GM, frens! Ambire here once again with our weekly newsletter. Today we’ll be talking about Kraken and CEXes moving out of Canada, German communications giant becoming a validator on Polygon, Nansen analytics firm firing 30% of its staff, Reddit achieving 10 million NFT sales, Binance delisting privacy coins and Gamestop entering the WEB3 gaming space. As well as some other things, of course. Let’s get down to it:

Canadians are flocking to Kraken while other big exchanges close their doors

Kraken is getting the last laugh as its rivals dash for the exits. With Binance and OKX both announcing their departure from Canada, Kraken is cashing in on the benefits of staying put with customer deposits rising by 25% and a fivefold increase in mobile app downloads since March. It looks like pesky regulations don't stand a chance against Kraken's desire to serve the Canadian market.

Canada is tightening up on crypto trading, but Kraken seems to be okay with that as the company has been in Canada for over 10 years and is now a recognized money services business.

One of the new rules set out by the CSA (Canadian Securities Administrators) that did not go well with other exchanges was the requirement to store a large proportion of client assets with a third-party custodian. Kraken has already been using a third-party custodian for years, so this new rule did not change anything for them.

One positive aspect of this news is that it could prompt Canadian crypto users to place more importance on self-custody and understanding the importance of private keys. This is because the only way to guarantee complete safety of your funds is by securing them through private keys, and no amount of regulations would be able to counter this.

The company has been on a blockchain-integration spree since 2021, with partnerships and support for Ethereum, Chainlink, Q, Celo, and Flow. We can only assume that Deutsche Telekom wasn't satisfied yet, and that it's still bullish on blockchain.

Blockchain tech has had a hard time keeping up with the breakneck growth of AI, but it looks like Polygon is doing a better job than most. Polygon built relationships with big-name companies during the recent DeFi boom, and it's now helping them use blockchain to their advantage.

Become a Beta Tester: Ambire Mobile Exclusive Beta is Around The Corner

You read correctly: the Ambire Wallet mobile apps for iOS and Android are coming soon!

What’s so special about Ambire Mobile? It brings account abstraction features to the table and introduces a sleek UX that will please both the crypto newcomers and the degens.

Initially, the apps will only be available for a private beta testing. We know many in the web3 community would like to become early testers - join our Ambire Community on Discord to register your interest now or leave us your email address to be the first one to know when they drop!

Nansen fires 30% of its staff, citing money issues

Nansen has announced that they are taking a drastic measure to combat their financial woes - by getting rid of 30% of their workforce.

Nansen is a blockchain data analytics platform that was founded in 2020 and had a headcount of between 51 and 200 employees before the cuts. These employees were mostly responsible for analyzing wallets across various blockchains, as well as providing clients (such as media) with market insights.

But despite the cuts, CEO Alex Svanevik remains optimistic. “Nansen is a young and learning organization. We'll face challenges along the way, but we're here to build a new financial fabric for the world" he said. With $88.2 million in total funding collected over the past few years, Nansen has a good amount of runway to continue building their platform, although it's still unclear what new initiatives the company will be undertaking now that their staff has been reduced.

Who said NFTs were just a fad? Reddit hits 10M in NFT sales

Social platform Reddit is proving the skeptics wrong with its huge success in launching its own series of non-fungible tokens, affectionately known as Reddit Collectibles. Launched in July 2022, the series has achieved staggering heights within its the last year - almost 10,000,000 users now own a Reddit Collectible, and the market cap has soared to $38,466,577.

The Senses collection has been a particular stand-out in the series, with poieeeyee and Foustlings not far behind. Besides the sales of the mentioned collections, Reddit also joined forces with video game publisher Ubisoft, releasing the much-loved Rabbids NFT collection. Featuring those iconic alien rabbits and their signature red plungers, the collection has been a massive hit.

From Reddit's first experiment with NFTs to now delivering millions of non-fungible tokens to its users, the platform has certainly come a long way in their journey to Web3. Who said NFTs were just a fad? Our frens over at Reddit are proving them wrong.

Binance is delisting privacy coins, what's going on?

Binance has decided to stop trading privacy coins (like Decred, Dash, Zcash, Horizen, PIVX, Navcoin, Secret, Verge, Firo, Beam and Monero) i.e the coins of those blockchains that obfuscate user data and their transactions.

The privacy party is over, at least in France, Italy, Poland and Spain. Binance has sent out emails to its customers in these countries, notifying them that they’ll no longer be able to trade any of the aforementioned assets on its platform.

The reason? Well, it’s because of those pesky regulations again. In the email, Binance mentioned that they could not offer these privacy-enhanced cryptos in compliance with local regulatory requirements.

But what does this mean for privacy coins? Is Binance's decision the beginning of the end for these currencies? Probably not, but still it's a sizeable blow to the privacy coin community. It's a reminder that governments and regulators still want to hold the reins when it comes to crypto and blockchain-related activities.

Gamestop is entering WEB3 gaming

Gamestop is partnering up with Telos to pilot a new game launcher called GameStop Playr. Playr is intended to be the vehicle to "deliver AAA Studio games through the platform utilizing Telos blockchain as the core infrastructure."

Gamestop pivoted to crypto a little more than a year ago, partnered with Immutable X to launch an NFT marketplace, and now they're entering the world of WEB3 gaming. Also, if you think about this, Gamestop has to be the only brand that transitioned from traditional brick-and-mortar stores to web3 and blockchain technology.

Currently, Playr has not specified any particular games that are available on their platform. However, some gambling platforms like W3Poker and OwlDAO, as well as the mobile game Monkey Empire, are compatible or considered to be "close to fully integrated" on the Telos blockchain, so maybe they can be expected to show up there.

We'll have to wait and see if GameStop Playr will become the next big thing, but if the past is any indication, it looks like things could get pretty wild.

The fun page: our weekly meme collection

Other worthy reads:

Scammers steal $16M through various exploits in May, according to PeckShield

Ethereum has apparently generated $2B in fees over the last year

Some interesting data on memecoins from CG

That's all for now, frens.

We'll see you next week. And remember, the market conditions are temporary, but our commitment to building a better DeFi is here to stay. Thanks for joining us and we look forward to seeing you back next week. Cheers!

Yours, The 🔥 Team

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