Crypto news
NFT creator Doodles raises $54M in funding at $704M valuation
On Tuesday, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) collection Doodles announced that it had raised $54 million at a $704 million valuation in a funding round led by Seven Seven Six, with participation from 10T Holdings, Acrew Capital and FTX Ventures. As told by Doodles, the investment will allow it to scale its growth strategy and monetize its intellectual property globally through ventures in the music, culture and entertainment industries. Doodles is a collection of 10,000 NFTs co-founded by digital artist Burnt Toast and Web3 pioneers Evan Keast and Jordan Castro. Artistically, it is known for its colorful world and joyful cartoon character portraits of skeletons, cats, aliens, apes and mascots minted on the Ethereum blockchain. NFTs in the collection are generated from hundreds of traits and hand-...
Bitcoin margin long-to-short ratio at Bitfinex reach the highest level ever
Sept. 12 will leave a mark that will probably stick for quite a while. Traders at Bitfinex exchange vastly reduced their leveraged bearish Bitcoin (BTC) bets and the absence of demand for shorts could have been caused by the expectation of cool inflation data. Bears may have lacked confidence, but August’s U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) came in higher than market expectations and they appear to be on the right side. The inflation index, which tracks a broad basket of goods and services, increased 8.3% over the previous year. More importantly, the energy prices component fell 5% in the same period but it was more than offset by increases in food and shelter costs. Soon after the worse-than-expected macroeconomic data was released, U.S. equity indices took a downturn, with the tech-he...
Abu Dhabi regulator introduces its ‘guiding principles’ for crypto
The Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), the financial regulator of Abu Dhabi Global Market free economic zone (ADGM), published its “Guiding Principles” on its approach to digital asset regulation and supervision. Friendly in tone to the crypto industry, the principles pledge to comply with international standards in Anti-Money Laundering (AML), combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) and supporting financial sanctions. Five principles were published without date specification on the official webpage of the ADGM. They go under the titles of Internationally Recognised Regulatory Framework, Dynamic and Market-Oriented Regulations, Risk-focused and Proportionate Approach, Cooperation and Shared Responsibility, Delivering High Standards of Quality & Service. Whil...
The challenges with building a reputation in Web3 — and how to solve them
Amazing things are being built in Web3 — often by pseudonymous individuals who prefer to keep their real-world identity private. In some ways, this is liberating. It means that anyone can have a chance to get involved in a project and deliver value to the community — irrespective of their background. But as decentralized identities proliferate, there’s one issue that cannot be ignored: Ensuring that there’s an easy way for us to verify the reputation of others. This matters… for many reasons. If you’re about to start using a DeFi project created by someone pseudonymous, you’d like a way to know that they’re trustworthy and dependable. If you’re reading an article that someone has written online, there should be a way of checking that their past works hav...
Bitcoin price sheds $1K in 3 minutes as US CPI inflation overshoots
Bitcoin (BTC) crashed below $22,000 instantly on Sep. 13 after United States inflation data failed to meet estimates. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView CPI print sparks major crypto rout Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD swiftly falling $1,000 after Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation for August came in at 8.3% year-on-year. Consensus had agreed that 8.1% would be the latest figure, and the overshoot suggested that inflation was not slowing at the expected pace. US CPI for August YoY coming in above expectations at 8.3% (expected 8.1%) but lower than in July with 8.5%. MoM core CPI coming in hot at 0.6% twice as high as the expected 0.3%. Not what the Fed wants to see. So 75bps it is at the next meeting? — Jan Wüstenfel...
Collapse of Terra blockchain ecosystem forces talent migration
At the height of the 2022 bull market, the Terra ecosystem was booming with talent and innovation. The native token of the Terra blockchain had made its way to the top-10 cryptocurrencies by total market capitalization. Protocols were building the next iteration of a super cycle that seemed like it would never end. Terraform Labs created Terra amid the crypto market crash of 2018 and built it all through the bear market. The Terra ecosystem’s main appeal and claim for glory came from their offer of the best yields in decentralized finance (DeFi), with up to 20% yield on its stablecoin through the Anchor protocol. As of March 2022, Terra had a total of 73 projects built in the ecosystem. The ambition of the team was to onboard at least 87 more projects by the end of the year. Terra wa...
Merge ‘jitters’ sees outflow from Ether-based investment products
Institutional investors may be wavering ahead of the Ethereum Merge, with Ether-based digital asset investment products seeing an outflow of $61.6 million, signaling concerns about the success of the upgrade. In its digital asset fund flows weekly report, fund manager CoinShares reported that Ether-based investment products made up for the majority of total outflows over the Sept. 5-11 week — leading to the market’s fifth consecutive week of outflows. Report author James Butterfill said the outflows have come “despite the improved certainty of the Merge,” which could highlight a concern amongst investors that the “event might not go as planned,” referring to the upcoming Ethereum Merge set for Sept. 15. This is despite the likelihood of a successful Merge improving over the last week...
Ubisoft cools off on NFTs and blockchain, says it’s in ‘research mode’
Yves Guillemot, the CEO of French gaming giant Ubisoft appears to have cooled the rhetoric behind the company’s NFT gaming project Quartz, noting in a recent interview that it was merely in “research mode” concerning Web3 tech integrations. It’s a relatively different take from other Ubisoft execs in the past, including chief financial officer Frédérick Duguet who in October stated that blockchain integrations will enable users to own and earn content and the firm wants to “be one of the key players here.” During a Sept. 10 interview with gamesindustry.biz, Guillemot appears to be walking some of those comments back, emphasizing that at this stage, Ubisoft is primarily looking to discover how NFTs can be applied to games and whether they will benefit gamers or not. “We are very much ...
Canadia’s new opposition leader is a Bitcoiner
Canadian politician and noted crypto advocate Pierre Poilievre has taken the helm of Canada’s Conservative Party, which looks set to give the current administration a run for its money in the next federal election. The pro-crypto politician reportedly won the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada in a landslide victory on Sept. 10, securing 68.15% of the electoral points up for grabs, and far outpacing his nearest opponent Jean Charest who received just 16.07% of the vote. Poilievre has been a member of the Conservative Party since 2003, first winning office in the 2004 election. He has since served as a Member of Parliament for seven terms and held various roles including Shadow Minister for Finance and Minister of Employment and Social Development. Poilievre has been known...
Mean Girls set to make Web3 comeback as “crypto-collectibles”
American teen comedy Mean Girls (2004) may soon be making a Web3 comeback, with recent trademark filings by Paramount Pictures revealing plans to expand the brand into “crypto-collectibles.” According to tweets shared by licensed trademark attorney Mike Kondoudis, Paramount Pictures filed two trademark applications on Sept. 7 for the early 2000s teen comedy starring former Disney actress Lindsay Lohan. Paramount Pictures has filed 2 trademarks for MEAN GIRLS! The filings claim plans to expand the #MEANGIRLS brand into:▶️ NFTs + NFT-backed media▶️ Crypto-collectibles▶️ NFT + Crypto-collectible transfer software#NFT #Metaverse #Web3 #NFTs #Crypto #MeanGirlsTour pic.twitter.com/SaBLtZVTOx — Mike Kondoudis (@KondoudisLaw) September 12, 2022 The tradema...
Brother of former Coinbase employee pleads guilty to charges related to insider trading: Report
Nikhil Wahi, who was arrested for allegedly working with his brother and an associate on a scheme to commit insider trading using crypto, has reportedly entered a guilty plea for wire fraud conspiracy charges. According to a Monday report from Reuters, Wahi admitted to authorities during a virtual hearing that he used confidential information obtained from Coinbase to make profits from trading crypto. Wahi’s brother Ishan worked as a product manager at Coinbase, during which time he allegedly shared information regarding the launch dates of tokens with his brother and an associate, Sameer Ramani. The trio allegedly used the insider information to make roughly $1.5 million in gains from trading 25 different cryptocurrencies between 2021 and 2022. “I knew that it was wrong to receive C...
Time for a breakout? Bitcoin price pushes at key resistance near $23K
On Sept. 12, Bitcoin is doing Bitcoin things as usual. Since Sept. 9 the price has broken out nicely, booking a near 16% gain and rallying into the long-term descending trendline which appears to have resistance at $23,000. BTC/USDT 1-day chart. Source: TradingView Perhaps BTC and the wider market are turning bullish ahead of the Ethereum Merge which is scheduled for Sept. 14, or maybe the elusive bottom is finally in. Weekly chart data from TradingView shows that on June 27 and Aug. 15, Bitcoin’s relative strength index had dropped to lows not seen since 2019. BTC/USDT 1-day chart. Source: TradingView Currently, the metric has rebounded from a near oversold 31 to its current 38.5 reading. Some traders might also note a bullish divergence on the metric, where the RSI follows an ascen...
