Sam Bankman-Fried suffers 94% financial loss

Sarah White on November 10, 2022

Sam Bankman-Fried made his mark as a cryptocurrency entrepreneur as the industry grew.

The renowned crypto entrepreneur is known for providing financial lifelines to struggling businesses in the crypto industry.

However, after a turn of events, Sam Bankman-Fried needs financial help.

SBF

Sam Bankman-Fried is commonly referred to as SBF in the cryptocurrency world.

Earlier this week, he was one of the wealthiest people in the world.

Bankman-Fried was a billionaire with a net worth of over $15 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.

However, his FTX cryptocurrency exchange went down, putting his position in danger.

Now the club could overthrow Sam Bankman-Fried within days.

FTX

Sam Bankman-Fried’s most valuable assets were his stakes in the cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

FTX is the cryptocurrency exchange he founded along with Alameda.

Meanwhile, Alameda is a cryptocurrency trading house.

The Bloomberg Index assumes the stock market would wipe out Bankman-Fried and others.

The index also suggested that FTX and Alameda would become worthless unless Binance rescued them.

However, Binance announced Thursday that it would withdraw from the deal.

Sam Bankman-Fried’s net worth is now worth over $1 billion.

According to the Bloomberg Index, his net worth fell 94%, making it the most enormous one-day loss for a person.

Reference:

Crypto’s white knight lost 94% of his wealth in a single day

Blockchain set for massive exposure in Abu Dhabi

Lilian Swift on November 10, 2022

Image source: IDB

Blockchain technology has been the hottest topic in the tech industry in recent years and is now looking to progress further.

A new blockchain and crypto association was recently formed in the Abu Dhabi Free Economic Zone.

Its goal is to improve the development of the blockchain and crypto ecosystem in the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia.

The association

The Middle East, Africa & Asia Crypto & Blockchain Association (MEAACBA) was founded days earlier on the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM).

Furthermore, the ADGM is a free economic zone in the city’s center.

It is governed by its own civil and commercial laws.

In addition, the zone aims to promote the growth of fintech companies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The nonprofit organization aims to ease regulatory solutions, create business opportunities and invest in education to support industry growth.

Staff

The MEAACBA will be led by CEO Jehanzeb Awan.

Awan is the founder of an international risk and compliance consultancy based in Dubai.

Other association supporters include:

Richard Teng, Binance’s regional head of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
Stuart Isted, Crypto.com’s general manager of Middle East and Africa
Ola Doudin, the CEO of BitOasis, a cryptocurrency exchange in the region

Additionally, Awan said he hopes the organization will bring a collective, community-based approach to enhancing industry growth in the MENA region.

He also hopes to develop significant benefits for the “highly dynamic and exciting” space.

“The industry will benefit from the Association as it provides a coordination mechanism between regulators, government agencies, banks, legal tax, and advisory firms to address the most pressing challenges,” said Awan.

Finally, Ahmad Jasim Al Zaabi, chairman of the ADGM, said that adding the MEAACBA would help create a “more progressive financial sector” in the region.

The launch

The launch of MEAACBA comes as the FSRA in November released some “guiding principles” in its approach to dealing with the regulatory complexities that the digital asset industry brings.

The Financial Services Regulatory Authority is the financial regulatory body of the ADGM Free Economic Zone.

In addition, the principles are “crypto-friendly.”

It continues to adhere to the United Nations’ strict international Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Anti-Terrorist Financing (CFT) standards.

Moreover, recent studies show that the MENA region is the fastest-growing cryptocurrency market.

Moreover, the volume of transactions in the MENA region between July 2021 and June 2022 has increased by 48% in the last 12 months. It reached $ 566 billion.

The use case for cryptocurrencies in emerging markets comes from holding savings and money transfers.

Finally, it curbs inflation in unstable economies.

Reference:

Middle East, Asia, and Africa blockchain association launches in Abu Dhabi

Yuga Labs’ founders voice support for creators royalties

Lilian Swift on November 10, 2022

Image source: The Cryptonomist

Yuga Labs’ founders, the people behind Bored Ape Yacht Club, are criticizing the marketplaces for refusing to comply with creator royalties.

The founders defended NFT creators in a case that caused markets to reject them.

The Yuga Labs’ founders tipped a community-driven “allowlist” model that allows creators to designate marketplaces to handle secondary sales of their works.

Royalty

NFT market leader OpenSea made the rounds this weekend, saying it could follow the current trend of cutting licensing costs for NFT creators.

The trend includes the lack of enforcement of secondary sales for creators’ royalties.

As a result, many creators resist their choices.

In turn, the Yuga Labs’ founders also joined their cause.

Founders Wylie “Gordon Goner” Aronow, Greg “Garga” Solano, Kerem “Tomato” Atalay and 10KTF CTO Randy “Melonpan” Chang recently published an article.

The post states that the Yuga Labs’ founders oppose the industry’s abandonment of respect for creator royalties.

Instead, they offered a technical solution to impose royalties on creators.

The proposal

The Yuga Labs’ founders offer developers an “allowlist” model to enable secondary trading through marketplaces that recognize royalties.

When a marketplace’s smart contract is listed, the transaction goes through; otherwise, it will not.

However, standard wallet-to-wallet transfers will be unaffected.

“The NFT ecosystem would be a tiny fraction of what it is today if it weren’t for creator royalties,” the Yuga Labs’ founders wrote.

“The leading marketplaces of the past couple years would be nowhere if they hadn’t supported them.”

They noted that Bored Ape Yacht Club launched NFTs worth $220 worth of Ethereum last year.

It established a 2.5% royalty fee on secondary sales.

The founders explained that this was the amount OpenSea charged for its market fees.

The fee is lower than that chosen by other NFT producers, often between 5% and 10% of the selling price.

“The end result has been that OpenSea has made around $35 million dollars from Bored Ape sales on its platform, not including any of our other collections,” they wrote.

“We’ve never met the founders, but perhaps they have a beach house somewhere with a plaque for us.”

Yuga Labs

According to Galaxy Digital, the founders of BAYC earned more than $147 million in developer royalties for second-hand sales in October.

Today, however, NFT royalties are less sustainable.

Although creators can put them into smart contracts, they are not fully applicable on-chain.

Markets should honor them, and most have until recently.

The marketplaces

In the Solana NFT space, nearly all secondary sales occur on platforms that forgo the creator’s royalties or make them optional.

The move came after Magic Eden made them optional after losing market share to rivals.

Meanwhile, markets like LooksRare, Blur, X2Y2, and Sudoswap in Ethereum have also taken a similar approach.

OpenSea always has respected creators’ copyrights, but the company recognized the spatial change.

They said it could make creator royalties optional for merchants and explore new application models or charge royalties only for certain projects.

Creators in the Web3 space have not handled the OpenSea news well.

The founders of Yuga Labs joined the case, saying denying the creator copyright was a “race to the bottom” they believe OpenSea will delve into.

Reference:

Bored Ape Founders propose NFT royalties model, decry OpenSea’s stance as ‘not great’

Coinbase lacks exposure from FTX and Alameda

Lilian Swift on November 10, 2022

Image source: Inc. Magazine

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong eased concerns about the company’s stability after Binance announced its FTX acquisition on Twitter.

Armstrong’s tweet covers FTX’s announcement and says he sympathizes with those involved in FTX’s situation.

“Coinbase doesn’t have any material exposure to FTX or FTT (and no exposure to Alameda),” said the Coinbase CEO.

Before the news was released, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao recently turned down an offer to sell his FTT shares to Alameda Research.

Alameda Research

Alameda Research is a quantitative trading firm that provides liquidity in digital asset markets.

It was founded in 2017 by FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.

In July, Voyager Digital, a bankrupt crypto broker, revealed in a court filing that Alameda owed them $377 million.

Two months ago, Alameda initially agreed to pay Voyager $200.

“I think it’s important to reinforce what differentiates Coinbase in a moment like this,” said Armstrong.

“This event appears to be the result of risky business practices, including conflicts of interest between deeply intertwined entities and misuse of customer funds.”

According to Brian Armstrong, these are behaviors that Coinbase does not tolerate.

He also stated that the company does not transfer money from customers unless they request it and that customers can withdraw their money anytime.

FTT

Coinbase became a publicly traded company just last year.

However, as a publicly traded company in the United States, Armstrong believes that transparency and trust are essential.

“Every investor and customer can see our public audited financials,” said the Coinbase CEO. “Which shows we hold customer funds.”

“We’ve never issued an exchange token,” Armstrong said.

The CEO referred to the FTT token as collateral for futures positions, trading fee discounts and OTC discounts.

At the time of this writing, the FTT token sells for $4.77, down 67.3% in the past 24 hours.

Cryptocurrency exchanges

According to Brian Armstrong, the problem with cryptocurrency exchanges is that regulators focus on “onshore” while customers go offshore to companies with questionable business practices.

“To take the US as an example,” the Coinbase CEO started.

“95%+ of crypto trading has developed overseas because crypto regulation in the US has been hard to navigate.”

“That’s bad for the US and Americans who are still losing money in these overseas blowups,” he added.

While Binance is acquiring FTX, the deal does not involve its US subsidiaries, Binance US and FTX US.

Reference:

Coinbase CEO says company doesn’t have ‘any material exposure’ to FTX or Alameda

Dogecoin value improves thanks to Elon Musk

Karla Perry on October 31, 2022

Image source: Fox Business

Dogecoin is thriving better than ever after Elon Musk took over Twitter, helping the coin get out of crypto winter.

The coin is selling for $0.12 as of this writing.

Dogecoin rally

The meme coin had a long rally when the wealthiest man in the world finally bought the popular social media platform.

Earlier this week, Dogecoin’s value briefly doubled to 14 cents.

Elon Musk’s influence on the cryptocurrency has been going on for years, but the coin finally overshadowed prices last seen in May.

Although Musk didn’t mention Dogecoin after the Twitter purchase, he did reply to Billy Markus on Twitter, one of the developers behind the meme coin.

Over the past week, Dogecoin’s value has grown exponentially.

The meme coin has gone from $8.1 billion to $16,630,929,389 (at the time of this writing).

Dogecoin has overtaken coins like Cardano and Solana to become the 8th largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

Crypto exchanges

The cryptocurrency has seen substantial volume on major cryptocurrency exchanges over the past few days.

It is currently the third most traded token on Coinbase, accounting for 14% of the exchange’s total trading volume.

Meanwhile, trading between stablecoin Tether and Dogecoin generated $1.8 billion on Binance in the past 24 hours.

It represents 10% of the total trading volume of the exchange.

Additionally, the meme coin and Binance USD trading exceeded $900 million, representing 5% of the exchange’s total trading volume.

Coin movement

Despite the rally, Dogecoin is still down 84% from its all-time high of 73 cents in May last year.

That day, Elon Musk was a guest host on Saturday Night Live.

Upon his appearance, the coin plunged 35% as he dubbed it the future of currency but also referred to it as a hustle.

Musk and Dogecoin

Dogecoin’s growing popularity can be partly attributed to Musk’s multi-year relationship with the meme coin.

In the past, he referred to the coin in several tweets.

Musk would later add Dogecoin as a means of payment for some of the products and services offered by his companies.

Some Tesla products are available for sale with Dogecoin on the company’s website.

Additionally, The Boring Company is taking cryptocurrency as payment for its Las Vegas Loop.

In April, Elon Musk announced plans to allow Twitter users to use Dogecoin to pay for Twitter Blue, the platform’s premium subscription service.

The Tesla founder’s fondness for Dogecoin dates back to 2019 when he tweeted:

“Dogecoin may be my fav [sic] cryptocurrency.”

From there, he would share memes about the play.

However, not everyone believes that Musk supported the coin in good faith.

In June, a $258 billion lawsuit hit Musk, SpaceX and Tesla.

The lawsuit alleged that Elon Musk pumped the cryptocurrency.

Besides Dogecoin, Musk’s acquisition has also impacted dog-themed coins like Shiba Inu and Dogechain, which are up 19% and 100% this week.

Reference:

Dogecoin leaps 94% in weekly gains following Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition

Cash App finally allows users to send and receive Bitcoin on the app

Lilian Swift on October 26, 2022

Image source: How Stuff Works

Cash App is one of the mobile payment services that have thrived in this digital age.

The service has recently innovated with the inclusion of Bitcoin payments.

The announcement

Cash App users can now use the Lightning Network to send and receive Bitcoins.

Cash App Bitcoin Product Lead Michael Rihani confirmed the news on Twitter.

Rihani then announced the news on the platform’s help page, confirming the critical move.

In the past, users could only send Bitcoins with the Lightning Network.

They can now receive the cryptocurrency with the new update.

Cash App’s Lightning Network

The Lightning Network is a “second layer solution” that speeds up Bitcoin transactions so it can be used for small purchases.

The solution not only speeds up Bitcoin transactions but also reduces costs.

It diversifies transactions between channels without having to use the main Bitcoin blockchain.

Instead, the solution settles transactions later.

Supporters of the solution claim that it will help the widespread adoption of Bitcoin as people will use it for everyday purchases.

The app’s website says there are little to no fees with Lightning.

The Lightning Network sends smaller amounts of Bitcoin.

Cash App

Cash App is one of the most popular mobile payment apps today.

It was launched by the fintech giant Block (formerly Square), which Jack Dorsey runs.

Dorsey is a Bitcoin preacher and the former CEO of the popular social media platform Twitter.

Cash App is only available in the US and UK, boasting over 44 million monthly users.

Only US users can send and receive Bitcoins using the Lightning Network on the platform.

However, the website notes that the feature is unavailable in New York State.

Last April, Block announced a “paid in Bitcoin” for Cash app users.

It allows users to receive part or all of their salary in Bitcoin.

Jack Dorsey has been talking about how Lightning will make an impact.

Before leaving Twitter last year, he said he wanted to integrate the functionality into the social media platform.

Reference:

Cash App users can now send and receive Bitcoin via Lightning

Recent hack prompts Binance to burn tokens

Stephen Cook on October 14, 2022

Image source: Coin Gape

Recently, Binance completed its 21st quarter by burning BNB tokens to recover losses from last week’s bridge hack.

BNB burn

BNB is the native cryptocurrency of BNB Chain (formerly called Binance Smart Chain), which is competing with Ethereum.

Burning occurs when tokens are permanently removed from the cryptocurrency inventory.

It is generally used as a measure of inflation.

Binance Burn withdrew 2,064,152.42 BNB from the market.

The tokens were worth over $549 million at current prices.

The hack

Last week, a hacker took advantage of the BNB chain bridge and obtained 2,000,000 BNB with artificial withdrawal proofs.

The stolen BNB at the time had a net worth of approximately $ 566 million.

After the theft, most of the coins were lost when BSC chain validators froze the network.

Since then, the network has had a hard fork to repair some of the damage.

A hard fork is a patch release described as “temporary” to enable cross-chain functionality between BNB Beacon Chain and Binance Smart Chain.

However, the hacker managed to transfer more than $ 100 million in cash to other chains.

After the hack

Despite the hack, no user lost any funds during the heist, which led to a rule prohibiting the minting of new coins for BNB, intended as a deflationary token.

The action was achieved through Binance’s quarterly BNB purchases.

This has also been done with an on-chain feature that burns some of the BNB transaction fees in real time.

Quarterly burns

Previously, the quarterly burns were based on Binance’s profits from BNB’s operations on its exchange.

However, since then, Binance has switched to a formal “auto-burn” model.

The formula calculates the amount of BNB to burn based on the number of blocks of BNB chains available during the quarter, along with the price of BNB.

In general, the higher the price of the coin at that time, the more BNBs will be burned each quarter.

The company’s fire in July burned 1.96 million tokens, for a total of $ 444.6 million that month.

Other notes

Binance is also helping to burn Luna Classic Tokens (LUNC) using the same approach as the latest quarterly burning model.

LUNC transactions charge a burn cost fee to redeem the token on the market.

Binance periodic burns will stop once the BNB supply reaches less than 100,000,000 tokens, which is less than 50% of the token supply since the initial launch.

Reference:

Binance burns as many BNB tokens as hacker minted from thin air

SEC investigations on Yuga Labs cause ApeCoin prices to drop

Sarah White on October 13, 2022

Image source: Zipmex

Ethereum-based ApeCoin (APE) token suffered a precipitous crash amid news from the SEC that Yuga Labs, the creator of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, is under investigation.

Price drop

When news of the Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into Yuga Labs surfaced, the token’s price dropped dramatically, dropping nearly 10%.

According to data from CoinGecko, the price fell nearly 11% in the past 24 hours on Wednesday.

At the time, it dropped to $4.67 per token, which was worth $5.27 over the same period.

Since the report came out, APE’s trading volume has nearly doubled over time.

The ApeCoin price sits at $4.58 as of this writing.

Investigations

Earlier Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that the SEC was investigating Yuga Labs for securities violations in the sale of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs.

According to the report shared by an unknown source, the agency is also investigating the distribution of ApeCoin.

ApeCoin was launched earlier this year in March 2022.

The official position of the creators of Bored Ape Yacht Club is that he is not the creator of ApeCoin due to regulatory issues.

According to the official ApeCoin website, the “steward” of the Ethereum-based token is the Ape Foundation.

The foundation is designed for use in the growing ecosystem of Bored Ape apps and marketplaces.

A Board of Directors anchors the Ape Foundation made up of leading Web3 creators, including the following:

Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian
FTX Ventures head Amy Wu
Animoca Brands co-founder and Executive Chairman Yat Siu

ApeCoin

ApeCoin aims to go beyond use in Metaverse games and applications.

It is also a governance token that allows holders to vote on proposals affecting the APE protocol.

Holders are considered part of the ApeCoin DAO.

The Decentralized Autonomous Community is an online group brought together by a common purpose, with affiliation represented by token ownership.

The Bloomberg report says Yuga Labs has not been accused of wrongdoings and may not face charges in the investigation.

Yuga Labs wrote a statement that read:

“It’s well known that policymakers and regulators have sought to learn more about the novel world of Web3.”

“We hoped to partner with the rest of the industry and regulators to define and shape the burgeoning ecosystem,” they continued.

“As a leader in the space, Yuga is committed to fully cooperating with any inquiries along the way.”

Reference:

ApeCoin sinks 10% after report of SEC probe into Bored Ape Creator Yuga Labs

Crypto report: Binance falls victim to $570 million theft as hackers take to blockchain network

Karla Perry on October 10, 2022

Image source: Money Control

Theft has become a recurring issue in the crypto and NFT space, and Binance has become the latest victim of a major heist.

The report

On Friday, a Binance spokesperson announced that a Binance-connected blockchain was involved in a $570 million hack last Thursday.

On Thursday, the cryptocurrency exchange tweeted that Binance had temporarily suspended BNB Smart Chain, its blockchain network.

The company claimed the action was the result of improper activity.

On Friday, Binance released a statement claiming that hackers stole two million BNB cryptocurrency tokens, which were valued at $570 million at the time.

Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, first tweeted that about $100 million worth of cryptocurrencies had been stolen. On Thursday, he tweeted:

“Your funds are safe. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

According to Binance, tokens worth $100 million remain “unrecovered” and have been removed from the chain by the hacker.

At the moment, the remaining assets of the BNB chain are frozen.

The hack

The significant heist was carried out when hackers targeted what is known in the crypto space as a cross-chain bridge.

Recently, bridges have become the targets of most hackers.

Bridges are the infrastructure that allows users to exchange crypto assets across different blockchains.

Their services usually have large reserves of various currencies.

This puts coin reserves at the center of the hacker radar.

Coin reserves have made blockchain bridges prime targets for theft, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic.

Theft

Elliptic reports that about $1.83 billion was stolen from bridges in August, most of it ($1.21 billion) stolen in 2022.

Binance wasn’t alone, as others witnessed major thefts in 2022.

Other losses include $190 million stolen by cryptocurrency bridge provider Nomad in August.

In June, California-based Harmony announced a $100 million loss in late June.

Axie Infinity’s Ronin Bridge lost $625 million in March.

Effects of the Binance hack

The latest hack rendered the BNB blockchain offline for about nine hours.

BNB published a corporate article stating that the chain’s ecosystem had contacted the chain’s investigators to prevent the incident from spreading further.

Chain validators are people who verify that transactions on the blockchain are legitimate.

According to a tweet from the company, the channel came back online around 2:30 p.m. ET.

Reference:

Binance-linked blockchain hit by $570 million crypto theft

Teleport Becomes the Go-to Social Media Platform for Crypto Enthusiasts

Stephen Cook on October 7, 2022

Web3 and NFTs are the future, and they are a fast-growing technology. As a whole, it draws in innovators, trailblazers, and the type of people who see an opportunity and make the most of it.

Teleport is taking the lead in innovating the future of digital spaces as the world’s first web3 social media platform that integrates Augmented Reality (AR) and 360° videos and images. This newly launched social media platform comes on the heels of the success of Teleport’s previous projects, which include the Teleport Founders Club NFT.

Teleport is the newest social media app on the block where users can mint, trade, and display their growing NFT collections. It integrates Augmented Reality technology with 360° videos or images and cryptocurrency. Additionally, it has an NFT marketplace, a utility token called Port, and NFT offerings that include Teleport Founders Club NFTs, Teleport assets, and Portals. As a social media app, Teleport also has features that content creators will enjoy, such as full customization of their digital space on the app. Allowing users to login using their crypto wallets instead of the traditional email address or phone number successfully bridges the gap between web2 and web3, leading the way cryptocurrency spaces develop.

On this new app, Teleport has Portals, where users can access new digital worlds or create their own unique virtual space. Portals can be 360° images, videos, or live streaming of real-world locations, events, games or metaverses. Content creators will have complete creative control over their Portals and their monetization, as well as how to use the digital assets they have accumulated. Portal owners can even regulate who can access their Portals by only allowing specific NFT holders to enter, or by charging an entry fee.

Teleport Portals on this new social networking app are also the virtual space for people who want to show and display their NFT collections. Collecting NFTs is a fun new way to invest, and as these tokens are unique works of art, they deserve to have a place where they can shine. NFT artists can also use this platform to display their creations.

Portals are fully customizable. Furthermore, aside from being a virtual space that content creators and crypto investors can use, it can also become an NFT. Collectors can also sell their portals on the Teleport marketplace and other NFTs they are willing to sell or trade.

“We hope to gain traction with the leading NFT and Crypto community members to establish ourselves as a reputable and trustworthy platform,” the developer team shared, “We hope to attract reputable and influential people in the NFT and crypto space. Our goal is to become the Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram of the NFT world.”

More than a simple NFT project, Teleport is an app and a tech company changing the game in the web3, NFT, and crypto space. The team behind this app aims to make Teleport the top community platform content creators and artists use to showcase their art in the different Metaverse spaces. In recognition of Teleport’s trailblazing qualities, the app and the team will be featured partners at the upcoming Web3 Expo (W3BX). This event celebrating the latest developments in web3, cryptocurrencies, and fintech will be held on October 10-13, 2022, at Wynn Las Vegas and is headlined by Kevin O’Leary.

SBF

FTX

The association

Staff

The launch

Royalty

The proposal

Yuga Labs

The marketplaces

Alameda Research

FTT

Cryptocurrency exchanges

Dogecoin rally

Crypto exchanges

Coin movement

Musk and Dogecoin

The announcement

Cash App’s Lightning Network

Cash App

BNB burn

The hack

After the hack

Quarterly burns

Other notes

Price drop

Investigations

ApeCoin

The report

The hack

Theft

Effects of the Binance hack

Market Daily

Legal

Sitemap

Connect with Us

Connect with Us

Stay In The Know

Market Daily

Legal

Sitemap

Connect with Us

Connect with Us

Stay In The Know

Market Daily

Legal

Sitemap

Connect with Us