crypto blog
Crypto lender Genesis has no solution yet for withdrawal halts
Crypto lending platform Genesis has informed its customers that its withdrawal freeze is likely to last “additional weeks” amid efforts to stave off a potential bankruptcy filing. In a Dec. 7 letter to its customers shared by Genesis to Cointelegraph, interim CEO Derar Islim — who took the temporary helm of the company in August — said it will be weeks for them to formulate a recovery plan that could see withdrawals reopened, stating: “At this point, we anticipate that it will take additional weeks rather than days for us to arrive at a path forward.” The letter also stated that Genesis is “working in consultation with highly experienced advisors” and are “evaluating the most effective path to preserve client assets, strengthen our liquidity, and ultimately move our business forward.” “All...
Crypto consumer protection, proof of reserves bills introduced into US Congress
United States Congressman Ritchie Torres has introduced bills in the House of Representatives to prohibit misuse of customer funds by cryptocurrency exchanges and to require exchanges disclose proof of reserves to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The short bills are intended to supplement other legislation that is passed on cryptocurrency, Torres said. Torres introduced the bills, which have the titles of “Crypto Consumer Investor Protection Act’’ and “Crypto Exchange Disclosure Act,’’ on Dec. 1. The bills are very short. In copies obtained from Torres’ office, the body of the first bill, introduced as H.R. 9241, reads: “A cryptocurrency exchange may not lend, leverage, or co-mingle the funds of a customer without the consent of such customer.” The second bill, H.R. 9242...
Buy the rumor, sell the news? Chainlink (LINK) price drops after staking launch
Chainlink has a busy start to December when it comes to development launches. The Chainlink (LINK) staking program opened up for early access on Dec. 6 and will expand access on Dec. 8. According to Chainlink, staking will further secure the project’s node ecosystem and alerting mechanism: “Stakers gain access to staking rewards for securing the network through timely and valid alerts, and in the future, for slashing and loss protection.” Historically, mainnet launches and staking incentives stir up a flurry of blockchain activity and data from on-chain analytics firm Arkham shows a sharp uptick in activity. Chainlink Staking went live 19 hours ago. $LINK marines have flooded the contract with their deposits exceeding 11M Chainlink tokens. Meaning, over $77.7M of $LINK has been depos...
Blockchain is the only viable path to privacy and censorship resistance in the 21st century
While censorship resistance and privacy are not the same thing, they are closely intertwined. When the government or another entity, such as an advertiser, can track everything you do, they can also sanction you for bad behavior. Instead of working backward to try and cover up seismic cracks in Web2 with duct tape, it may be time to move full speed ahead on ensuring these same mistakes don’t happen in Web3. By being proactive, the purported internet of the future could actually protect our private information and prevent overzealous or oppressive censorship before these issues become unmanageable. Using crypto to deliver the message In countries fighting for human rights and civil liberties, suppressing free speech and outward communication complicates the struggle against oppressive regim...
Coinbase CEO says trading revenue has fallen to ‘roughly half’ what it was last year
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has revealed that the exchange’s trading revenue has declined by approximately 50% or more when compared with last year, according to a Dec. 7 report from Bloomberg. Armstrong made the statement as part of an interview with the David Rubenstein Show. When asked about the exchange’s revenue, he stated that the company did $7 billion in revenue and $4 billion in earnings in 2021, but “it’s looking, you know, about roughly half that or less” in 2022. Bloomberg said that a spokesperson for Coinbase later clarified that 2022 revenue, not earnings, was projected to be less than half what it was in 2021. Coinbase had previously stated in a letter to investors that it expected to post a roughly $500 million loss in adjusted EBITDA for 2022. Adjusted EBITDA is an earnin...
Bank of Russia wants to ban miners from selling crypto to Russians
The Russian central bank continues to maintain an extremely negative stance on cryptocurrencies, proposing to ban local miners from selling coins to local people. The Bank of Russia has supported the idea of legalizing cryptocurrency mining in Russia as part of a draft bill introduced in mid-November 2022. However, the Russian central bank wants to allow miners to sell their crypto only on foreign exchanges and to non-residents of Russia, the local news agency Interfax reported on Dec. 7. “We believe that cryptocurrency obtained as a result of mining can be sold exclusively using foreign infrastructure and only to non-residents,” the Bank of Russia’s press office reportedly said, adding: “In general, we adhere to the position on the inadmissibility of the circulation of digital currency on...
Institutional investors still eye crypto despite the FTX collapse
The negative effects caused by the FTX debacle have put the crypto space in an unfavorable light. However, institutional investors continued to show interest in the industry even at the height of the FTX controversy. According to crypto exchange Bitstamp, compared to their data in October, institutional registrations within its digital asset trading platform is up by 57% in November, when the topic of the FTX collapse frequented news headlines. The exchange also told Cointelegraph that its total revenue is up by 45% in the same period, with revenue coming from institutions up by 34% and from retail traders up by 72%. The exchange also highlighted that compared to October, active global retail users in November also increased by 43%, with United States-based users up by 18%. This sugg...
Proactive sanctions can help spare the ecosystem: Chainalysis exec
As many countries, entities and even individuals face international sanctions, the crypto industry seeks to find its place among increasing regulations. Digital currencies have often been mentioned as an avenue for those subject to sanctions to divert them, such as in the recent case of Russia. In such instances, exchanges and other industry players need to understand where they stand compliance-wise. Research out of Harvard even suggested that central banks can use Bitcoin (BTC) to fight off sanctions. Speaking to Cointelegraph’s managing editor Alex Cohen at the Israel Crypto Conference, Chainalysis head of sanctions Andrew Fierman said sanctions are nuanced depending on the many factors which surround the situation. “When you’re looking at countries like Iran and North...
Was the fall of FTX really crypto’s ‘Lehman moment?’
The FTX collapse was bad, but how bad? Almost from the moment that the Bahamas-based exchange suspended cryptocurrency withdrawals in early November — and three days before it filed for bankruptcy — the historic comparisons started flying. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire tweeted on Nov. 8 that FTX was “Lehman’s moment,” referencing the 2008 collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers, which sparked a global financial panic. This analogy stuck, at least over the past four weeks. Even United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen employed it last week, telling DealBook: “It’s a Lehman moment within crypto, and crypto is big enough that we’ve had substantial harm with investors.” But, other business parallels have been drawn as well. FTX’s crash might have been more like the 2008 Madoff scand...
Decentraland vs Metacade: Are These the Best Metaverse Tokens Out There?
The metaverse is shaping up to be an absolute game-changer with more and more companies and users getting on board every day. It’s no wonder that Web3 and GameFi have garnered so much interest recently. It provides a more interactive environment for users – investors, developers, and players – to be rewarded for their participation and input. As more and more people start getting into the metaverse, the field is getting crowded with new companies. While that happens, it’s hard to know which projects to give your attention to. It’s clear that Decentraland and Metacade are two top projects primed to capitalize on people’s interest. Let’s examine Decentraland vs Metacade to see how they will fare and compare in 2023 and beyond. Metacade Explored Metacade (MCADE) is best described as an ...
Iran set to freeze bank accounts of women who refuse to wear a hijab
A member of the Iranian parliament has told local media the government plans to impose new punishments on women who do not wear a hijab in public, with individuals who refuse to comply after two warnings possibly having their bank accounts frozen. Hossein Jalali, a member of the Cultural Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, told Iranian media on Dec. 6 that “unveiled persons” would be sent an SMS urging them to respect the law and wear a hijab before entering a “warning phase” and finally having their bank account potentially frozen. “In the third stage, the bank account of the unveiled person may be frozen.” Similar actions taken by governments in the past have seen protestors and dissidents turn to cryptocurrencies to continue accessing financial instruments...
Nifty News: Winamp adds NFT support, Atari gets physical and more
NFT music on Winamp Old school classic PC-friendly media player Winamp has rolled out support for Ethereum and Polygon-based music nonfungible tokens (NFTs) in the latest update of its desktop player. Winamp has been around since 1997 and was one of the most popular media players for PC users but has since been overtaken by Windows Media Player and Apple’s dominant iTunes. It has a reputation for supporting a wide range of media files, and in the latest update announcement on Dec. 7 the Winamp team noted that NFT support is officially live and ready to go. @winamp I have fond memories of Winamp from back in my youth. Are we ever going to see a official integration with @Spotify? I’d love some sweet early 2000’s visualizations with my beats — Sjoerd Stottelaar (@sjoerds) Decembe...
