#66 1 in 3 US Congress Members Received FTX Contributions. More than 80,000 Applications to Study Web3.
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1 in 3 US Congress Members Received FTX Contributions
A recent analysis by CoinDesk found out that one-third of current US Congress members received financial support (aka money) from SBF and other FTX executives. They identified 196 members, including both senators and representatives, coming from both Democratic and Republican parties. A picture is worth a thousand words, so here goes:
The journalists reached out to all 196 members to ask what they are planning to do with the money, now that the FTX saga unfolded. First of all, only 53 replied (27%). 34 said they have already donated the money to charity, while 19 answered that they are planning to return or have already returned the money.
According to bankruptcy expert Anthony Sabino, who CoinDesk cites, it might not be so easy. First of all, the courts need to decide whether the cash that was donated is tied to fraud. Only then can sending it back be arranged. Furthermore, if this is the case, donating the money to charity is not an option. “The law does not care if you gave it to Mother Teresa,” Sabino said.
I want to call out two points here. One - campaign donations are a thing. This is not something that only FTX did and nobody else did before. There is a set protocol, e.g. for the last electoral cycle there was a cap of 2900 USD per candidate, and companies from all domains have always been doing this. It does, however, go to show the extent to which FTX went in order to lobby for subjects they cared about. Second, the politicians that are now getting heat from this, having to give the money back and everything, are the politicians that will be working on regulating Crypto as an industry. It will be interesting to see what effect the collapse of FTX will have on this.
Mihnea
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TradFi fails in crypto
So following the FTX event, liquidators have taken control of Alameda’s wallets to salvage whatever was left and consolidate funds in fewer accounts. And I’m sure you’ve tried at least once to take an Aave loan or at least deposit collateral in a DeFi protocol. Perhaps even browsed through Etherscan if you were brave and curious enough as to why some of your transactions aren’t confirmed immediately. After all, you’re in crypto. It’s like knowing how to change gears when you get yourself a car.
You’d expect the liquidators to have atleast some knowledge of how the blockchain and DeFi work. Because i had such expectations, only to have them crushed by the liquidators’ on-chain activity.
When the liquidators took control, Alameda was short 9000 ETH ($10.8 million at the time) against a collateral of $24 million in USDC and DAI. But due to market conditions (namely, ETH rising in price), currently about $300k can be recovered until the position will be liquidated completely. The ETH
On 29th December, they also moved $11 million in USDC and DAI from AAVE on Optimism… but those funds were collateral for another position. Doing so exposed the wallet to liquidation once again. So they “recovered” $11 million but using Aave’s function of closing positions using collateral would’ve yielded $15 million, a net $4 million gain for the liquidators. And for the creditors.
All these actions are documented by Arkham Intel on Twitter, who i recommend you follow to keep up to date with TradFi’s Best.
Oh, and did i tell you the liquidators also lost $72.000… trying to exit a position? Attempting to recover funds to make creditors whole, were trying to close a position but instead got liquidated twice for a total of 4.05 aWBTC (Aave’s BTC-backed token). How, you might ask? Using their special move, of course: removing collateral.
And i swear this is the last one (for today). I suppose Alameda’s wallets looked incredibly juicy for the liquidators who saw the multitude of LDO tokens, worth millions. Funny enough, however, they failed to notice they were unvested. If only some crypto-natives were hired to do these transactions, think of how many small creditors would’ve been made whole with the >$4 million the liquidators lost due to lack of knowledge.
Anybody’s got some DeFi courses at hand?
Matei
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More than 80,000 Applications to Study Web3
Binance Charity, the philanthropic arm of Binance, reveals applications to study Web3 education have reached ~ 82,200 in just six months. Over $2.2 million in BUSD was donated during 2022 with projects spanning France, Senegal, Nigeria, Australia, Germany, Cyprus, Ukraine, South Africa and Brazil, offering students the opportunity to study Web3-related courses free of charge.
The donations made by Binance have thus far helped to pay for 259,180 hours of classroom instruction, boot camps, and community seminars. In total, 67,155 scholarship spots will be made available by Binance Charity. To carry out these projects, Binance Charity is collaborating with Binance Academy, a number of top academic and professional organizations, and the Universities of Western Australia, Nicosia, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management - Blockchain Center, Kyiv IT Cluster, and the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation.
“The response to our Web3 education projects has been unprecedented, showing the keen appetite of so many people to learn about blockchain, De-Fi, NFTs, coding and much more. And, we’re seeing interest from a diverse range of people, including a great ratio of women, which is something I feel particularly passionate about. With so many more education initiatives with amazing partners in the pipeline, we’ve never been more excited to build a more inclusive Web3 world.” Said Helen Hai, Head of Binance Charity.
The importance of Web3 education has also been highlighted at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland where business leaders unanimously highlighted education and learning as the key to driving sustainability in emerging technologies, as part of panel discussions.
Evelyne
For more educational crypto content, check out the links below:
Stakeborg Academy: https://academy.stakeborg.com/
The Stakeborg DAO Talks on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOrFZZifNn4Nx4nSQL3WS52ALPXgrTSVG
Discord channel: https://discord.com/channels/901898461568442458/903006233584341052
StakeborgDAO Quarterly Reports: https://docs.stakeborgdao.com/reports/dao-quarterly-reports