GM Readers!📪 It's BitDegree Insider, and let's get to Web3 work.

⭐️Today's selection:

• 🕵Crypto Detective in Trouble
• 🤝DEAL! Binance & SEC
• 💰Venture Mondays
• 👌Selected Meme of The Day
• 📰Bite-Sized News

CRYPTO DETECTIVE

Does the name ZachXBT ring a bell?

It most definitely should. ZachXBT is a crypto sleuth that we've already mentioned in more than one of our previous newsletter issues.

So… What are the news?

Last Friday, ZachXBT posted on his Twitter about a lawsuit… a lawsuit that's filed against Zach himself.

ZachXBT was sued by an artist, a musician, who goes under the name of Machi Big Brother.

And what happened was… Machi Big Brother did not enjoy receiving extra attention from Zach.

Because, in its essence, Zach accused the musician of stealing millions of dollars in Ethereum.

Allegedly, the artist conducted his scheme through the fake crypto platform that was known as Formosa Financial.

So, now, after getting sued, ZachXBT asked all sympathetic people to help him with money for lawyers.

And… It appears that Crypto Twitter knows a thing or two about solidarity.

Crypto Twitter raised over $840K for ZachXBT in less than 24 hours.

And another day later - this figure has already surpassed $1 million.

Crypto-enthusiasts from all over the world responded to the call. This includes prominent members of the industry.

For example, Changpeng Zhao sent $50,000.

He called on ZachXBT to keep on fighting and continue guarding honesty in the crypto-sphere.

Representatives of Bitfinex, Bybit, Coinbase, Kraken, OKX, Uniswap, and 1inch also participated in making donations to help out the famous sleuth.

One funny and crazy thing though.

A few days ago, Machi Big Brother sent all his BAYC NFTs to Binance to support them in their SEC case.

He sent 30 digital art pieces to Binance. In total, they're worth around $5 million.

And now Machi just witnessed CZ not choosing to return him this 'favor of support.". So yeah… Machi probably didn't enjoy that.

CryptoTwitter and its community started saying that such developments are better than whatever you could find on Netflix... for some, this news was the ultimate proof that "We live in a simulation."

Meanwhile, ZachXBT promises to spend the received money only on this case. He will return the remaining funds to the initial sponsors.

TL;DR: Renowned blockchain detective ZachXBT has raised over $1 million in donations from sympathizers around the world. The community supported him in a court case with musician Geoffrey Huang (alias Machi Big Brother).

DEAL! BINANCE & SEC

US Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson delivered a win to Binance.US in its legal battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Key takeaways from this ruling are:

• Access to Private Keys: The agreement reached and sanctioned by the court forbids any global exchange officials from accessing private keys to various wallets.
• Asset Freeze Lifted: Previously, there was a freeze order on all US exchange's assets. The recent ruling has lifted this order.
• Access to Customer Fund: Until the legal proceedings are concluded, only Binance.US employees will have access to customer funds. Throughout this period, US-based users will retain the ability to withdraw their funds.
• Binance Staff Restriction: The agreement has imposed additional restrictions on Binance staff, specifically denying access to wallet private keys, hardware wallets, or root access to Binance.US's Amazon Web Services tools.
• Account Documentation: The ruling also stipulates that Binance.US should take immediate steps to ensure documented record-keeping for accounts associated with BAM entities worth over $1,000.

Celebrating this victory, Binance.US posted a tweet, asserting that the court's decision to deny the SEC's request for a temporary restraining order and asset freeze was "unjustified both factually and legally."

TL;DR: US Federal Judge sides with Binance.US against SEC, denying access to private keys, lifting asset freeze, imposing staff restrictions, and requiring improved account documentation. Binance.US retains control over customer funds, allowing US-based users to withdraw their funds during legal proceedings.

VENTURE MONDAYS

Let's review some of the most recent & impressive investments!

Type 1 zkEVM Taiko raised $22M across two seed rounds led by Sequoia China and Generative Ventures. $10M was raised in Q3 2022 in a round led by Sequoia China. $12M was raised recently in a round led by Generative Ventures.

Taiko has even received praise from Vitalik for their contribution to the industry.

The project has already had two testnet phases, in which tokens had to be bridged, nodes launched, and contracts deployed. Now, Taiko has entered its third testnet phase, which will be decisive in testing several components. Even if you didn't participate in the first two phases, you can still participate now!

• Add the Sepolia testnet and the Taiko Alpha-3 testnet.
• Import token tracking into your wallet by using this data. Text only after "chainid" is relevant.
• Get test $ETH from any of these faucets: 1 2, 3, 4.
• Get test $HORSE and $BULL tokens from the faucet. Test $TTKO tokens can be obtained later.
• Bridge tokens to the Taiko network.
• Go to the website, scroll to the "Steps" section, and choose "Remix". Then deploy a smart contract according to the official guide.

Multichain interoperability protocol Connext raised $7.5M in a Strategic funding round from Polychain Capital, Polygon Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Ethereal Ventures, 1kx, Hashed, Scalar Capital, NGC Ventures, IOSG Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, A Capital, No Limit Holdings (NLH), Factor, Dokia Capital.

Connext announced that they are building "HTTP Web3", developing a communication layer for various blockchain networks.

That is, their goal is to allow programs/apps to interact with finance and data simultaneously across multiple networks.

SELECTED MEME OF THE DAY

BITE-SIZED NEWS

• Binance Sends Cease and Desist Notice to Fraudulent Firm Binance Nigeria Limited. Binance starts legal action against "scammer entity" in Nigeria.
• Coinbase Expresses Frustration over Regulatory Silence from US SEC. The tensions grow.
• Musk's "Scam" Allegation Leads to Twitter Suspension of Memecoin-Linked AI Bot. Dubbed "Explain This Bob," the bot utilizes the advanced GPT-4 model from OpenAI to interact with other users.