CoinMarketCap News, Oct 24: Crypto Cities and Resorts Really Don't Have a Good Track Record

FTX's CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has performed a bit of a U-turn after a crypto regulatory framework he published caused a Twitter storm. Some said SBF's proposal — which called for centralized and decentralized applications to respect U.S. sanctions — went against a core crypto principle of economic freedom. One critic, Erik Voorhees, pointed out that his approach would ban "80 million innocent Iranians from the future of global finance." On Twitter over the weekend, SBF said he had revised his post — and said validators and smart contracts must be "free, permissionless and decentralized." The entrepreneur added that a conversation should be had on innocent people caught in the middle of sanctions.

A former OpenSea employee has failed in his attempts to get a charge of insider trading dismissed. Nate Chastain is accused of buying NFTs that he knew were about to appear on the marketplace's homepage. He allegedly would then sell the collectibles for a profit after they were given a prominent spot. Chastain had asked for a judge to dismiss the indictment, but the request has now been denied. Judge Jesse Jerman said that — while some of his arguments were compelling — it should be up to a jury to decide. Chastain has pushed against prosecutors describing the charges against him as "insider trading" — and claims this is misleading. However, the judge is yet to rule on whether this phrase should be struck from the indictment.

So… you're a crypto project planning to create 60 luxury villas — and sell them in NFT form. You want to give investors confidence. Where should you build them? On the site of the doomed Fyre Festival, apparently. We genuinely can't tell whether this announcement is a publicity stunt or not — but it seems a company called AGIA has snapped up the exact plot of land where the exclusive music event fell to pieces. You may recall horrific pictures of damp mattresses, mass chaos and sorry-looking slices of cheese on bread. AGIA claims this will be the most exclusive enclave in the Caribbean — as well as the world's first 100% tokenized resort. Although it claims to have the backing of the Bahamas' prime minister, we'll believe it when we see it.

Akon caused a splash when he announced plans to build a futuristic metropolis called Akon City back in 2018. But years later, building work is yet to begin. In a new interview, the R&B star has insisted that the first phase of his ambitious project in Senegal is on track to open in 2026. Akon blamed COVID for a lack of progress on construction — but said great strides have been taken on the paperwork side of things. He's claimed construction is due to begin next year — and the city will boast shops, a 10,000 bed hospital, living space, a luxury hotel, and boating docks.  The project had a proposed budget of $6 billion — a mere 30% less than the budget Senegal had in the whole of 2020.

Crypto executives are falling like dominoes right now. The latest CEO to announce he's taking a step back is Polkadot co-founder Gavin Wood. He'll no longer be top dog at Parity Technologies, but says he will retain the role of chief architect. In a blog post, Wood said there were many parts of being CEO that he didn't enjoy — and focusing on coding and creativity was a better match for his skills. Weirdly, Jesse Powell made a similar argument when he resigned as Kraken's CEO after 11 years in the job. Many of the leaders who are taking a step back have expressed a desire to focus on advocacy. But given the bear market, this could also be interpreted as abandoning a sinking ship, rather than helping a company navigate tough times.

Coinbase has announced that it's scrapping transaction fees whenever USDC is bought or sold using fiat. The exchange claims this is part of a move to boost global adoption, with research showing three times more USDC is bought with dollars than other currencies. It fears that the transaction fees associated with converting pounds, euros and yen into USDC "is a barrier to broader international adoption." Coinbase went on to argue that there is "untapped potential" with USDC, and it could be more practical to use than fiat in some countries with unstable currencies. And while transfers through the legacy banking system can take multiple business days to settle, it says USDC transactions can be finalized in under an hour.