8/29/24: The High Seas of NFTs 🌊🦅⛓️‍💥

Top News

  1. OpenSea receives a Wells Notice from the SEC

  2. Pavel Durov released from custody and placed under travel ban

  3. TON blockchain suffers a second outage within 24-hours

Specs’ Insights

1. OpenSea receives a Wells Notice from the SEC

⌐◪-◪ → Yesterday, OpenSea received a Wells notice from the SEC—a warning that often precedes enforcement action. The SEC's stance is that certain NFTs on OpenSea might be violating securities laws.

OpenSea’s CEO, Devin Finzer, responded by making it clear the company is ready to fight and emphasized how this could hurt creators and the broader crypto industry. OpenSea also pledged $5M to help NFT creators with potential legal fees.

Crypto Twitter had mixed reactions, with some supporting OpenSea and others criticizing it, saying it’s not decentralized enough and they don’t care about artists. Even David Hoffman from Bankless sided with the SEC, suggesting that Bored Apes are securities.

Frankly, I stopped supporting OpenSea years ago after they started unilaterally censoring artists and creators, like a Cuban artist I collect, and banning users for using privacy protocols like Tornado Cash.

While I’m personally not a big fan of OpenSea, I hope they win for the sake of artists, creators, and the entire crypto industry.

2. Pavel Durov was released from custody and placed under travel ban

⌐◪-◪ → Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was released from custody yesterday on a €5M bail, formally indicted with multiple charges, and placed under a travel ban—he cannot leave France.

Meanwhile, the leader of the French Patriots party, Florian Philippot, is encouraging Durov to flee the country, saying that “leaving France via the border is easy” — lol. I suppose €5M isn’t that much for Durov.

Even Andrew Tate chimed in, claiming Durov was just charged with violence against women in Switzerland, calling it the “same ol’ playbook,” a clear reference to his own legal struggles.

I love how many infamous figures have come to Durov’s defense. On one hand, it's pretty damning, but on the other, it’s validating. Speaking of which...

If you haven’t watched it yet, Tucker Carlson just posted a 2-hour interview with Mike Benz that covers the Pavel Durov case and whether the Biden administration was involved—a theory I entertained a few days ago in Specs.Chat. I haven’t watched the interview yet, but it’s top of my list.

3. TON blockchain suffers a second outage within 24-hours

⌐◪-◪ → While Pavel’s getting railed in the slammer, TON’s getting railed on-chain after their second outage in under 24 hours.

The second outage lasted just over 4 hours, compared to the initial 6+ hour outage—both were attributed to network congestion from $DOGS token minting. Fucking dog coins.

Surprisingly, TON is only down 15% over the last 7 days; maybe Durov’s release helped boost sentiment.

While having two back-to-back outages is certainly concerning, I think TON still has a chance given its ties to Telegram. After all, Solana had plenty of outages and now has the highest chance of being the next spot ETF on Wall Street.

Everything Else

⛓️ Crypto & DeFi

  • Binance CEO denies freezing Palestinian funds

  • Lightspark introduces Bitcoin Lightning payments

  • Renzo expands REZ token to Solana via Wormhole

  • Acre yield-bearing stBTC token launches on Mezo

  • Stacks, Bitcoin scaling network starts Nakamoto upgrade

  • Blur, Tensor tokens dip on OpenSea ‘Wells Notice'

  • Abstract introduces Global Wallet for easier onboarding

  • Mr 100 buys 500 BTC in dip

  • AI coins shaken after Nvidia earnings release

🏦 Wallstreet & VC

  • CryptoCom and Standard Chartered partner for fiat services

  • Ethereum ETFs see $5.8M inflow, ending outflow streak

  • IREN posts $184.1M Bitcoin mining revenue for fiscal year

  • Peregrine raises $3.6M for restaking stablecoin protocol

  • Edge Matrix raises $20M for launching its L1 blockchain

🏛️ Legal & Regulatory

🌎 Rest of the World

  • UK shop owner charged for illegal crypto ATM

  • India takes down 38 scam websites using ‘Mudrex's’ brand

  • Kakao and LINE launch L1 on mainnet, inviting Telegram-style apps.

🖼️ NFTs & Metaverse

  • Polymarket bettors miss $270K on Durov's early release

  • Hamster Kombat token airdrop set for on Sept. 26

  • Jupiter integrates Pump Fun and Moonshot tokens

  • Doodles dropped Certified Viral #2 available on Zora

  • Own the Doge announced a licensing deal with Revolut

  • Memecoin linked to ETH genesis block tops Uniswap charts

  • Punks top volume as mid-tiers begin to sell

Join Specs Chat!

Designed to make you a better crypto investor, builder, and operator.

💬 Chat with Valko and other experts
📚 Access additional hand-curated resources
😊 Make friends, share memes, have fun