business
FTX partners with Paradigm for ‘one-click’ futures spread trading
Paradigm has announced the launch of spreads trading in partnership with crypto exchange FTX. In a Friday blog post, Paradigm said under the FTX partnership users would be able to utilize “one-click” trading with “no leg risk” for the spread between spot, perpetuals and fixed maturity futures on Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL), Avalanche (AVAX), ApeCoin (APE), Dogecoin (DOGE), Chainlink (LINK) and Litecoin (LTC). FTX will provide “guaranteed atomic execution and clearing of both legs” for the trades. According to Paradigm CEO Anand Gomes, the arrangement was aimed at drawing in new crypto investors interested in cash and carry trades — leveraging crypto spot purchases and futures instruments on FTX. Gomes added that the rollout could lead to new product offerings “further down the...
The Ledger: When Should Subscription Services Raise Prices?
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. Over the last decade, streaming platforms have mostly held prices steady while racking up over half a billion subscribers globally. But for years, music executives have questioned subscription services’ decision to sacrifice higher prices — and with them higher royalties to labels and artists — to gain more subscribers. Music streaming is following an age-old business tactic: launch at an affordable price, gain customers and, once people are hooked, raise prices. The question is when to raise prices. Too early a raise could risk alienating subscribers, while one that’s too late risks leaving revenue on the table once su...
Tornado Cash DAO goes down without explanation following vote on treasury funds
The Tornado Cash DAO went offline after many social media users reported the community discussing ways to challenge sanctions recently imposed by the United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control. At the time of publication, the Tornado Cash DAO was offline reportedly following a discussion in which community members voted unanimously to add its governance layer as a signatory to its treasury’s multisig wallet, which manages a reported $21.6 million. It’s unclear what was responsible for the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) going dark, but it followed a series of actions taken by different authorities and private entities in the wake of U.S. sanctions announced against the controversial mixer on Monday. In the last four days, Circle froze more than 75,000 U...
Provident Entertainment Promotes Holly Zabka to President, Terry Hemmings to Depart
Provident Entertainment president/CEO Terry Hemmings will exit the company at the end of August, while Holly Zabka has been promoted to president. Zabka will report to Randy Goodman, chairman/CEO at Sony Music Nashville. Over the course of two decades at Provident, Hemmings forged a roster of faith-based artists including Casting Crowns, CAIN, Kirk Franklin and Zach Williams. Zabka, a 14-year veteran of Provident, most recently served as senior vp of Essential Music Publishing and head of creative for Provident Label Group. During Zabka’s career at Provident, the company has earned over 60 No. 1 songs and partnered with artists and songwriters including Jason Ingram, Ethan Hulse and Matt Maher. Goodman said via a statement, “Over the last two decades, Terry has played an important part in ...
Bob Dylan’s Lawyers in Sex Abuse Case Demand Punishment For Attorneys Who Filed Lawsuit
In the wake of a failed lawsuit that claimed Bob Dylan sexually abused a child in 1965, the singer’s legal team is now demanding serious penalties against the lawyers who filed it – citing “brazen” misconduct in a case that they “should not have brought.” The suit, filed last year by an unnamed woman, included salacious allegations against the iconic singer, but historians said it wasn’t chronologically plausible and the accuser suddenly dropped the case last month after Dylan’s lawyers said she had destroyed key evidence. Now, Dylan’s attorneys are out for blood – demanding “real consequences” for attorneys Daniel Isaacs and Peter Gleason over their “systematic discovery violations” while handling the case. “Mr. Isaacs and Mr. Gleason should not have brought this action — accusing defenda...
Wealth managers and VCs are helping drive institutional crypto adoption — Wave Financial execs
Two executives at Wave Financial, an asset management firm providing bespoke strategies to high-net-worth individuals and entities, have reported seeing increased institutional demand for crypto products amid the bear market. Speaking to Cointelegraph at the Blockchain Futurist Conference in Toronto on Wednesday, Wave Financial’s head of business development Mike Jones said institutional investment in crypto could be driven by the high end of wealth management firms including Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs looking for ways to allow their clients to get exposure to the space. Jones cited the example of BlackRock partnering with Coinbase on Aug. 4, a move that will give users of the asset manager’s institutional investment management platform Aladdin access to crypto trading...
Verve Label Group Ups Jamie Krents to President of Verve Imprint, Dawn Olejar to GM
UMG’s Verve Label Group has promoted Jamie Krents to president of its Verve, Impulse! and Verve Forecast labels, while the company’s executive vp Dawn Olejar has added the role of general manager to her responsibilities. The New York-based executives will both report to Dickon Stainer, president and CEO of Verve Label Group and Universal Classics and Jazz. “These two exciting promotions mark a crucial moment in the evolution of Verve,” said Stainer in a statement. “Jamie Krents becoming President of Verve and Impulse! is a true testament to his unique and exceptional vision for artist development as these legendary labels enter a new era under his stewardship. Dawn Olejar is a role model for outstanding label management, and her new combined responsibilities as EVP and General Manager refl...
Billboard Expands in Asia With Launch of Billboard China
Billboard is expanding its global footprint in Asia. On Monday (Aug. 8), Billboard announced the launch of Billboard China along with plans for its rollout. “We are thrilled to announce the launch of the Billboard brand in China,” Billboard President Mike Van said in a press release announcing the news. “We look forward to providing a platform for Chinese musicians to share their art and unique sound amongst a global audience. Today marks the beginning of another exciting chapter in Billboard’s evolution and we are eager to witness the proliferation of new artists shaping pop culture.” Billboard China adds to the list of the publication’s international editions and music content in Asia, following Billboard Japan and Billboard Korea. Per the press release, Billboard will work closely with ...
Australia-based crypto miner doubles hash rate after energizing Canadian rigs
Australian Bitcoin miner Iris Energy said it had increased its hash rate to more than 2.3 exahashes per second following the completion of phase two of its operations in Mackenzie, Canada. In a Monday announcement, Iris Energy said it had brought 41 megawatts of operating capacity in the British Columbia municipality online roughly two months ahead of schedule, adding 1.5 EH/s to its existing hash rate. In addition, the Bitcoin (BTC) miner expects to bring another 50 MW online in Prince George by the end of the third quarter of 2022, increasing its operating capacity to 3.7 EH/s. Iris Energy co-founder and co-CEO Daniel Roberts said the firm had energized the facility on schedule “despite the current market backdrop and ongoing international supply chain challenges.” The firm planned to de...
Taylor Swift Tells Judge That ‘Shake It Off’ Was ‘Written Entirely by Me’
Taylor Swift herself weighed in Monday (Aug. 8) on a lawsuit that claims she stole the lyrics to “Shake It Off” from a song about “playas” and “haters,” filing a sworn declaration in which she said the words were “written entirely by me” and that she’d “never heard the song” she’s accused of copying. Seeking to finally end a yearslong lawsuit that claims her 2014 chart-topping hit had infringed the copyright to the 2001 song “Playas Gon’ Play” by the group 3LW, Swift was unequivocal: “The lyrics to Shake It Off were written entirely by me.” “In writing the lyrics, I drew partly on experiences in my life and, in particular, unrelenting public scrutiny of my personal life, ‘clickbait’ reporting, public manipulation, and other forms of negative personal criticism which I learned I just needed...
Vitalik Buterin proposes stealth addresses for anonymous NFT ownership
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has suggested there may be a “low-tech approach” to incorporating privacy features ito nonfungible token, or NFT, transactions. In a Monday post on the Ethereum research channel, Buterin implied Merkle trees and Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Arguments of Knowledge, or ZK-SNARKs, were a more complicated method for stealth addresses for ERC-721 tokens, while proposing his own solution. The Ethereum co-founder suggested instead that smart contract wallets could include a method that would allow the sender to essentially mask their address to third parties. “You would be able to eg. send an NFT to vitalik.eth without anyone except me (the new owner) being able to see who the new owner is,” said Buterin. Idea: stealth addresses for ERC721s. A low-te...
Voyager plans to resume cash withdrawals on Aug. 11
Crypto lender Voyager Digital Holdings has reported users may be able to make cash withdrawals from the app more than a month after suspending trading, deposits, withdrawals and loyalty rewards. In a Friday blog post, Voyager said clients with U.S. dollars in their accounts could withdraw up to $100,000 in a 24-hour period starting as early as Aug. 11, with the funds received in 5–10 business days. The announcement followed a judge ruling on Thursday the crypto lending firm was cleared to return $270 million in customer funds held at the Metropolitan Commercial Bank in New York. “Requests will be processed as quickly as possible but will require some manual review, including fraud reviews and account reconciliation, and timing will depend, in part, upon the individual banks to which custom...
