Crypto
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FTX may be planning to purchase a stake in BlockFi: Report
Crypto exchange FTX is reportedly in talks to acquire a stake in BlockFi after the company issued a $250 million credit to the lending firm. According to a Friday report from the Wall Street Journal, FTX is currently in discussions with BlockFi regarding the crypto exchange purchasing a stake in the firm, but no equity agreement has been reached. The reported ongoing talks followed BlockFi signing a term sheet with FTX to secure a $250 million revolving credit facility on Tuesday. “BlockFi does not comment on market rumors,” a BlockFi spokesperson told Cointelegraph. “We are still negotiating the terms of the deal and cannot share more information at this time. We anticipate sharing more on the terms of the deal with the public at a later date. FTX founder and CEO Sam Ban...
Here’s how pro traders could use Bitcoin options to buy the $20K BTC dip
Bitcoin hit a 2022 low at $17,580 on June 18 and many traders are hopeful that this was the bottom, but (BTC) has been unable to produce a daily close above $21,000 for the past six days. For this reason, traders are uncomfortable with the current price action and the threat of many CeFi and DeFi companies dealing with the loss of user funds and possible insolvency is weighing on sentiment. The blowback from venture capital Three Arrows Capital (3AC) failing to meet its financial obligations on June 14 and Asia-based lending platform Babel Finance citing liquidity pressure as a reason for pausing withdrawals are just two of the most recent examples. This news has caught the eyes of regulators, especially after Celsius, a crypto lending firm, suspended user withdrawals on June 12. On June 1...
Bitpanda announces layoffs citing no compromise on product quality
Austrian crypto and stock trading platform Bitpanda joins the growing list of companies to announce a mass layoff as it aims to “get out of it financially healthy” amid an unforgiving bear market. Over the past several weeks, the bear market resulted in numerous catastrophic outcomes for many ecosystems such as Terra’s (LUNA) and Abracadabra’s Magic Internet Money (MIM) de-pegging fiasco. Witnessing the crashes from a front-row seat, Bitpanda made the “tough decision” of cutting down its employee headcount to roughly 730 people. While the exact number of employees intimated to stop working for Bitpanda remains undisclosed, data from LinkedIn indicates that the company is in the process of laying off approximately 277 full-time and part-time employees. In the announcement, named ‘The Way Fo...
Can Metaverse technology enhance human-AI efficiency?
Conversational AI systems in the metaverse resemble human-to-human communication. Voice assistant AI has found its way to the metaverses of the new era, powering use cases like lifestyle assistance and personalized recommendations. For instance, rather than driving to a travel agency’s office or talking to their overburdened customer service, users can hop on the metaverse and take a tour of multiple awe-inspiring locations with the assistance of an AI-powered bot. An AI concierge in a metaverse is a personified machine that delivers unique recommendations based on the avatar’s preferences. Take into account the amount of data available on every person and you know the potential of this use case. Natural language processing in the metaverse makes it more personal than the real ...
Finance Redefined: Uniswap goes against the bearish trends, overtakes Ethereum
This past week, the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem tried gaining some momentum amid the bear market crash. Uniswap saw a trend reversal and overtook Ethereum regarding network fees paid. However, not all DeFi protocols were as lucky, as Bancor had to pause its “impermanent loss protection” in the wake of a hostile market. DappRadar’s report shows that the GameFi ecosystem continues to thrive despite the current downturn in the market. Solend invalidates Solana whale wallet takeover plan with second governance vote. The top 100 DeFi tokens showed signs of recovery after last week’s mayhem, and several of the tokens registered double-digit gains. DeFi Summer 3.0? Uniswap overtakes Ethereum on fees, DeFi outperforms Decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap has overtaken its host blockchai...
Gensler appeals for ‘one rule book’ in negotiations with CFTC over crypto regulation
United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Gary Gensler is in talks with Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) officials on a “memorandum of understanding” on the regulation of digital assets. Together, the agencies can assure market integrity, Gensler told The Financial Times in an interview published Thursday. “I’m talking about one rule book on the exchange that protects all trading regardless of the pair — [be it] a security token versus security token, security token versus commodity token, commodity token versus commodity token,” Gensler told the newspaper. Gensler’s desire to be collaborative comes as a variety of legislative initiatives have been introduced to create a more comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets. The Digital Commodity Ex...
Bitcoin network power demand falls to 10.65GW as hash rate sees 14% drop
The overall power consumption of the Bitcoin (BTC) network recorded a drastic drop after mimicking the two-week-long fall in the mining hash rate, which reduced the commuting power for mining BTC blocks to 199.225 exahash per second (EH/s). According to the data shared by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, the Bitcoin network recorded the year 2022’s lowest power demand of 10.65 gigawatts (GW). At its peak, the BTC network demanded 16.09 GW of power. Bitcoin network power demand from 2018-2022. Source: ccaf.io On June 16, a Cointelegraph report highlighted how the banking sector utilizes 56 times more energy than the Bitcoin ecosystem. Publisher Michel Khazzaka, an IT engineer, cryptographer and consultant said in an exclusive interview: “Bitcoin Lightning, and Bitcoin, in...
What is StrongBlock (STRONG) and how does it work?
The digital financial environment continues to develop almost every second, which is no surprise to those in the crypto sector. Among such technological advancements, a new project called StrongBlock has popularized the concept of the node as a service (NaaS) on the blockchain. NaaS is an alternative to running entire blockchain nodes on your own; it provides developer infrastructure and tools for setting up and managing blockchain nodes. Connected blockchain nodes relay, transmit and store decentralized blockchain data. But, what is a blockchain node? A node, also known as a Full Node, is a device that stores the blockchain’s whole transaction history. But, who is behind the creation of the StrongBlock ecosystem? The StrongBlock team includes CEO David Moss and chief technology offi...
Crypto Biz: Crypto was in full swing at Collision Conference, June 17-23
For all the gloom and doom in the cryptocurrency market these days, our industry continues to make inroads into mainstream tech. This week, I had the pleasure of attending the sold-out Collision Conference in Toronto, and crypto was featured prominently. During the event, I got to moderate three panels, including two that were crypto-focused. The fact that the biggest tech conference in North America is letting me talk cryptocurrency after a six-month bloodbath proves there’s more to the industry than just price. And, I’m not saying the price isn’t important — but context is everything. My Collision panel on decentralized social media included Stani Kulechov, founder and CEO of Aave and Lens Protocol. This week’s Crypto Biz gives you a taste of Collision Conference 2022 and also draw...
Crypto Stories: YouTuber Paco de la India explains his travels using Bitcoin
A YouTuber started traveling the world to see whether he could survive solely on Bitcoin as a means of payment. In the latest episode of Cointelegraph’s ‘Crypto Stories’ series, Paco from India explained how he started his journey from the city of Bengaluru and learned from the example of travel pioneers who came before him, including Nellie Bly, who circumnavigated the globe in the late 19th century in less than 73 days. Paco worked a variety of jobs before reading up on Bitcoin (BTC) and made a big decision. “This is 2021,” said Paco. “I will travel the world by using Bitcoin.” The YouTuber added: “When my journey started, I had zero dollars. I sold my furniture, got $200 of Bitcoin, and as soon as I started on day one, the first Bitcoin meetup we had in Bengaluru, one guy came and gave ...
Celsius Network hires advisers ahead of potential bankruptcy: Report
Crypto lending platform Celsius Network has reportedly onboarded advisers from a management consulting firm in advance of the company possibly facing bankruptcy. According to a Friday report from the Wall Street Journal, Celsius hired an unknown number of restructuring consultants from the firm Alvarez & Marsal to advise the platform on potentially filing for bankruptcy. The report followed one from June 14, which said Celsius had hired lawyers in an attempt to restructure the company amid its financial issues. Steady lads https://t.co/5YAdmq5kt8 — Ben McKenzie (@ben_mckenzie) June 24, 2022 Celsius has been at the forefront of discussions in the media around significant volatility in the market amid the crypto lending platform’s decision to pause “all withdrawals, swaps and transfers b...
It seems NFT-themed Bored & Hungry restaurant no longer accepts crypto
The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that recently opened NFT-themed burger joint Bored & Hungry no longer accepts cryptocurrency as a form of payment for its food. When questioned, one Bored & Hungry employee told the Los Angeles Times “Not today — I don’t know.” The individual didn’t give any indication of when the decision was made to cut crypto from the menu of payment options, nor did they know if crypto payments would be making a return. Bored & Hungry initially launched back in April of this year. At the time, one worker told the Los Angeles Times that the majority of its customers didn’t seem to care about crypto payment options, also noting that customers were generally indifferent to “the restaurant’s fidelity to the crypto cause.” Another Bored & Hungry restaura...
