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‘Crypto winter’ won’t end in 2023 — Bitcoin advocate David Marcus
Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto will need until at least 2024 to “recover from the abuse of unscrupulous players,” says one of the industry’s best-known names. In a blog post released on Dec. 30, David Marcus, CEO and founder of Bitcoin firm Lightspark, disappointed bulls with his outlook for the coming years. Marcus: “Crypto winter” will likely last until 2025 Less than two months after the FTX meltdown, the repercussions continue to unsettle sentiment and price performance alike. For Marcus, famous for his crypto role at Meta and before that PayPal, bad actors have a lot to answer for, and their specter will remain with the crypto industry beyond 2023. While mentioning FTX only once, he referenced what he called “unscrupulous players” dragging out marke...
Songwriters’ New Streaming Royalties Approved Before the New Year
Arriving just before New Years’ Eve, on Friday (Dec. 30), the Copyright Royalty Board judges issued their ruling on streaming royalty rates for songwriters for the period of January 2023 to December 2027, upholding a settlement proposed by the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), Digital Media Association (DiMA), and Nashville Songwriters’ Association International (NSAI) in late August. This ruling sets the rates for Subpart C and D of the five year period known as Phonorecords IV (or “Phono IV” for short), and it represents a compromise between the music industry and the streaming services, creating certainty around the royalties owed to songwriters for U.S. mechanicals. According to the settlement, which the NMPA touts as the “highest rates in the history of digital streaming,...
How Pentatonix Became Today’s Most Popular Holiday Act
Mariah Carey may have had the most popular song of the 2022 holiday season, but Pentatonix was its most-listened-to act. The five-person vocal group had 92 recordings in the top 10,000 holiday tracks and total consumption of 2.58 million song units, based on sales and streams from Nov. 4 to Dec. 22, according to Luminate — more than any other artist. While Pentatonix doesn’t have the same kinds of smash singles as Christmas-time mainstays like Carey, Andy Williams and Burl Ives, the group uses a combination of quantity and popularity to drive its seasonal success. Pentatonix’s top holiday track, a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” ranked No. 43 and accounted for about 10.5% of its total track consumption. Its cover of the David Foster-Jennifer Thompson-Jenner song “Grown Up Chr...
Ethereum founder says he hopes Solana gets a ‘chance to thrive’
Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin showed sympathy for competitor Solana (SOL) in a Dec. 30 tweet. He said that “smart people” tell him that Solana has “an earnest smart developer community,” and suggested that the opportunists who were involved with the project in the past have been “washed out.” Buterin also expressed hope that the Solana community “gets its fair chance to thrive.” Some smart people tell me there is an earnest smart developer community in Solana, and now that the awful opportunistic money people have been washed out, the chain has a bright future. Hard for me to tell from outside, but I hope the community gets its fair chance to thrive — vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) December 29, 2022 The price of SOL has fallen by over 90% since its peak, partially because of the coin’s a...
Bithumb’s largest shareholder executive found dead following allegations of embezzlement
Mr. Park Mo, the vice president of Vidente, the largest shareholder of South Korean Cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb,was reportedly found dead in front of his home at 4 am, on the morning of Dec. 30. Prior to his death, Mr. Mo had been named as a primary suspect in an investigation launched by South Korean prosecutors for his alleged involvement in the embezzling funds at Bithumb-related companies, as well as, manipulating stock prices. In October 2021, the Financial Investigation Division of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation into allegations made against Mr. Park Mo, which led to the seizing of Bithumb-affiliated companies such as Vident, Inbiogen, and Bucket Studio. Vident, a KOSDAQ-listed company, is known to be Bithumb’s la...
Sam Bankman-Fried denies moving funds from Alameda wallets
Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of the now-defunct FTX exchange, has denied moving funds tied to Alameda wallets, days after he was released on a $250 million bond. On Dec. 30, Fried tweeted to his 1.1 million followers, denying any involvement in the movement of funds from Alameda wallets. In response to the allegations that he may have been responsible for moving funds out of Alameda wallets, he shared: “None of these are me. I’m not and couldn’t be moving any of those funds; I don’t have access to them anymore.” None of these are me. I’m not and couldn’t be moving any of those funds; I don’t have access to them anymore.https://t.co/5Gkin30Ny5 — SBF (@SBF_FTX) December 30, 2022 SBF’s tweet was in response to a news story published by Coint...
New research indicates boomers make better crypto investors
As a millennial, it’s hard to say this, but boomers are doing crypto better. They are taking research methods used in the traditional markets and applying them to crypto projects, according to a new report from Bybit and consumer research company Toluna. The report says that 34% of boomers spend “a few days” doing due diligence on a project before investing — 50% more than other generations. More concerning still, “64% of North American investors spend less than two hours or don’t DYOR at all.” Boomers are also more likely to focus their research on technical factors such as tokenomics, revenue and competitor landscape. Compare this with their younger compatriots, who are more likely to prize reputational elements such as a charismatic founder and “website aesthetics.” This shows that bein...
3 reasons why Bitcoin is likely heading below $16,000
December will likely be remembered by Bitcoin’s (BTC) fake breakout above $18,000, but apart from that brief overshoot, its trajectory was entirely bearish. In fact, the downward trend that currently offers an $18,850 resistance could bring the BTC price below $16,000 by mid-January. Bitcoin/USD price index, 12-hour chart. Source: TradingView A handful of reasons can explain the negative movement, including the reported withdrawal of the Mazars Group auditing firm from the cryptocurrency sector on Dec. 16. The company previously handled proof-of-reserve audit services for Binance, KuCoin and Crypto.com. Additionally, one can point to the bankruptcy of Core Scientific, one of the largest cryptocurrency miners in the United States, Core Scientific. The publicly listed company filed for ...
Crypto Stories: How Bitcoin helped a couple start a family
Bitcoin (BTC) gains helped “Noodle,” a London-based Bitcoiner, to afford in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments for his family. Noodle’s story comes to life in the latest edition of Cointelegraph’s Crypto Stories. IVF treatments can be expensive, with success rates ranging from 4% to 38%, depending on various factors. Fortunately, profits from buying and holding Bitcoin provided the necessary funds for Noodle to start a family. Noodle, who first heard about Bitcoin in 2012, decided to sell some of his BTC to pay for IVF treatment for his wife. He favored selling BTC over taking out a loan, converting over $70,000 in Bitcoin into fiat currency over a few years to pay for the treatments. [embedded content] Noodle’s journey with Bitcoin began when he was at the gym. An acquaintance introduce...
BTC price lurches toward $16K as stocks, dollar wobble in final session
Bitcoin (BTC) teased more volatility at the Dec. 30 Wall Street open with BTC/USD heading ever closer to $16,000. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView Will new year deliver “long-awaited volatility?” Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD wicking down to lows of $16,337 on Bitstamp. The pair had been gradually upping the volatility in the days after Christmas, as analysts eyed the likelihood of a final burst of action before the yearly close. “Last trading day of the year for TradFi, but crypto will trade through the holiday weekend. Perhaps we may see some of that long awaited BTC volatility around the Weekly/Monthly close and the start of 2023,” on-chain analysis resource Material Indicators ventured. Popular trader and analy...
Price analysis 12/30: BTC, ETH, BNB, XRP, DOGE, ADA, MATIC, DOT, LTC, UNI
Investors have faced a tumultuous year in 2022 as stocks, bonds, and the cryptocurrency sector have all witnessed sharp declines. As of Nov. 30, the performance of a traditional portfolio comprising 60% stocks and 40% bonds has been the worst since 1932, according to a report by Financial Times. The next big question troubling crypto investors is whether the pain in Bitcoin (BTC) is over or will the downtrend continue in 2023. Analysts seem to be divided in their opinion for the first quarter of the new year. While some expect a drop to $10,000 others anticipate a rally to $22,000. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 While the near-term remains uncertain, research and trading firm Capriole Investments said in its latest edition of the Capriole Newsletter that Bitcoin c...
Will My Investments Ever Recover From Crypto Winter? – Here’s Why Metacade (MCADE) Could Be a Good Opportunity
After the highs of 2021, 2022 turned into a more challenging year for cryptocurrencies, with price falls in Q1 of 2022 settling into a longer-term cooling period known as a “crypto winter.” This cooling trend has lasted most of the year after a series of high-profile blows. The crypto winter of 2022 isn’t the first time crypto markets have suffered significant price falls. The first crypto winter occurred in 2014, with another following three years later. Many experts believe this current cooling to be part of the cyclical nature of markets rather than a protracted ice age. However, experts agree that any return to 2021 highs looks a long way off. One new crypto project that is bucking the trend and looking like a wise investment opportunity is Metacade. The recent Metacade beta ...
