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Fidelity to beef up crypto unit by another 25% with 100 new hires
$4.5 trillion asset management firm Fidelity Investments is reportedly set to hire another 100 people to bolster the firm’s growing digital assets division — a stark contrast to the recent squeezing out of crypto-talent. A Fidelity representative told Bloomberg on Oct. 22 that the firm has begun a new round of hiring which will bring the Fidelity Digital Asset’s headcount to around 500 by the end of the first quarter of 2023. A search on Fidelity’s job board currently shows 74 live results for digital asset-related positions, which cover areas relating to blockchain technology, business analysis, customer service, finance and accounting, product development, and corporate services including compliance. Almost all of the current listings are based in the United States — wi...
Ripple’s lead engineer to exit after nearly a decade with the firm
Ripple Labs’ director of engineering Nik Bougalis is exiting the firm after nearly 10 years, becoming the latest of crypto’s long-time serving executives to depart from the space. In an Oct. 22 tweet, Bougalis noted that: “my decade-long journey at Ripplehas been a fantastic (if exhausting and all-consuming) one. I got to work on a project that I love, towards a goal I believe in. But that journey will be coming to an end in a few weeks.” “All good things…” My decade-long journey at @Ripple has been a fantastic (if exhausting and all-consuming) one. I got to work on a project that I love, towards a goal I believe in. But that journey will be coming to an end in a few weeks. — (@nbougalis) October 21, 2022 Interestingly, the Ripple developer noted that he will not be joining...
FTX to give a ‘one-time’ $6M compensation to phishing victims
Cryptocurrency exchange FTX will provide around $6 million in compensation to victims of a phishing scam that allowed hackers to conduct unauthorized trades on certain FTX users’ accounts. FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried posted in a Twitter thread on Oct. 23 that the exchange generally doesn’t award compensation to its users “phished by fake versions of other companies in the space” but in this case, it would compensate users. Bankman-Fried said that this was a “one-time thing” and FTX would “not do this going forward.” “THIS IS NOT A PRECEDENT,” he wrote, clarifying it was only the accounts of FTX users that would be reimbursed. 14) But this once, we’ll do it; roughly $6m total. (To be clear, only for FTX accounts! Hopefully other exchanges will comp theirs.) BUT AGAIN N...
Bitcoin price hits $19.5K into weekly close as trader predicts ‘green week’
Bitcoin (BTC) saw fresh gains on Oct. 23 as the weekend delivered a potential launchpad for the bulls. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView $10 million liquidations as Bitcoin steps higher Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as it spiked above $19,500 as the weekly close approached. While modest, the $300 move punctuated otherwise flat trading behavior, Bitcoin notoriously rangebound on daily timeframes. Now, hopes were high that the market would offer more solid price action in the coming days, $20,000 remaining out of reach for over a week. “Green week ahead, preferably first closing the current CME gap,” popular trader Crypto Ed told Twitter followers in an update at the time of writing. An accompanying chart showe...
Celsius users concerned over personal info revealed in bankruptcy case
Crypto lending platform Celsius filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 13, 2022. Although the Celsius case involves digital assets, it remains subject to United States Bankruptcy Code under the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. While this may be, a series of unusual events have ensued since Celsius filed for bankruptcy. For instance, Chief United States Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn — the judge overseeing the Celsius case — stated on Oct. 17 that the court will look abroad for guidance. Glenn specifically mentioned that “Legal principles that are applicable in the United Kingdom are not binding on courts in the United States,” yet he noted that these “may be persuasive in addressing legal issues that may arise in this case.” While the treatment of the Celsius c...
Bitcoin will surge in 2023 — but be careful what you wish for
The Bitcoin (BTC) community is divided about whether the token’s price is going to surge or crash in the year ahead. A majority of analysts and technical indicators suggest it could bottom between $12,000 and $16,000 in the months to come. This correlates with a volatile macroeconomic environment, stock prices, inflation, Federal Reserve data and (at least according to Elon Musk) a possible recession that could last until 2024. On the other side, influencers, BTC maximalists and a range of other fanatical “shills” maintain its price could skyrocket to $80,000 and beyond. There is evidence to support both sides. One issue is that they may be looking at different time horizons. There’s a strong case to be made that BTC is likely to drop sharply in the months ahead but potentially rise ...
Crypto incubators have a responsibility to maintain fiscal discipline
Contrary to popular belief, a bear market provides ideal conditions for startup founders and developers to work on technological innovations. The absence of market frenzy and speculative investing helps startups to focus on the fundamentals, which are beneficial in the long run. However, bear markets dry up capital sources, and liquidity becomes the proverbial mirage of an oasis in the desert sand. Thus, startups turn toward incubators who become messiahs with their network of angel investors and venture capitalists. As incubators hold the key to funding, they are powerful enough to make or break a crypto startup. And, as Marvel’s Spider-Man reminded us, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Incubators, therefore, play a crucial role in guiding startups to adhere to crypto regulat...
More voters trust Republicans on economy as interest in midterms hits high, polls say
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday on MSNBC that she didn’t “subscribe” to the idea that voters don’t trust Democrats on the economy. Republicans “don’t have a solution to inflation,” she said. Americans in both parties have shown record-high interest in this midterm election, according to an NBC News poll released on Sunday: 70 percent of registered voters expressed interest in the upcoming election as a “9” or “10” on a 10-point scale, the poll said — the highest NBC has recorded in a midterm survey at this time of year. Republicans showed more enthusiasm, with 78 percent showing a high interest, compared with 69 percent of Democrats. In the ABC poll, Republicans were within the margin of error on the issue of handling immigration, with 35 percent of Americans saying they trusted ...
Will ETH price crash to $750? Ethereum daily active addresses plunge to 4-month lows
Ethereum has witnessed a substantial drop in its daily active address (DAA) count over the last four months, raising fears about more downside for Ether (ETH) price in the coming weeks. Stagnant Ethereum price spooks investors The number of Ether DAA dropped to 152,000 on Oct. 21, its lowest level since June, according to data provided by Santiment. In other words, the plunge showed fewer unique Ethereum addresses interacting with the network. Ethereum daily active address count on a daily timeframe. Source: Santiment Interestingly, the drop comes after Ether’s 80%-plus correction from its November 2021 high of around $4,850. This coincidence could mean two things: Ethereum users decided to leave the market and/or paused their interaction with the blockchain network after the market’s...
Kazakhstan among top 3 Bitcoin mining destinations after US and China
For over a year, the oil-rich Central Asian country of Kazakhstan has maintained its position as the third-biggest contributor to Bitcoin (BTC) mining after surpassing Russia back in February 2021. As of January 2022, Kazakhstan contributed to 13.22% of the total Bitcoin hash rate, positioned right after the historical leaders the United States (37.84%) and China (21.11%), as shown below. Along similar timelines, Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance data estimated that Kazakhstan’s absolute hash rate contribution (monthly average) was 24.8 exahashes per second (Eh/s). Meanwhile, the US and China contributed 71 Eh/s and 39.6 Eh/s, respectively. The International Energy Agency (IEA), which is co-funded by the European Union, highlighted Kazakhstan’s heavy reliance on non-renewable ...
3Commas issues security alert as FTX deletes API keys following hack
Automated crypto trading bot provider 3Commas issued a security alert after identifying certain FTX API keys being used to perform unauthorized trades for DMG cryptocurrency trading pairs on the FTX exchange. 3Commas and FTX conducted a joint investigation in relation to reports from users of unauthorized trades on the DMG trading pairs on FTX. The duo identified that hackers used new 3Commas accounts to perform the DMG trades adding that “The API keys were not taken from 3Commas but from outside of the 3Commas platform.” A subsequent investigation found fradulent websites posing as 3Commas were being used to phish API keys as users linked their FTX accounts. The FTX API keys were then used to perform the unauthorized DMG trades. 3Commas further suspects that hackers used 3rd-party browser...
Telegram username auction marketplace ‘almost’ ready to launch
The popular messaging app Telegram has developed a new marketplace that doesn’t involve nonfungible tokens (NFTs). The social messaging platform said that it is all set to launch its marketplace for auctioning unique usernames for social platforms, an idea first floated in August. In an official announcement on its Telegram channel, the firm said that the development phase of the marketplace is near its end. The marketplace is based on its native blockchain called The Open Network (TON). The idea was first teased by the company founder Pavel Durov in late August this year when he proposed a marketplace that could utilize “NFT-like smart contracts” to auction highly-sought after usernames. Durov made the suggestion after the “success” of domain name auctions by The Open Network (TON), a lay...
