At the SPAC of Dawn
Good morning! Watch this space moving forward as a roundup of evening filings as well as news nuggets to nibble on beside your morning coffee.
While crypto trading has proliferated in popularity in recent years, the state of New York has been one lucrative part of the map that crypto exchanges have had some limitations on due to regulatory structures.
Crypto firms hoping for a thaw there in the near term did not get pleasant news this morning with the announcement that NY Attorney General Letitia James has launched lawsuits against two crypto exchanges – Gemini Trust and Digital Currency Group (DCG) – accusing them of defrauding customers of $1.1 billion.
Gemini is run by Winklevoss twins Tyler and Cameron and stands accused of both shoddy auditing and failure to disclose the risk involved in crypto loans hosted on its platform. Gemini is already suing its co-defendent DCG in July alleging deceptive practices and both cases are a part of the continuing fallout from the meltdown of FTX and its affiliated Alameda Research.
More importantly for the five SPACs that have pending crypto deals and the seven de-SPACs that completed their own, AG James is seeking as a part of the lawsuit to ban both Gemini and DCG from the financial investment industry in New York.
Should that happen, one might expect a chill over attempts to expand new crypto business into the state and increased scrutiny for those applying for banking and other financial services licenses.
News and Rumors
- PR: Noventiq has entered into a Strategic Collaboration Agreement with Amazon Web Services to support one another’s efforts in servicing companies’ moves to the cloud. On May 4, Noventiq and Corner Growth Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: COOL) entered into a business combination agreement.
- AIN: FlyExclusive takes delivery of the first three of 30 Cessna CJ3+ charter jets to support its fractional ownership platform as it goes public with EG Acquisition Corp. (NYSE:EGGF), boosting its total fleet to 100 jets.
- PR: FlyExclusive also secured a $30 million investment from the state of North Carolina into its pilot training center and headquarters, which will include 10,000-square feet of flight simulators and more space for classrooms and air operations.
- ParabolicArc: Astra Space (NASDAQ:ASTR), which combined with Holicity in July 2021, saw its stock-split move to put it above $1 boomerang south of that threshold again on reports it plans to sell a 51% stake in its propulsion subsidiary.
10X Capital Venture Acquisition Corp. II (NASDAQ:VCXA) announced that it has completed its business combination with African Agriculture after shareholders approved the deal at a special meeting held on December 5. In connection with the meeting, 10X II received redemption requests for 1,857,033 Class A ordinary shares, representing 98.7% in aggregate redemptions since 10X II’s...
At the SPAC of Dawn The latter half of 2023 has largely told a story of retrenchment in the SPAC market as much of the excess in the domain has found itself terminating and liquidating. But, the increase in outgoing has not completely canceled out the boom in incoming as three new SPACs filed to...
TechyBird Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:TKBD) filed for a $60 million IPO today, putting it in line to become the second 2023 IPO from an underwriter that is relatively new to the SPAC space. That underwriter, Spartan Capital Securities, brought Aimei Health Technology (NASDAQ:AFJK) to market last week with similar terms as this new member to its...
Blue Room Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:IBLUU) submitted its S-1 filing this morning for a $200 million IPO. The new SPAC has set its sights on targets in the financial sector, ranging in market value between $250 million and $500 million, and primarily situated in the U.S. Its primary objective is to identify an innovative company leveraging...
Perception Capital Corp IV (NYSE:RCFA) has entered into a definitive agreement to combine with mining firm Blue Gold for $114.5 million in equity consideration. London-based Blue Gold has been developed as a platform to acquire gold mining assets in Ghana. The combined company is expected to trade on the NYSE once the deal is completed...