Top stories

• Crypto lender BlockFi ordered by U.S. Court to withdraw communication on unapproved reorganization plan

• Fahrenheit Wins Bid to Acquire Assets of Insolvent Crypto Lender Celsius

• Sam Altman’s Crypto Project Worldcoin Raises $115M

We reported last week that BlockFi's failed attempt to sell off its lending business is resulting in an effort to liquidate the company and distribute funds to creditors. That didn't remain the official plan for long, though. A U.S. bankruptcy court ordered the estate to issue a letter saying that the statements were not authorized and that it was not allowed to solicit support for a reorganization plan. It remains to be seen if someone spoke too early or if the statement on the planned liquidation was incorrect.

The Fahrenheit consortium, which includes Arrington Capital, outbid NovaWulf to acquire Celsius Network's assets. As per the agreement, the consortium will receive a substantial amount of liquid cryptocurrency, estimated to be between $450 million and $500 million. 

ChatGPT founder Sam Altman strikes while the iron is hot, raising $115 million for his Worldcoin crypto project. Worldcoin became the laughing stock of 'crypto land' when it first launched in late 2021—the project aimed to distribute crypto to everyone on earth using an iris scanner to prove personhood. In the round, venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital Crypto, and Distributed Global are also investors.

Other News

• USBTC aims to become Bitcoin mining giant after Celsius deal

• Crypto conglomerates, DeFi targets of EU financial stability watchdog

• Lawyers challenging U.S. Tornado Cash sanctions - say free speech is at stake

• Bitpanda partners with Coinbase to help Europe’s banks offer crypto to customers

• FTX CEO's legal billings continue to hint at '2.0 Reboot'

• Bitcoin payments app Strike expands to more than 65 countries

• Consensus survey: TradFi investors remain bullish on crypto’s long-term prospects

From our Analysts

What if - Comparing investing in crypto in 2017 to 2018

In this article, we explore the returns on the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap in early January 2017. We compare the returns to if you did the same in 2018. Even though many of the coins are the same, your return would be quite different...

Read the full article here.

Pushed to extremes: A remarkably unremarkable market state

In this week's market update, we explore the implications of Tether's announced BTC purchases, a potential resurgence of BTC's portfolio diversification narrative, peculiarly priced options, and early signals of positive institutional flows in BTC.

Read the full report here.

Weekend Reading

The Ghost of Libra Lives On

Facebook’s ambitious 2019 stablecoin project never went live. But it sure left a lasting impression. This feature is part of our CoinDesk Turns 10 series looking at the biggest stories in crypto history.

The Bitcoin Mining Debate Is Ignoring the People Most Affected

Snowballing misinformation has painted an inaccurate and incomplete portrait of a complicated industry – and that is having a real impact on policy.