bitcoin

Friday, December 2, 2022

Legal team for 3AC liquidators blast founders for shifting blame to FTX, media blitz amid bankruptcy

In a bankruptcy court hearing, lawyers for 3AC creditors asserted the firm's founders "repeatedly fail to engage" with liquidators, but weren't shy about talking to the media.

The founders of Three Arrows Capital, or 3AC, the Singapore-based crypto hedge fund with close ties to Terra Labs, have been spending more time engaging on social media and news outlets than dealing with its own liquidation, according to bankruptcy lawyers.

In a Dec. 2 hearing in United States Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York, lawyers for 3AC’s liquidators cited founders Zhu Su and Kylie Davies for being “active and responsive to comments via Twitter” but “repeatedly fail[ing] to engage” with liquidators to discuss the company’s assets and related issues. According to the legal team, Zhu and Davies have only had “limited discussions” with liquidators in addition to changing jurisdictions often — reportedly traveling to Bali and the United Arab Emirates.

Adam Goldberg, a lawyer with Latham and Watkins representing 3AC liquidators through advisory firm Teneo, added the founders had spoken to reporters with CNBC and Bloomberg “in an apparent effort to rehabilitate their reputations” and took advantage of another major crypto firm going belly up:

“Since the collapse of FTX, Mr. Davies has appeared on CNBC and both of the founders have been very active on Twitter, calling out FTX and advancing the theory that FTX caused the debtors’ collapse. It’s interesting, to say the least, that the first time we’ve heard this theory that FTX caused the downfall of this debtor was after FTX’s own sensational collapse.”

Goldberg pointed to “ironic” behavior from both Zhu and Davies, who have tweeted calls to former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried to “reveal the truth” while seemingly sidestepping responsibility for 3AC creditors. He hinted at methods seeking to compel both the 3AC founders into complying with court proceedings, likely an extension of proposing an “alternative means” to subpoena Zhu and Davies in October. At the time of publication, it was unclear where the 3AC founders were located.

3AC filed for a Chapter 15 bankruptcy on Jul. 1 in New York bankruptcy court. The firm at one point managed more than $10 billion worth of assets, and its liquidation has likely contributed to the ongoing crypto bear market. In the wake of its collapse, crypto lending firms including Voyager Digital, Celsius Network, BlockFi, and FTX have all reported liquidity issues eventually leading to bankruptcy filings.

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Is Bitcoin the only crypto that will survive FTX? | Interview with Bitcoin maximalist

Bitcoin proponent and author Jeff Booth is convinced that the crypto ecosystem will eventually collapse as a consequence of its centralization — except Bitcoin, that is.

The downfall of FTX and a number of other CeFi platforms in 2022 has reinforced a Bitcoin maximalist narrative, according to which most of the crypto ecosystem will eventually collapse due to its centralization.

Jeff Booth, Bitcoin proponent and author of "The Price of Tomorrow", believes centralized crypto platforms such as FTX and Celsius have ended up replicating the traditional financial system with all its inherent flaws.

"All of crypto is trying to rebuild a financial system that we already have based on manipulation and centralization," said Booth, in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph.

Even Defi platforms, which seek to provide a peer-to-peer, trustless alternative to traditional financial services, are bound to fail, according to Booth, since they are being built on protocols that have sacrificed decentralization and security in order to boost scalability.

To Booth, Bitcoin is the only crypto that remains decentralized and secure enough for being the base layer of the future financial system.

"The entire crypto ecosystem is going to go to zero besides Bitcoin", Booth said.

To find out more about why Bitcoin may outlive the rest of the crypto ecosystem, check out the full interview on our YouTube channel, and don’t forget to subscribe!

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Bitcoin bulls lie in wait as US dollar strength hits 5-month lows

BTC price performance gains some positive tailwinds, but Bitcoin faces a potential top for U.S. stocks.

Bitcoin (BTC) continued to hold key support on Dec. 2 as United States stocks fell on the Wall Street open.

*BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView*

DXY weakness offers hope of "Santa rally"

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as bulls bought time between $16,800 and $17,000.

Analysts had earmarked the former as a key level to retain, this nonetheless in question at the time of writing as stocks shed 1% to start the session.

Popular crypto analytics account Nunya Bizniz queried whether it was time for a “decision” on S&P 500 performance, eyeing a pattern which suggested a local top may soon appear.

Should that be the case, Bitcoin’s correlation to traditional risk assets would be tested, this having ebbed in the wake of the FTX meltdown.

For the meantime, however, the inversely-correlated U.S. dollar gave bulls little to worry about, the U.S. dollar index (DXY) hitting five-month lows.

DXY wicked down to just 104.37 on the day before rebounding above 105 at the Wall Street open.

*U.S. dollar index (DXY) 1-day candle chart. Source: TradingView*

Fellow analyst Pumpcat thus eyed the six-month close for the chart due at the end of December.

“I think the probablity for a longterm correction is high from here on,” he predicted.

Another popular Twitter analytics account, Cold Blooded Shiller, additionally entertained the idea of a “Santa rally” should macro data and comments from the Federal Reserve complement risk asset performance — to the dollar’s detriment.

“Markets are clearly at an important point - both the $DXY looking like freefall + markets like $SPX looking to try and break the major trendlines that have kept them capped,” a further tweet on the day added.

Analyst reinforces $19,500 significance

Eyeing potential for upside, trader and analyst Rekt Capital stuck with $19,500 as the ceiling for Bitcoin on monthly timeframes.

BTC/USD finished November down 16.2%, having broken through support to trade in a new range in the wake of FTX.

"BTC lost $19500 as support. But it hasn't turned it into a new resistance," he wrote.

"Technically, $BTC could relief rally to as high as $19500 to turn it to a new resistance. That would be a textbook confirmation of the breakdown. Doesn't have to happen but a possibility."

*BTC/USD annotated chart. Source: Rekt Capital/ Twitter*

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

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Thursday, December 1, 2022

Solana-based market maker integrates Stripe for fiat-crypto transactions

The Solana-based automated market maker Orca opened up fiat purchases and fiat-to-crypto transactions through a new integration with Stripe’s onramp.

As the Solana ecosystem comes back from the aftershocks of the FTX liquidity earthquake, one of its leading automated market makers (AMM), Orca, announced a new integration.

The AMM revealed a new Stripe integration which will power its fiat-to-crypto onramp, to make decentralized finance (DeFi) more accessible to users both in and out of the existing ecosystem. This new integration now enables fiat purchases, along with fiat-to-crypto transactions.

Users can now purchase SPL tokens, which include USD Coin (USDC) and Solana (SOL) with fiat currencies.

According to Ori Kawn, the co-founder of Orca, the new integration helps create wider access to economic tools.

“With this new integration, we hope to make participating in the DeFi ecosystem even more accessible to the entire Solana community."

The Orca integration marks one of the first blockchain-based integration from Stripe as it continues to venture into the crypto space.

Back in March of this year, it announced fiat payment support for cryptocurrencies and NFTs, in addition to partnerships with FTX, FTX US, Blockchain.com, Nifty Gateway and Just Mining to launch a crypto business suite.

A month later it worked in collaboration with Twitter to create a USDC-based payout program for creators via the Polygon network.

This comes as the entire crypto industry picks itself up after the collapse of the former power-house crypto exchange FTX.

Solana was one of the many in the space, which felt the effects of the market chaos. The native token, SOL, was heavily hit with its total value dropping 32.4% on Nov. 10.

Nonetheless, the ecosystem received encouragement from major players in the space, such as Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwa, to continue building on the value of the Solana network.

Prior to this Solana unveiled its roadmap which included a major partnership with Google Cloud, new Dapp stores and smartphone plans.

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Crypto and Capitulation — Is there a silver lining? Watch Market Talks on Cointelegraph

Join us as we discuss the current state of the crypto market and whether there could actually be a silver lining to capitulation. Hosting the show will be Ray Salmond, head of markets at Cointelegraph, and our special guest this week is Magdalena Gronowska.

On this week’s episode of Market Talks, Cointelegraph welcomes Magdalena Gronowska, co-founder of Citadel 256 and senior consultant at MetaMesh — a blockchain consultancy and building platform.

This week, we take a deep dive into everything that is happening in the crypto space — we get Gronowska’s professional take on Sam Bankman-Fried and the whole FTX saga and also BlockFi’s bankruptcy. Bitcoin (BTC) miners have also had a rough few months with profits slowly dipping. What are the odds of most miners shutting down shop and selling their Bitcoin while still making some profit on it, especially since most of them are currently struggling to manage their debt? How will this impact the rest of the market?

During the bull market, there were a lot of synergies formed between energy and Bitcoin mining companies. Has this current extended crypto winter impacted those plans and relationships? We ask Gronowska for her valuable insights into this, as she has had years of experience in the industry and was also the co-founder of Citadel 256, an enterprise-scale Bitcoin mining company.

In light of all the recent negative stories coming out of the crypto industry, from Terra to FTX and collapsing exchanges, how far back has this pushed mass adoption and institutional investors? Has the confidence in the industry been forever broken?

Crypto advocates, for the longest time, have advocated for less or no regulation and been anti-authority and pro-privacy, but in light of recent events, many have come to understand the need for regulations and a certain amount of government oversight. But how much is too much or too little regulation, and what kind of regulations would best benefit crypto investors and also encourage a growing and robust market?

Make sure to stay tuned until the end to get all the answers and more. We’ll also be taking your questions and comments throughout the show, so be sure to have them ready to go.

Market Talks streams live every Thursday at 12:00 pm ET (5:00 pm UTC). Each week, we feature interviews with some of the most influential and inspiring people from the crypto and blockchain industry. So, be sure to head on over to Cointelegraph’s YouTube page and smash those Like and Subscribe buttons for all our future videos and updates.

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DEX token GMX rallies 35% after beating Uniswap on trading fees for the first time

GMX's technical indicator hints at a strong correction in December, which may push its price toward $40.

The price of GMX rallied to its second-highest level in history on Dec. 1 as traders assessed the decentralized exchange's ability to evolve as a serious competitor to its top rival Uniswap (UNI).

GMX established an intraday high of $54.50 in a recovery that started on Nov. 29 from $40.50. Its rally's beginning coincided with crypto research firm Delphi Digital's tweet on the GMX decentralized exchange, as shown below.

*GMX/USD four-hour price chart. Source: TradingView*

GMX beats Uniswap in fees for the first time

Notably, GMX had earned about $1.15 million in daily trading fees on Nov. 28, which surpassed Uniswap's $1.06 million trading fees on the same day.

*GMX Flipped Uniswap in Daily Fees on Nov. 28. Source: Delphi Digital*

This seemingly renewed buying sentiment in the GMX market, helping its price rally 35% to $54.50 afterward.

Moreover, GMX also benefited from the growing discontent against centralized exchanges in the wake of the FTX collapse. The decentralized exchange's revenue rose by 107% to $5 million in November, boosted by a 128% increase in annualized trading volume and a 31% rise in daily active users.

*GMX exchange's financial data. Source: Token Terminal*

In comparison, Uniswap's annualized revenue increased by about 75% and daily active users by 8%.

Independent market analyst Zen noted that GMX's outperformance could have stemmed from its token holders receiving a good portion of all trading fees — about 30%, according to GMX's official declaration.

On the other hand, the holders of Uniswap's native token UNI do not receive shares from the platform's trading fees.

"[GMX is] an obvious buy and hold during this bear market," Zen added, saying that it is "consistently the second highest earning protocol after Uniswap." Excerpts:

"Leverage trading becomes dominant during bear markets. FTX and Bybit grew a lot last time. Expecting [a] similar story here. No big FDV overhang."

GMX price technicals tilt bearish

From a technical analysis perspective, GMX's ongoing bull run risks exhaustion in the coming days.

On the daily chart, GMX's price tests its multi-month ascending trendline resistance for a potential pullback, based on its previous corrections after testing the same trendline. In doing so, the token eyes a decline toward the ascending trendline support.

*GMX/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView*

As of Dec. 1, GMX faced an increase in selling pressure near the trendline resistance at around $53. The GMX/USD pair could drop to the current trendline support near $42, which coincides with its 50-day exponential moving average (50-day EMA; the red wave) and its 0.618 Fib line.

In other words, GMX could drop by nearly 20% from its current price levels by the end of 2022.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

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Party-to-earn: Blockchain breaking down the doors in electronic music community

With access getting more exclusive and ticket prices rising, electronic music fans are at the heart of a new push to rebalance the scene.

Electronic music is big business. According to a report by the International Music Summit, in 2021, the electronic music sector was valued at $6 billion dollars and that sector is poised for significant further growth. That $6 billion dollar figure marks a 71% increase from the industry’s valuation in 2020, which was understandably much smaller due to the effects of the pandemic. While revenue is down from where it was in 2019, barring further massive disruptions, the industry is on pace in 2022 to surpass its pre-pandemic heights.

This should be great news for artists and music lovers alike, but there is a caveat. As electronic music continues to flourish, access to festivals and concerts — the heart of the electronic music scene — has become increasingly exclusive. The price of concert tickets is up across the board throughout the entire music industry. Earlier this year, a furor was sparked when tickets to see Bruce Springsteen, an artist with a committed following among working-class people, went on sale for astronomical prices. The high prices were blamed on algorithms used by ticket-selling platforms, but this wasn’t an isolated incident.

Take Tomorrowland, one of the biggest electronic music festivals. In 2022, a general admission ticket to the festival cost about $280. These tickets get sold out very fast, leaving only the more expensive packages, which can cost several thousands of dollars. And that base price doesn’t take into account travel, food and all of the other expenses that go into attending one of these events. The total cost of going to one of these events can be anywhere from $1,500 to $50,000. That is simply not something that the vast majority of people can afford.

Restoring the Electronic Music Scene to Its Roots

Electronic music festivals are about more than just the music. These are events that are supposed to bring together people from all walks of life in a communal setting. The way things currently operate, going to these events is becoming more of a privilege.

However, one blockchain project has decided to do something about this and use its platform to bring electronic music back to its roots. Klubcoin bills itself as the “1st cryptocurrency for all clubbers, festival goers and electronic music fans.” The project’s goal is to create a currency that is accepted by everyone in the electronic music scene. By using the Klubcoin currency, music fans get rewards that include access to VIP events, meet-and-greets with famous DJs and artists and more.

Klubcoin and the Pary-to-Earn Model

The model of operation is called “party-to-earn,” and has been positioned as a means of decentralizing the music and festival scene in a similar fashion to how play-to-earn games have shaken up the gaming industry. Klubcoin gives clubbers and festival goers the ability to earn rewards and gain access to exclusive events by doing what they love. Now, fans will not only be able to get into sold-out events for reasonable prices, once there, they will also be eligible for discounts on food and drinks, get cashback on all their purchases and have access to parties and meetups exclusive to the Klubcoin community. By introducing a means of exchange tailored to electronic music creators and fans, the project is aiming to bring those creators and fans back into focus.

Klubcoin has already met with some success in its efforts, forging partnerships with some of the biggest music festivals and DJs in the world. The project’s roster of partners now includes Amnesia Ibiza, Bootshaus, Caprices Festival, DJ Mag, Pacha Barcelona, Opium, Motel Particulier and many more. As it progresses, Klubcoin will be looking to integrate into even more festivals and partner with more artists to expand its ecosystem and offer more people alternatives to the current status quo.

For music creators, Klubcoin represents a unique opportunity to expand their audience and contribute to a more direct relationship between fans and artists. The sustained success of Klubcoin could have a profound impact on an industry that is becoming increasingly unrecognizable to its original creators.

Material is provided in partnership with Klubcoin

Disclaimer. Cointelegraph does not endorse any content or product on this page. While we aim at providing you with all important information that we could obtain, readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to the company and carry full responsibility for their decisions, nor can this article be considered as investment advice.

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