- Crypto Lender Celsius Files to Retain Former CFO to Advise on Bankruptcy Proceedings
Celsius Network has filed a motion to bring back former Chief Financial Officer Rod Bolger to assist as the company makes its way through bankruptcy restructuring.
Bolger resigned from Celsius on June 30 after serving as its CFO for just five months. The company subsequently filed for bankruptcy protection in mid-July.
Bolger – who previously had been CFO at Royal Bank of Canada – joined Celsius after its previous CFO, Yaron Shalem, was arrested in Israel.
“The Debtors recognize that they need Mr. Bolger’s services and expertise as they manage their transition into chapter 11 and begin negotiating a path forward,” said Celsius attorneys in a motion filed with the bankruptcy court. “His institutional knowledge and experience concerning the unique features of cryptocurrency are invaluable.”
The motion asks that Bolger be retained for a minimum of six weeks at a salary of C$120,000 per month.
- Billionaire Mark Cuban Expects SEC to Impose ‘Nightmare’ Crypto Registration Rules
Billionaire Mark Cuban, the Shark Tank star who owns the NBA team Dallas Mavericks, warned in a tweet Saturday about how the SEC will regulate crypto tokens.
His warning was in response to a tweet by U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) who slammed the securities watchdog over its enforcement action against a former Coinbase employee where nine crypto tokens were identified as securities. Coinbase quickly disputed the allegation that it listed crypto securities.
Toomey noted that the enforcement action “is the perfect example of the SEC having a clear opinion on how and why certain tokens classify as securities. Yet, the SEC failed to disclose their view before launching an enforcement action.”
Cuban, whose net worth is about $4.7 billion, believes that the SEC will come up with rules on how to register crypto tokens that will be a “nightmare” for the crypto industry. He replied to Toomey: “Think this is bad? Wait till you see what they come up with for registration of tokens. That’s the nightmare that’s waiting for the crypto industry,” the Shark Tank star wrote. “How else do you keep thousands of lawyers employed and create reasons to ask for more taxpayer money?”
- Crypto Market Falls Below $1 Trillion as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana Sink
Following a week of gains across much of the cryptocurrency market, prices are sinking again—and the overall market cap has slipped below $1 trillion for the first time in several days as Ethereum, Bitcoin, and other top coins lose some of their recent gains.
As of this writing, the overall cryptocurrency market is worth $994 billion based on the combined value of all coins tracked by CoinGecko, a popular crypto price tracker. It’s down nearly 6% on the day, marking the first drop below the $1 trillion mark since July 17.
Ethereum (ETH) is the biggest loser in the top 10 coins by market cap, per the site, dropping 10% over the past 24 hours to a current price of $1,366.
https://decrypt.co/106014/crypto-market-below-1-trillion-bitcoin-ethereum-solana
- AntPool Supports Ethereum Classic Ecosystem With $10M Investment
MIAMI – AntPool, the mining pool affiliated with mining rig giant Bitmain, has invested $10 million to support the Ethereum Classic ecosystem and plans to continue investing more, the pool’s CEO, Lv Lei, said at Bitmain’s World Digital Mining Summit on Tuesday.
While the Ethereum network is working to convert to a proof-of-stake (PoS) model, Ethereum Classic is slated to remain proof-of-work (PoW). PoS will drastically change how Ethereum validates blocks, adds them to the blockchain and issues new ether (ETH). In doing so, it will eliminate the need for specialized mining rigs, such as the ones Bitmain makes.
Ethereum Classic, however, will continue to mine its native ETC cryptocurrency using these rigs.
The initial $10 million investment went to the development and exploration of applications of the Ethereum Classic mainnet, as to promote the overall performance of the network.
Bitmain started selling its latest Ethereum mining model (the Antminer E9) earlier in July. The mining rig manufacturer also announced at the World Digital Mining Summit in Miami that it will be accepting payments in ETC for all of its Antminer models.
https://www.binance.com/en/news/flash/7159763
- KuCoin CEO Johnny Lyu launches ‘Anti-FUD Fund’
The CEO of crypto exchange KuCoin says it is launching an “Anti-FUD Fund” to track down and potentially take legal action against “FUDers” and educate crypto users on identifying misinformation.
Johnny Lyu, CEO of the exchange, announced the fund in a Tuesday Twitter thread, coming only days after publishing a blog post criticizing Twitter user Otteroooo for spreading misinformation about his firm.
Lyu said the Anti-FUD fund will cover three elements, the first being education, which will “deliver knowledge, including what is FUD and how to distinguish it” through online and offline means.
The fund will also motivate and acclaim industry leaders and influencers who are responsible, deliver trusted information to their audiences and help their followers avoid FUD.
Finally, the fund will seek to effectively trace and potentially take legal action against individuals who “intentionally spread FUD.”
“The spread of FUD and panic harms projects, users, and the industry. Those actions must be held to account,” explained Lyu.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/kucoin-ceo-johnny-lyu-launches-anti-fud-fund
- Crypto Traders Split on Upcoming Fed Rate Hike’s Impact on Bitcoin
The U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) will likely raise the benchmark borrowing cost by 75 basis points (0.75%) on Wednesday in a continued effort to drain liquidity to tamp down inflation. Crypto traders are split on how bitcoin (BTC) would react to the rate hike.
Griffin Ardern, a volatility trader at crypto asset management firm Blofin, foresees a bitcoin price drop after the Fed lifts rates by 75 basis points (bps) to the 2.25%-2.5% window.
“Considering that the overall risk level of the crypto market has not returned to a reasonable level, it is very likely that the BTC price will drop by more than 10% after the Fed rate hike,” Ardern said.
The Fed’s liquidity-sucking measures, such as rate hikes and balance sheet runoffs, have roiled asset markets in the past few months. Bitcoin has declined by over 50% since the central bank kicked off the tightening cycle in March.
- Study Findings: Crypto Investors More Attractive and Smarter, NFT Profiles Unattractive
A new survey seeking to determine if investing in cryptocurrency makes one attractive has found that crypto investors are “seen as more attractive, smarter, and wealthier than non-investors.” According to the survey findings in which 1,002 Americans were interviewed, 50% of the female respondents perceive crypto investors to be more attractive than non-investors.
About 46% of the respondents perceive crypto investors to be more desirable while 42% think they are smarter. Some 34% perceive crypto investors to be wealthier than non-investors. Meanwhile, 40% of male respondents think crypto investors are smarter than non-investors.
On whether they would consider dating a person who mentions crypto in their dating app profile, the study found that “more than three-quarters of respondents would swipe right on someone who mentions being a crypto investor in the dating app, and 55% said they are more likely to go on a date or meet up with someone who invests in crypto.”
When asked if cryptocurrency was used to make payments while on a date, 37% of the respondents said they paid in crypto. Some 31% of the respondents said it was their partner that paid in crypto while 13% said they both paid in crypto.
- Ethereum Classic Jumps Double Digits After Antpool Adds $10M Backing
Ethereum Classic, a non-forked version of Ethereum, is enjoying a hefty rally early Wednesday morning.
Following the infamous DAO hack of 2016, Ethereum split into two blockchains: Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, and Ethereum Classic. The newly created chain is the currently used Ethereum network, and the hacked chain continues to operate as Ethereum Classic.
Importantly, the latter will not be merging to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism in September.
And, as a shift to PoS would effectively make Ethereum miners obsolete, all eyes are now on Ethereum Classic (which will continue to operate using more traditional mining mechanisms).
https://decrypt.co/106035/ethereum-classic-jumps-double-digits-antpool-adds-10m-backing
- Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest Buys These Shares After Selling Coinbase
Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest sold over 1.4 million shares of Coinbase Global (COIN) in three funds on Tuesday as the price falls to an all-time low of $52.93. The move comes amid Coinbase’s poor performance and the SEC investigation into listing unregistered securities.
All three funds mostly purchased Shopify and Roku shares after selling COIN shares.
Ark Invest Unloads Coinbase Shares Amid Poor Performance and SEC Investigation
Cathie Wood’s asset management firm Ark Invest has sold over 1.5 million shares of Coinbase worth almost $75 million in three of its funds as Coinbase’s share price falls 21% to $52.93 on July 26. Coinbase’s share price has fallen due to poor earnings amid the bear market and the SEC’s investigation into the listing of unregistered securities.
ARK Innovation Exchange-Traded Fund (ARKK) has sold 1.13 million COIN shares and acquired 1.32 million Shopify, 2.19 million Ginkgo Bioworks, 414k Roku, and 235k Tusimple Holdings shares.
ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) has sold 174,611 COIN shares and purchased 201,546 Shopify and 64,894 Roku shares.
https://www.binance.com/en/news/flash/7160382
- ‘Cryptojacking’ rises 30% to record highs despite crypto slump: Report
New research shows that despite falling digital asset prices, cryptojacking has reached record levels in the first half of 2022.
According to a mid-year update on cyber threats by American cybersecurity company SonicWall, global cryptojacking volumes rose by $66.7 million, or 30%, in the first half of 2022 compared with the same period last year.
Cryptojacking is a cybercrime whereby malicious actors commandeer a victim’s computer resources by infecting the machine with malware designed to mine cryptocurrencies. It is often executed through vulnerabilities in web browsers and extensions.
The report stated that the overall rise in cryptojacking can be attributed to a couple of factors.
Firstly, cybercriminals are leveraging the Log4j vulnerability to deploy attacks in the cloud. In December 2021, a critical vulnerability affecting java-based logging utility was discovered in the Open Source Library managed by software company Apache. Hackers can exploit it to gain remote access to a system.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/cryptojacking-rises-30-to-record-highs-despite-crypto-slump-report
