Digital Assets
Digital assets are about more than just Bitcoin. The global adoption of blockchain, expansion of cross-border payments, new investment vehicles tied to intellectual property, and more, could one day establish a global market of digitized assets worth $50 trillion. This channel provides access to the latest developments, opportunities, risks, and thought leaders in the growing Digital Assets space.
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Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD) has launched its Crypto app in the European Union (EU), allowing eligible customers to engage in crypto trading with the added incentive of earning Bitcoin rewards. Customers stand to receive up to 1 BTC as a reward when signing up and can earn an additional 1 BTC for each successful referral. The platform claims to be the sole custodial crypto platform in the EU offering customers a percentage of their trading volume back every month, paid in Bitcoin.
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More Stories on Digital Assets
Digital Assets: “Economic Headwinds” And “Collapse Of FTX” Force Crypto.com To Slash Workforce By 20%
Kris Marszalek, Co-Founder & CEO of crypto exchange Crypto.com said in an update Friday that the company was cutting its global workforce by about 20%. Marszalek laid the blame for the layoffs at the door of several factors including economic headwinds, unforeseen industry events, negative economy developments, and FTX.
Alternative Investments/Digital: Samsung Asset Management To Launch Bitcoin Futures ETF In Hong Kong
On January 13, Samsung Asset Management will launch the Samsung Bitcoin Futures Active ETF on the Hong Kong stock market. The move is timing nicely with what appears to be a resurgence of investor interest in digital assets alongside a rally in global equities following slowing inflation.
Digital Assets: Abu Dhabi’s Venom Foundation Ties With Iceberg Capital For $1B Blockchain And Web3 Venture Fund
Abu Dhabi’s Venom Foundation has announced the launch of Venom Ventures Fund, a $1 billion venture fund targeting startups in blockchain and web3 dApps and protocols. However, it will favor ventures that are focused on long-term trends including payments, asset management and banking services, as well as GameFi.
Digital Assets: It Gets Worse – Coinbase Announces A Third Round Of 950 Layoffs
In a blog post this morning, Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) CEO and Co-Founder Brian Armstrong said he still expected further contagion from the crypto market’s downturn, but the events represented an opportunity for the company and validated its long-term strategy. He said the company had to be operationally efficient enough to take advantage and therefore needed to reduce operating expense by about 25% quarter-on-quarter, which included letting go of about 950 people.
Digital Assets: Galaxy Digital Bails Out Bitcoin Miner Argo In $100M Deal Including Purchase Of Mining Facility
Argo Blockchain (NASDAQ: ARBK) and Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd (TSX: GLXY) have agreed a $100 million deal that covers the sale of a bitcoin facility to Galaxy for $65 million and a $35 million restructuring loan to Argo.
Digital Assets: Transparency And Risk Management At Crypto Firms Still Fall Short Despite FTX (WSJ)
In the absence of a regulatory mechanism in the US, and particularly after the collapse of so many crypto industry players (including FTX – the latest and most high profile) there is all around concern regarding the procedures for risk management, fair accounting, and internal controls that must be implemented within the industry. According to the WSJ, though crypto firms have started to disclose more information about their affairs, investors are still not comfortable with the levels of transparency and accountability in the industry.
Digital Assets: The DOJ Seized 55.27M Shares Of Robinhood And $20.75M Currency In Broking Account Linked To SBF
The seizure followed the December 9 indictment of SBF for charges including wire fraud, money laundering, securities fraud, commodities fraud and campaign finance violations.
Alternative Investments/Digital: BlackRock Launches Metaverse ETF
BlackRock has issued the iShares Metaverse UCITS ETF, which offers investors an ESG-screened exposure to small, mid, and large capitalization developed and emerging market companies which invest in the development of certain metaverse related technologies such as virtual reality, 3D image modelling, avatar, graphics processing unit, blockchain and non-fungible tokens.
Digital Assets: Don’t Paint Bitcoin And Ether In The Colors Of Scam-Tainted FTX, Says The Wolf Of Wall Street
And in more good news for crypto aficionados, Belfort also said he expected the price of bitcoin and ether to be “a lot higher.” The Wolf also dismissed the FTX imbroglio as a fraud: “FTX was a scam and there is no way to protect against a scam like that.”
Digital Assets: Ledger Launches Stax, A Hardware Wallet Designed By Tony Fadell Of iPod Fame
Digital hardware maker Ledger has launched Stax, a new digital wallet designed by Tony Fadell, the builder of the iPod. It can be used to store and manage an NFT collection and over 500 coins and assets.
Digital Assets: Who Owns Customer-Deposited Coins At Celsius? Judge To Decide
US Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn will soon decide on the vexed question of the ownership of the coins deposited by customers with crypto lender Celsius for earning interest income. Celsius is in bankruptcy proceedings and has asked the court’s permission to sell $18 million of coins held on its balance sheet to pay for ongoing expenses.
Digital Assets: Mike Novogratz Hits Out At Sam Bankman-Fried, Calls For His Prosecution
Mike Novogratz, the billionaire CEO of Galaxy Digital (TSE: GLXY), was unequivocally critical about Sam Bankman-Fried’s virtual New York Times (NYT) Dealbook Summit interview.
“I’m hoping that the authorities get to the bottom of this faster,” Novogratz said to Andrew Ross Sorkin on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Thursday, referring to the FTX imbroglio. “Not just for the sanctity of the crypto markets, but for all markets. Markets are based on trust and when you have trust broken like this, it questions everyone else.”
Digital Assets: Doom And Gloom Predictions, And A Massive Layoff By Kraken
Luminaries from both the financial and crypto worlds are sounding dire warnings about the future of the industry. At an event hosted by the New York Times DealBook, Larry Fink, CEO, BlackRock (NYSE: BLK), said he believed the majority of crypto businesses “are not going to be around” in the future, given that “there were misbehaviours of major consequences.”
Digital Assets: More Crypto Players Follow FTX Down The Bankruptcy Route
The unfortunate failure of FTX and sister firm Alameda Research has claimed another victim – Solana-based decentralized exchange Serum said its program on the mainnet became defunct as the upgrade authority was held by FTX. It said that lead protocols such as Jupiter and Raydium had moved away from Serum as the security of the exchange was in jeopardy. Moreover, Serum also said the future of its SRM native token was uncertain due to the coin’s exposure to the turmoil unleashed by the collapse of FTX.
Digital Assets: (More) Crypto Contagion – BlockFi Is Insolvent
The domino-like chain reaction from the bankruptcy of FTX has claimed another victim in BlockFi, the troubled crypto player that offers a trading exchange and interest-bearing custodial service for cryptocurrencies. BlockFi (and eight affiliates) have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey following the “shocking events surrounding FTX and associated corporate entities,” the firm said in a client update today.
Digital Assets: Crypto Contagion Spreads To Miners – Iris Energy Unplugs Mining Hardware Amidst Default
Iris Energy (NASDAQ: IREN), the Australia-based bitcoin mining firm, said in a filing that it had taken down a large chunk of its mining capacity that had been used as collateral for a loan of $107.8 million. Iris defaulted on the said loan because the operation did not produce cash flow enough to service the loan obligations. The development is symptomatic of the financial stress prevalent in the digital assets market after a severe bear market led to the insolvencies of many key players including FTX, Voyager Digital, and Celsius.
Digital Assets: Coinbase Reports A Net Loss Of $545M In The Third Quarter As Trading Volumes Decline
Crypto exchange Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) has reported disappointing numbers for the September quarter, with its perfomance impacted by the bearish conditions prevailing in the digital assets market, and the consequential impact on transaction revenues.
Digital Assets: Digital Platform Bakkt Acquires Apex Crypto For $200M
Digital asset platform Bakkt Holdings (NYSE: BKKT) has acquired Apex Crypto, a turnkey platform for crypto trading, for a maximum purchase price of $200 million. Of this, Bakkt will initially pay $55 million in cash upon the closing, and another $45 million in its stock subject to the achievement of certain financial targets by Apex in the fourth quarter of 2022. Depending upon the achievement of another set of financial targets by 2025, Bakkt may pay an additional $100 million in its stock and seller notes.
Digital Assets: Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX Crypto Exchange Is Now Live In The U.A.E.
FTX has announced that it has gone live in the UAE, though its services are initially available only to qualified retail investors, accredited investors and institutions. It will function in the UAE as FTX MENA FZE.
Digital Assets: Three Crypto ETFs Fold Up In Australia Amidst Downturn
Investors cold-shouldered the Cosmos ETFs in the so-called “crypto winter.” The Cosmos Purpose Bitcoin Access ETF, Cosmos Purpose Ethereum Access ETF, and Cosmos Global Digital Miners Access ETF, all of which were trading on the Cboe exchange in Australia, have applied for delisting, less than a year after their much-publicised launch. (COIN TELEGRAPH) Cosmos Asset…
FinTech: MoneyGram Launches Crypto Transactions Via Its App
MoneyGram International (NASDAQ: MGI) has launched crypto trading via its app, allowing customers the facility to buy, sell, and hold the bitcoin, ethereum, and litecoin cryptocurrencies. This feature is made possible through MoneyGram’s existing partnership with Coinme, a licensed crypto exchange and API-driven crypto-as-a-service provider. MoneyGram and Coinme have partnered since 2021 to expand access to crypto by creating thousands of new locations in the U.S. for consumers to buy and sell bitcoin with cash.
Digital Assets: Google Cloud Launches Blockchain Node Engine, A Fully Managed Node-Hosting Service
Google Cloud announced today a product for fully managed node-hosting for Web3 development – its Blockchain Node Engine – which minimizes the need for node operations. The Blockchain Node Engine will first support the Ethereum blockchain, providing developers with fully managed Ethereum nodes with secure blockchain access.
Digital Assets: FTX CEO And Billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried Confirms The Crypto Platform May Launch Stablecoin
FTX CEO and crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried said during an interview with The Big Whale that FTX would probably launch its own stablecoin, thus joining the ranks of other crypto exchanges such as Binance, with its Binance USD (BUSD) issued by Paxos, and Coinbase, which launched the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin in collaboration with Circle.
Digital Assets: Blockchain.com Launches Marqeta-Powered Visa Debit Card For Crypto
Blockchain.com has launched its Blockchain Visa debit card that leverages Visa’s (NYSE: V) payments network and Marqeta’s (NASDAQ: MQ) modern card issuing platform to let U.S. residents spend from a crypto balance fee-free and earn 1% crypto rewards.