Business

Crypto leaders are divided over whether Mark Zuckerberg should lead Facebook into the Metaverse, with Hodl Asset’s Jenny Ta saying he needs to resign if Meta is to succeed while Animoca’s Yat Siu says Zuck is the only one who can drive the company forward. Ta is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of nonfungible token (NFT) platform developer Hodl Assets, and said that Zuckerberg needs to head off lawsuits and protect the company’s image by relinquishing his role as CEO. But the co-founder and Chairman of blockchain game and virtual property developer Animoca Brands, Yat Su said that Zuck is a “force of nature” who can make Meta’s vision a reality — but that he hopes he embraces a decentralized model. The comments came in light of Facebook’s recent rebrand to Meta, in which the firm is aimin...

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) in South Korea reaffirmed in a public statement today that nonfungible tokens (NFT) are not virtual assets, and will not be regulated. The confirmation of the decision to keep NFTs unregulated came after a review of the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) updated guidelines. The October 28 guidance report from FATF states that “NFT, or crypto-collectibles, depending on their characteristics are generally not considered to be [Virtual Assets].” On November 5, an official from a branch of the FSC said in a statement to reporters: “Due to the FATF position on NFT regulation, we will not issue regulations for NFTs.” Korea’s financial regulator focused on the fact that FATF considered NFTs to be “unique, rather than interchangeable,” — which is of course...

Former Goldman Sachs hedge fund manager and founder of Real Vision, Raoul Pal, believes that the social media pundits are wrong and the crypto market cycle won’t end this year. But things might get a bit hairy on the way. In a Real Vision interview on Nov. 3rd Pal predicted that the current bull run won’t end in December as it did spectacularly in 2015 and 2017, and will instead extend to some time between March and June. According to Pal, Bitcoin, Ethereum and altcoin markets are likely to “take the path of most pain”, potentially crashing twice over the next six months. “My guess is that we probably have a sell-off, and then it rips again because that is the path of most pain and markets tend to take the path of most pain.” Cointelegraph reported on Nov. 4th that on-chain data source Eco...

Former Comptroller of the Currency and Binance.US CEO Brian Brooks has been announced as the new CEO of crypto (BTC) mining firm BitFury. According to a Nov. 4 announcement from Bitfury, Brooks was appointed last Friday and he will lead the firm as it prepares for a new funding round. Bitfury founder and former CEO Valery Vavilov will serve as Chief Vision Officer and the Chairman of the Board of Directors. “Mr. Brooks will lead the 10-year-old crypto unicorn as it launches a new funding round, increases the growth of its mining business with a revolutionary new microchip design and new global data center locations, and scales a portfolio of innovative businesses,” the breathless announcement read. Bitfury’s last funding round occurred in 2018, when it raised $80 million at a valuation of ...

High transaction fees have been a persistent thorn in the side of investors and blockchain projects since at least 2014 when Ethereum Network co-creator Vitalik Buterin stated in reference to Bitcoin, “The ‘Internet of Money’ should not cost $0.05 per transaction. It’s kind of absurd.”  Fast forward to November 2021 and the simple act of approving a token so that it can be transacted on Uniswap can cost as much as $50 worth in Ether (ETH)  depending on the time of day. Average Ethereum gas cost. Source: Etherscan Even layer-2 solutions, which were billed as the protocols that would help solve the fee issue, have been unable to escape the high-fee curse of congested networks as new users onboard into the cryptocurrency ecosystem by the day. isnt arbitrum supposed to be ...

Joseph O’Connor, known in some corners of the internet as PlugWalkJoe, was indicted on an array of charges relating to a May 2019 cryptocurrency exchange hack. During the attack, he is alleged to have absconded with digital assets valued at approximately $784,000. In the criminal scheme, authorities believe O’Connor utilized SIM swap attacks (an artifice of fraud where 2FA phone calls and text messages are rerouted to a device controlled by the scammer) on three separate executives at an undisclosed cryptocurrency company to take control of their employers systems. O’Connor may have then diverted over 7 BTC, 407 ETH, 6363 LTC and 770 BCH from wallets maintained by the corporation on behalf of their users to wallets under his own control.  The indictment was brought by the US Att...

As reported by Reuters Thursday morning, Tierra Viva (“Alive Earth”), a Colombian exporter of long-horned beetles based in Tunja, has been developing its own cryptocurrency to avoid high commission costs on international sales. According to the outlet, the Hercules, Neptunus, and elephant beetle species exported by Tierra Viva have a retail price of $300 a pair in Tokyo. The beetle species are popular among Japanese schoolchildren and collectors. Carmelo Campos, chief programmer of Tierra Viva, said the following in an interview with Reuters: It’s an alternative to be able to export the beetles to Japan or any other part of the world and be able to use it as a method of payment. Tierra Viva’s digital currency is called the Kumushicoin (KTV), named after the native n...