6/25/24: Assange Is Free 🦅🇩🇪📜

Author

Valko
June 25, 2024

Top News

  1. Julian Assange freed after 5 years in prison following US plea deal

  2. German Government to sell another $24M Bitcoin

  3. Arbitrum DAO proposes staking rewards to incentivize delegation

Specs’ Breakdown

1. Julian Assange freed after 5 years in prison following US plea deal

⌐◪-◪ → Julian Assange, the world’s most notorious whistleblower and founder of WikiLeaks, was finally freed after serving 5 years in prison for exposing the crimes of others.

His release is the result of an undisclosed plea deal with the United States Department of Justice. According to RFK Jr., Assange had to plead guilty to conspiracy obtain/disclose defense information — which means the US succeeded in criminalizing journalism.

You might be wondering why this is the top headline in our crypto newsletter, Specs, and the answer is simple → freedom. That and Julian loves Bitcoin.

Freedom of speech, commerce, and privacy are core values of the web3 ethos — Julian stood up for these for all of humankind.

Please join me in thanking Julian for his bravery and welcoming him back home to his beautiful wife Stella and their children, who sadly have only known their father from behind bars.

Spicy take from Vivek Ramaswamy: “This smells like a desperate Biden gambit for libertarian votes”.

2. German Government to sell another $24M Bitcoin

⌐◪-◪ → The German Government just moved another $24M to Coinbase and Kraken, in addition to the $130M they sent to exchanges last week.

This move comes after the German government seized 50,000 BTC from the privacy site Movie2k in January.

For context, the German Government’s wallet holds 46,359 BTC worth $2.8B, meaning they are liquidating 5.5% ($154M) of their bag.

3. Arbitrum DAO proposes staking rewards to incentivize delegation

⌐◪-◪ → A new governance proposal in Arbitrum DAO wants to reward delegation with staking rewards.

The proposal suggests allocating 50% of future surplus sequencer fees to users who actively delegate their tokens.

With 12,000 ETH in annual fees and an assumed ARB prices of $1, that’s roughly 7% APY.

Note: the proposal does not affect the current treasury balance, it simply redirects future fees to stakers.

For the governance nerds out there: the goal here is governance security, as only 10% of ARB is actively used in governance today, making the DAO susceptible to attacks.

Everything Else

⛓️ Crypto & DeFi

  • Base activity hits new all-time high, fueled by memecoin Brett

  • Kraken adds support for the settlement network ClearLoop

  • ZKsync introduces Elastic chain resembling rival Polygon's AggLayer

  • Alex Lab attributes $4M exploit to North Korea’s Lazarus Group

  • Jupiter Exchange introduces Jupiter Swap V3

  • Ethereum Foundation mailing list gets leaked

  • ZachXBT exposes Robert Robb for fraud, faces 20 years in prison

🏦 Wallstreet & VC

  • VanEck is repping a Pudgy Penguin PFP, nothing to see here

  • Jump Trading president Kanav Kariya leaves after CFTC probe

  • Bitcoin ETFs see $174M in outflows admin Mt. Gox repayments

  • Riot takeover salvo continues for the bitcoin mining peer Bitfarms

  • Taurus expands custody and issuance offerings to Stellar Network

  • Hut 8 receives $150M investment to build AI infrastructure

  • Allora raises $3M for mainnet launch of its decentralized AI network

🏛️ Legal & Regulatory

🌎 Rest of the World

🖼️ NFTs & Metaverse

  • Goblintown creators launch “Portals” to help holder move NFTs

  • Dexscreener launches its own PumpFun competitor, Mononshot

  • Mark Cuban sells his NFT bag, including a Pudgy Penguin for $30k

  • Blast unveils Blast Foundation for governance

  • Audius secures licensing agreements with ASCAP, BMI, GMR, SESAC

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