the largest and most influential capital managers in the world, may be gaining exposure to crypto. This is a significant advance on one of the "narratives" that many industry commentators think will lead to the "mass adoption" of crypto assets: Institutions will lead the way.

Essentially, ever since crypto was first created (god bless you, Mr. or Ms. Nakamoto), people have said that "the institutions are coming," and that the influx of capital from banks, money managers and the like will send token prices skyward. Indeed, this hypothesis was in part proven true over the course of the coronavirus pandemic: Publicly traded corporations began putting bitcoin (BTC) on their balance sheets, banks started offering crypto exposure to clients and so on – and crypto prices moved up and to the right on the charts.

CoinDesk podcaster Nathaniel Whittemore recently offered a different, compelling take: Institutional adoption is already here, and Bridgewater's unconfirmed exposure simply represents this new "post-narrative institutionalization."

"What I mean by that is that this institutional entry into the market – TradFi coming in – is no longer the narrative driving crypto markets. It's simply a fact of reality," Whittemore said.

I largely agree with Whittemore that we're in a new growth cycle of crypto adoption. It's just a matter of fact that big banks, nation-states and the billionaire class are getting clearer on the basics and potential benefits of crypto, and in some cases embracing it. But I'd offer a caveat to this thesis. "Mass adoption" is hardly assured, and crypto will likely remain a fringe asset class. In fact, that might be better for all involved.

Read the full article here.

–Daniel Kuhn