Crypto
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Coinbase CEO says trading revenue has fallen to ‘roughly half’ what it was last year
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has revealed that the exchange’s trading revenue has declined by approximately 50% or more when compared with last year, according to a Dec. 7 report from Bloomberg. Armstrong made the statement as part of an interview with the David Rubenstein Show. When asked about the exchange’s revenue, he stated that the company did $7 billion in revenue and $4 billion in earnings in 2021, but “it’s looking, you know, about roughly half that or less” in 2022. Bloomberg said that a spokesperson for Coinbase later clarified that 2022 revenue, not earnings, was projected to be less than half what it was in 2021. Coinbase had previously stated in a letter to investors that it expected to post a roughly $500 million loss in adjusted EBITDA for 2022. Adjusted EBITDA is an earnin...
Bank of Russia wants to ban miners from selling crypto to Russians
The Russian central bank continues to maintain an extremely negative stance on cryptocurrencies, proposing to ban local miners from selling coins to local people. The Bank of Russia has supported the idea of legalizing cryptocurrency mining in Russia as part of a draft bill introduced in mid-November 2022. However, the Russian central bank wants to allow miners to sell their crypto only on foreign exchanges and to non-residents of Russia, the local news agency Interfax reported on Dec. 7. “We believe that cryptocurrency obtained as a result of mining can be sold exclusively using foreign infrastructure and only to non-residents,” the Bank of Russia’s press office reportedly said, adding: “In general, we adhere to the position on the inadmissibility of the circulation of digital currency on...
Institutional investors still eye crypto despite the FTX collapse
The negative effects caused by the FTX debacle have put the crypto space in an unfavorable light. However, institutional investors continued to show interest in the industry even at the height of the FTX controversy. According to crypto exchange Bitstamp, compared to their data in October, institutional registrations within its digital asset trading platform is up by 57% in November, when the topic of the FTX collapse frequented news headlines. The exchange also told Cointelegraph that its total revenue is up by 45% in the same period, with revenue coming from institutions up by 34% and from retail traders up by 72%. The exchange also highlighted that compared to October, active global retail users in November also increased by 43%, with United States-based users up by 18%. This sugg...
Proactive sanctions can help spare the ecosystem: Chainalysis exec
As many countries, entities and even individuals face international sanctions, the crypto industry seeks to find its place among increasing regulations. Digital currencies have often been mentioned as an avenue for those subject to sanctions to divert them, such as in the recent case of Russia. In such instances, exchanges and other industry players need to understand where they stand compliance-wise. Research out of Harvard even suggested that central banks can use Bitcoin (BTC) to fight off sanctions. Speaking to Cointelegraph’s managing editor Alex Cohen at the Israel Crypto Conference, Chainalysis head of sanctions Andrew Fierman said sanctions are nuanced depending on the many factors which surround the situation. “When you’re looking at countries like Iran and North...
Was the fall of FTX really crypto’s ‘Lehman moment?’
The FTX collapse was bad, but how bad? Almost from the moment that the Bahamas-based exchange suspended cryptocurrency withdrawals in early November — and three days before it filed for bankruptcy — the historic comparisons started flying. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire tweeted on Nov. 8 that FTX was “Lehman’s moment,” referencing the 2008 collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers, which sparked a global financial panic. This analogy stuck, at least over the past four weeks. Even United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen employed it last week, telling DealBook: “It’s a Lehman moment within crypto, and crypto is big enough that we’ve had substantial harm with investors.” But, other business parallels have been drawn as well. FTX’s crash might have been more like the 2008 Madoff scand...
Decentraland vs Metacade: Are These the Best Metaverse Tokens Out There?
The metaverse is shaping up to be an absolute game-changer with more and more companies and users getting on board every day. It’s no wonder that Web3 and GameFi have garnered so much interest recently. It provides a more interactive environment for users – investors, developers, and players – to be rewarded for their participation and input. As more and more people start getting into the metaverse, the field is getting crowded with new companies. While that happens, it’s hard to know which projects to give your attention to. It’s clear that Decentraland and Metacade are two top projects primed to capitalize on people’s interest. Let’s examine Decentraland vs Metacade to see how they will fare and compare in 2023 and beyond. Metacade Explored Metacade (MCADE) is best described as an ...
Iran set to freeze bank accounts of women who refuse to wear a hijab
A member of the Iranian parliament has told local media the government plans to impose new punishments on women who do not wear a hijab in public, with individuals who refuse to comply after two warnings possibly having their bank accounts frozen. Hossein Jalali, a member of the Cultural Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, told Iranian media on Dec. 6 that “unveiled persons” would be sent an SMS urging them to respect the law and wear a hijab before entering a “warning phase” and finally having their bank account potentially frozen. “In the third stage, the bank account of the unveiled person may be frozen.” Similar actions taken by governments in the past have seen protestors and dissidents turn to cryptocurrencies to continue accessing financial instruments...
Nifty News: Winamp adds NFT support, Atari gets physical and more
NFT music on Winamp Old school classic PC-friendly media player Winamp has rolled out support for Ethereum and Polygon-based music nonfungible tokens (NFTs) in the latest update of its desktop player. Winamp has been around since 1997 and was one of the most popular media players for PC users but has since been overtaken by Windows Media Player and Apple’s dominant iTunes. It has a reputation for supporting a wide range of media files, and in the latest update announcement on Dec. 7 the Winamp team noted that NFT support is officially live and ready to go. @winamp I have fond memories of Winamp from back in my youth. Are we ever going to see a official integration with @Spotify? I’d love some sweet early 2000’s visualizations with my beats — Sjoerd Stottelaar (@sjoerds) Decembe...
Blockstream raising funds for mining at 70% lower company valuation
The depths of a bear market may not be the best time to raise funds but that is exactly what Blockstream is doing. The crypto infrastructure firm is seeking fresh funding, but at a much lower valuation than previous rounds, according to a Dec. 7 Bloomberg report. Blockstream was valued at $3.2 billion when it held its last Series B funding round raising $210 million in August 2021. Today that valuation may have fallen almost 70% to below $1 billion according to the report. The company, founded in 2014, has raised a total of $299 million in funding over four rounds, according to CrunchBase. Blockstream CEO and cryptographer Adam Back did not share details of the latest funding round but did reveal that the capital will be invested into expanding the firm’s mining capacity. “We rapidly sold ...
3AC subpoenas issued as dispute grows over claims of Terraform dump
A federal judge overseeing Three Arrows Capital’s (3AC’s) bankruptcy proceedings has signed an order approving subpoenas to be delivered to 3AC’s former leadership, including co-founders Su Zhu and Kyle Davies. The subpoenas require the founders to give up any “recorded information, including books, documents, records, and papers” in their custody that relates to the firm’s property or financial affairs. The infamous hedge fund, worth $10 billion at its peak, filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy on Jul. 1 with its troubles tied up in too much leverage and the collapse of Terra Luna (LUNA), known now as Terra Classic (LUNC), and its algorithmic stablecoin formerly known as TerraUSD (UST). Since then, the liquidators — advisory firm Teneo — have been trying to hunt down the firm’s assets and pin ...
Cryptocurrency has become a playground for fraudsters
News involving crypto and fraud is ubiquitous in the white-collar crime sphere and, perhaps more worryingly, these fraudulent activities in the crypto sector are not limited to a single type of crime. Diverse and distinct yet with one common thread, these crimes involve real money and crypto investors are the victims. Many people have placed their life savings into crypto and, on a larger scale, private equities, pension schemes and even nation-states are principal investors and losers. There are con artists who will try and entice their targets to invest in a get-rich scheme that turns out to be a Ponzi. On Nov. 21, officials announced that two Estonian citizens were arrested in a $575 million cryptocurrency fraud and money laundering scheme. Additionally, in September, United States...
North Korean Lazarus Group is targeting crypto funds with a new spin on an old trick
Microsoft reports that a threat actor has been identified targeting cryptocurrency investment startups. A party Microsoft has dubbed DEV-0139 posed as a cryptocurrency investment company on Telegram and used an Excel file weaponized with “well-crafted” malware to infect systems that it then remotely accessed. The threat is part of a trend in attacks showing a high level of sophistication. In this case, the threat actor, falsely identifying itself with fake profiles of OKX employees, joined Telegram groups “used to facilitate communication between VIP clients and cryptocurrency exchange platforms,” Microsoft wrote in a Dec. 6 blog post. Microsoft explained: “We are […] seeing more complex attacks wherein the threat actor shows great knowledge and preparation, taking steps to gain their targ...
