Good morning, and welcome to Protocol Fintech. This Monday: the Tornado Cash fallout, Mastercard’s controversial “buy now, pay later” move and the profits in Brazil’s Pix payments.
Off the chain
Crypto consolidation is here. Huobi is reportedly looking to sell a majority stake in the crypto exchange, which could fetch a value of as much as $3 billion. The rebound in everything from bitcoin to Coinbase’s market cap has given some confidence that the crypto market found its bottom earlier this year. But there are still swirling questions about what makes a crypto exchange valuable: the number of wallets, the breadth of its product offering, the pricing on trades? With some air taken out of the market, we might be able to pin down more answers.
— Owen Thomas (email | twitter)
Don’t get it twisted
The sanctioning of cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash last week sent cryptoland spinning into a tizzy. Mixers are not only for criminals, many were quick to point out: Ethereum does not inherently protect users’ privacy, so many ether holders use mixers to provide themselves anonymity for legitimate transactions. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, for example, “outed” himself on Twitter as someone who used Tornado Cash for donations to Ukraine to illustrate that point. But then Dutch authorities arrested a 29-year-old man who allegedly helped build Tornado Cash. And that, for some,…
