Hey Waivly Crew! 🌊 The U.S. has charged a Russian national with transmitting more than $700M in illicit crypto funds. Rarible's community marketplace builder is now available to NFT collections on Polygon.
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Rarible adds marketplace builder for Polygon NFT collections
NFT marketplace Rarible has announced the launch of a zero-code marketplace builder for Polygon-based collections.
Originally launched on Ethereum last August, the community marketplace builder lets NFT collection owners create their own marketplace with no coding involved and no fees charged by Rarible.
Rarible's community marketplaces also have built-in liquidity via orders aggregated across other NFT marketplaces, such as OpenSea, x2y2, Rarible, and LooksRare. So if a collection is listed on OpenSea, those same orders will be automatically displayed on the community marketplace.
Explaining the reason behind the expansion, Rarible cited the recent growth of NFTs on Polygon: “We firmly believe in the role of Ethereum-based chains in growing the NFT space, and Polygon's recent success with onboarding both web2 (Nike, Reddit) and Web3 (y00ts) giants makes us even more bullish."
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Crypto Special
National Australia Bank to launch stablecoin on Ethereum & Algorand
The National Australia Bank (NAB) will soon become the second major bank in the country to launch a stablecoin.
The stablecoin, dubbed AUDN, will launch on the Ethereum and Alogrand blockchains in the middle of 2023.
Howard Silby, NAB’s chief innovation officer, told the Australian Financial Review that AUDN will allow customers to settle transactions on the blockchain in real-time, using Australian dollars.
“We certainly believe there are elements of blockchain technology that will form part of the future of finance,” said Silby. “That continues to be the source of some debate. But certainly, from our point of view, we see [blockchain] has the potential to deliver instantaneous, transparent, inclusive, financial outcomes.”
NAB will be the second of Australia’s big four banks to launch a stablecoin. In March 2022, New Zealand Banking Group teamed up with crypto custodian Fireblocks to mint its own, dubbed A$DC.
U.S. authorities arrest founder of crypto exchange Bitzlato
U.S. authorities have arrested the co-founder of Hong Kong-registered cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato for allegedly processing $700 million in illicit funds.
Anatoly Legkodymov, a Russian national living in China, was arrested in Miami on Tuesday on charges that he operated the exchange as an unlicensed money-transmitting business that catered to "known crooks."
Prosecutors said Bitzlato exchanged more than $700 million in crypto with Hydra Market, a darknet marketplace that was shut down in April 2022. Bitzlato also received more than $15 million in ransomware proceeds.
"Institutions that trade in cryptocurrency are not above the law, and their owners are not beyond our reach," U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said at a press conference on Wednesday, adding:
"As alleged, Bitzlato sold itself to criminals as a no-questions-asked cryptocurrency exchange, and reaped hundreds of millions of dollars worth of deposits as a result. The defendant is now paying the price for the malign role that his company played in the cryptocurrency ecosystem."
Legkodymov made his first appearance Wednesday at a federal court in Florida and was ordered to be detained. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison if convicted.
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