Rug Radio Recap - December 18, 2022

gm! It's been another eventful week in Web3 and we're here to recap the top stories...

• SBF was arrested on multiple fraud charges

• Donald Trump launches digital trading cards

• It's Town Hall Week! We've got the latest updates about what we've been up to including our quarterly report and the official release of our rewards program. Cory Van Lew also drops by to talk about our "Faces of Web3" PFP drop.

Note: Blur volume is likely inflated due to farming/wash trading for the upcoming airdrop and is estimated to be 2 - 3 times less than recorded.

SBF Arrested

On Monday, the Royal Bahamas Police Force released a statement announcing the arrest of SBF at the request of US Attorney SDNY based on a sealed indictment and that he will likely face extradition to the US. Here's the latest...

• The unsealed indictment charges SBF with multiple counts of fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering

• The SEC and CFTC also filed separate complaints charging SBF with violating securities and commodities laws

• FTX co-CEO alerted authorities about the mishandling of funds 2 days before FTX went bankrupt

• FTX is now petitioning to sell subsidiaries companies potentially benefiting creditors

• In the first court hearing, SBF opted to not waive his right to extradition meaning that an extradition hearing would be held on February 8, 2023. This also meant that he was denied bail as it would violate a treaty with the US.

• On Saturday, SBF decided to reverse his decision to contest extradition after just 4 days in Fox Hill Prison, according to Reuters.

Donald Trump launches digital trading cards

On Thursday, Donald Trump launched a 45,000 piece NFT collection featuring the former US President in a variety of fantasy costumes and scenes. Each NFT was minted on Polygon and priced at $99, and sold out in less than 24 hours raising a total of $4.5 million. As of Saturday night, the collection has done over 5,000 ETH in secondary volume on OpenSea, including a 37 ETH and 20 ETH sale, at one point reaching a floor of .82 ETH.

Each NFT is an entry into a sweepstakes for dinners, cocktail hours, golf, meetings, and more with Trump. Additionally, holding 45 cards guarantees a ticket to a gala dinner.

The drop wasn't completely smooth though as there was quite a bit of confusion and issues accessing and transferring them using Torus wallet. Also, after looking closer at some of the images, a few people found the remnants of watermarks from the art.

GaryVee wrote an article giving his thoughts on the year in NFTs and what to expect in 2023.

Consensys, developer of MetaMask, announced a partnership with PayPal to integrate another method to buy crypto directly within the MetaMask mobile app.

TIMEPieces partnered with Deepak Chopra for the their newest NFT project, The Seven Collection, which includes 73 artists and commemorates the 25th anniversary of The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success.

To comply with EU regulations, Apple plans to allow iOS apps from outside the App Store in it's iOS 17 update, a potentially positive development for Web3 mobile apps.

It's Town Hall Week!

While Twitter Spaces wasn't working, we improvised and hosted via a live video broadcast. Here's what we have in this week's Town Hall...

• Quarterly report and new voting quorum proposal

• Announcing the official release of the Rewards Program

• Cory Van Lew drops by talk about the Faces of Web3

Updated DAO Quorum Proposal

An updated quorum proposal will be going live on Snapshot this evening EST (tentatively) that will give the DAO a more workable quorum, based on current participation rates. We'll be sure to send out an email, in addition to making announcements on Discord and Twitter, once the proposal is live.

Don't forget to convert your $RUG to $RDAO on the Syndicate claim site so that you're able to participate in the vote (just be sure to save some $RUG for the PFP mint!).

P.S. We made some changes to give all of you a better newsletter experience, including a new site where every edition can be easily accessed and shared. If you have any feedback, let us know!😊