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☆ FTX: Inside the crypto giant's downfall
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Crypto contagionThe crypto industry is on edge, waiting for the next dominoes to fall. Soon after FTX went down, crypto firms were inundated requests from customers seeking to claw their money back — the crypto equivalent of a run on the bank. The pain isn’t confined to crypto companies. SBF had become a fixture in Washington, too, where he regularly traveled to lobby lawmakers for greater regulatory clarity for the crypto industry. “It’s about fraud and the power of virtue signaling.”He added: “This scandal, far from destroying crypto, practically ensures that crypto will be around for a long, long time.”

Two years later, Bautista and hundreds of thousands of other FTX customers are in limbo, shocked and unsure what happens next. FTX has paused customer withdrawals, and there’s growing doubt that customers will be able to recover any of their assets. “It’s lost at this point.”Bautista, 34, got the FTX itch thanks in part to flashy advertising. FTX, boosted by celebrities like NFL giant Tom Brady and pumped up by Silicon Valley bigwigs, struck Bautista as the most reliable crypto platform on the market. The firm has started the process of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Bankman-Fried has resigned — and Bautista lost access to his crypto portfolio.

It's a stark reversal for five-year-old Multicoin, which announced a $430 million fund in July, its third and largest to date. "We put entirely too much trust in our relationship with FTX," Multicoin managing partners Kyle Samani and Tushar Jain wrote in the 3,400-plus word letter, which CNBC obtained. Multicoin said it doesn't expect the crypto market to turn anytime soon. "Many trading firms will be wiped out and shut down, which will put pressure on liquidity and volume throughout the crypto ecosystem. The crypto market has experienced multiple pullbacks in the last few years and has bounced back.

☆ FTX collapse an example of ‘greed and FOMO,’ says short-seller Carson Block
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Jenni Reid | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Carson Block, founder of short selling investment firm Muddy Waters, thinks the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX under Sam Bankman-Fried is a "great example of greed and FOMO." Block told CNBC's "The Exchange" he had seen the business trajectory of the former billionaire and thought there was "obviously something wrong." Block is a crypto sceptic who described the recent surge into the industry as a bubble based on a "suspension of disbelief." His comments come amid a war of words in the crypto sphere as it grapples with the recent volatility. At an event hosted by CNBC on Thursday, Changpeng Zhao, founder of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, said he was "shocked" that Bankman-Fried "lied to everybody," and described his actions as "fraud."

Nov 15 (Reuters) - Solana, a poster coin of the crypto future, is in trouble. "In the current crypto shakeout, the most unfortunate innocent victim is the Solana ecosystem," said Stefan Rust, CEO of blockchain wallet company Laguna Labs. Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko tweeted that development company Solana Labs didn't hold any assets on FTX and had enough financial runway for around 30 months. Ether's market cap has fallen 21% to $150.7 billion, while bitcoin's has fallen 18% to $319 billion. The collapse of the company has seen more than $190 billion wiped from the value of the overall crypto market.

☆ Premarket stocks: Crypto is in crisis. It's not just because of FTX
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

New York CNN Business —The stunning downfall of FTX, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, sent shockwaves through the crypto universe last week. Sam Bankman-Fried, the 30-year-old crypto titan and chief executive of FTX, watched billions of his fortune evaporate in a bankruptcy filing that shook the trillion-dollar industry to its core. Those efforts mean capital is drying up – and that’s not just bad for crypto but other asset classes including stocks, too. Cryptocurrencies enjoyed huge injections of money during the pandemic era thanks to the Federal Reserve’s easy money policy. “In all, the slowdown in global money growth looks set to continue over the coming year, with some contraction looking likely in the US,” wrote JPMorgan strategist Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou in a note.

☆ Solana is facing its 'crucible moment' after the FTX blowup sent it down 50% last week
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-13 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Investors say it feels like a make-or-break moment for the Solana network, but they're optimistic it'll pull through. "Every community has to have a crucible moment," said Avichal Garg, a managing partner at venture capital firm Electric Capital. "FTX really helped construct this ecosystem, they put a lot of money and resources behind it and helped the flywheel get going," Garg said. On the bright side, whatever amount of Solana tokens was locked on the FTX exchange can't be sold now. However, those close to the Solana community have been strongly encouraged by growth trends in its developer base.

☆ Crypto: What's next as FTX collapse triggers 'Lehman moment'?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Julia Horowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

And can the beaten-down crypto industry bounce back? What’s clear is that the fallout from the FTX crisis injects significant volatility into the crypto ecosystem. “Thank God!”Can the crypto industry survive? “In the short term, this is going to be really, really bad for the crypto industry,” said Jog of Sei Labs. Fok said he expects the FTX collapse will push institutional investors away from the crypto space just as they had been warming up to it.

☆ Crypto's Lehman moment: Here's how Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX compares to the biggest collapse of the Global Financial Crisis
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Experts have drawn comparisons between the collapse of crypto exchange FTX and the fall of Lehman Brothers in 2008. Here's how the two events compare and what FTX's fall means for the broader financial system. In the years leading up to the Great Financial Crisis, Lehman loaded its balance sheet with vast amounts of subprime mortgage debt. When the "bank run" began this week, FTX didn't have the funds to meet withdrawal requests. But compared to 14 years ago, it probably won't be FTX's downfall that sparks a broader financial crisis, Allen said.

Jordan Vonderhaar | Bloomberg | Getty Imageswatch nowSaylor was speaking on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" as FTX's demise roiled the crypto market. Bitcoin tumbled 19% in December, as investors rotated into assets deemed safer in a tumultuous economy. David Marcus, former head of crypto at Facebook parent Meta , used a phrase that would soon enter the lexicon. "It's during crypto winters that the best entrepreneurs build the better companies," Marcus wrote in a Jan. 24 tweet. Ryan Gilbert, founder of fintech venture firm Launchpad Capital, said the crypto world is facing a crisis of confidence after the FTX implosion.

☆ Bitcoin tumbles to its lowest in nearly 2 years; Solana drops another 30%
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Cryptocurrencies were under pressure for a second day Wednesday as the market digested the fallout of Binance's planned bailout of FTX. The Solana token continued its slide. "This is an adverse event for the Solana ecosystem in the short run. Further, given FTX/Alameda's balance sheet situation, there may be near term pressure on its Solana holdings, as the situation resolves." The crypto market briefly spiked on Tuesday after Bankman-Fried, also known as SPF, announced that Binance will acquire its non-U.S. operations but plummeted shortly after.

☆ Bitcoin and other cryptos spiral lower as worries about the fallout from FTX's troubles grow
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Zahra Tayeb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Bitcoin and most cryptos extended losses Wednesday as worries built about the FTX fallout. Sol plunged 31% and the crypto market cap dropped 11% on fears the troubles would spread. In a stunning turn of events, FTX CEO Sam-Bankman Fried announced Tuesday that the crypto exchange had agreed to be taken over by rival Binance. The emergency deal sent chills through the crypto world, reviving fears about liquidity risks that could lead to company collapses. The overall value of the crypto market dropped over 11% to $871 billion over the last day, according to CoinMarketCap data.

☆ Binance is buying FTX amid 'significant' liquidity issues. Here's how billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried's exchange got here.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Binance reached an agreement to purchase Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto exchange FTX on Tuesday. Here's what happened as FTX went from market heavyweight to being acquired by a rival. Balance sheets and billionairesBankman-Fried's empire is diverges in two branches: FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange, and Alameda Research, a crypto trading firm. The price of other cryptocurrencies including Solana's SOL, bitcoin, and ether dropped Tuesday as well, as worries seeped across the broader crypto market. "Binance is likely coming in and saying they will cover the liabilities for FTX, and then effectively have FTX hand over the rest of their assets."

☆ Cryptocurrencies slide as worries about FTX fester in latest crypto liquidity scare
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Crypto assets tied to Alameda, the trading company also owned by billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, were suffering steeper losses. FTX Token (FTT), the native token of the FTX trading platform, has fallen 23% in the past 24 hours. The token tied to Ethereum competitor Solana , of which Alameda is a big backer, has lost 12%. Binance is the largest crypto exchange in the world by trading volume and was an early backer of FTX. Those revelations refer to rumors about the solvency of FTX, the second-biggest crypto exchange in the world by trading volume.

☆ Internal forums, major deals, and employee exits: Inside BlackRock's long road to embracing crypto
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

A group of employees at the firm organized and started holding a forum to discuss crypto, five people familiar with the group told Insider. Eager, usually more junior, staff members huddled around to hear industry experts talk about crypto and blockchain. A junior employee touched off BlackRock's crypto effortsThe blockchain working group and the informal crypto-asset forum will end up being key footnotes in the firm's history. Leaving BlackRock for cryptoLader left BlackRock in June 2021 for Uniswap, the world's largest decentralized-exchange protocol, where she is now the chief operating officer. She was "very, very central" to the firm's crypto efforts," a former employee said.

☆ Fidelity, ForUsAll now offering 401(k) investors access to cryptocurrency
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Retirement savers in some 401(k) plans are starting to get access to cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. Fidelity Investments, the largest provider of 401(k) plans by total assets, began offering a Digital Assets Account to clients this fall, a spokesperson confirmed. Employers sponsoring a 401(k) plan through Fidelity can choose to offer the account to workers, allowing them to allocate a share of their savings to bitcoin. For its part, ForUsAll, a plan administrator geared toward startups and small businesses, in September also rolled out crypto to 401(k) savers, said David Ramirez, the company's CEO. ForUsAll intends to add five more in the coming weeks, said Ramirez, who declined to disclose which ones.

"There is more asset allocation towards baskets that combine the top five or 10 crypto assets by market cap. TICK BY TICKMost active crypto ETP products are registered outside the United States, though, with Switzerland, Canada, Australia and Brazil racing ahead with spot crypto offerings. One reason is that U.S. regulators have turned down several applications for spot bitcoin funds, which mirror the cryptocurrency's price movements tick-by-tick, citing multiple reasons including a lack of surveillance-sharing agreements with regulated markets relating to the spot funds' underlying assets. The world's largest bitcoin fund, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC.PK), is down 34% in the same time. At Grayscale's Bitcoin Trust, the AUM have tumbled to $12.2 billion from over $30 billion at the end of 2021, data from the firm showed.

☆ A Goldman Sachs alum turned crypto exec breaks down why Wall Street's next push into digital assets will be through bitcoin
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-15 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

John Haar, a managing director at digital asset services platform Swan Bitcoin, previously had a 12-year stint at Goldman Sachs. He says bitcoin is the biggest contender to gain traction in legacy finance and pull institutional interest in further. Investors saw the first wave of institutional interest in crypto through bitcoin as well. First, the value prop of bitcoin, Haar says, is the concept of "sound money," a currency that isn't prone to a sudden depreciation or appreciation in value. "I think Bitcoin is an easier sell, but I think we're still very early in terms of them potentially getting on board.

☆ Cryptoverse: Hack jitters push bitcoin investors back to the future
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Hannah Lang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The global hardware wallet market, valued at $245 million in 2021, is expected to swell to over $1.7 billion by 2030, according to market research firm Straits Research. Reuters GraphicsBLOWING HOT AND COLDAlthough hot wallets are usually free and offer quick access to crypto, they can be vulnerable to hacks. In August, nearly 8,000 crypto wallets on the Solana blockchain were hit by hackers who made off with more than $5 million in crypto. loading"Users are strongly encouraged to use hardware wallets," Solana said at the time. France's Ledger, another hardware wallet maker, said it saw a spike in sales after the Solana wallets heist.

☆ Here's what Ethereum's Merge means for investors who want to generate extra cash flow from crypto staking, according to 2 industry experts
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( Lisa Kailai Han | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Industry analysts have predicted that this upgrade could triple current Ethereum staking yields. Here's how staking will change in light of Ethereum's Merge — and what that means for returns. There's another reason the Merge was so important, Perfumo told Insider — eventually, it will single-handedly increase the total market cap of staked crypto assets from 25% to 30% to over 50%. Because Ethereum validators also earn gas fees, higher transaction volumes mean a higher yield. But since these exchanges effectively manage custody of a user's assets, Perfumo emphasized the importance in choosing a trusted exchange to minimize counterparty risk.

☆ How SkyBridge founder Anthony Scaramucci is navigating the world between traditional and digital assets — plus his favorite coins and hedge funds for the tough market environment
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( Laila Maidan | Alyson Velati | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

A survey conducted by the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), showed that about one-third of traditional hedge funds are investing in digital assets. Approximately one-third of the panel discussions revolved around digital assets, according to SkyBridge Capital's Anthony Scaramucci. And while some funds may still be grappling with the question of how much exposure they should allocate to digital assets, Scaramucci is pedaling forward. Long term, he believes in the appreciation of digital assets, and he's willing to pay the price of absorbing the volatility in the meantime. The pivot to digital assetsSkyBridge has pivoted heavily into crypto and blockchain technology from its traditional hedge fund of funds business.

The Ethereum blockchain's mega-upgrade finally went live on Sept. 15, moving it to a less energy-intensive "proof of stake" (PoS) system with hardly a hiccup. Some crypto investors are now turning their attention to the next event that could shake up prices. It would allow validators, who have deposited ether tokens on the blockchain in exchange for a yield, to withdraw their staked coins, to hold or sell. Longer-term, though, the switch to PoS is expected to decrease the rate at which ether tokens are issued - potentially by up to 90% - which should drive up prices. Additionally, annual yields of 4.1% for staking ether tokens to validate transactions could prove tempting for investors.

☆ Crypto’s bear market is unlike others before it. This time the Fed's steering the ship
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +17 min

In any other year, the bitcoin price would have skyrocketed after the BlackRock announcement, but it didn't. Bitcoin hit its all-time high on Nov. 8, less than a week after the Fed first introduced the tapering . "Bitcoin OGs want to believe that it's a risk-off asset – that's a long-term trajectory," said Burak Tamac, senior researcher at CryptoQuant. It's bitcoin that's received so much hostility about being environmentally unfriendly, but myths about the cryptocurrency's environmental impact are slowly being debunked . Beyond bitcoin, crypto remains just a little too out of reach for many.

ChargePoint, the largest U.S. producer of EV charging stations, is rolling out an advertising display businessFriction over a new marketing direction follows years of challenges for the storied electronics chain. Many luxury-good sellers aren’t feeling the same pressure to cut marketing budgets that has hit other categories in recent months, thanks to a booming market for costly cars, travel packages and other premium products. Tennis Styles Fuel Seasonal Marketing Strategies The U.S. Open will put tennis fashion back in the spotlight, but consumers are increasingly embracing the sport’s look year-round. Large Ad Agency Networks Have Resisted the Economic Downturn—So Far Top global advertising agency networks have so far defied widespread declines in ad spending that have hurt digital platforms, publishers and broadcasters, but their outlooks for the years to come remain uncertain. Web3 Brands Try Serving Customers in the Real World Solana, SuperPlastic and Doodles are using interactive experiences to reach consumers who aren’t already NFT converts

☆ This 7-page investing memo landed a crypto startup $15.2 million in seed funding from venture giants Tiger Global and Galaxy Digital
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-16 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Token management platform, Magna, announced a $15.2 million seed round on Thursday. Tiger Global, Galaxy Digital, Tusk Venture Partners, and Solana Ventures are all Magna backers. Check out this 7-page investing memo that landed the project fundingMagna, a token management platform, announced a $15.2 million seed round on Thursday, notching a $70 million valuation. Backed by industry giants Tiger Global and Tusk Venture Partners, the fresh capital will go towards product development, staff expansion, and forthcoming partnerships. "We started Magna to solve a problem we hear from crypto companies and institutions about managing token distributions.

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