Following up with Updates - Tornado, BendDAO, ETH Merge, WazirX and more
Following up with Updates - Tornado, BendDAO, ETH Merge, WazirX and more
This is an update on all the stories that have some follow up news after we wrote about it.
Dear readers,
I am dedicating today’s letter to a bi-weekly follow-up on the past newsletters and updates on them as of today. This way, we can all be up to speed with the latest, most important update of our Web3 world.
Update #1 - BendDAO introduces a New Proposal
After the floor of Blue-chip NFTs like BAYC, MAYC and others began dropping two weeks back, it came to light that BendDAO, a lending platform that allowed collateralization of NFTs and lent ETH against it may not be able to liquidate and auction the Blue-Chip NFTs as several debtors began defaulting. With only 15000 ETH left in reserves, BendDAO’s interest for borrowers rocketed to 100%.
The founders introduced a new governance proposal to change parameters for short-term relief. Some of the changes proposed are reducing the auction time to 4 hours, higher base interest rates for depositors, adjusting the liquidation threshold to 70% against 90%, and removing the first bid limitation of 95%. Read more about it here.
Update #2 - Tornado Cash Sanctions: One of the largest Ethereum Miner Ethermine stops processing sanctioned transactions.
A couple of weeks ago, OFAC sanctioned Tornado Cash, a crypto mixer, effectively meaning that anyone interacting with the Tornado smart contracts is in violation of US law.
Following this sanction, Circle “blacklisted” USDC on the Ethereum network so that any holder who had interacted with Tornado Cash would no longer be able to interact with the smart contract. This move essentially froze all $USDC that had passed through Tornado Cash, around $75000.
Next, DeFi protocols such as Aave, Uniswap, Balancer, and others introduced an API from TRM Labs, which disabled the front end of their dApps, essentially banning addresses sanctioned by OFAC.
It was discovered by Takens Theorem that Ethermine has stopped processing Tornado Cash transactions as presented in the tweet below.
The developer of Tornado Cash Alexey Pertsev was arrested on Aug 10, in the Netherlands. More than 50 people gathered in Amsterdam’s Dam Square Saturday to protest the arrest.
Crypto policy non-profit Coin Center announced it is preparing to challenge the U.S. government’s Tornado Cash ban in court.
Read more about the sanctions and updates here.
Update #3: WazirX Knocks High Court Doors
Earlier this month, the Enforcement Directorate of India searched the premises of Sameer Mhatre, one of the directors of Zanmai Labs, the parent company of crypto exchange WazirX. Following the search, ED ordered to freeze INR 64.7 crores (~$8 Million) on WazirX’s bank accounts.
WazirX has filed a writ petition to stay this order in Karnataka High Court. The hearing is scheduled for Aug 24, 2022.
It also came to light that WazirX had filed a petition in Delhi High Court earlier this year. In January 2022, WazirX filed a writ petition in the court seeking to set aside the ED proceedings with regards to the show cause notices served to its parent company, Zanmai Labs. The Delhi High Court has asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to file its reply by Sep 5, 2022.
Read more about the WazirX ED probe here.
Read more about WazirX <> Binance tussle here.
Quick Updates:
Ethereum Merge is just over 3 weeks away. It is estimated to happen on September 15, 2022. Learn more about Merge.
The First ever “Anti-crypto” conference is just 12 days away. The symposium is aiming to discuss and provide resources to lawmakers on how to create regulations around crypto. Learn more about Crypto Policy Symposium.
Roughly $35 Million worth of funds has been returned by hackers, etherscan data shows. Learn more about the first decentralized robbery.