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How GameFi contributes to the growth of crypto and NFTs
The crypto industry has grown tremendously over the past couple of years, and one of its biggest drivers is the GameFi industry. GameFi — a portmanteau of gaming and finance —enables gamers to earn rewards while playing. The market has been growing steadily and presently has a token market cap of approximately $9.2 billion. Notably, GameFi networks have continued to thrive despite the crypto winter. Indeed, the industry is forecasted to reach a $74.2 billion valuation by 2031. How GameFi networks work GameFi ecosystems are based on blockchain technology and use different in-game economic setups to reward players. The rewards are usually in the form of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) that are tradable on major marketplaces. The items are typically in the form of virtual lands, costumes and ...
How does high-frequency trading work on decentralized exchanges?
Following the decentralized finance (DeFi) boom of 2020, decentralized exchanges (DEXs) solidified their place in the ecosystems of both cryptocurrency and finance. Since DEXs are not as heavily regulated as centralized exchanges, users can list any token they want. With DEXs, high-frequency traders can make trades on coins before they hit major exchanges. Plus, decentralized exchanges are noncustodial, which implies that creators cannot pull an exit fraud — in theory. As such, high-frequency trading firms that used to broker unique trading transactions with cryptocurrency exchange operators have turned to decentralized exchanges to conduct business. What is high-frequency trading in crypto? High-frequency trading (HFT) is a trading method that uses complex algorithms to analyze larg...
Entrepreneurs must learn to tackle business risks in the Metaverse
Hyped as it is, the Metaverse remains largely undefined. It’s a challenge to answer the question “What is the Metaverse?” in part because its definition depends on whom you ask. As it stands today, the “Metaverse” includes virtual reality and what we might previously have called “cyberspace” — including digital assets like non-fungible tokens (NFTs), cryptocurrencies and more. In the rush to become the first to innovate in metaverse technology, companies are deprioritizing risk management. But risk management is as critical in the Metaverse as in our physical world — all risk is linked and must be managed in a connected way. If new entrants to the Metaverse are meant to protect against the overwhelming scale and cost of cyber risks, they must learn to identify these risks, continuously mon...
‘We’re not giving crypto a pass’ on enforcement action, says SEC’s Gurbir Grewal
Gurbir Grewal, the enforcement director for the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, said the financial regulator will continue to investigate and bring enforcement actions against crypto firms, despite the narrative of “picking winners and losers” and “stifling innovation.” In written remarks for a Friday program hosted by the Practising Law Institute, Grewal pushed back against criticism that the SEC “somehow unfairly targeted crypto” in its enforcement actions when compared with those against financial products or traditional markets. He also hinted that the SEC had a responsibility to many “non-White and lower-income investors” drawn to crypto projects, who may feel as though the financial system and its regulators “failed, or simply ignored, them.” “It often seems c...
Ethereum ready for The Merge as last shadow fork completes successfully
Ethereum (ETH) developers confirmed the successful completion of the prerequisites — shadow forks — required for the highly anticipated blockchain upgrade, The Merge. Shadow forks help developers stress test synchronization assumptions to ensure network safety during permanent upgrades. In light of The Merge, Ethereum developers implemented the first shadow fork on Apr. 11, 2022. Nearly six months in, Ethereum research and engineering company Nethermind confirmed that the transition in Mainnet-Shadowfork-13 — the last shadow fork — was successful, signaling the readiness of the network for migrating to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. Transition in Mainnet-Shadowfork-13 (the last shadowfork before The Merge) was successful for all Nethermind nodes!#TheMerge #Ethereum #Neth...
MicroStrategy to reinvest $500M stock sales into Bitcoin: SEC filing
MicroStrategy, the largest institutional Bitcoin (BTC) buyer, entered an agreement with two agents — Cowen and Company and BTIG — to sell its aggregated class A common stock worth $500,000,000, reveals Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing. MicroStrategy, co-founded by Bitcoin bull Michael Saylor, amassed approximately 129,699 BTC over several years at an aggregate purchase price of $3.977 billion. Despite market uncertainties, the business analytics software firm continues to pursue its goal of acquiring more BTC by selling company stocks. The filing confirmed: “We intend to use the net proceeds from the sale of any class A common stock offered under this prospectus for general corporate purposes, including the acquisition of bitcoin, unless otherwise indicated in the applicable...
BTC price nears $21.7K as whales boost Bitcoin ‘almost perfectly’
Bitcoin (BTC) sought to overturn August resistance on Sep. 10 as whale buy-levels dictated BTC price action. BTC/USD 1-day candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView Whales provide short-term price ceiling Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting new multi-week highs of $21,671 on Bitstamp. The pair capitalized on a short squeeze which began early on Sep. 9, taking it around 10% higher after plumbing the lowest levels since the end of June. Analyzing the events, on-chain monitoring resource Whalemap noted that clusters of buy-ins by whales had effectively allowed Bitcoin to put in a floor. $19,000 had been a high-volume zone of interest for buyers previously, and this thus remained unviolated during the visit to two-month lows. As Cointelegraph reported,...
The Ledger: How Do Music Executives’ Pay Compare to Other Entertainment Leaders?
The Ledger is a weekly newsletter about the economics of the music business sent to Billboard Pro subscribers. An abbreviated version of the newsletter is published online. Music industry executives at publicly traded companies are paid well – but they’re not the only ones. As Billboard reported in the inaugural Money Makers list of music’s highest-paid executives and stockholders at publicly traded companies, 10 business leaders earned nearly or more than $9 million in 2021. Of those, most of their compensation came from stock awards and stock options, not base salary or performance bonuses. For example, only 5% of SiriusXM CEO Jennifer Witz’s $32.6 million total compensation came from a guaranteed salary. As is common practice among publicly traded corporations, SiriusXM tied most of Wit...
Nio Garcia Sues Management Company, Accuses Late Owner’s Mother of Sabotaging His Career
Urbano artist Nio Garcia has filed suit against his management company for “derailing” his career, according to court documents filed in U.S. District Court in Miami on Thursday (Sept. 8). In the 14-page complaint, filed by attorney Edwin Prado-Galarza, Garcia alleges that AH Entertainment’s current president Ilianes Ruiz is attempting to sabotage his career after illegally taking ownership of the company following the death of her son, AH founder and Garcia’s frequent collaborator Flow La Movie. He’s asking for damages of no less than $3 million and for a court order allowing him to release his own music, citing breach of contract by Ruiz. According to Garcia, Ruiz — now acting as AH Entertainment — has tried to stall his career by “arbitrarily” failing to release his new album and associ...
DApp activity rises 3.7% in August for the first time since May: Finance Redefined
Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter crafted to bring you significant developments over the last week. Decentralized applications, or DApps, finally showed a glimmer of recovery in August as the daily average of unique active wallets rose by 3.7% compared to May. With just under a week left for the Merge, SEBA Bank has opened Ethereum staking services for institutions. On the other side, layer-2 scalability solutions are hopeful of seeing a significant cut in their carbon emissions post Merge. This past week, two DeFi protocols became victims of coordinated flash loan attacks. On Wednesday, Avalanche-based lending protocol Nereus Finance became the victim of a crafty hack that saw a user net $371,000 worth of USD C...
3 reasons why Bitcoin traders should be bullish on BTC
Bitcoin (BTC) has been in a rut, and BTC’s price is likely to stay in its current downtrend. But like I mentioned last week, when nobody is talking about Bitcoin, that’s usually the best time to be buying Bitcoin. In the last week, the price took another tumble, dropping below $19,000 on Sept. 6 and currently, BTC bulls are struggling to flip $19,000–$20,000 back to support. Just this week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated the Fed’s dedication to doing literally whatever it takes to combat inflation “until the job is done,” and market analysts have increased their interest rate hike predictions from 0.50 basis points to 0.75. Basically, interest rate hikes and quantitative tightening are meant to crush consumer demand, which in turn, eventually leads to a decrease in...
Dubai grants regulatory approval for Blockchain.com office: Report
Blockchain wallet and cryptocurrency exchange platform Blockchain.com has reportedly secured regulatory approval from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, or VARA. According to a Friday report from Reuters, VARA signed an agreement which will allow Blockchain.com to open an office in Dubai. The crypto firm currently operates several offices in North America, Europe, South America, and Singapore. Great work by the team here – Dubai ✅✅https://t.co/8nQm8w8y3g — Peter Smith (@OneMorePeter) September 9, 2022 Since Dubai’s prime minister and ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum announced the establishment of the crypto regulator and an accompanying law in March, VARA has granted approval for Crypto.com, OKX and FTX subsidiaries to offer crypto-related services ...
