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BMG Acquires Jean-Michel Jarre’s Music Publishing Catalog
BMG will represent Jean-Michel Jarre’s entire music publishing catalog in what’s said to be the biggest single deal ever struck by the music company in France. BMG said Thursday that it is acquiring the electronic music pioneer’s decades-deep works, an arrangement that brings in such classic albums as Oxygene and Equinoxe, together with Jarre’s writer’s income stream. BMG previously acquired the sound recordings of Jarre’s first three albums when it bought independent record label Francis Dreyfus Music in 2012. Jarre is a giant in his field. Born in Lyon, France, the electronic music composer has 21 albums to his name, several of them stone-cold classics, including his 1976 album Oxygene, its followup Equinoxe, 1981’s Magnetic Fields and 1984’s Zoolook. Career album sales top 85 mill...
Crypto lender Vauld seeks protection against creditors: Report
Singapore crypto exchange Vauld Group is seeking a moratorium against its creditors — a move that would give the troubled lender more time to restructure its business after collapsing asset prices impacted its operations earlier this month. Vauld filed an application in Singapore on July 8 seeking a moratorium order, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. If granted, the moratorium would provide the distressed lender more time to seek out a proper restructuring plan. The Journal said a Singaporean moratorium order is similar to Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States, although the moratorium helps the company avoid complete closure. Vauld issued a statement on July 11 informing the public that it would pursue a moratorium order to give management “the breathing space it requires to...
Experts reveal what Tesla’s $936M sell-off means for Bitcoin
Crypto industry experts are largely unfazed by Tesla’s decision to sell 75% of its Bitcoin (BTC) holdings, saying it’s a fairly typical strategy for companies to improve cash flow during economic slowdowns. On Wednesday, the electric vehicle manufacturer revealed that it had sold 75% of its Bitcoin holdings in Q2, adding $936 million in fiat to its balance sheet. During a conference call, Tesla CEO Elon Musk noted that the sale “should not be taken as a verdict on Bitcoin,” explaining that the move was due to liquidity concerns given the continued COVID-19 lockdowns in China. “The reason we sold a bunch of our Bitcoin holdings was that we were uncertain as to when the Covid lockdowns in China would alleviate. So it was important for us to maximize our cash position:” “We are certainl...
SEC objects to XRP holders aiding Ripple defense
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is attempting to block Ripple (XRP) holders from aiding in Ripple’s defense, and prohibit attorney John E. Deaton from any further participation in proceedings. In its official objection submitted on Tuesday, the regulator opposed the decision to recognize 1,746 XRP holders as “amici curiae” along with attorney John E. Deaton. Amici (plural: amici curiae) means “friend of the court” — an individual or organization not a party to a legal case but is permitted to assist a court by providing information, expertise or insights. In this case, in support of Ripple’s defense. Deaton has 3,252 affidavits signed by the token holders essentially stating that they are victims of the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple as a result of lost profi...
Nifty News: BAYC hodler loses 100 ETH in ‘joke’ domain sale gone wrong
A major Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) nonfungible token (NFT) hodler lost 100 Ether (ETH), worth $150,000, as a result of a joke bid on his own registered Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domain. The NFT whale, who owns 57 BAYC NFTs and goes by franklinisbored on Twitter, minted the ENS domain “stop-doing-fake-bids-its-honestly-lame-my-guy.eth” using an alternate wallet on Wednesday. The move was a part of a meme discussed with other NFT collectors in the community, in which he was attempting to trigger the EnsBidsBot account to tweet about a hefty 100 ETH bid on an ENS domain, essentially to mock the purpose of such Twitter accounts. What phrase or meme do you want me to have the ens bot tweet out as a .eth address with a 100 WETH bid? Lol I would have to mint the ENS address myself too. — Frank...
FaZe Clan Goes Public After Completing SPAC Merger
FaZe Clan, the esports collective and youth culture brand that’s received investment from an array of heavy hitters in the music business, went public on the Nasdaq exchange Wednesday (July 20). The listing follows the completion of FaZe Clan’s special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger with 150 Merger Corp., an affiliate of B. Riley Financial. The combined company has been renamed FaZe Holding and will trade under the ticker symbol FAZE. On its first day, the stock finished down more than 24% to $9.88 after debuting with a share price of $13.07. It’s rebounded slightly to $10.19 in after-hours trading. With a fan network of roughly 500 million across social platforms, according to the company, FaZe Clan has drawn a number of high-profile investors from the music industry, including...
Impact of Supreme Court’s climate ruling spreads
In their decision, the high court’s six conservative justices invoked what they called the “major questions” doctrine to declare that agencies such as EPA need explicit congressional approval before “asserting highly consequential power” over almost any policy area. But they did not offer a precise definition of what would cause a regulation to qualify as major — a question that agencies and lower courts may now need to spend years wrestling with. “The major questions doctrine is clearly in its ascendancy and it operates as a distinct constraint on agency power,” West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who successfully led a multistate coalition in the challenge to EPA, said in an interview. Before the ruling, liberal legal scholars had feared that the Supreme Court would unleash ...
Price analysis 7/20: BTC, ETH, BNB, XRP, ADA, SOL, DOGE, DOT, MATIC, AVAX
Bitcoin (BTC) briefly extended its recovery above $24,000 and the altcoins continued to make smart gains on July 20, but the bullish momentum of the week experienced a brief setback after Tesla’s earnings report showed the company had sold 75% of its BTC position. Although the sharp breakout of this week is a positive sign, analysts were quick to point out that a sustained recovery depends on a strong performance from Wall Street. Analyst Venturefounder pointed out that the rally was largely macro-driven and Bitcoin’s correlation with NASDAQ remained at a historical high of 91%. Bitcoin’s sharp rally in the past few days has awakened hibernating bulls who are dishing out lofty targets. Analyst TechDev projected a target of $120,000 in 2023, while Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz tol...
What’s next for the future of Ethereum? Mihailo Bjelic from Polygon explains
With the transition to a scalable, energy light proof-of-stake blockchain (dubbed “the Merge”) at play for Ethereum, many have cast doubts on the popular coin’s future given the magnitude and complexity of the upgrade involved. But among prominent stakeholders, one particular project remains heavily bullish on Ethereum’s future, which is non-other than layer-two scaling solution Polygon. At the annual Ethereum Community Conference in Paris, Cointelegraph’s Events Manager Maria A. spoke to Polygon’s vice president of growth Mihailo Bjelic regarding the topic. Here’s what Mihailo had to say with regards to the Merge: “This is an upgrade on a live network that has millions of users, billions in capital, and tens of thousands of applications. It is never easy, but the Merge has been in t...
Crypto firms facing insolvency ‘forgot the basics of risk management’ — Coinbase
Department heads at Coinbase have weighed in on the market downturn amid solvency concerns around Three Arrows Capital, crypto lending firm Celsius, and Voyager Digital, saying the crypto exchange had “no financing exposure” to the companies. In a Wednesday blog post, Head of Coinbase Institutional Brett Tejpaul, Head of Prime Finance Matt Boyd, and Head of Credit and Market Risk Caroline Tarnok said Coinbase had not engaged in the “types of risky lending practices” exhibited by Three Arrows Capital, Celsius, and Voyager, claiming the firms were examples of practicing “insufficient risk controls.” According to the trio, crypto companies faced the possibility of insolvency caused by “unhedged bets,” large investments in Terra, and overleveraging with venture capital firms. “The issues here ...
Bitcoin price dips under $23K after earnings report reveals Tesla sold 75% of its BTC
Easy come, easy go was the story on July 20 as the day started on a positive note with Bitcoin (BTC) climbing above $24,300, only to end the official trading day in the red after less than stellar Q2 earning news showed Tesla sold 75% of its Bitcoin and Minecraft reversed course by deciding to ban NFTs on its platform. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 A potential source of the afternoon downturn can be traced to Tesla’s Q2 earnings data, which showed that the electric car company sold off 75% of its Bitcoin holdings in order to add $963 million in cash to its balance sheet. So, not only forced selling from 3AC, $LUNA & $UST, but also Voyager, BlockFi and Celsius have been causing the markets to crash. On top of that, Tesla did sell 75% of their #Bitcoin pur...
SoundCloud, Warner Music Group Strike Deal on Fan-Powered Royalties
SoundCloud has finalized a deal with Warner Music Group that would allow WMG’s artists with songs on the SoundCloud platform the ability to get paid based on the number of individual users streaming their music, rather than by market share of total streams, sources tell Billboard. The revenue model is part of SoundCloud’s Fan-Powered Royalties initiative, which it launched last March with the aim of re-tooling how the platform doles out streaming revenue to rights holders and providing more detailed data to help support independent artists on the platform. In practice, it allows independent creators who own their rights and upload their works to SoundCloud through its Repost system the ability to get paid according to how many fans stream their music, rather than the current industry stand...
