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Hey There!
Welcome to Clutch’s weekly Pocket News. 
It’s been a big week in crypto news!
Binance announces their intent to acquire FTX
, the Feds seize $3.36 billion in Bitcoin from a hacker 
, and the crypto markets are down again
.
In Clutch News, we just incorporated a Sardine upgrade, and our Art Basel getaway winner was announced!
In community updates, Surge is giving passport holders early access to Alchemy University, and BFF has a Twitter Space coming up on Royalties & the Ethics of AI-Generated Art.
A non-custodial social wallet offering users an all-encompassing transacting experience underpinned by social, media, education, and seamless web3 integration.
We just integrated Sardine into our wallet! Sardine will be used through our “Buy” functionality, allowing instant ACH bank transfers to buy crypto. Sardine built the fraud prevention and compliance infrastructure that scaled both Coinbase and Revolut, so we are so excited for you to try this new secure feature!
Mavion #765 holder won our Art Basel Getaway! We’re excited to provide this lucky NFT holder a Web3 experience IRL! 
Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao announced Sunday that Binance is liquidating all of their FTT holdings. Subsequently, there was seemingly a plot twist on Tuesday when CZ announced Binance’s intention to fully acquire FTX. This quick turn of events points to the offloading of FTT being a strategic move for Binance and FTX, rather than, as some Twitter users implied, an attack on FTX.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) seized stolen Bitcoin after a raid on the residence of James Zhong. This Bitcoin was allegedly stolen in the 2016 hack of Bitfinex. Silk Road launched in 2011 and was shut down in 2013. According to the press release, Zhong created nine fraudulent accounts on Silk Road, funding each with between 200 and 2,000 bitcoin. DOJ also stated in their press release this was the largest cryptocurrency seizure in DOJ history and the second largest financial seizure overall. The third largest by the government was the seizure of over a billion dollars from the Powerball winner in Cali.
Meta is allowing the minting and selling of NFTs directly through Instagram. This new NFT feature allows users to connect their digital wallets and display their NFTs on their page. Not only that, but NFT creators can sell their NFTs directly through the Instagram market. The feature also provides a toolkit for creating, selling, and displaying NFTs. Meta will not charge a fee for selling NFTs until 2024, but NFTs purchased through the App Store on iOS will be subject to App Store fees.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin tweeted that he doesn’t oppose the $8/mo verification requirement, but verification should come with proper vetting to avoid verifying scammer accounts. This is a response to the high number of cryptocurrency scams on the platform through fake accounts, including fake Vitalik accounts. The news of Twitter’s verification standard change comes before the social media company laid off half of its staff and discontinued remote work.
Surge is giving their passport holders early access to Alchemy University!
Nargiza Schmidt
