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Celsius bankruptcy proceedings show complexities amid declining hope of recovery
The Celsius Network is one of many crypto lending firms that has been swept up in the wake of the so-called “crypto contagion.” Rumors of Celsius’ insolvency began circulating in June after the crypto lender was forced to halt withdrawals due to “extreme market conditions” on June 13 and eventually filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy a month later on July 13. The crypto lending firm showed a balance gap of $1.2 billion in its bankruptcy filing, with most liabilities owed to its users. User deposits made up the majority of liabilities at $4.72 billion, while Celsius’ assets include CEL tokens as assets valued at $600 million, mining assets worth $720 million and $1.75 billion in crypto assets. The value of the CEL tokens has drawn suspicion from some in the crypto community, however, as t...
How to tell if a cryptocurrency project is a Ponzi scheme
The crypto world has experienced an increase in Ponzi schemes since 2016 when the market gained mainstream prominence. Many shady investment programs are designed to take advantage of the hype behind cryptocurrency booms to beguile impressionable investors. Ponzi schemes have become rampant in the sector primarily due to the decentralized nature of blockchain technology which enables scammers to sidestep centralized monetary authorities who would otherwise flag or freeze suspicious transactions. The immutable nature of blockchain systems that makes fund transfers irreversible also works in the scammers’ favor by making it harder for Ponzi victims to get their money back. Speaking to Cointelegraph earlier this week, KuCoin exchange CEO Johnny Lyu said that the sector was fertile ground for ...
Bitcoin price gains 3.5% as US PCE data supports shrinking inflation
Bitcoin (BTC) rose rapidly later on Aug. 26 as fresh economic data from the United States furthered hopes of a pivot from the Federal Reserve. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView Bitcoin bounces but preserves intraday trend Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView tracked a 3.55% rise for BTC/USD on the day, allowing the pair to match highs from earlier in the week. The move marked a surprise about-turn for Bitcoin, which hours before had seen selling pressure as markets awaited cues from Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s Jackson Hole symposium speech. With that speech still to come at the time of writing, abullish catalyst came in the form of the latest Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCE) readout, which was lower than expected. Analyst...
XRP price pumps and dumps amid mysterious $51M whale transfers — What’s next?
XRP price saw a major spike on Aug. 26, hinting at a possible effect from some big traders. Large XRP transfers, Ripple Swell Global event Notably, XRP’s price jumped 6% to $0.37, a two-week high, during the early London hours. The token’s upside move occurred hours after its network processed three massive transfers worth $51 million involving crypto exchanges Bitso and FTX, as highlighted by Whale Alert. XRP/USD hourly price chart. Source: TradingView XRP’s gains also came as a part of a broader upside move that started on Aug. 25, a day after Ripple announced its flagship event, “Ripple Swell Global,” to be held in London in November 2022. The market has seen similar reactions to the Swell event in the past. Bearish reversal setup in play XRP’s i...
Powell blows away doubts about his war on high inflation
The Fed’s campaign to curb the highest inflation in four decades runs the risk of triggering a recession in the world’s largest economy. Growth has already slowed — initial readings of GDP showed the economy contracted in the first two quarters of the year — even as inflation has shown signs of cooling off. The persistence of high inflation has sparked a blame game in Washington, with Republicans faulting both the Biden administration’s big spending packages and the Fed’s delay in raising interest rates. Indeed, Powell’s words were a stark about-face from his remarks at the same conference last year, when he said elevated inflation was likely to prove temporary. Now, his message is intended not only to warn the American people that economic pain is ahead but also to deter financial markets...
Fed’s Powell vows to battle high inflation to avoid ‘far greater pain’
The Fed’s campaign to curb the highest inflation in four decades runs the risk of triggering a recession in the world’s largest economy. Growth has already slowed — GDP contracted in the first two quarters of the year — even as inflation has shown signs of cooling off. Powell’s words are a stark about-face from his remarks at the same conference last year, when he said elevated inflation was likely to prove temporary. Now, his message is intended not only to warn the American people that economic pain is ahead but also to deter financial markets from expecting the Fed to reverse course next year. Before his remarks, many investors expected the central bank to begin lowering borrowing costs later next year as a possible recession looms. That had led market rates to fall and stock prices to ...
Executive Turntable: Warner Records Names A&R VP; Exceleration Music Taps Legal Head
Sean Stevens was promoted to vp of A&R and head of research & analytics at Warner Records in Los Angeles; he was previously senior director. Exceleration Music named Jennifer Newman Sharpe as the company’s head of legal & business affairs and general counsel. Based in New York, Newman Sharpe will oversee the process of developing agreements and negotiating contracts across all areas of the business. Raoul Chatterjee, SoundCloud‘s vp of content partnerships and operations, announced he will exit the streaming platform effective Aug. 31 after more than 6 years with the company. His departure follows SoundCloud CEO Michael Weissman‘s announcement earlier this month that the company would be cutting “up to 20%” of staff. The Blues Foundation named Kimberly Horton interim president ...
Lamborghini’s Vehicles Are All Sold Out Until 2024 Despite Global Inflation
Despite global inflation rates and the expectation of recession across a number of countries, Italian supercar maker Lamborghini says business has been better than ever, with all of its vehicles already sold out through 2024. According to a new report from Bloomberg, the automaker is achieving record results in terms of vehicle orders and sales, delivering 5,090 cars over the first half of 2022. The figure represents a 4.9 percent increase over the same period last year and translates to a surge in operating profits by a staggering 70 percent. Most notably, 61 percent of its sales during the period were accounted for by the company’s SUV, the Lamborghini Urus, which has found a much wider market than its conventional supercar counterparts. “With high interest rates and high inf...
Xbox boss keen on Metaverse but ‘cautious’ about play-to-earn games
Phil Spencer, the head of Microsoft’s gaming company Xbox is optimistic about the Metaverse but remains “cautious” about play-to-earn (P2E) crypto games due to its economic and speculative aspects. Speaking with Bloomberg anchor Emily Chang on Aug. 25, Spencer suggested that while many gamers are not yet sold on the current concept of a Metaverse, according to his definition, they have essentially been playing in Metaverse worlds for decades: “My view on Metaverse is that gamers have been in the Metaverse for 30 years. When you’re playing games, if you’re playing a World of Warcraft game, you’re playing in Roblox, you’re playing in a racing game where everybody’s in a shared world.” In Spencer’s view, the Metaverse is essentially a “3D shared world” in which people can freely communicate w...
Synthetix looks to turn off the SNX money printer once and for all
The founder of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Synthetix, Kain Warwick, has submitted a proposal that would turn off very high yield returns for SNX stakers and cap the total SNX token supply at 300 million. The Synthetix protocol allows traders to issue synthetic versions of crypto native assets, traditional financial assets, and commodities on the Ethereum and Optimism networks. In an Aug. 25 Synthetix Improvement Proposal (SIP) Warwick explained that SNX reward inflation was initially intended to “bootstrap the network”, however, he believes it’s no longer necessary as they can generate sustainable fee yields from atomic swaps. monthly trading volume on @synthetix_io pic.twitter.com/QCWYbB5Xu4 — Token Terminal (@tokenterminal) August 25, 2022 A big rise in fee revenue has be...
Cardano hard fork ‘ever closer’ as upgraded SPOs account for 42% of blocks
Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK), the blockchain company behind the Cardano network says the much anticipated Vasil hard fork is “ever closer” after revealing the state of three critical indicators that will trigger the mainnet update. In a Twitter thread posted on Aug. 25, IOHK shared its latest “rollout status” of the Vasil upgrade to its 265,800 followers, with updates on “three critical mass indicators” which will determine when the mainnet update will go ahead. This includes having 75% of mainnet blocks produced by nodes running 1.35.3, around 25 exchanges upgraded (representing 80% of liquidity) as well as the top ten key mainnet Dapps also having upgraded. on Thursday, the blockchain company noted that Stake Pool Operators (SPOs) running the latest node 1.35.3 now account fo...
Bitcoin price taps $21.3K ahead of Fed Chair Powell Jackson Hole speech
Bitcoin (BTC) fell to daily lows on Aug. 26 as market nerves heightened into new macro triggers. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView Pre-Fed blues hit BTC markets Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD dipping to $21,332 on Bitstamp ahead of fresh commentary from Jerome Powell, Chair of the United States Federal Reserve. Part of the Fed’s Jackson Hole annual symposium, Powell was set to deliver a speech on the day that spectators hoped would provide new cues on economic policy going forward. With U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation slowing since June, interest remained high over the extent of key interest rate hikes in September. Summarizing the current economic situation in the U.S., macro analyst David Hunter argued that the Fed w...
