- Indian Crypto Exchange CoinSwitch Cuts Support Team, Citing Market Doldrums
Indian crypto investment platform CoinSwitch cut its customer support team by more than a third, citing low market activity.
The 44 job losses, which occurred about three weeks ago, amount to just under 7% of total employees, a company spokesperson told CoinDesk. The firm has hired around 60 people since April, mostly in product tech and compliance, for a total employee strength of around 640 before the layoffs. The customer support team still has 82 members.
CoinSwitch is not alone in needing to adapt to a changed environment. Earlier this month, rival CoinDCX cut about 12% of its staff, laying off 71 employees as a bear crypto market and India’s tax regime conspired to reduce trading volumes and thus revenue. India has imposed stiff taxes on crypto, including a 30% tax on crypto profits and a more controversial 1% tax deducted at source (TDS) on all transactions since Feb. 1 2022.
- Bitcoin, Ethereum Technical Analysis: BTC Consolidates, Ahead of Key Week of US Economic Announcements
Bitcoin started the week hovering around the $26,000 region, as markets prepared for a big week of economic data.
Following a high of $26,406.15 on Sunday, BTC/USD dropped to an intraday low of $25,914.93 earlier in today’s session.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency has mostly consolidated around this level for the past ten days, since surging above $30,000 earlier in the month.
Since then a huge red wave has swept through the market, with BTC falling to a two-month low just over a week ago.
Prices have continued to trend sideways as the 14-day relative strength index (RSI) has failed to break out of a resistance level of 30.00.
As of writing, the index is tracking at 27.34.
- Grayscale Wins Appeal Against SEC to Convert Bitcoin Trust to ETF
A judge has ordered that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) denial of Grayscale’s spot Bitcoin ETF application be reviewed, according to an opinion issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Tuesday.
The decision represents a landmark moment for crypto. The SEC has denied several applications for spot Bitcoin ETFs, which allow investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin without holding the coin, for a decade while citing market manipulation concerns.
The court explained the SEC lacked a coherent explanation for the denial.“The Commission failed to adequately explain why it approved the listing of two bitcoin futures ETPs but not Grayscale’s proposed bitcoin ETP,” the court opinion said. “In the absence of a coherent explanation, this unlike regulatory treatment of like products is
unlawful.”
https://decrypt.co/154119/grayscale-wins-appeal-against-sec-to-convert-bitcoin-trust-to-etf
- Interlay Launches MVP of New Bitcoin Layer-2 BOB to Empower Developers
According to Decrypt: Decentralized Bitcoin infrastructure provider Interlay has unveiled the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) of its Build on Bitcoin (BOB) solution. BOB is a Bitcoin Layer-2 network introducing Rust smart contracts compatible with Bitcoin libraries such as Lightning and Ordinals. Supporting the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), BOB aims to enable builders to create decentralized applications atop Bitcoin’s robust foundation, attracting developers from Ethereum and other ecosystems. The release also includes a demonstration application implementing the BRC-21 token standard, allowing any ERC-20 token on Ethereum to be bridged to Bitcoin as a BRC-21 token in a trustless manner.
- Iris Energy buys 248 Nvidia GPUs worth $10M for generative AI & Bitcoin mining
Nasdaq-listed Iris Energy has bought 248 state of the art Nvidia H100 GPUs for $10 million as it looks to explore opportunities in generative AI in addition to its core business focus on Bitcoin mining.
The firm expects to receive delivery of the 248 GPUs in the coming months and plans to deploy the hardware to serve opportunities in cloud computing.
Iris Energy co-founder and co-CEO Daniel Roberts said the company was looking to leverage its existing data centers into serving generative AI computing requirements.
“We believe demand for sustainable computing is unlikely to go away, and feel we are uniquely positioned to capture ongoing growth in the broader industry; whether that be ASICs for Bitcoin mining, or GPUs for generative AI and beyond.”
https://cointelegraph.com/news/nvidia-iris-energy-buys-nvidia-gpus-worth-10-m-for-generative-ai
- SUI and HBAR Slump Ahead of Latest Crypto Token Unlocks
Both protocols have seen their tokens drop more than ether in daily trading as the next unlocks inch closer.
Token prices for Sui (SUI) and Hedera (HBAR) are falling as both projects face an increase in circulating supply later this week.
Both have scheduled token unlocks, in which early investors and project team members prevented from selling are finally allowed to do so. They’re put in place to curb selling pressure on tokens.
Sui is down 7% in daily trading, currently trading for $0.54, according to data from CoinDesk Indices, while HBAR is down 4% at $0.05.
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2023/08/28/sui-and-hbar-slump-ahead-of-latest-crypto-token-unlocks/
- Charles Hoskinson Asserts Cardano Will Surpass All: Envisioning ADA as the Leading Global Cryptocurrency
At the recent Rare Evo blockchain event, Charles Hoskinson, an Ethereum co-founder and Cardano founder, shared his thoughts on ADA. He anticipates that ADA will eventually overtake Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) by climbing to the top of crypto asset rankings worldwide. “So, that is our challenge, and this is why I think that Cardano is probably going to become the biggest cryptocurrency in the world,” Hoskinson opined from the main stage.
“I think that it’s going to become more than just a cryptocurrency. I think it’s going to become the backbone of a new digital nation, a new society—a place where we can finally begin to trust each other again, where we move from ‘don’t be evil’ to ‘can’t be evil,’” added Hoskinson.
- Grayscale Wins Appeal Against SEC to Convert Bitcoin Trust to ETF
A judge has ordered that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) denial of Grayscale’s spot Bitcoin ETF application be reviewed, according to an opinion issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Tuesday.
The decision represents a landmark moment for crypto. The SEC has denied several applications for spot Bitcoin ETFs, which allow investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin without holding the coin, for a decade while citing market manipulation concerns.
https://decrypt.co/154119/grayscale-wins-appeal-against-sec-to-convert-bitcoin-trust-to-etf
- Indian crypto exchanges CoinSwitch, CoinDCX cut staff amid market slump
The CoinSwitch crypto exchange is the latest crypto trading platform in India that cut its workforce amid the prolonged cryptocurrency winter, the local news agency Moneycontrol reported on Aug. 28.
The crypto exchange reportedly laid off 44 employees from its customer support division in August, citing redundancy in roles amid the bear market-triggered lack of customer queries.
“We continuously evaluate our business to stay competitive, prioritizing innovation, value, and service for our customers. To that end, we right-sized our customer support team to align with the present volume of customer queries on our platform,” CoinSwitch said. The firm added that this impacted the roles of 44 members of its support team, who “voluntarily resigned from their roles after a detailed discussion with their managers.”
- Dogecoin’s 10% Decline This Year Led By Bearish European Hours
Dogecoin (DOGE) is down 10% this year, with most of the bearish pressure on the leading meme crypto coming during European hours, according to data tracked by Velo Data app.
DOGE’s cumulative year-to-date returns during European and U.S. trading hours were -44.44% and -25%, respectively. Meanwhile, the cumulative return during the Asia-Pacific day stood at a positive 25.6%.
In other words, sellers have been dominant during the European hours, represented by 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Brussels time, and U.S. hours, identified by 08:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. New York time. Meanwhile, buyers have had the upper hand during the Asian hours, identified as 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Seoul time.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/gamestop-stop-support-crypto-wallets-citing-regulatory-uncertainty
