French luxury firm Hermès International has asked Federal courts to prohibit Web3 artists Mason Rothschild from promoting non-fungible tokens featuring his “MetaBirkin” designs.
The news comes after Reuters reported on Monday jurors had decided that the artist had breached trademark rights on Hermès branded Birkin bags.
Hermès court filings revealed on Friday that the Web3 artist had continued to back his MetaBirkin NFTs, despite jurors finding him guilty of trademark infringement, dilution, and “cybersquatting,” Reuters said.
Due to the violations, courts forced Rothschild to pay Hermès $133,000 in damages and penalties. The French fashion boutique also ordered him to cease the “Birkin” trademark, MetaBirkin production, ownership, and earning funds.
Despite this, Hermès found that Rothschild still earned 7.5 percent in royalties for his MetaBirkin NFT sales whilst promoting the digital assets on his website and social media.
The company urged courts to launch a permanent injunction to block his actions, stating he “cannot be trusted [and made] repeated false statements.”
The filing added: “In light of the Jury Verdict on Hermès’s dilution and trademark infringement claims, the court may presume irreparable harm.”
It added that such presumptions were “warranted” as jurors found that Rothschild’s Birkin trademark violation was “likely to confuse potential consumers.” It also “intentionally designed to mislead consumers into believing” Hermès had associated with Rothschild’s MetaBirkins project, the filing said.
Binance, the world’s largest crypto trading platform, reached out to current United States Securities and Exchange Commission (US SEC) chairman Gary Gensler, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) alleged in a report, citing documents, messages, and interviews.
The report also added statements from former employees of the firm. In it, the WSJ alleges that Binance approached Gensler from 2018 to 2019.
At the time, he served as the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
The report referenced messages that former Head of Binance Ventures Ella Zhang and Koi Trading co-founder Harry Zhou had contacted Gensler in 2018.
According to the message as quoted by the WSJ, Zhou wrote, “I observe that while Gensler declined advisor-ship, he was generous in sharing license strategies.”
A further Binance worker allegedly wrote: “[Gensler would] likely back in a regulators seat if Dems win the 2020 election.”
The WSJ also alleges Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and Gensler met in Tokyo in 2019, just two years before the latter became chairman of the SEC. Numerous private firms also reportedly approached Gensler, who turned down the offers.
It added Binance and Binance.us, the firm’s US division, aimed to avoid regulations with the latter entity setting up to protect Binance from US regulators.
The news comes as Binance faces regulatory scrutiny from the SEC, FTC, and other US agencies for its Paxos-minted Binance USD (BUSD) token. Regulators allege Binance sold the token as an unregistered security, triggering over $831 million USD in outflows from the exchange.
Former FTX chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried has proposed new bail conditions, the United States Department of Justice (US DoJ) said in a 3 March court filing.
US district court judge for the Southern District of New York, Lewis Kaplan, said in his proposal to block Bankman-Fried from access to tablets, smartphones, computers, video game platforms, and chat or voice communication devices.
The disgraced executive will only have access to “a flip phone or other non-smartphone with either no internet capabilities or internet capabilities disabled.“
Further documents have called for the new conditions to remain after Bankman-Fried’s defence team negotiated the new terms via a proposal on 3 March.
The teams also proposed temporary restrictions such as ending contact or communications with ongoing or previous FTX and Alameda Research employees. Exceptions to the restrictions include communications in the presence of counsel.
Furthermore, Bankman-Fried cannot use encrypted or disappearing messages, virtual private networks, and other services.
Sanctioned websites for browsing have been limited to Wikipedia, YouTube, Etherscan, DoorDash, Netflix, NFL, and government websites, among others. Authorities will also monitor his communications with security software.
The proposal adds: “The defendant will not object to the installation of court-authorized pen registers on his phone number, Gmail account, and internet service. Those pen register orders will be sought by the Government and maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.“
The news comes after the ex-CEO received a $250 million USD bail after Bahamian authorities detained him and extradited him to New York courts. To date, he faces 12 charges such as wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and others related to political donations.
Silvergate Capital Corp has stated it would cease crypto payments on its exchange network, Reuters revealed on Friday. The news comes just two days after reports surfaced over its financial standing.
It said in a statement: “Effective immediately Silvergate Bank has made a risk-based decision to discontinue the Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN). All other deposit-related services remain operational.”
The developments triggered a two percent decline in the company’s shares, which closed at 0.9 percent, or 5.77 percent and a 97 percent decline from November 2021.
The news as Silvergate allowed investors and cryptocurrency platforms to perform rapid transfers compared to bank transfers.
It said in a filing it would reassess its operations amid the concerns. The company explained that it had sold further debut securities and would become “less than well capitalized.”
Cryptocurrency firms such as Galaxy Digital, Coinbase Global, Gemini, and Bitstamp, among others, have also cut their banking partnerships with the embattled bank.
Many of Silvergate’s troubles began after reported ties to now-defunct cryptocurrency platform FTX. Silvergate allegedly facilitated illegal banking transactions for FTX and Alameda Research transactions just days before the latter cryptocurrency exchange filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
US Bankruptcy Judge Michael Wiles has voiced criticism over the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s crackdown on Binance.US’s attempted buyout of Voyager Digital.
At a court hearing on Thursday, the US regulator ruled it would not sanction Binance.US’s $1.02 billion USD Voyager Digital deal as the latter’s native token may constitute as an unregistered security.
He told the SEC in a statement: “You come here and tell me […] that I should stop everybody in their tracks because you might have an issue. It’s kind of a weird objection.”
Wiles said in a statement at the time that he was “absolutely shocked” at the objection, citing inadequate guidance from the SEC.
He added: “I get the feeling that this objection has been made as a kind of cover, so you can say later that we’ll see we raised these issues. You haven’t really, you have done nothing … I need to know specifics.”
Conversely, SEC prosecutor William Uptegrove said creditors did not receive sufficient regulatory risk warnings. Despite stating this, he failed to specify his position on Voyager Digital’s token (VGX) security status.
Voyager counsellors told courts that the Binance.us-Voyager defal could recover 73 percent of total funds to creditors.
According to court filings, roughly 97 percent of customers have backed the deal. Despite this, the SEC and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launched a probe against Voyager, citing market malfeasance.
The news comes as Binance faces additional investigations over alleged tie to Russian darkweb Bizlato, and its native token, Binance USD (BUSD), minted by Paxos.
SEC regulators have blocked further minting of the digital asset, citing unregulated securities, without providing further clarification.
Iconic hip hop superstar and Web3 investor Snoop Dogg has teamed up with Roobet to expand the latter’s crypto casino offerings.
It launched in 2019 under Raw Entertainment BV and has facilitated more than 3 billion wagers, according to the company.
In a recent press release, Snoop Dogg said: “Turns out, I’ve been a kangaroo this entire time. These guys are doing something different. This partnership just feels natural, and we’re going to blaze a trail for the future of online entertainment.”
Snoop Dogg invested a massive $450,000 USD in Sandbox virtual land to create a new Metaverse space, Snoopverse.
He has also partnered with numerous Web3 startups, including Outlier Ventures, and performed the world’s first metaverse music video at the MTV Video Music Awards.
Speaking further, he added: “Roobet took amazing care of me even before they knew who I was, bringing the ultimate player experience, and I been sayin’ Roooooo ever since. We share the love of doing new things, and we care about our fans—so we’re gonna change the game and do it better than it’s ever been done.”
Roobet will tap Snoop Dogg’s massive global fanbase for events, giveaways, and other virtual events. He will also host several meet and greets with fans on the virtual stage.
Ongoing investigations against crypto platform Coinbase have forced it to end its partnership with Silvergate Bank, it announced on Thursday.
In a tweet, it said: “In light of recent developments & out of an abundance of caution, Coinbase is no longer accepting or initiating payments to or from Silvergate.“
Coinbase also stated it would facilitate institutional client cash transactions with banking partners. It had also taken proactive action to “help ensure that clients experience no impact” from the measures.
Coinbases primary banking partner is now Signature Bank.
According to Coinbase: “The vast majority of Coinbase client cash is stored in FDIC-insured bank accounts. When a client has a large dollar balance, Coinbase stores their cash in a U.S. government money market fund to keep it safe and liquid.”
It added: “[We] hold client cash 1:1 and your assets are your assets. We do not lend or take any action with your assets unless you specifically instruct us to.”
Silvergate-FTX Ties
The insolvent bank’s stocks plummeted an additional 40 percent in premarket trading, reports revealed. JP Morgan also downgraded the bank from “underweight” to “neutral.”
The bank also failed to file its 10-K report in a timely manner and has requested an additional two weeks to complete it. Authorities such as the US Securities and Exchange Commission require the document to assess a company’s financial standing.
The news comese after the bank after now-defunct cryptocurrency platform FTX collapsed on 11 November and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Its toubles intensified after the US Department of Justice (US DoJ) launched investigations due to Silvergate’s ties to FTX, primarily linked to disgraced former chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried, who owned an account with the institution.
Silvergate and its CEO Alan Lane currently face a class-action lawsuit in California courts. Authorities aim to penalise the bank for allegedly facilitating illegal money deposits amid a massive bank run, triggered by FTX’s huge liquidity crunch last year.
Singapore, Singapore, 3rd March, 2023, Chainwire
DigiFT, a Singapore-based decentralized exchange (DEX) for asset-backed tokens (STO), has completed a Pre-Series A funding round, securing US$10.5 million.
The investment round was led by Shanda Group, a global privately-owned investment group founded by Chinese online entertainment pioneer Tianqiao Chen and family in 1999. Shanda Group’s business is segmented into four units: Private Equity (Venture Capital) Investments, Public Market Investments, Real Estate, and Natural Resources.
Other investors included HashKey Capital, a multi-stage global venture capital firm investing in visionary blockchain founders; Hash Global, a Web3 venture capital firm with offices in Singapore and Shanghai; Xin Enterprise Pte. Ltd., a Singapore investment firm wholly owned by Liang Xinjun, co-founder of Fosun Group; and North Beta Capital, an eco-building firm in the digital technology industry.
DigiFT was founded in 2020 by Henry Zhang, formerly Greater China CEO of East West Bank, deputy China CEO of Citibank and Standard Chartered Bank, and is helmed by a leadership team with extensive experience in financial institutions and fintechs. With a vision to bridge the gap between centralized and decentralized finance, DigiFT is the first and only DEX enrolled in the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) FinTech Regulatory Sandbox.
It aims to provide regulated decentralized finance solutions on the Ethereum public blockchain via an Automatic Market Making (AMM) mechanism that facilitates secondary trading liquidity for security tokens backed by financial assets such as bonds and equities.
Asset owners can issue blockchain-based security tokens efficiently and cost-effectively. Investors are also able to trade with continuous liquidity via the AMM mechanism and retain control over digital assets in their own wallets.
Funds from the Pre-Series A round will be used to support license applications in Asia, the Middle East and Europe, go-to-market plans, technology development and to expand the company’s innovation capabilities.
Henry Zhang, founder and CEO of DigiFT, said: “We are encouraged by investors’ confidence in our vision to become a regulated DeFi exchange. The industry has been through a tough time in the past year. This fundraise is a testament that this industry has huge potential if the gap between traditional finance and Web3 can be bridged.”
“It gives us the arsenal to transform the industry and we are excited to see where the journey takes us. As a key international financial hub, Singapore boasts a robust legal framework and government support for tokenization with blockchain technology. We look forward to further working with regulatory bodies to steer our industry in the right direction.”
Tianqiao Chen, founder, Chairman and CEO of Shanda Group, said: “DigiFT’s appeal is their leadership team’s ability to understand the gaps within the DeFi industry, and how they’ve effectively combined their extensive backgrounds in traditional financial institutions with a deep knowledge of Web3 financial services. They convinced us that they will not only be market leaders, but the market standard for the DeFi industry.”
Plans for new hires are in the pipeline with the injection of the fresh funds to support the growth of the exchange. DigiFT will look to bring on board experienced hires that understand traditional finance as well as Web3 experts. These talents can be based either in Singapore or in regions that DigiFT is looking to expand into.
For more information or media enquiries, please contact:
DigiFT
Evelyn Xiong
Email: [email protected]
SPRG
Pooja Shah
Email: [email protected]
Hp: +65 8889 1321
Deborah Dayani Nanayakara
Email: [email protected]
Hp: +65 9758 4071
About DigiFT
DigiFT, founded in 2020, is a decentralized digital asset exchange (DEX) for asset-backed tokens (STO). DigiFT is the first and only decentralized digital asset exchange enrolled in the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”) FinTech Regulatory Sandbox. It aims to provide regulated decentralized finance solutions on the Ethereum public blockchain offering an Automatic Market Making (AMM) mechanism that facilitates secondary trading liquidity for security tokens backed by financial assets.
Contact
Marketing Manager
Evelyn Xiong
DigiFT Tech (Singapore) Pte Ltd
[email protected]
The Ethereum Foundation’s ERC-4337 account abstraction standard has been published in an audited version on the organisation’s website.
The standard’s EntryPoint smart contract aims to change relationships between users and wallet services. Externally-owned accounts (EOAs) comprise the majority of Ethereum wallets, which include platforms like MetaMask and others.
Under the ERC-4337 standard, Ethereum users can operate on a standard for on-chain transactions. It will also implement a mempool for user operations and to safeguard key backups for wallets with social recovery.
Bundlers service mempools accounts function levels. This submits operations to mempools rather submitting transactions. Bundlers will then move the user operation from the mempool and include it on Ethereum blocks. They also work on other Ethereum Virtual Machine chains.
According to the original ERC-4337 Account Abstraction published in late September 2021, it aims to “allow users to use smart contract wallets containing arbitrary verification logic instead of EOAs as their primary account.” This will remove the need for EOAs.
It also will not require Ethereum consensus changes. Its consensus layer development will focus on the merge and scalability features of the protocol. It will avoid Ethereum consensus changes to expedite the rate of Ethereum adoption.
The Reserve Bank of Australia announced on 2 March that it will launch a pilot of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) “in the coming months.”
In a joint statement, the institution and the Digital Finance CRC (DFCRC) announced their collaboration to “explore potential use cases and economic benefits of a [CBDC] in Australia.”
For the project’s initial stages, it would select several industry leaders to join research efforts to build use cases for CBDCs and their potential benefits.
Both institutions will pilot CBDCs for offline payments, automating taxes, and for “trusted Web3 commerce.” Banks, including the Commonwealth Bank and the Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) bank, will also facilitate transactions via Mastercard.
Brad Jones, Assistant Governor of Financial Systems at the Reserve Bank of Australia, said his institution was “delighted” with the industry’s “enthusiastic engagement” in the research project.
Continuing, he said,
“It has also been encouraging that the use case providers that have been invited to participate in the pilot span a wide range of entities in the Australian financial system, from smaller fintechs to large financial institutions. The pilot and broader research study that will be conducted in parallel will serve two ends – it will contribute to hands-on learning by industry, and it will add to policy makers’ understanding of how a CBDC could potentially benefit the Australian financial system and economy.”