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El Salvador ranks third in global Bitcoin ATM installations, data finds
El Salvador now hosts the third-largest network of crypto ATMs after the United States and Canada, amounting to 70% of all crypto ATMs in South America. According to data from Coin ATM Radar, El Salvador has exceeded United Kingdom’s crypto ATM count after deploying 205 crypto ATMs to date to facilitate local Bitcoin transactions and BTC to U.S. dollar conversions. Comparing this to Statista data from August 16, it becomes evident that El Salvador has successfully installed 201 ATMs in just one month. Beforehand, the country ranked 43rd on the list with just four functional crypto ATMs. [embedded content] President Nayib Bukele had previously stated that Bitcoin’s adoption would be initially supported by a network of 200 ATMs and 50 branches. The Salvadorean government has...
Harvey Mason Jr. on Recording Academy’s Future: ‘We Needed to Improve and We Needed to Evolve’
Still, he’s the first to admit there is plenty more progress to be made in his efforts to “modernize everything about the Academy,” including looking at new areas of revenue, making sure the Grammy voting process is as transparent as possible, and leading industry standards on diversity. Mason started his tenure forged by fire, as chairman of the board of trustees he stepped into the interim president/CEO position in January 2020 after the Academy suspended his predecessor, Deborah Dugan, for alleged misconduct only five months after she’d been hired. Dugan, who was officially fired in March 2020, filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission just days after being put on leave alleging sexual harassment, discrimination and improper business dealings by the Academy...
Former chief of Russia’s Wex crypto exchange arrested in Poland
BBC Russia has reported that Dmitry Vasiliev, the former chief of Russian cryptocurrency exchange Wex, has been arrested in Warsaw, Poland. Wex, which was previously known as BTC-e, was a well-known “dark” exchange in the early days of the cryptocurrency industry. It is alleged to have laundered funds for numerous high-profile crypto hacks, including the notorious Mt. Gox incident. Although Vasiliev is regarded as innocent within Poland’s jurisdiction, other countries such as Kazakhstan have an open fraud case against the elusive figure and as such, have reportedly engaged in discussions surrounding the possibility of extradition. It is understood that Vasiliev was detained on August 11 by Polish authorities, but the news was only uncovered by the Polish newspaper, Wyborc...
Texas and New Jersey regulators go after Celsius Network
The Texas State Securities Board has filed for a hearing with the potential to impose a cease and desist order against crypto lending firm Celsius Network for not offering securities licensed at the state or federal level, while the New Jersey Bureau of Securities has ordered the platform to stop offering and selling interest-earning cryptocurrency products. According to a Sept. 17 filing, the Texas regulator will be holding a hearing related to allegations that Celsius Network is offering and selling securities in Texas that are not registered or permitted in addition to not registering as a dealer under the state’s Securities Act. Should the judge accept that the platform’s offerings represented unlicensed securities, Celsius Network may be subject to a cease and desist order. On the sam...
Bitcoin is ‘playing mind games’ as its price coils into a tighter range
The general mood across the cryptocurrency market is one of anticipation on Sept. 17 as the price of Bitcoin has traded in an increasingly tighter range over the past couple of days and looks to be coiling in preparation for a move one way or another. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the price of Bitcoin (BTC) has oscillated between $47,150 and $48,150 in trading on Friday as the lack of any major developments or headline-grabbing stories has led to a relatively flat day in the markets. BTC/USDT 1-day chart. Source: TradingView A recent report from Delphi Digital suggested that last week’s sudden drop in Bitcoin price caught the market off-guard and led to a significant drop in market sentiment from greed to fear, and BTC’s price performance over t...
Evolve or die: How smart contracts are shifting the crypto sector’s balance of power
One of the familiar themes seen in previous crypto market cycles is the shifting market caps, popularity and ranking of the top 10 projects that see significant gains during bull phases, only to fade into obscurity during the bear markets. For many of these projects, they follow a recognizable boom-to-bust cycle and never return to their previous glory. During the 2017–2018 bull market and initial coin offering (ICO) boom, which was driven by Ethereum network-based projects, all manner of small smart contract-oriented projects rallied thousands of percentage to unexpected highs. During this time, projects like Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), Monero (XMR) and ZCash (ZEC) also rotated in and out of the top 10 ranking, but to this day, investors still argue about which project...
Sound Royalties Acquired by GoDigital, MEP Capital in ‘High Eight-Figure’ Deal
Founded in 2014 by Alex Heiche and backed by York Capital, Sound Royalties provides funding to music creators against royalties from all major collection societies, labels, publishers and distributors for a finite duration. Creators who utilize the service get to keep their copyrights, as well as ongoing royalty cash flow over the amount financed. The company caters to both emerging artists, songwriters and producers and established hitmakers, including the likes of DJ Khaled, Lil Wayne, Pitbull, Rich Robinson and Wyclef Jean. In his own statement, Heiche said that joining GoDigital “will enable us to expand our technology platform and grow more rapidly, while preserving the ability for creatives to speak and work directly with our experienced Royalty Specialists to ensure they receive the...
Twitch & Music Publishers Nearing Licensing Deal
Amazon-owned Twitch has operated under the DMCA for years without backlash, but ever since the pandemic turned the music industry’s attention to Twitch for livestreaming concerts, spurring huge growth for the platform, music trade organizations like the NMPA and RIAA have accused Twitch of taking advantage of the DMCA to avoid paying for music — similar to the way the organizations have pressured TikTok, Facebook and YouTube to sign licensing deals in the past. So the two organizations have flooded Twitch with tens of thousands of takedown requests over the past year, forcing Twitch to the negotiation table by frustrating its users. In response, Twitch vp/head of music Tracy Chan has reiterated that Twitch does not tolerate copyright infringement, arguing that Twitch’s monetiza...
Veteran trader explains when it’s the best time to cash out of the market
2021 has been a wild ride for the cryptocurrency market as Bitcoin shocked its naysayers by setting a new record high at $64,863, and the DeFi and NFT sector made headlines around the world. Crypto traders need to be wary of times like these because the notoriously volatile nature of the cryptocurrency market can see vast fortunes wiped out in a matter of hours or days once the trend shifts. According to Charlie Burton, veteran trader and the co-founder of Ezeetrader, this is when it is important for every trader to have a defined set of rules that they stick to when emotions begin to run hot because “we are all fallible, flawed human beings, especially in front of the markets.” Burton said, “We are naturally influenced by greed or fear to one propensity or another. So we absolutely ...
Finance Redefined: Maverick Vitalik in Time Mag, Sept. 13–17
Welcome to the latest edition of Cointelegraph’s decentralized finance, or DeFi, newsletter. Despite Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson’s claim that the DeFi space is now “up for grabs,“ it was rival Vitalik Buterin who stole the headlines this week with a feature in Time Magazine. What you’re about to read is the smaller version of this newsletter designed for brevity. For the full version of DeFi’s developments over the last week — released a whole lot quicker than Cardano’s smart contracts — drop your email below. Buterin’s Time to Shine Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin was listed in Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2021 this week for his distinguished contributions to the growth of the Ethereum network to over $420 billion in market capitalization, as well as fosteri...
Price analysis 9/17: BTC, ETH, ADA, BNB, XRP, SOL, DOT, DOGE, UNI, LUNA
Bitcoin’s (BTC) recovery is facing stiff resistance near $48,500, indicating that bears are active at higher levels. By combining the popular stock-to-flow Bitcoin price model and the illiquid supply data, analyst William Clemente projects $39,000 to act as a strong floor on any declines. On the upside, analysts remain bullish. Bloomberg Intelligence chief analyst Mike McGlone has maintained his target of $100,000 for Bitcoin. McGlone said that a number of different charts underline the bullish potential for Bitcoin. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 Along with Bitcoin, Ether (ETH) is also showing signs of accumulation. Crypto analytics provider IntoTheBlock said $1.2 billion worth of Ether was withdrawn within a 24-hour period from centralized exchanges on Sep...
John Cena calls his own NFT sales a ‘catastrophic failure’
Professional wrestler and actor John Cena said fans only purchased 7.4% of his World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE, non-fungible tokens he made available last month. Speaking at Florida Supercon 2021 on Sept. 12, Cena said it was a mistake to market his WWE NFTs as part of a package with physical collectibles — a hat, shirt, wristbands, belt, towel, autographed picture, and the digital collectible. The organization offered 500 gold tier packages with the NFT for $1,000, but only a fraction of them sold. “I talk a lot about failure — this idea failed,” said Cena. “Myself and the folks in the WWE thought $1,000 was a fair price point. We were wrong. We were absolutely wrong.” He added: “We sold 37 of them. It was a catastrophic failure.” Cena and WWE released two tiers of NFTs for the wres...
