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- 10/17/23: Uniswap Collecting A New Toll 🦄🚫👾
10/17/23: Uniswap Collecting A New Toll 🦄🚫👾
Top News
🦄 Uniswap adds 0.15% front-end fee for certain token swaps
🚫 Binance halts USD withdrawals, people worried of insolvency
👾 Roblox integrates XRP payments, metaverse here we come!

⌐◪-◪ → Uniswap is seeing backlash over their new front-end fee, but I think it’s a good thing and here’s why. To deliver recurring value, you need recurring revenue. Uniswap has been a great steward for crypto, and adding a small fee is the simplest solution to their long-term sustainability problem.
⌐◪-◪ → This is definitely not a great sign. Some speculate that Binance doesn’t have enough USD on-hand, which is realistically the best explanation here. If true, we could be looking at another “black swan” event for crypto. Binance also announced that they’re hitting pause on new UK customers today. Something’s fishy.
⌐◪-◪ → Headlines stating that Roblox is accepting XRP may be a bit misleading. According to Adam Cochran, Roblox integrated BitPay, and BitPay supports XRP. Despite BitPays strict KYC requirements, this is still a big deal as Roblox has over 200M monthly active users - users who define the next generation of finance. The real question is, will Roblox roll out NFT’s next?

Peripheral Vision
⛓️ Crypto & DeFi
Cryptotelegraph reports fake news that SEC approved BTC ETF
Edward Snowden says BTC is “enormously powerful and useful as is”
Microsoft veteran joins Matter Labs to work on zkSync applications
Lido Finance holders vote to leave Solana blockchain, low projections
Manta Pacific to migrate from Optimism to Polygon as zkEVM Layer 2
Mash introduces publisher monetization powered by BTC Lightning
BTC Lightning Network transactions increased by 1,212% last 2 years
BTC market cap dominance hits new high for 2023
Vitalik transfers $15M USDC to Gemini exchange, what’s he buying?
🏦 Wallstreet & VC
BlackRock CEO, $10T AuM, describes BTC as a “flight to quality”
Fidelity Digital Assets becomes 1st enterprise client of EY’s blockchain
Squads, a Solana-based multi-sig protocol, raises $5.7M
Judge orders Genesis to respond in five days to Terraform subpoena
🏛️ Legal & Regulatory
Catherine Wood says Gensler is blocking the BTC ETFs, not the SEC
FTX’s former Engineering Director admits to illegal political donations
FTX creditors could see up to 90% of funds returned in June 2024
SBF tried to fool CFTC by moving his personal funds to Alameda
FTX’s Ex-Head of Engineering admitted guilt to several crimes
🌎 Rest of the World
El Salvador allocates $13M to new agency to manage country’s BTC
Israel freezes over 100 accounts on Binance to block Hamas funding
Zodia Custody expands digital asset services to Australia
EU’s crypto market rules won’t protect investors until end of 2024
UK citizens will no longer be able to sign up to Binance by end of day
🖼️ NFTs & Metaverse
ApeCoin DAO to launch NFT accelerator program with Animoca
Sweatcoin goes live in the US, letting users trade on major exchanges
Mocaverse sees increased delegation power in ApeCoin DAO
Michelin NFT struggles to mint out, so it halves supply
Transient Labs introduces Shatter Contract, new NFT mechanics

Spectacular Shoutout
A man who needs no intro, the notorious PuffYachty, is a fan of Specs!
Honored to have such an influential digital artist/NFT collector as a reader. Thanks for the shoutout Puff 🍄!
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