Crypto news
Snapchat’s parent company shutters Web3 division amid layoffs
Snap Inc’s CEO Evan Speigel announced in a note on Friday that the company had made the difficult decision to reduce the size of its workforce by approximately 20%. The note said that this round of layoffs comes after the company experienced slow revenue growth, a slump in stock prices, and a general lag behind its financial targets. Speigel shared: “Our forward-looking revenue visibility remains limited, and our current year-over-year QTD revenue growth of 8% is well below what we were expecting earlier this year.” Snap Inc. will now undertake the task of restructuring in an attempt to ensure the company’s success in a highly competitive space where Instagram and TikTok are currently dominating. As part of its restructuring process, the company has axed its entire We...
Brazilian SEC seeks to change its role in cryptocurrency regulation
The Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly pursuing changes in the country’s legal framework with regard to its regulation of cryptocurrencies. According to local media, one major concern is that the bill in question does not appear to consider tokens as digital assets or securities — and they therefore wouldn’t fall under SEC regulation. The updated position of the nation’s SEC follows the appointment of a new board and the increased relevance of the crypto sector in the country’s financial services. Brazilian lawmakers have been working on regulations for cryptocurrencies since 2015, but the Senate only approved the final version of a bill in April 2022. Once Brazil’s Congress finishes its final revisions, the bill will be sent to t...
NFT Steez and Lukso co-founder explore the implications of digital self-sovereignty in Web3
Sovereign identity has been a hot topic in blockchain and cryptocurrency, especially with the rise of the creator economy. Currently, there are two types of digital identities. One is federated and centralized whereby data is in the control of the service provider. Self-sovereign digital identity is often cited as a human right that can reclaim agency using blockchain technology, but what frameworks exist that aid in governing it? On Aug. 2, NFT Steez, a bi-weekly Twitter Spaces hosted by Alyssa Expósito and Ray Salmond, met Marjorie Hernandez, the co-founder of LUKSO and The Dematerialized to discuss the state of blockchain-based identities and “Universal Profiles.” According to Hernandez, in the future, “everything will have a digital identity.” Onboarding into the digital realm should b...
Crypto’s adaptability, openness key to ideal monetary system, say BIS execs
Governments across the globe see central bank digital currencies (CBDC) as a means to improve the existing fiat ecosystem. Cryptocurrency’s technical prowess supported by the central bank’s underlying trust is key to enabling a rich monetary ecosystem, suggests an International Monetary Fund (IMF) publication. “Digital technologies promise a bright future for the monetary system,” reads the publication attributed to IMF deputy managing director Agustín Carstens and BIS executives Jon Frost and Hyun Song Shin. A BIS study from June revealed that cryptocurrencies outdo fiat ecosystems when it comes to achieving the high-level goals of a future monetary system. Some of the most significant flaws preventing present-day cryptocurrencies from mainstream adoption, pointed out by the BIS exe...
Experts weigh in on the Ethereum vulnerabilities after Merge: Finance Redefined
Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter crafted to bring you significant developments over the last week. The past week in the DeFi ecosystem saw major developments centered around the Ethereum Merge. Aave (AAVE) community proposed temporarily suspending Ether (ETH) lending before the Merge, citing the potential issue of high ETH utilization that may result in liquidations being hard or impossible and annual percentage yields (APYs) reaching negative figures. An industry expert shared his opinion on possible censorship vulnerabilities that the Ethereum network could eventually face in the wake of its transition to a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain. Moving ahead of the Ethereum Merge developments, some other major even...
More than 50% of reported Bitcoin trading volume is ‘likely to be fake or non-economic’ — Report
Bitcoin trading data from 157 exchanges reportedly did not match up to what companies claimed. According to an Aug. 26 report from Forbes, Javier Pax of the news outlet’s digital asset arm said there was a mismatch between the Bitcoin (BTC) trading data reported by crypto exchanges and the actual numbers. The Forbes contributor found that a group of small exchanges had BTC trading volumes roughly 95% less than those reported, while those operating “with little or no regulatory oversight” — including Binance and Bybit — claimed to have more than double the analyzed volume: $217 billion as opposed to $89 billion. “More than half of all reported trading volume is likely to be fake or non-economic,” said Pax. “The global daily Bitcoin volume for the industry was $128 billion on June 14. That i...
Sept. 22 is the date for Cardano’s Vasil hard fork launch, 3 months after target date
Cardano has set September 22 as the date for its Vasil mainnet upgrade, founder of the blockchain Charles Hoskinson announced on his YouTube vlog Friday. The hard fork was originally scheduled for June of this year and rescheduled twice. According to Cardano-associated R&D company Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK), which worked on the update, three necessary critical mass indicators have been reached: “1. 75% of mainnet blocks being created by the final Vasil node candidate (1.35.3) 2. approximately 25 exchanges upgraded (representing 80% of ada liquidity) 3. top 10 DApps by TVL confirming they have upgraded to 1.35.3 on PreProduction and are ready for mainnet.” IOHK wrote that, of the top 12 crypto exchanges, MEXC and Bitrue are “ready” for the upgrade, while Binance is “nearl...
3 ways to trade Bitcoin and altcoins during a bear market
Markets are scary right now, and while the situation is likely to worsen, it doesn’t mean investors need to sit out and watch from the sidelines. In fact, history has proven that one of the best times to buy Bitcoin (BTC) is when no one is talking about Bitcoin. Remember the 2018–2020 crypto winter? I do. Hardly anyone, including mainstream media, was talking about crypto in a positive or negative way. It was during this time of prolonged downtrend and lengthy sideways chop that smart investors were accumulating in preparation for the next bull trend. Of course, nobody knew “when” this parabolic advance would take place, but the example is purely meant to illustrate that crypto might be in a crab market, but there are still great strategies for investing in Bitcoin. Let’s take a look at th...
Bitcoin hits new September high on US payrolls, G7 Russian energy cap
Bitcoin (BTC) passed $20,400 for the first time this month on Sept. 2 as United States economic data outperformed expectations. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView Declining dollar accompanies BTC price rebound Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD approaching $20,500 after the Wall Street open, marking new highs for September. The pair had responded well to U.S. non-farm payroll data, which in August showed inflows dropping less than expected. A further boost came from news that the G7 had agreed to implement a price cap on Russian oil, with the European Union also planning to target the country’s gas imports. While the S&P500 and Nasdaq Composite Index both added 1.25% after the first hour’s trading, the U.S. dollar conversely fell...
Bnk To The Future eyes acquisition of crypto lender SALT
Crypto lending platform SALT has received a buyout offer from a prominent online investment platform — a move the company said could potentially enhance its product offerings and advance its mission of making digital assets more accessible to mainstream audiences. Bnk To The Future, or BF, has submitted a letter of intent to acquire SALT for an undisclosed amount, the companies disclosed Friday. The acquisition is contingent on both parties signing definitive agreements and requires regulatory approval. Robert Odell, SALT’s chief product officer, described the potential acquisition as being a unity of first-movers in the cryptocurrency market: “This potential union will combine SALT, the world’s first crypto lending platform, with BF, the world’s first Bitcoin and crypto securi...
Gaming makes up over half of blockchain industry usage, DappRadar
New data from DappRadar suggests that gaming remains a vital organ to the blockchain industry. According to the report, the gaming sector accounts for approximately 50.51% of industry usage month-over-month (MoM), as per August numbers. While overall the numbers are a good indicator for the sector, it is a decrease from the previous month. Last month, the gaming sector made up approximately 57.30% of industry usage (MoM). The data from DappRadar comes from the daily Unique Active Wallets (UAW). According to the surveyor, there are around 847,230 gaming-related UAW active daily with nearly $698 million in transactions. Source: DappRadar Gaming has long been touted as a gateway to the world of Web3, blockchain, and crypto. Another recent survey from ChainPlay highlighted that of 2,428 survey...
Kyber Network offers bounty following $265K hack of decentralized exchange
KyberSwap, the decentralized exchange built on liquidity protocol Kyber Network, has offered a hacker 15% of the funds from a $265,000 exploit as a bug bounty. In a Thursday blog post, Kyber Network said a hacker had used a frontend exploit to pilfer roughly $265,000 worth of user funds from KyberSwap. The protocol said it will compensate all users for any missing funds related to the exploit, and directly addressed the hacker to give them an opportunity to return the funds in exchange for “a conversation with our team” and 15% of what was taken — roughly $40,000. “We know the addresses you own have received funds from central exchanges and we can track you down from there,” said Kyber Network. “We also know the addresses you own have OpenSea profiles and we can track you through the NFT c...
