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The NFT was purchased by 3AC co-founders Su Zhu and Kyle Davies in August 2021 for about 1,800 ETH – worth roughly $5.8 million at the time.

The move could redefine baseline interest rates in the DeFi space, spurring higher stablecoin lending rates and making leverage more expensive, one analyst noted.

The “regulated crypto exchange” backed Gary Gensler’s viewpoint in front of Congress. But are they for real?

Astra Protocol, provider of Web3 compliance solutions, previously had a dispute with investor Republic Crypto over an alleged token sale.

Crypto lender Abra has been insolvent since at least March 31, 2023, state securities regulators alleged on Thursday.

The Blockchain Association said Thursday that it filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, soliciting details about the regulator’s interactions with a little-known crypto exchange called Prometheum amid a flurry of speculation on Crypto Twitter. 

“This whole story — Prometheum’s ATS, its CEO’s testimony in Congress — makes no sense,” Blockchain Association chief policy officer Jake Chervinsky said on Twitter. “Something fishy is going on here.”

Prometheum has been the subject of discussion since its co-CEO Aaron Kaplan was put in front of Congress earlier this week and expressed strong support for the SEC and its means of regulating crypto exchanges, while criticizing much of the industry. The company says it’s a broker-dealer that has received approval from the the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority as an alternative trading system.

Kaplan’s testimony in Congress came as many in the industry have bemoaned what they argue is a hostile regulatory framework in the U.S., especially with recent lawsuits filed by the SEC against exchanges Coinbase and Binance. As many have argued that new legislation isn’t necessary, Kaplan said he didn’t think that was the case. 

Prometheum plans for trading regulated crypto

Yet some industry experts heavily disagreed with his take. Rodrigo Seira, special counsel at Paradigm, noted that Prometheum plans to list cryptocurrencies that are securities in a regulated way but argued that the SEC takes the view that most cryptocurrencies are unregistered securities, meaning that they cannot be traded even on regulated exchanges.

“Therefore, Prometheum’s ATS won’t be able to trade any tokens unless projects first register the tokens with SEC. And as we have pointed out, there are effectively no tokens registered with the SEC because the current regime is not a viable option,” Seira said on Twitter.

Robinhood, which is a regulated exchange, even delisted multiple cryptocurrencies on this very basis.

When asked in the hearing by Republicans Congressman Mike Flood whether Prometheum lists bitcoin or ether, Kaplan replied that it doesn’t list either of them. Flood then argued that, with the regulated exchange unable to list such cryptocurrencies, the statement that no further legislation is needed “doesn’t make sense.”

Prometheum said last year that it planned to support digital asset securities including Flow, Filecoin, The Graph, Compound and Celo. The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for further comment from The Block. 

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Binance cuts staff.