GM. This is the Milk Road, the daily newsletter that gets you caught up with the best of crypto.
All in less time than it takes to pick a show to watch on Netflix. *Tadum*
Here's what we got for ya today:
- Binance acquires Voyager's assets. Now what?
- Yuga Labs gets a new CEO
- QuadrigaCX wallets active for the first time in years
- Milky Meme
BINANCE ACQUIRES VOYAGER'S ASSETS. NOW WHAT?
Binance.US acquired Voyager's assets in a deal valued at $1.022b.
That’s right, Voyager is in the headlines again. In case you’ve lost track at home…
Voyager was a top crypto broker → then it went bankrupt.
Then it got saved by FTX → then FTX collapsed.
Then Voyager auctioned off its assets [again] → Now Binance.US is buying them.
Here’s everything you need to know about the deal:
- Binance.US isn't paying $1.022b; it's really only paying Voyager $20m
- That big $1.022b number is $20m + the current value of Voyager's remaining crypto assets, which will be returned to Voyager customers via their Binance.US accounts
- It’s unclear exactly how much Voyager customers will get back; we might know by March
- A bankruptcy court needs to approve the deal on Jan. 5 before anything can happen
Hmmm… I don’t know about you. But this sounds familiar. A little too familiar.
Voyager approved FTX’s $1.42b deal in September. And FTX was set to return ~75% of customer holdings, but…
…we all know how that turned out.
Will this finally be the end of Voyager’s journey?
The Milk Man sure as hell hopes so.
He still has PTSD (Post Terra Stress Disorder) & gets flashbacks every time he hears names like "Voyager","Luna", and "Three Arrows Capital".
YUGA LABS HAS A NEW CEO
Yuga Labs has a new sheriff in town. A new head honcho. El Capitan.
Who is it? Daniel Alegre.
In case you don’t know, he:
- Is the former COO of Activision Blizzard
- Worked on popular games like World of Warcraft, Call of Duty & Candy Crush
- Worked at Google for 16 years as the President of Global & Strategic Partnerships
In other words, he’s a heavy hitter.
And now he’s taking his talents to the Otherside.
Yuga Labs bringing him on means they know that metaverse + gaming = a match made in heaven.
But he’s inheriting something that’s become common in the Web3 space: a lawsuit.
Here’s what Alegre is walking into:
- A class action against the company, Justin Biebs, Jimmy Fallon, and a bunch of others
- They’re accused of conspiring to promote the Bored Ape NFTs, costing investors big time when they plummeted in value
Godspeed, Alegre.
TODAY'S EDITION IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THIRDWEB
Gaming is more popular than it’s ever been.
Esports are becoming official athletic competitions, everyday 8m people stream video games on Twitch, and ~$60b is spent on games each year.
The gaming industry has evolved at a rapid pace since the first arcade games were introduced 50 years ago.
We went from arcade games → the first consoles → XBOX and Playstations → the most recent revolution, mobile gaming.
So, what is the next big thing in gaming?
Web3.
Top brands like Epic Games (creator of Fortnite), David Jones (creator of Grand Theft Auto), and Brendan Greene (creator of PubG) are already building in web3.
And thirdweb is making it easy for games to integrate NFTs and crypto with their web3 gaming kit. They just partnered with Gala Games and Fractal to help build their games.
If you want to get caught up on where web3 gaming is today, read The Milk Road’s web3 gaming deep-dive here.
QUADRIGACX WALLETS ARE ACTIVE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN YEARS
Remember QuadrigaCX?
If you’re a crypto OG, you probably just shuttered & screamed.
If you’re new to crypto, here’s a quick summary:
Back in 2015, QuadrigaCX was the biggest crypto exchange in Canada.
It had hundreds of thousands of users and was processing hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions.
Then suddenly, the site shut down. $200M+ worth of crypto vanished. And the company went bankrupt.
Why? The founder, Gerald Cotten, suddenly died in India. And he was the only one who knew the private keys that held all the crypto. (queue DJ Khaled - "I Got The Keys")
Well, $1.75m worth of Bitcoin just moved out of those QuadrigaCX wallets for the first time in 3 years.
Ernest & Young (EY) is the bankruptcy trustee that oversees QuadrigaCX’s assets. They came out and said they were not the ones behind the recent transfers.
Which means the evidence points to one man…
Gerald Cotten. The “dead” CEO.
Might as well call him the Undertaker cause it looks like he’s back from the dead.
MILKY MEME
"Chocolate?! I remember when they first invented chocolate!"
That's a wrap for today. Stay thirsty & see ya tomorrow! If you want more, be sure to follow our Twitter (@MilkRoadDaily)
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— Milk Road (@MilkRoadDaily)4:16 PM • Dec 20, 2022
DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.
