Ep. 191 A Chilling Effect
On this episode of the Unhashed Podcast: Poolin is shrinkin', shady shit at Celsius started way sooner than most people imagined, and, Coinbase plays white knight for Tornado Cash and the 2nd amendment. Also, does the Tornado Cash arrests explain dev disappearances?
Via Decrypt.c , Poolin – a Beijing-based Bitcoin mining pool that’s responsible for 10% of the overall Bitcoin network hash rate – announced a freeze on user withdrawals on Monday. Mining pools are groups of miners that unite their efforts around one network node to mine as much Bitcoin as possible. The miners then share the spoils—but only if the pool operator has the will and means to distribute them. Poolin said it was “facing some liquidity issues” due to rising demand for withdrawals, and announced a number of measures in order to stabilize its operations. These included pausing withdrawals from its Pool Account, and temporarily suspending its BTC and ETH balance payouts. “The daily mined coins after September 6th will be normally paid out per day,” pool operators later clarified, adding that coins besides the top two cryptocurrencies were not affected. Direct Press Release from Poolin - As you may have known, Poolin Wallet is currently facing some liquidity problems due to recent increasing demands on withdrawals. But please be assured, all user assets are safe and the company's net worth is positive. Though Poolin mining pool services are not much affected, to serve the goal of stabilizing liquidity and operation, we are bringing the followings ZERO fee promotions and settlement adjustments. ZEROfee for BTC and ETH Time: Sept 8th, 2022-Dec 7th, 2022 To: All clients that are mining BTC and ETH on Poolin and the fee will be applied automatically. Note: ZERO fee also applies to other coins that may take ETH hashrate after its transition to PoS. Exclusive one year ZERO fee offer for the following BTC and ETH clients. Time: Sept 8th, 2022-Sept 7th, 2023 To: Clients with more than 1 BTC or 5 ETH assets in pool balance or in Pool Account. Fee will be applied by contacting Poolin team members. Note: ZERO fee also applies to other coins that may take ETH hashrate after its transition to PoS.
A bombshell new filing by the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation in the Chapter 11 proceedings of the collapsed Celsius Network makes the case that the crypto lender was effectively insolvent, not just after the crypto market declines of early 2022 but as early as 2019. The Crypto Lending firm admitted to investigators “that the company had never earned enough revenue to support the yields being paid to investors.” The filing further claims that its financial analysis “suggests that at least at some points in time, yields to existing [Celsius] investors were probably being paid with the assets of new investors.”
From TheBlock.co , Several employees of leading crypto exchange Coinbase are filing suit to roll back last month's Tornado Cash sanctions. Coinbase itself is financially backing the suit. The lawsuit centers on a novel argument: Whether the U.S. government can target recurring code for national security purposes. The employees filed their suit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. “People, or entities, or properties are fair game. Code is not,” Paul Grewal, Coinbase‘s chief legal officer, told The Block. The case comes exactly one month after the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added Tornado Cash to its specially designated nationals list, saying the decentralized crypto mixer ""has been used to launder more than $7 billion worth of virtual currency.""