The Breakdown First Five - Thursday August 31 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. Starknet Reverses Decision

Starknet have backed down from a decision that would have seen $550,000 in user funds lost. As part of a smart contract upgrade months in the making, users who failed to update their wallets would have permanently lost access to funds. Many claimed users should have paid more attention to social media posts and in app warnings. Others pointed out that locking out users from their funds is a terrible customer experience for a burgeoning protocol.

4. Binance Launches Send Cash in LatAm

Binance have launched a payment corridor between 9 Latin American countries and bank accounts in Argentina and Colombia. The service will allow instant deposits from Binance accounts. The launch is part of a push across the region although comes partly in response to Mastercard cutting off Binance’s crypto bankcard in Argentina and Colombia. Binance heralded the service as a win for “financial inclusion” and promotion of “using crypto in everyday life".

3. DCG’s Proposal “Woefully Light on Specifics”

Gemini have panned DCG’s bankruptcy proposal in the Genesis bankruptcy, calling it “woefully light on specifics and remains subject to definitive documentation”. Gemini filed an objection to the plan and asked the court to reject any extension of the exclusivity period currently being used by Genesis to propose “wholly insufficient” resolutions. The plan would see creditors make major concessions to DCG on loan repayments and time to pay.

2. Judge Not Convinced By SBF

Sam Bankman-Fried had a rough day in court with the Judge rejecting arguments that he should be released from jail to work on his case. Complaints of the low laptop battery life or fast internet fell on deaf ears. The Judge allowed some 8 million pages of evidence to enter the record on short notice, given they came from Sam’s own Google drive. A window was opened for a motion to delay the trial, which is set to begin in under 5 weeks.

1. DeFi Is Not a Crime

A Judge has dismissed a class action lawsuit against Uniswap for allowing scam tokens on the platform. Being unable to identify the scammers, Uniswap found themselves in court instead. The Judge ruled that DeFi protocols have no liability for how others use their platforms. In addition they noted that ETH is a commodity and bemoaned the lack of regulatory clarity in Crypto. The best part - this same Judge will decide the SEC’s lawsuit against Coinbase.

Thanks for reading -NLW