Weekly Rundown - May 28, 2023

Kamusta!

Guess what?

In a Reuters report, former Binance employees told everybody what you probably figured out already: in 2020 and 2021, Binance took your deposits and put them into its corporate treasury, rather than your account.

You thought you funded your exchange wallet. You actually put your money into Binance’s bank account.

Methinks this practice is all-too common among exchanges. For all we know, Binance is still doing it.

Does this reflect well on Binance because they safeguarded your funds and made sure that you could have your crypto whenever you wanted? Or does this reflect badly on them because they took your money under false pretenses?

I’ll leave that for the ethicists, but I did talk about the implications for the market in my most recent update.

In that update, I also looked at some Tether nonsense that might crush the crypto markets and looked at some more metrics and developments that you’ll want to navigate as we make our way through the “disbelief” stage of the Wall Street psychology of a market cycle.

If you’re keeping crypto on exchanges, take some time to learn how to custody your own crypto and do business on-chain. With the exchanges, you never know whether they actually have your crypto or what they’re doing with your property.

Self-custody can be hard, too, but you know you’re protected from these sorts of shenanigans. For some introductory lessons on self-custody, start with DAN Teaches Crypto.

Scroll down for some content you may enjoy.

World Economic Forum Thinks it Knows How to Fix Crypto Policy

Bottom line: WEF released its Pathways to the Regulation of Crypto-Assets.

My take: I read some of the paper and got a different impression. WEF’s approach isn’t an approach in a traditional sense, it mostly examines various regulatory frameworks and tells governments find common definitions, standards, and information-sharing practices. And, to be fair, the approach is relatively benign and far more critical of crypto entities than crypto itself. A global framework is an ambitious, reasonable goal that will take a decade or two, but it will have to happen eventually.

Why we care: it’ll take a long time before anybody knows how to fix crypto policy (assuming it’s broken in the first place). Let WEF give it their best shot while crypto builders create the financial networks of the future. See who finishes first.

I suspect the coming bull market narratives will revolve around real-world assets, meme coins, inter-blockchain protocols, and “regulated” altcoins but HH puts an interesting thought out there in this tweet. Read the replies, too!

China Central TV Airs Crypto Segment in Rare Move

Bottom line: China’s state TV channel broadcast a positive segment about cryptocurrencies that featured the Bitcoin logo and an image of a sign that said “Buy Bitcoin.”

My take: CZ tweeted his excitement. I don’t know that one ad will spur massive global FOMO for crypto but at least it’s a positive signal about China’s intent now that Hong Kong is opening its doors to crypto.

The regulatory framework basically lets HK authorities pick winners, losers, and everything else. That’s a shame but inevitable. Better that people know what they can and can’t do than worry about getting fined or put in jail for seemingly innocent decisions.

Don’t worry US readers! In 2025, Wall Street will do the same thing.

Why we care: as more money, talent, innovation, and activity move to non-US markets, we need to look beyond what’s going on in the US economy and regulatory world. Money’s going to come from elsewhere. When Gensler closes a door, China—er, Hong Kong—opens a window.

Jobs Corner

• Coinshift | Senior Product Designer | Link to position

• DappRadar | Social Media Manager | Link to position

• WalletConnect | Web3 Communications Associate | Link to position

• Cere Network | DevOps Manager | Link to position

• Offchain Labs | Blockchain Developer | Link to position

• Outlier Ventures | Token Design Associate | Link to position

• Treehouse | UI/UX Design Intern | Link to position

• Aptos | Software Engineer | Link to position

• CoinGecko | Software Test Engineer Intern (QA) | Link to position

These jobs come from the ToolsForCrypto newsletter.

If you’d like to post a vacancy here (for free), email [email protected]. And, if you’re looking to hire, connect with Recruit Rockstars for 50% off of their normal fee when you use my Recruit Rockstars referral link (I get a small reward when you do).

Relax and enjoy the ride!

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