In a move so dramatic it could have been in a soap opera, MEXC announced that Vugar Usi, their trusty COO, is stepping up to the role of CEO on the company’s 8th birthday. Usi’s mission? Expand globally and focus on “user-first” improvements. We assume that means more free stuff, because who wouldn’t want that?
The joint proposal from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) aims to convert stablecoin issuers into front-line anti-money-laundering soldiers. Under these new rules, issuers will be required to install kill switches in their tokens and establish full-fledged Bank Secrecy Act programs. This includes everything from customer due diligence to suspicious activity reporting, like a bad version of a financial spy movie where you, the issuer, are both the hero and the villain.
The organization says this transaction is happening because of a new financial plan. This plan is designed to guarantee continued funding for its research and charitable work.
And the plot thickens, my pet. The market’s structure is undergoing a most unseemly transformation. Perpetual futures, those darlings of the derivatives world, now reign supreme with a staggering $3.5 trillion in volume, while spot trading has been left to wither like a forgotten wallflower, languishing at a paltry $0.8 trillion. Cryptoquant’s data, bless its little heart, screams imbalance. It suggests, rather impolitely, that the market is being propped up by leverage rather than genuine demand. A setup, I assure you, as stable as a tipsy debutante in high heels.
Welcome to the asylum, er, newsletter. This week’s menu:
In the heart of Wall Street, where numbers dance and fortunes turn, Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) has unfurled its latest creation: the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust (MSBT). A product, they say, that mirrors the whims of Bitcoin, yet keeps its hands clean, never touching the asset itself. It trades now, on NYSE Arca, a regulated haven for those who fear the wild west of crypto.
The ‘restructuring’ plan, which could happen as soon as this month, involves folding Zodia’s crypto custody business into one of the bank’s existing divisions. Because nothing says “innovation” like a good old-fashioned merger.
But hold your space bucks, because the derivatives data on Binance is telling a story that’s about as optimistic as a Vogon reading poetry. According to a CryptoQuant report, XRP’s leverage structure is more lopsided than a three-legged stool at a galactic cocktail party. Over the past 30 days, long position liquidations have hit $39.8 million-roughly the cost of a slightly used Heart of Gold spaceship-while short position liquidations only managed $19.7 million. The market, it seems, is slapping buyers twice as hard as sellers, which is about as fair as a game of cricket with a Vogsphere team.