Arbitrum anger after $1bn ARB self-allocation, Elon Musk asks judge to throw out $258bn Dogecoin case

Arbitrum Foundation reverses plans after $1bn ARB self-allocation vote

Leading layer 2 protocol Arbitrum saw major tumult in its community on Sunday, as a controversial governance package was widely rejected by holders of recently released ARB token.

The Arbitrum Foundation — a centralised entity which promotes Arbitrum and has considerable voting power — posted a mock-vote or “ratification” after it implemented a function that saw almost $1 billion in ARB tokens sent to itself.

The foundation was met with swift criticism on many platforms following the action.

It has since pledged to undo the transfer and divide it into a series of smaller votes and allocations.

Elon Musk asks judge to throw out $258bn Dogecoin lawsuit

On Friday, Elon Musk asked a US judge to throw out a $258 billion lawsuit levied against him in regards to his promotion of Dogecoin.

The tech tycoon’s lawyers cited the vague nature of his tweets regarding the coin, which they maintain were not explicit endorsements.

Investors accuse Musk of deliberately driving the coin’s price up and profiting from it prior to allegedly crashing it himself.

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NY Judge says US Attorney attempt to halt Voyager-Binance deal has ‘merit’

A New York judge said the government’s attempt to void the $1 billion deal that would see Binance.US buy the assets of crypto lender Voyager has “substantial case on the merits.”

Judge Jennifer Rearden expressed sympathy in court on Friday toward a US attorney’s argument that the deal would render Voyager immune by exculpating it from breaches of tax or securities law.

A bankruptcy judge allowed the sale of Voyager’s assets to Binance.US in early March, citing the need to process the deal quickly to ensure investors were properly compensated, but government regulators are appealing the decision.

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Justin Sun denies talks to sell Huobi Global stake

Justin Sun has denied being in talks to sell a stake of exchange Huobi Global.

The crypto magnate made the statement on Twitter after Bloomberg reported on Saturday that Sun had held talks about selling a stake in Huobi.

Sun’s stake or role in the company is unclear, though the investor has poured considerable sums of money into the exchange over the past year, including a $1 billion stake purchase in October 2022.

Huobi has struggled since a 2021 China crypto ban which saw the exchange’s market share drop from 22% to 4%.

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Q1 sees $370m in crypto losses and exploits

The space saw $370 million in exploits and losses in the first quarter of 2023, down from $5 billion in Q4 2022. Much of the losses this year are owed to Euler Finance’s $197 million hack in March— though close to half has been recovered with the exploiter apologising and returning funds. Late 2022 told a different story, when exchange FTX’s collapse wiped out investors and protocols alike in an industry-shaking reckoning.

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Bittrex says goodbye to US amidst ‘unclear’ regulatory environment

Crypto exchange Bittrex is leaving the US due to increased regulations, the company said in a tweet on Friday.

Co-founder and US CEO Richie Lai tweeted as well, lamenting US regulatory requirements as “often unclear and enforced without discussion or input,” and committed to staying with the company in its continuing overseas operations.

Bittrex was fined in October 2022 for failing to prevent customers from sanctioned countries — such as Iran and Cuba — from accessing the platform.

More web3 news from around the web…

Policymakers didn’t regulate crypto ‘because they thought it would essentially die’: Barclays head of digital policy — Decrypt

Crypto funding: Ledger and EigenLabs lead $227 million in investments — Blockworks

USDC’s depeg laid bare the risks traditional finance poses to stablecoins — CoinDesk