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☆ The Elon Musk-Twitter saga could finally be coming to end
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Elon Musk’s Twitter account is displayed on the screen of an iPhone on April 26, 2022 in Paris, France. The end of the line for Elon and TwitterWhat a long strange trip it's been. That might be the best way to sum up the Elon Musk-Twitter saga that has played out over the past six-plus months. It finally appears an end is in sight*, or at least the closing of a transaction. The main issue remains how Musk will come up with the $44 billion needed to actually buy Twitter.

☆ Bitcoin's volatility falls below Nasdaq and S&P 500's for first time since 2020
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

While bitcoin's price is stuck lately, there is one good thing to come from it for investors betting on crypto to become a legitimate asset class: It's less of a wild ride. After hovering in the $19,000 level for more than a month, bitcoin's volatility is now lower than that of both the Nasdaq and S&P 500, according to Kaiko. (Though bitcoin's correlation with stocks has eased, it remains high and its price continues to be driven by macro themes.) "Bitcoin volatility is at multi-year lows while equity volatility is only at its lowest level since July," Clara Medalie, head of research at Kaiko, told CNBC. The data suggests that cryptocurrency markets are less reactive to volatile macro events than they were earlier on in the year, whereas equity markets have remained highly sensitive."

☆ How Jason Goldberg went against investors' advice amid the crypto winter and raised $3 million for his Web3 development startup Airstack
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Cofounder and CEO Jason Goldberg launched Airstack during the depths of the crypto crash. He ignored advice to take the summer off and instead built a prototype, which caught VCs' attention. Jason Goldberg cofounded his Web3 development startup, Airstack, in May, just as crypto markets began to unravel. Airstack's technology essentially creates application programming interfaces, or APIs, for Web3 applications. It improves upon existing infrastructure such as The Graph by allowing developers to access real-time data from several Web3 applications at a time, Goldberg said.

☆ Against investors' advice, Jason Goldberg launched a Web3 development startup in the middle of the crypto winter. Here's how he raised $3 million anyway.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Cofounder and CEO Jason Goldberg launched Airstack during the depths of the crypto crash. Jason Goldberg cofounded his Web3 development startup, Airstack, in May, just as crypto markets began to unravel. Airtable has raised $3 million in pre-seed funding from investors including Animal Ventures, Warburg Serres, Polygon, Genblock, Fenbushi, Resolute Ventures, WW Ventures, Tensai Capital, WestWave Ventures, Lecca Ventures, and Martin Crowley's Peoples Syndicate. Airstack's technology essentially creates application programming interfaces, or APIs, for Web3 applications. It improves upon existing infrastructure such as The Graph by allowing developers to access real-time data from several Web3 applications at a time, Goldberg said.

☆ Although the crypto hype is fading, 3 VCs say there's still 'low-hanging fruit' opportunities in Web3 security and compliance. Here's why.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Despite the crypto winter and a funding slowdown, several VCs remain interested in Web3 security. Like in most other areas of the market, venture funding for cybersecurity has dropped this year. These are prime areas, in his view, for security startups to step in. In September, Solidus Labs made Insider's list of the most promising crypto startups of 2022. Crypto security, according to Seewald, is not so different from security for other tech applications.

☆ Buffett-backed digital bank Nubank to launch its own cryptocurrency in Brazil
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The Brazilian digital banking startup Nubank will launch its own cryptocurrency in the country next year, marking the latest move into digital assets by a large financial institution. Nubank said Wednesday it will launch the token, called Nucoin, in the first half of 2023. In a press release, the company touts Nucoin as "a new way to recognize customer loyalty and encourage engagement with Nubank products." Nubank isn't the first bank to launch its own cryptocurrency. The Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs , meanwhile, has its own internal crypto trading desk.

"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.

☆ Mastercard will help banks offer cryptocurrency trading
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Kate Rooney | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Mastercard is looking to bring crypto to the masses by making it easier for banks to get involved. The payments giant plans to announce a program Monday that will help financial institutions offer cryptocurrency trading, the company told CNBC. Mastercard will act as a "bridge" between Paxos, a crypto trading platform already used by PayPal to offer a similar service, and banks, according to the company. Mastercard has already teamed up with Coinbase on NFTs and Bakkt to let banks and merchants in its network offer crypto-related services. Last week, Visa partnered with FTX to offer crypto debit cards in 40 countries and has more than 70 crypto partnerships.

☆ Digital LeBron vs. analog Mantle: Sports collectibles remain hot despite NFT boom
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-15 | by ( Jake Traylor | Jake Traylor Is An Associate Producer For Msnbc. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

But amid a crypto winter, the future trajectory of the sports memorabilia market, tangible or NFT, is being disputed. Meanwhile, the success of NBA Top Shot, arguably the most successful sports NFT market, soared and eventually crashed. Millennials are driving the NFT market, according to a Morning Consult survey that found 42% of all NFT collectors are 26 to 40 years old. Some sports market experts argue that regardless of an NFT bounce back, tangibles and NFTs in the sports memorabilia market don’t compete with each other. “I don’t think that [NFTs] are going to eat into the physical memorabilia market,” said Pete Giorgio, leader of Deloitte Consulting’s global and U.S. sports practice, who tracks and forecasts the sports memorabilia market.

☆ New York Financial Regulator Wants to Lead on Crypto, Climate Change
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Mengqi Sun | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

New York’s financial regulator, which oversees insurance companies and state-chartered banks, already plays an outsize role in financial services, with many other states following its lead on regulation and enforcement. Ms. Harris seeks to bring that leadership role to other areas, including crypto and climate change. She served as a senior adviser at the Treasury Department and as head of an Obama administration financial task force. One of the benefits of being a state regulator is that you can move fast and be nimble; you can respond to changes in the marketplace. The other thing that we’ve done is really calling out the tension between climate goals and fair-lending and equity goals.

☆ FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried regrets 'dumb quote' about giving $1 billion to political races
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Mackenzie Sigalos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and chief executive officer of FTX Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange, speaks during the Institute of International Finance (IIF) annual membership meeting in Washington, DC, on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022. Crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried is backing down from a previous comment suggesting he could spend $1 billion or more in races from now through the 2024 election. In an interview with Politico's Morning Money this week, however, the founder of the global cryptocurrency exchange FTX called it a "dumb quote." The crypto market has tanked since Bankman-Fried first pledged to spend hundreds of millions of dollars earlier this year. Meanwhile, the crypto market as a whole went from a market cap of around $3 trillion less than a year ago, to less than $1 trillion today.

☆ Former Google ads boss launches ‘Web3’ search startup with backing from Coinbase, top VCs
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The round was led by Paradigm, a prolific crypto and "Web3" dealmaker, while Coinbase, Sequoia and Greylock — where Ramaswamy is a partner — also invested. Nxyz was conceived earlier this year by a team of engineers at Neeva, a search engine that doesn't include any ads and blocks online tracking tools. In a March blogpost on Neeva's website, nxyz is described as "an experiment bringing the same user-first ethos of Neeva search to web3." Unlike Neeva and Google — the "Web2" behemoth Neeva wants to disrupt — nxyz's Web3 search software isn't targeted at consumers. "I think it'll be a very different trajectory" to Web3 and crypto companies that have run into financial troubles, he said.

☆ Regulators propose first global rules before 'crypto winter' thaw
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Cryptoasset companies should set aside capital like banks when undertaking similar activities, regulators proposed on Tuesday in their first global rules as a "crypto winter" wiped $2 trillion off the sector, leaving investors nursing losses. The Financial Stability Board (FSB), which coordinates financial rulemaking among Group of 20 Economies (G20), made nine recommendations for members to apply. Currently, the sector is largely unregulated in most countries, having to only comply with rules for safeguarding against money laundering and terrorist financing as regulators warn investors they risk losing every penny. "Concerns about the risks they pose to financial stability are therefore likely to come back to the fore sooner rather than later," Knot said in a letter to G20 finance ministers meeting in Washington this week. The proposals seek cross-border consistency to regulating crypto-assets, particularly as the European Union finalises groundbreaking rules to regulate the sector from 2024.

☆ Sell Coinbase as rising competition and macro pressures will hurt the stock, Wells Fargo says
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Carmen Reinicke | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

A challenging economic environment will pressure shares of Coinbase going forward, making now a good time to sell, according to Wells Fargo. Coinbase just updated its fee structure to incentivize higher volume traders, and it's likely that retail fees will follow, according to the note. Wells Fargo forecasts a 56% year over year decline in retail transaction revenue to $451 million for the third quarter. There isn't a clear path that Wells Fargo sees for Coinbase to reach profitability in the coming years, given the backdrop for the company. Coinbase shares dipped 2.4% in the premarket.

☆ What Cramer is watching Thursday — September to forget and dueling Apple notes
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Jim Cramer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Credit Suisse lowers price target on Club holding Constellation Brands (STZ) to $277 per share from $292, without any real reason. Citi cautious on Alibaba (BABA), cuts price target $146 per share from $159. Credit Suisse cuts Paychex (PAYX) price target to $138 per share 150, even though they raised the estimates. Starts with a buy and a $65 per share price target. As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade.

☆ Premarket stocks: Is the bitcoin winter beginning to thaw out?
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

But signs of a thaw, spurred on by global currency chaos, are beginning to appear. The gains gave crypto bulls hope that bitcoin was becoming a safe haven asset, or one that acts as a hedge when stocks are falling. Then, around midday, the dollar grew in strength and bitcoin came crashing down again, wiping out all of its recent gains. But all assets are suffering, bitcoin isn’t in this alone.”The silver lining: But even as bitcoin prices fall, investors see signs of a bottom. The central bank is also considering the launch of a Central Bank Digital Currency, which is essentially a digital version of the dollar.

A bitcoin representation is seen in an illustration picture taken at La Maison du Bitcoin in Paris, France, June 23, 2017. "Bitcoin miners have continued to watch margins compress - the price of bitcoin has fallen, mining difficulty has risen and energy prices have soared," said Joe Burnett, head analyst at Blockware Solutions. That's put serious pressure on some players who bought expensive mining machines, or rigs, banking on rising bitcoin prices to recoup their investment. Shares of Marathon Digital (MARA.O), Riot Blockchain (RIOT.O) and Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI.O) have sunk more than 60% this year, for example, while crypto-mining data center operator Compute North filed for bankruptcy last week. "From managing their balance sheet, processing units and energy costs, miners will look to stay afloat regardless of current market conditions," he added.

☆ Crypto exchange FTX is replacing its U.S. president
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Brett Harrison, the U.S. president of the crypto exchange FTX, announced his resignation on Tuesday, with the company in the midst of a massive expansion effort. "I have deep gratitude for my experiences at FTX in the last year and a half," he wrote in a tweet. Harrison joined FTX, whose parent company is based in the Bahamas, in May 2021 after spending close to two years at Citadel Securities. In addition to Voyager Digital, FTX has been seeking out distressed crypto assets in the U.S. as it tries to expand its market share during the so-called crypto winter. "We really didn't mean to mislead anyone, and we didn't suggest that FTX US itself, or that crypto/non-fiat assets, benefit from FDIC insurance," Harrison wrote on Twitter at the time.

☆ Eight U.S. state regulators charge Nexo for failure to register interest account
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationSept 26 (Reuters) - Eight U.S. state regulators on Monday charged cryptocurrency lender Nexo Group for allegedly failing to register its Earn Interest Product, as authorities crackdown on digital asset platforms rocked by a crypto winter in recent months. "Since the SEC guidance on earn products in February 2022, Nexo has voluntarily ceased the onboarding of new U.S. clients for our Earn Interest Product as well as stopped the product for new balances for existing clients," the company said in an emailed statement. Nexo's interest accounts offered under the product promise an annual interest rate as high as 36%, according to California's Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. The regulatory clampdown comes in the midst of a crypto winter that has seen crypto prices have plummet this year as a risk-off sentiment and fears of a looming recession crushed risky assets, forcing some companies into bankruptcy. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra EluriOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Crypto parties are still raging in the bear market. Here's what it's like at Mainnet, where tickets cost $2,100 and attendees network on yachts.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-24 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Crypto enthusiasts, Web3 founders, and investors convened at Messari Mainnet in New York City this week. The tone was firmly upbeat, despite bitcoin, ether, and other digital assets struggling through a bear market. "The bear market just means more building"Nathani, like a dozen other attendees I spoke to this week, is shrugging off the crypto winter and is increasingly upbeat about what comes next. "The bear market just means more building," Brandon Rochon, lead data scientist at Covalent told Insider. Those who have been in the crypto space for long enough, he said, understand the next wave of crypto adoption is still coming, whether the economy is choppy or not.

☆ 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.

☆ FTX in talks to raise up to $1 billion at valuation of about $32 billion, in-line with prior round
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( Kate Rooney | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto conglomerate FTX is in talks with investors to raise up to $1 billion in new funding that would keep the company's valuation at roughly $32 billion, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. Negotiations are ongoing and the terms could change, said the sources, who asked not to be named because the talks are confidential. Coindesk previously reported on a coming investment at flat valuation, following FTX's last capital raise in January. FTX also offered to buy bankrupt crypto brokerage Voyager Digital in August but was turned down for what was called a "low ball bid." FTX saw net income of $388 million last year, up from just $17 million a year earlier.

☆ Here's an exclusive look at the pitch deck for Immortal Game, the Web3 chess startup that raised $12 million during the crypto winter
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Web3 chess startup Immortal Game has raised $15 million, including a $12 million Series A this year. Crypto has its fair share of skeptics, but there's no arguing against the worldwide popularity of chess, according to Thomas Zaepffel, the cofounder and CEO of Immortal Game. Immortal Game, founded in March 2021 by Zaepffel, CTO David Cingala and COO Geoffroy Mestrallet, offers players the opportunity to earn crypto and sponsor up-and-coming chess talent. But Immortal Game, like other Web3 startups, seeks to set itself apart on the premise that its users should reap rewards from the platforms they popularize. Here's a look at the pitch that helped Zaepffel and his cofounders seal the deal.

☆ The Fed has to balance its latest rate hike with trying not to tank the economy. Here's what to know.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Today, I'm breaking down what to know about the Fed's third jumbo rate hike, and how markets could look in its aftermath. In this March 21, 2018, file photo, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell speaks following the Federal Open Market Committee meeting in Washington. A third, outsized rate hike is an unprecedented move by the Federal Reserve. For this meeting in particular, billionaire David Rubenstein warned that a 100-basis-point hike this week would shock and depress markets and investors. What's on deck for markets after a third consecutive large rate hike?

☆ Crypto winter won't end until the Fed rate cycle ends, says Anthony Scaramucci
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-12 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailCrypto winter won't end until the Fed rate cycle ends, says Anthony ScaramucciAnthony Scaramucci, SALT Conference founder and host, joins the 'Halftime Report' to discuss his commitment to cryptocurrencies and blockchain tech, when the 'crypto winter' will end and more.

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