NFTs in the metaverse should generally be considered securities, but developers have been slow to recognize that fact. Expect a regulatory reckoning to come swiftly for Axie Infinity, Bored Apes, and other projects that have thrown caution to the wind.
Source: Cointelegraph.com
Original Post: The feds are coming for the metaverse — from Axie Infinity to Bored Apes
Amidst CeFi chaos, it’s been a relatively quiet year for Seattle-based staking platform, StormX. Despite signing a multi-year deal jersey patch sponsorship with the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers last year, that deal has come to a close according to the team on Friday. StormX is yet to comment on the matter.
Let’s review the brief details that we’re hearing through the wire in the last 24 hours regarding the matter, and how things got to this point.
StormX: Past And Present
In July 2021, in the midst of high-flying sports sponsorships being sold left, right and center, the Portland Trail Blazers secured their second-ever jersey patch sponsor with staking platform StormX. It was considered a regional play, as StormX is based just a few hours north of Portland in Seattle, Washington. At it’s time, despite StormX’s relatively quiet public image, it was the first-ever crypto jersey patch in the NBA.
When the deal was established last year, it was reportedly a five-year deal. However, the Trail Blazers seemed to have cut it short – which could be for a number of reasons. Respected Portland sports reporter Casey Holdahl first broke the news that the deal was finished, and that the Blazers are actively searching for a new jersey patch sponsor as the NBA season tip-off is now less than 30 days away.
StormX (STMX) native token has seen a substantial decline since establishing their partnership with the Portland Trail Blazers last year. | Source: STMX-USD on TradingView.comSpeculation: What Happened?
Of course, the market confidence in crypto, particularly around CeFi and staking platforms at large, is much lower than it was a year ago. The fall of Terra Luna, along with CeFi crypto earning platforms, like Voyager and Celsius, have substantially dampened consumer confidence and could have led the Trail Blazers to get cold feet on the future viability of the relationship.
However, the timing is still a bit interesting. As independent Portland sports reporter Sean Highkin reporter noted, the StormX patch was featured on player jerseys as recent as earlier this week for the team’s media day. There are a number of pacific northwest based companies that could serve as viable replacements for the StormX deal, but with no verified leads around what brands might be interested or in conversations with the club, it’s impossible to say who could fill the role for the team next.
The Blazers statement has been brief, stating only: “As we tip-off the 2022-23 season, we will launch a search to identify a new jersey-patch partner as we’ve ended our current relationship with StormX. We’ll share additional information in the near future on this exciting new opportunity.”
Featured image from Pexels, Charts from TradingView.com
The writer of this content is not associated or affiliated with any of the parties mentioned in this article. This is not financial advice.
This op-ed represents the views of the author, and may not necessarily reflect the views of Bitcoinist. Bitcoinist is an advocate of creative and financial freedom alike.
Source: Bitcoinist.com
Original Post: Portland Trail Blazers Cut Jersey Patch Partner Deal With Staking Firm StormX
Ethereum [ETH] volumes have been all over the place in the last three months and more so in September. Perhaps an expected outcome, given the drastic changes that have taken place in the crypto market during the month. The demand for ETH also witnessed some volatility during the last four weeks. Nonetheless, recent events highlight […]
Source: AMBcrypto
Original Post: How Ethereum [ETH] is faring amid reshuffled demand
The crypto bear market has been brutal, but it has not stopped development in the Cardano ecosystem in any way. The network recently celebrated the completion of its Vasil hard fork, and even though the price of its native token ADA has failed to move in tandem with the development, Cardano developer Emurgo is not discouraged as it reveals a massive fund for developments on the network.
$200 Million To Cardano Projects
CoinDesk caught up with Ken Kodama, founder of Emurgo, at the Token 2049 conference, where it was released that the Cardano developer would be diving deeper into funding for the ecosystem. It was revealed that Emurgo was planning to inject $200 million into the ecosystem for projects built on the network.
The fund is particularly targeted toward projects that are currently being developed on the Cardano network as well as projects that exist on other networks but plan to integrate support for the blockchain over time. It has also earmarked $100 million out of this fund to go towards investments in Africa, a region where Cardano development has been ramping up in recent months.
ADA price trending at $0.43 | Source: ADAUSD on TradingView.comThe founder explained that the fund was actually coming out from Emurgo’s capital and was meant to go towards the expansion of the network over the next few years. It is especially important now that the upgrade is completed and developers are able to build on the network now.
Emurgo’s investment into the ecosystem will no doubt help its DeFi growth, which has been struggling through the bear run. With such funding, it will be easier to onboard more builders to the network by providing sound financial support.
Standing Up Against Competitors
Cardano has often received harsh criticism in the space as a lot of investors believe that the network is not growing fast enough. The most recent of these came from Ethereum maxi Evan Van Ness who referred to the blockchain as a “zombie chain.”
In his post, Van Ness pointed out that Cardano saw fewer transactions compared to Uniswap, even though the latter has a much lower market valuation. However, these are two projects that differ greatly in their mode of operation and revenue generation, so this is not the best example for it.
Nevertheless, Cardano continues to lag behind other networks in terms of decentralized finance activity. But it is worthy of note that the network received smart contracts capability much later than its competitors, and the investments in the space have shown a commitment to building out its DeFi dominance.
Cardano’s total DeFi TVL is currently sitting at $76.79 million, accounting for 0.14% of the total DeFi TVL of $54.74 billion. The price of the digital asset is trending at $0.43 with a total market cap of $15 billion.
Featured image from The Cryptonomist, chart from TradingView.com
Follow Best Owie on Twitter for market insights, updates, and the occasional funny tweet…
Source: Bitcoinist.com
Original Post: Cardano Developer Emurgo Undaunted By Bear Market As It Shells Out 0M In Investments
The craze that surrounded profile picture NFTs (PFPs) in 2021 dwindled significantly as per data from Dune Analytics. According to the blockchain analytics platform, monthly NFT trading volume on OpenSea had declined by 93% from the all-time high of $4.86 billion in January. The last nine months have been full of ups and downs for […]
Source: AMBcrypto
Original Post: Ethereum vs. Polygon and an ‘OpenSea’ of decline in NFTs trading
The mobile software, cloud-based services, and business intelligence (BI) firm Microstrategy is seeking a full-time Lightning Network software engineer, according to a job listing published this week. The developer, if hired, will build a Lightning Network-based software as a service (SaaS) platform for the company so it can be used for ecommerce use cases and connect with enterprises looking for payment solutions as well.
After the company purchased 301 bitcoin (BTC) to hold on its balance sheet, the BI firm Microstrategy published a job listing on the web portal smartrecruiters.com. Microstrategy’s job offer is for full-time employment as a Bitcoin Lightning Software Engineer and the chosen individual will be in charge of creating a Lightning Network (LN) SaaS platform.
“As a Bitcoin Lightning Software Engineer at Microstrategy, you will build a Lightning Network-based SaaS platform, providing enterprises with innovative solutions to cyber-security challenges and enabling new ecommerce use-cases,” Microstrategy executive Chen Wan explains.
The interested person must have a Bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related field and a “Master’s degree or Ph.D. in computer science/engineering is a plus,” Wan’s job summary details. Furthermore, the candidate should have a “strong knowledge of data structures, algorithms, operating systems, distributed systems, and other fundamental computer science concepts,” the job listing adds.
The Lightning Network is a second layer (L2) scaling solution for Bitcoin that was first introduced in 2015. At the time of writing the LN capacity is 4,905.29 BTC or $95.2 million in USD value. There are 17,203 LN nodes right now and 84,928 payment channels, according to statistics on September 30. The number of LN Tor Nodes is approximately 12,305 and the percentage of LN Tor capacity is 69.3%.
Microstrategy’s engineering job says that the chosen person will build software solutions leveraging the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain and Lightning Network, as well as “other decentralized finance (defi) technologies.” Furthermore, contributing to the Bitcoin Core codebase and other types of open source cryptocurrency coding projects is “a plus.”
What do you think about Microstrategy’s job offer? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.
Source: Bitcoin.com
Original Post: Microstrategy Is Seeking a Full-Time Lightning Network Engineer to Build a SaaS Platform
Another OpenSea bug strikes again. It’s a less-than-ideal way to end the week for the once blue chip NFT collection, Azukis. Holders of Azuki NFTs were awakened on Friday to an email from OpenSea that allegedly advised NFT owners that many Azuki NFTs were being delisted. The once blue chip collection has had a substantial fall from grace, but still commands high respect with a consistent floor price around 10 ETH lately.
While re-listings for the project appear to be happening throughout the day on Friday, the error represents another occurrence of ‘accidental delisting’ of a major project on OpenSea. Let’s take a look at more details from the situation and what we can expect next.
An OpenSea Flaw, Or Azuki’s Fate?
Speculation was in no short supply on Friday within the NFT community, as some individuals believed that it could be a major impact on the collection – rather than a mistake on OpenSea’s part. However, the official Azuki Twitter account and product manager Demna were swift in keeping an open line of communication with the community:
We have reached out to @opensea about the delisting emails sent to Azuki holders, awaiting response. Our working theory is that we are facing a similar error/issue as this one. Check Discord for live updates, @DemnaAzuki will also be tweeting as we work to resolve this issue. https://t.co/azJhiXzEE0
— Azuki (@AzukiOfficial) September 30, 2022
Demna has described the issue as a ‘technical error’ on OpenSea, and the NFT marketplace released a statement of their own on Friday morning, proclaiming that there was a “error in our Trust & Safety flagging system” that caused Azukis to be delisted, but that their team worked quickly to resolve the issue.
Ethereum (ETH) based NFT collection, Azuki, had to deal with some hiccups on Friday following an accidental delisting on OpenSea. | Source: ETH-USD on TradingView.comNot The First Time…
As the Azuki Twitter account referenced, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen this happen with a blue chip collection on OpenSea. Back in June, Bored Ape Yacht Club faced a similar dilemma, with OpenSea briefly delisting some of the BAYC collection. Overall, this isn’t a new issue or an issue that’s particularly clear to understand, however it’s ramifications can be substantial. Luckily for Azukis, the floor price before and after the delisting debacle on Friday was relatively unmoved, dropping from just above 10ETH to just below 10ETH, and currently sitting at 9.97ETH at time of publication.
Nonetheless, it’s still been a substantial fall from grace for a once high-flying project. At one point earlier this year, the project had a daily average sale price just shy of 40ETH, but in recent months, some Azukis have sold for a fraction of that, at times logging daily average sales between 6ETH and 7ETH.
Featured image from Pexels, Charts from TradingView.com
The writer of this content is not associated or affiliated with any of the parties mentioned in this article. This is not financial advice.
This op-ed represents the views of the author, and may not necessarily reflect the views of Bitcoinist. Bitcoinist is an advocate of creative and financial freedom alike.
Source: Bitcoinist.com
Original Post: OpenSea Delisting Bug Impacts Another Major NFT Collection
“College Admission” is a performance art NFT collection that takes a critical lens to the student loan debt crisis and the shame it causes borrowers.
Source: Coindesk
Original Post: I Made an NFT Collection to Represent My Student Loan Debt
Customers of the trading giant Robinhood can now execute external transfers of the Ethereum (ETH) competitor Avalanche (AVAX).
Robinhood first launched crypto transfers in and out of its platform in July, adding trading support for AVAX and XRP rival Stellar (XLM) last month and unlocking transfers for Avalanche on Thursday.
AVAX is trading at $17.31 at time of writing. The 17th-ranked crypto asset by market cap is down 0.46% in the past 24 hours and more than 2% in the past week. It also remains down more than 88% from its all-time high of around $145, which it hit in November of 2021.
Robinhood also provided an update on its crypto wallet rollout, noting wallets should still be available to customers by the end of the year. The company says beta testing starts this month.
The California-based firm opened a waitlist for beta testers in May after announcing that it was launching a multichain, non-custodial crypto wallet that will allow users to trade crypto, access decentralized apps (DApps), do yield farming and store non-fungible tokens (NFTs), among other functions.
Robinhood CEO Vladimir Tenev noted in August that the number of people who wanted to get early access to the retail trading platform’s Web3 wallet had already surpassed 1 million.
Robinhood has had a difficult year, letting go of 9% of its staff in April and another 23% of its workforce in August.
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The post Trading Giant Robinhood Enables Transfers for Recently Listed Ethereum (ETH) Challenger appeared first on The Daily Hodl.
Source: Daily HODL
Original Post: Trading Giant Robinhood Enables Transfers for Recently Listed Ethereum (ETH) Challenger
Regulators from two states are objecting to bankrupt crypto lender Celsius seeking permission to sell their stablecoin holdings.
According to recent court documents, the Vermont Department of Finance alongside two regulatory agencies from Texas are filing objections to Celsius asking the bankruptcy court if it can sell its remaining stablecoins.
The Texas agencies say that Celsius should not be granted permission because they have not disclosed how many stablecoins will be sold as well as how the sales would benefit its creditors.
Furthermore, Texas says that an examiner to review Celsius’ crypto holdings has been hired by the government, and it would be “inappropriate” for them to sell assets while the assessment is unresolved.
“The debtors fail to disclose in the motion how much stablecoin will be sold, and how the monetization of the stablecoin ultimately benefits the bankruptcy estate and the many consumer creditors of the debtors…
Finally, the United States Trustee is currently in the process of employing an examiner to review, inter alia, the cryptocurrency holdings of the debtors. The request to sell certain of these cryptocurrency assets while this examination is pending is inappropriate.”
Vermont is filing its objection on the grounds that Celsius would have to illegally operate within its borders to sell the stablecoins. The state also says Celsius has not made it clear what it would do with the proceeds of the sales.
“It is not at all clear what the debtors intend to do with the proceeds of any such sales, whether the relief requested extends to Stablecoin-denominated assets such as retail loans to consumers, and the degree to which debtors’ use of sale proceeds will be supervised by the Court.
To the extent debtors’ planned activities include the offer or sale of securities in Vermont or the exchange of money, debtors cannot proceed lawfully without appropriate securities registration and/or licensure as a money transmitter.”
Celsius, which has 11 different types of stablecoins valued at around $23 million, initially asked the bankruptcy court for permission to liquidate its holdings earlier this month. The firm said selling the tokens would help fund its operations.
“The debtors, in an exercise of their reasonable business judgment, believe that the sale of their stablecoin consistent with past practice and in the ordinary course of business is an efficient way to generate liquidity to help fund the debtors’ operations.”
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The post Texas and Vermont State Regulators Object to Celsius Seeking Permission To Sell Stablecoin Holdings appeared first on The Daily Hodl.
Source: Daily HODL
Original Post: Texas and Vermont State Regulators Object to Celsius Seeking Permission To Sell Stablecoin Holdings
There’s no such thing as "crypto law." So why are so many people studying it? This article is part of CoinDesk’s “Education Week.”
Source: Coindesk
Original Post: Crypto and the ‘Law of the Horse’
Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, announced that its users can participate in a mining pool dedicated to Ethereum Proof of Work [ETHW]. Furthermore, Binance on 29 September also announced that the ETHW pool would not require any fees until 29 October. When multiple cryptocurrency miners wish to work together to increase their chances of successfully completing […]
Source: AMBcrypto
Original Post: ETHW traders should know these updates before they go long
Tune out the noise and focus on the signal. 5 important BTC price indicators are in multi-year “buy zones.”
Source: Cointelegraph.com
Original Post: So what if Bitcoin price keeps falling! Here is why it’s time to start paying attention
As NFT winter deepens, Flip says its new fantasy league will still provide traders the “sweet adrenaline” of flipping JPEGs.
Source: Coindesk
Original Post: Beleaguered NFT Traders Can Now Relive Mania With Fantasy League Game
Many in the space have criticized regulators including the CFTC and SEC for taking a “regulation by enforcement” approach to crypto in the United States.
Source: Cointelegraph.com
Original Post: CFTC takes legal action against Digitex futures exchange and CEO
The Hong Kong-based group documented its reproduction of the hack on its tech and security oriented blog, seeking insights into Web3’s attack surface spectrum.
Source: Cointelegraph.com
Original Post: Amber Group uses simple hardware to show just how fast, easy the Wintermute hack was
The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization rose over $20,000 at one point in choppy trading; ether ticks upward. Market Wrap is CoinDesk’s daily newsletter diving into what happened in today's crypto markets.
Source: Coindesk
Original Post: Market Wrap: Bitcoin Holds Strong Above .5K as Investors Chew Over Latest Price Data
The sixth-largest crypto asset by market cap, XRP, is rallying amid Ripple Labs scoring a win in court in a lawsuit lodged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
XRP surged approximately 20% amid a court ruling ordering the SEC to produce documents Ripple intends to use as evidence.
On September 29th, XRP soared to a high of $0.5109 from the day’s low of $0.4266 in a matter of hours, recording a gain of 19.76%.
XRP is slightly down from yesterday’s high and is trading at $0.4785 at time of writing.
In the ruling issued on Thursday, the SEC’s objection to producing a speech of interest by its former Director of Corporate Finance, William Hinman was overruled. The speech made by Hinman in 2018 stated that Ethereum (ETH) was not a security. The SEC sued Ripple in late 2020 claiming that the payments firm sold XRP as an unregistered security.
Following the ruling that was delivered by District Judge Analisa Torres, legal expert James K. Filan now says that the SEC could employ various strategies to delay compliance.
“The SEC has a number of procedural cards they can play to try to further delay complying with the order to produce the Hinman documents.
First, they can ask Judge Torres to reconsider her order overruling the SEC objection. Second, they could skip the motion for reconsideration and just ask her to certify an appeal of the decision she issued today.
Third, they could go to the Court of Appeals directly on a Petition for Writ of Mandamus. As I’ve mentioned before, these are all low probability of success maneuvers.
But if the SEC wants to delay producing the documents, they may try any or even all of these maneuvers, and that could take an additional 2 to 3 months to work out.”
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The post XRP Jumps 20% in a Matter of Hours Amid SEC’s Latest Setback in Ripple Lawsuit appeared first on The Daily Hodl.
Source: Daily HODL
Original Post: XRP Jumps 20% in a Matter of Hours Amid SEC’s Latest Setback in Ripple Lawsuit
NFT Steez chats with Celo ecosystem lead Mashiat Mutmainnah about the promise of ReFi and its capacity to promote environmental and social good.
Source: Cointelegraph.com
Original Post: What is regenerative finance (ReFi) and how can it impact NFTs and Web3?
Majority of the top 100 DeFi tokens had a mixed week, with several tokens trading in green on weekly charts, with the total value locked seeing a minor increase of $4 billion.
Source: Cointelegraph.com
Original Post: DeFi needs appropriate regulation before moving to retail, says Fed Chair: Finance Redefined