42 – The Solana Hack, Regulation news and so many MAJOR partnerships you need to listen to believe it!

Tracey: [00:00:19] Welcome to the Crypto Curious podcast designed to help you navigate the dynamic world of cryptocurrency. We're here for anyone who is interested in crypto at all. May live already dip your toe in the water. Or maybe you don't know anything about it. And this is a very beginning. But we recommend heading back to the very early episodes to get your footing. However, if you think you're ready to dive in headfirst, then let's do it. Today, we'll be giving you a rundown on what's been a huge month of news and just what's happened with that Solana wallet hack. We'll talk to you about some developments in regulation as well as how and if teens are changing the way we interact with sport and ticketing. My name's Tracey and as always, I'm joined by my pals from the Bamboo App, Blake and Craig, who are both, by the way, getting over a cold. So bear with them. Welcome along today, guys. How are you both feeling? 

Blake: [00:01:09] Thanks, Tracy. Definitely on the mend, but still a little bit groggy. But that's okay. 

Tracey: [00:01:15] How you going, Craig?

Craig: [00:01:16] Yeah. Soldiering through. We're going to be spending a lot more nasally than normal. 

Tracey: [00:01:21] But we shall get through it. So let's jump in. July is behind us now, so let's do a quick summary of a couple of winners and a couple losers for the month. We all know that it was a good one for Etherium. They finally scheduled the merge. They had their biggest conference, FCC with lots of exciting news. And we told you a little bit about that last episode and finished the month up 58%, which was pretty amazing. 

Craig: [00:01:48] Another winner in July was Polygon or Matic, which was up 94% for the month. They've got a pretty good business development team figured out probably the best in crypto. They've had deals closed with Mercedes, Reddit and Disney, so that's pretty exciting for them.

Tracey: [00:02:05] Yet that's a pretty big month of partnership. So those are a couple of the winners for the month of July, but there were certainly some losers as well. Blake, who's on that list? 

Blake: [00:02:14] Yeah, there were bankruptcies filed for both Celsius and Voyager, which is obviously not great. And of course, we've been talking about many of the other companies that have been struggling as a result of the liquidity crisis in the sector over the last couple of months. But either a couple that we haven't touched on was coin flex. So Coin Flex is an exchange and they lent a character in the ecosystem named Roger Ver $120 million to trade with that. Rojava is pretty colourful character. He was actually the first guy to translate the Bitcoin whitepaper into Japanese back in 2011, and he is notoriously known for supporting Bitcoin cash and not Bitcoin. So he's found himself in a little bit of trouble. And as well as that one of the Cross-Chain bridges was hacked for $200 million. So these bridges and wormholes get hacked a lot, don't they? 

Tracey: [00:03:11] They do, yeah. Yeah. 

Blake: [00:03:13] So, yeah, you definitely have to be careful about using these bridges when you're going cross-chain because most of them don't have robust security like the, you know, layer one in chains.

Tracey: [00:03:23] Yeah. So it's not been a great start of the month for Solana either. Craig, tell us what's happened there.

Craig: [00:03:28] So one of my favourite darlings, Solana, has fallen victim to one of Crypto's latest hacks. Users reported that their funds were drained without their knowledge from internet connected wallets, including Phantom Slope and Trust Wallet. So people were pretty much loading up the app on their phone, which is their wallet, whether it's the phantom wallet, and seeing the Solana being drained, which is obviously everyone's worst nightmare. Several Solana addresses have been linked to the attack, with almost 7 million at time of recording being taken. And how it was taken was there's a Web three navigator called Slope, and people who have connected their phantom wallet or their trust wallet to Slub, they can see a whole picture of all their assets. They can see that NFT is their crypto holdings, live prices, they can even trade on them. And what happens is people don't disconnect that dot from their wallet. And then what's happened is slope has been compromised and all the wallets that have been connected to Slope have since been drained. [00:04:28][60.3]

Tracey: [00:04:29] The NFT is weren't taken. It was just the money that was taken. [00:04:32][2.8]

Craig: [00:04:32] Right now NFT is as well. So SPL tokens, which is an NFT. [00:04:36][4.1]

Tracey: [00:04:37] But not actual pictures of NFT and things just. Yeah. [00:04:40][2.5]

Craig: [00:04:40] So a solana nft is an SBL token, so they were taken as well. But Trace, have you ever used slope before? [00:04:48][7.9]

Tracey: [00:04:48] No, I'm just. But I do have a phantom wallet with some NFT on it. [00:04:53][4.8]

Craig: [00:04:53] Yeah, but if you've never even heard of slope before, then you'd be fine because you've never connected to that. But what I do. It is what I heard about this. I went to my phantom wallet and I disconnected my wallet from I was actually connected to, like 12 websites that I completely forgotten about. That is red hot. So, Blake, how could we protect ourselves from this? [00:05:12][18.4]

Blake: [00:05:13] Yeah, so just in a more general sense. Well, it's saying that, you know, you should only use it for transacting with or keeping small amounts in. You shouldn't hold funds in a hot wallet because they're the, you know, by definition, the most insecure type of wallet. So secondly, just make sure that, you know, you're keeping your your wallets tidy and disconnecting, like you mentioned, from websites or dapps. You know, when we go into a dapp, like a decentralised exchange or another sort of programme, you know, often you grant them access to your wallet and it's probably not so common to disconnect once you've collected it. Yeah. When there's exploits like this, these are the type of maintenance things that you need to do in order to keep your funds safe. So, yeah, definitely saying to keep your eye on. [00:06:02][49.1]

Tracey: [00:06:02] Yeah. Really good advice there that we should all adhere to. Moving on and some more big news developments with regard to regulation. And this is something that we like to keep a keen eye on here at the crypto curious. Senators in the US have introduced a crypto bill in the last couple of days that extends the CFTC regulator's power, and the CFTC is the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. Blake, can you tell us exactly what this bill tells us and how it may change things? [00:06:31][28.6]

Blake: [00:06:32] Yeah, for sure. So and in the US there's been a little bit of competition between two of the regulators, the CFTC and the SEC. So the SEC generally manages the regulation around securities like equities, like companies stocks, and the CFTC manages, you know, all the regulation around trading commodities like iron or oil, because crypto doesn't fit really nicely into either definition of being a security or a commodity. There's been a little bit of tension between the two regulators around who should be regulating the technology. Now, of course, some crypto tokens can be classed as securities and others as commodities. But today, the primary assets in this ecosystem like Bitcoin, Ethereum, have been classed as commodities. So what seems to have happened here is that the legislation around what the CFTC regulates and how it regulates is being extended so that they have more powers to then manage what's happening in the ecosystem, particularly around consumer protection, which is extremely important. Now, of course, there's a lot of ambiguity in relation to the policies that have been put forward because it is, you know, we're still in the early stages of regulating this technology. However, it is a step in a very defined direction. And what we would expect from here is once the legislation is passed, that then other countries start to look towards the US about how they regulate these assets locally. So yeah, definitely interesting to watch. And you know, a lot of the crypto industry like FCX and other major players have been working with regulators and senators and politicians in order to push these bills forward. [00:08:20][108.1]

Tracey: [00:08:20] Yeah, it definitely was some big news and crypto Twitter was pretty vocal when this came out. I think everyone thinks this is a step in the right direction to tighten those consumer protection laws. Craig, have you got any thoughts on this one? [00:08:35][14.8]

Craig: [00:08:36] Yeah. So as Blake mentioned, Sam from is all over it. He's donated millions to Joe Biden and other politicians. I think he's lobbying some people in the government, I reckon trace that all of these exchanges are just begging for regulation so they can be the first ones to onramp all the institutions because, you know, of course, it's consumer protection. But at the end of the day, these exchanges want to get the crypto space to a place where they can start to welcome the big firms like BlackRock, Jp morgan, etc.. [00:09:06][30.7]

Tracey: [00:09:07] Funny that. Let's move on. Segway. Another piece of big news. BlackRock, the world's largest money manager, announced a partnership with Coinbase Global, allowing its clients to buy Bitcoin. Now this is a big deal for institutional investment. In the same week, Coinbase Prime has also added Etherium to its expanding list of staking options for its institutional clients. So this really is a big one. Craig And you mentioned it because it's bringing in institutional investors. [00:09:36][29.6]

Craig: [00:09:37] Yeah, exactly right. And Coinbase, which is like 80% down from its all time high, the stock sorry, had a big pump. It's up 100%. So people are now only down 79% from the US. But Coinbase obviously the one to prime themselves. They're the first crypto exchange to be listed on a major stock market. They've already got a bunch of institutional clients and institutional product as well, so they're well placed there. It's probably going to be them versus FCX, I think for the. [00:10:09][31.6]

Tracey: [00:10:10] What are your thoughts here, Blake? [00:10:10][0.9]

Blake: [00:10:11] Yeah. Pretty amazing stuff that they've partnered with BlackRock. You know, the thesis there is that, you know, over time a percentage of BlackRock's a um will come across to crypto and if they've built the gate in order to facilitate that trade volume, then, you know, it's pretty amazing accomplishment, in my opinion. And yeah, it's just going to be really interesting to see, you know, the uptake from I believe it's a platform that BlackRock has where their customers can. [00:10:40][29.0]

Tracey: [00:10:41] I think it's called Aladdin. So the group of customers are that primo group called Aladdin. [00:10:45][4.1]

Blake: [00:10:45] Yes, it'd be really interesting to see what the actual uptake is. Yeah. [00:10:49][3.4]

Tracey: [00:10:49] Yeah. Good to see. Let's take a break there. And when we get back, we'll talk about how NFT will make your future sporting and concert experiences a whole lot more enjoyable. Welcome back. You're listening to Australia's number one crypto podcast, The Crypto Curious. So Binance has jumped into NFT ticketing and partnered with football club Lazio for the 2022 and 23 season. This is all come about after UEFA league drama caused counterfeit tickets in the Champions League this year. Now, Craig, honestly this to you, because this is right up your alley. Can you tell us a little more? [00:11:26][36.6]

Craig: [00:11:26] Yeah, let's I'll just provide a bit of context on that Champions League situation. So it was Liverpool versus Real Madrid, Liverpool's my team, I'm tragic Liverpool fan, which we did lose that game. But essentially what happened was it was in Paris and there was like so many counterfeit tickets and people couldn't get in. And then people who had real tickets from the players, even the players families couldn't get in. So then people with real tickets started jumping the fence and then people with counterfeit tickets started jumping the fence and it was just a nightmare and extremely unsafe. Insane. My favourite use case for NFT is is ticketing because I try to get second hand tickets. Of course they're going to be ten grand to go to the game. Now the NFT ticketing clubs and competitions are incentivised to provide users with a safe and secure platform to buy second hand tickets. Because of course, you're paying overs and there's a risk of it being counterfeit. And Bonnet's, which is partnered with Rinaldo Lazio, I think a few other Spanish clubs as well, they're really trying to be the leader in the space. And apart from that, you know, they've also facilitated fan tokens. I'm sure if you go on Binance, you can see there's like an Inter Milan fan token, a Barcelona fan token. So they're trying to create this crypto ecosystem where NFT tickets will be not only your ticket but store and match discounts, giveaways and real experiences. [00:12:49][82.4]

Tracey: [00:12:50] You know what they're going to do as well now it's going to be a forgotten what it's called. It's actually a name for it, but it's going to be a little chip that's in your jersey. You can buy like the jersey for the year. It's in New Jersey. So when you walk up, it just scans the NFT that's in your jersey as well. So it's like a real time, which is pretty cool. [00:13:07][17.0]

Blake: [00:13:07] I've bought a pair of sneakers and they have one of those is in them. No. [00:13:11][3.4]

Tracey: [00:13:11] Yeah, that is so cool. What brand are they. [00:13:14][3.0]

Blake: [00:13:15] Golden goose are. [00:13:15][0.8]

Craig: [00:13:15] Buying you too much. [00:13:16][0.5]

Tracey: [00:13:16] Black knight rolling in it rolling. Yes I call these actually rolls into that Ticketmaster story with the NFT. I've got to admit I don't actually know what's going on there. What are they doing in this space? [00:13:27][11.3]

Blake: [00:13:28] Yeah, we don't actually really know yet, but they're hiring ahead of NFT for ticketing. So this is really interesting because I think what you were talking to Craig is that ticketing is with NFT is going to be really important and potentially the future of ticketing, you know, how we manage our tickets moving forward, you know, instead of, you know, downloading a PDF and then trying to figure out how to print it out to take to the gate, you'll simply have an NFT that wraps up your ticket. And then when you get to the gate, you'll be able to transfer it at that point in time. And, you know, I really like this idea because, you know, keeping memories from the concerts and the events that you've been to is really difficult when you have like physical bits of paper that you've printed off or wristbands going mouldy on your wrist, at least with NFT is you can keep a copy of them. So you have a gallery of all the events that you've been to over the years, which would be really cool. So I think I'm really excited to see what they end up bringing to market. [00:14:29][61.1]

Craig: [00:14:30] That's a really good idea. We could come to a stage where if you've been to an event, they could airdrop you the event video. A live version? [00:14:36][6.9]

Tracey: [00:14:37] Yeah, a live version of it. [00:14:38][1.3]

Craig: [00:14:38] Or the next event that you go to, if you've had it in your wallet from previous, you get a discount on the next event. [00:14:44][5.4]

Tracey: [00:14:44] Yeah, I bet that'll be something like that. [00:14:46][1.5]

Blake: [00:14:46] Or it could be like the single that was dropped at the at the concert, you know, might be dropped into your wallet, you know. [00:14:51][5.2]

Tracey: [00:14:51] So you have that you've got to pay for. You've got an option there. You get the first release. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely. We're so good at marketing. Okay. Next up are our short, sharp news bites on today. We have a lot of them, so let's try and get through them because it's been a big week of news. Craig, your first off to bat, what do you have? [00:15:10][18.8]

Craig: [00:15:10] So yeah, back to Savannah. They are launching their own real life stores called Salon Spaces. The very first salon space is opening up in New York. And the goal is to onboard new users, to the salon ecosystem and to sell their new mobile phone. So at the store you'll be able and house a lot of work. So set your wallet up for you, the buyer first and NFT and you can you know, interact with crypto in the store as well. So it'll be like bit like Apple but for crypto very cool. [00:15:38][27.6]

Tracey: [00:15:38] Like what do you got? [00:15:39][0.5]

Blake: [00:15:39] Online brokerage Robinhood has laid off a quarter of their staff, so the company is in the second round of laying people off with a thousand people so far. Now, Robinhood was notoriously famous for allowing people to trade options on coins like Dogecoin. So I can certainly understand. That, you know, now the markets cooled off. Why they're having to let go of some of their some of their workforce. It'll be interesting to see if they posture differently for the next cycle. [00:16:11][31.3]

Tracey: [00:16:11] And moving on to some super cool news that everyone was talking about this week with Tiffany and Co. Luxury jewellery brand announced a NFT launch and a collection that they did exclusively with cryptopunks holders. So quite an unusual partnership. The collection has a supply of only 250 and is priced at 30 ETH, which is equivalent to around about 50,000 US at time of recording. So buying the NFT will allow you to redeem a physical pendant designed and crafted by Tiffany and CO, which resembles a crypto punk. So as it turns out, the mastermind behind this initiative is actually an executive vice president of Production and Communication who actually owns a crypto punk and bought one back in January. So that's pretty cool. Everyone was talking about this week. It's kind of a weird pairing, but this will sell out instantly in a couple of days when it goes live and yeah, really interesting. Like you want to get a comment there my. [00:17:07][55.7]

Blake: [00:17:07] NA just like you know it sounds like this this executive at Tiffany encouraged just trying to try to pump his bags by, you know, doing this collaboration. [00:17:16][8.6]

Tracey: [00:17:17] Hi, everyone. Everyone seems to love this one. What do you reckon Craig mean? [00:17:20][3.6]

Craig: [00:17:21] Tiffany and Co, isn't it? It's for females, right? So like, why would a crypto punk like, I don't know if many crypto punk holders are females. I don't know if there's any overlap. 

Tracey: [00:17:30] You watch this, this is going to you watch this go east is going to go like this to sell out instantly. Let's see how this goes.

Craig: [00:17:36] I think it will sell. Oh, actually, they're probably doing it for the crypto punk holders wives. 

Tracey: [00:17:41] Not this is the marketing on this was amazing and the way that they did this it was really, really well done. Watch this space. What have you got for us? You're up next. Right?

Craig: [00:17:50] So Kucoin is launching NFT fractional ownership platform so you can own a fraction of a bought ape or a crypto punk. The Global Crypto Exchange announced the launch of its NFT ETF trading zone last week. The new product aims to improve liquidity of NFT assets and lower the investment threshold to the 20 million user base. So a lot of people are trying to do this. 

Blake: [00:18:15] But yeah, maybe it's saying that we should do a member.

Craig: [00:18:18] Dollar cost averaging to a out. Yeah, yeah. That's, that's too. And I think that's a bit too deja yeah. 

Tracey: [00:18:24] To I think we stick with the big guys. 

Blake: [00:18:26] Speaking of big guys, Michael Saylor is stepping down from MicroStrategy. So as you may or may not know, Microstrategy's, NASDAQ listed software firm and CEO Michael Saylor has notoriously invested a large portion of his balance sheet into Bitcoin over the last couple of years. Now he's been very, very focussed on this and I think they are at a total of 129,000 bitcoins that they bought for an average of 30,000 USD. And he is stepping down as CEO so he can focus more on the company's Bitcoin investment strategy and he'll be moving up to be a chairman of the board so he won't be involved in day to day operations so much and probably just spending more time thinking about how he can leverage the company's balance sheet to purchase more bitcoins. 

Tracey: [00:19:21] That was big news in the crypto world. So this is another good one for me because it's my favourite band. But indie rock band Muse have announced plans to release an NFT version of their new album, Will of the People, and this is a first of its kind. The Non-Fungible token edition of the band's ninth LP will become the first release of its kind to qualify for the charts in the UK. So the Muse album will retail for around about £20 and will be limited to only a thousand copies globally when it's released on the 26th of August, six days after my birthday, and will be sold on the Platform Serenade, which is I think it's an Aussie platform. So that's an interesting one to keep an eye out for. 

Craig: [00:20:03] Craig For sure, yeah. Starbucks, which is one of the world's biggest coffee chains, are the next brand to enter the Web3 space. They've got 27.4 million active rewards members trace that's that makes floorboards look a bit small and they're going to try to onboard them with NFT. So the looking at airdropping NFT is Starbucks rewards holders just another brand trying to get amongst that? I think. 

Tracey: [00:20:30] It's huge. That's big news. Big, big news. Yeah. Like.

Blake: [00:20:33] All right. And one small piece of news to finish on is NFT Dotcom has been purchased for $50 million. That's the second largest public domain sale of all time. So, yeah, watch this space. Yeah. 

Tracey: [00:20:49] I wonder who purchased that one. There you go, everybody. We have made it through this week's episode. And once again, please reach out and let us know if you. Think we missed any news from this week? Send us an email at podcast at Get Bamboo Dot IO and make sure you join us in our Facebook group, which is growing in numbers each week. It's been some good conversations in there. So thanks again for listening and we'll see you next week. 

Craig: [00:21:17] Bye. See you guys. 

Tracey: [00:21:19] See you later.