Kalam Crypto #30: CoinMENA VISA Partnership, FTX buys BlockFi, and more

This week, FTX acquires BlockFi, 3AC files for bankruptcy, and CoinMENA announces a partnership with VISA. All that and more, so let's dive into this week's letter, and talk crypto.

04 Jul, 2022

CoinMENA Team

Author

"The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible." Arthur C. Clarke

Ahlan wa sahlan, and welcome to the 30th edition of CoinMENA's weekly newsletter, Kalam Crypto. Every week we will bring you the latest news and developments from the exciting world of cryptocurrencies. This week, FTX acquires BlockFi, 3AC files for bankruptcy, and CoinMENA announces a partnership with VISA. All that and more, so let's dive into this week's letter, and talk crypto:

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BlockFi Saved-by-Fried and 3AC waves the white flag: In the recent crypto liquidation contagion, if you follow the money long enough, you will eventually run into the crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC). 3AC was ordered into liquidation by a British Virgin Islands court last week and, just a few days after that, filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy in New York. The post-mortem revealed that 3AC was irresponsibly leveraged and had exposure to several high-risk projects, including Terra’s UST/LUNA. It seems that 3AC was able to borrow funds and/or crypto from everyone, including Genesis Global Trading, Blockchain.com, Voyager Digital, and, BlockFi. BlockFi successfully liquidated a 1 billion dollar loan for 3AC, but it appears they did not emerge unscathed.

BlockFi was acquired by FTX in what amounts to a fire sale. At its peak In 2021, BlockFi was valued at $3 billion. The agreement with FTX has a total price tag of $620 million, including a $400 million revolving credit facility subordinate to all clients' funds.In an interview last month, Sam Bankman-Fried said his exchange had a responsibility to bail out ailing crypto companies in times of crisis. True to his word, FTX acquired BlockFi for a variable price of up to $240 million based on the startup's performance triggers.

Buying the bitcoin dip: MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor continues to double down on bitcoin. The company purchased an additional 480 BTC for roughly $10 million with an average price of $20,817 per bitcoin, bringing its total bitcoin stash to nearly 130,000 BTC ($2.6 billion.) El Salvador also snapped up another $1.5 million in bitcoin. The country now holds 2,381 bitcoin worth $46.4 million. Fun fact: El Salvador’s President, Nayib Bukele, trades his country’s bitcoin on his mobile phone 😎.

Local News 📍

Kuwait’s Warba Bank becomes the first Islamic bank to enter the metaverse: Warba, a Kuwait-based Islamic bank, is entering the metaverse with two sites, one each in Decentraland and the Sandbox. A spokesman for Warba Bank said that the bank entered the metaverse because it wanted to serve its younger customers and to be a trendsetter in the digital and virtual transformation of banking services.

Keep an eye on 👀

Bank for International Settlements (BIS) to allow banks to keep 1% of reserves in Bitcoin: BIS, the global umbrella body for central banks, announced that Central Banks can hold up to 1% of their reserves in Bitcoin. Probably nothing.

CoinMENA News 🗞

CoinMENA VISA Card: We are thrilled to announce our partnership with Visa through their Fintech Fast Track program. The partnership will allow us to launch a host of Visa-exclusive services, including the CoinMENA VISA Card, the region’s first crypto card. Users will be able to use the card at millions of merchants worldwide and benefit from the highest security standards of VisaNet. Join the waitlist now to be among the first to receive the CoinMENA VISA Card by signing up at: https://card.coinmena.com/

Win 25% of your trade back! 10 users will get the chance to win 25% of their trade when they place at least one trade within the first 2 weeks of the months of July, August, and September. The 3-month trading period will conclude on 16th September 2022, and the maximum giveaway is 3,000 USD per person.

Tweet of the week 🐥

Quiz Corner ✅

Last week’s question: In which year was Ethereum launched?

Answer: 2015

This week’s question: Which is the oldest cryptocurrency?