The Breakdown First Five - Tuesday June 27, 2023

Welcome back to The Breakdown First Five — the 5 most interesting and/or important stories in bitcoin, crypto, and markets to start your day.

5. Orbs too hot to hold

Eric Wall’s Orb has been handed back after its holder faced a 300% annual tax. The experimental NFT project allowed the single owner to access exclusive consultancy services from Wall at the cost of an ongoing tax on the self assessed value of the Orb. The unique tokenomics made the token “excellent at preventing hoarding" but not great for speculation. The NFT will be auctioned off, so if you want to pester Wall with questions, now’s your chance.

4. Waters engaging

Maxine Waters is seeking comment from the US Treasury and the SEC on the watershed Digital Asset Market Structure draft bill. Within a week the agencies will tell House Democrats whether the bill will impinge on “existing authorities” as well as investor, market and financial stability protection mandates. The desired outcome is a little unclear, but Waters is now engaging with the topic and seeking to ground her opinion with input from regulatory agencies.

3. Swiss CBDC launched

The Swiss National Bank has launched their latest CBDC pilot but it’s “not just an experiment”. The digital money will be used in place of bank reserves for wholesale settlement on the nation’s digital exchange, so the public won’t be forced to use the CBDC just yet. The central bank’s chairman said the “objective is to test real transactions with market participants”.

2. FTX Bankruptcy Report 2.0

The Second FTX Bankruptcy Report has been released and it is a doozy. It details how SBF and other executives knowingly deceived auditors, banks and customers. Internal documents revealed that an $8B shortfall was known about as early as August 2022. A list of $243M in Bahamian property bought with customer funds has been itemized alongside fresh allegations of bribery.

1. Damus Deplatforming

Popular NOSTR-powered frontend Damus expects to be removed from the Apple app store after failing to appease the tech giant with changes. Apple took issue with the zap feature which allows Bitcoin micropayments to be used to tip content producers. Apple said the feature circumvented their digital content sales policy, which requires apps to pay the Apple tax on in-app purchases. Should the future of internet payments really come with a 30% tithe to Apple?

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Thanks for reading -NLW