Monat: Februar 2023

Veröffentlicht am

Bitcoin exchnage LocalBitcoins is shutting down

  • LocalBitcoins to shut down peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto platform
  • Finland-based Bitcoin trading service has been in operation for over 10 years.
  • The team cites a difficult crypto winter for the reason the exchange is calling it a day.

LocalBitcoins, a peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency exchange that counts as one of the oldest crypto platforms in the world, has announced that it is shutting down.

LocalBitcoins shuts down following crypto winter

A notification the Finland-based P2P platform sent to customers on Thursday says services will be discontinued beginning 9 February 2023, with customers then having up to 12 months to withdraw their funds.

Per the LocalBitcoins team, the decision to shut down the Bitcoin trading service relates to the challenges that have befallen the crypto market amid a “very cold crypto winter.”

“Regardless of our efforts to overcome challenges during the ongoing very cold crypto-winter, we have regretfully concluded that LocalBitcoins can no longer provide its Bitcoin trading service,” the P2P trading provider noted.

Customers are thus being encouraged to withdraw their funds from the exchange, and although LocalBitcoins will make this process available for the next twelve months, it has advised that customers begin doing so immediately.

The shutdown starts with a halt to new sign ups as from today, 9 February 2023, while trading will be suspended on 16 February 2023. The platform will also discontinue its wallet next week, with only withdrawals allowed.

The post Bitcoin exchnage LocalBitcoins is shutting down appeared first on CoinJournal.

Veröffentlicht am

MakerDAO to launch Spark lending platform to rival Aave

  • Aave, a crypto lending platform, is currently one of Ethereum’s largest DeFi products.
  • MakerDAO, on the other hand, facilitates the generation of DAI stablecoin.
  • MakerDAO is planning to launch a crypto lending platform called Spark Lend to rival Aave.

MakerDAO, the DAO of the giant decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Maker and the facilitator of the generation of DAI stablecoin has unveiled its plans to launch a crypto lending platform to rival the Aave lending protocol.

The plan to launch Spark Protocol was announced on MakerDAO Forum alongside the announcement to launch Phoenix Labs.

Spark Protocol

Spark Protocol is a fork of Aave v3 and will be a front-end app allowing users to interact with the DAI stablecoin by staking, borrowing, and lending. News about the Spark Protocol comes after months Aave, which has a total value locked (TVL) of about $4.6 billion, announced its own generated stablecoin, the GHO.

Since its inception in 2017, MakerDAO has sourced its revenue from the issuance of DAI and the development of a dedicated lending protocol represents a shift in the DeFi protocol’s focus.

MakerDAO has formed Phoenix Labs, a research and development company tasked with the development of the Spark Protocol.

etherDAI deployment

Besides Spark Protocol, MakerDAO has also announced the deployment of etherDAI, which will be a synthetic liquid staking derivative of Ether (ETH) pegged to ETH on a ratio of one-to-one.

Liquid staking will allow users to get extra yield besides the standard staking rewards for staking tokens on MakerDAO.

At press time, the price of Maker (MKR), the native token of Maker had risen by 1.13% over the past 24 hours showing some positive response to the news about the Spark Protocol.

The post MakerDAO to launch Spark lending platform to rival Aave appeared first on CoinJournal.

Veröffentlicht am

ARGO token ticks higher as Peter Wall resigns as CEO of Argo

  • Peter Wall resignation is the second after the Argo Blockchain acquisition by Galaxy Digital.
  • Peter Wall will remain an adviser to Argo to support the transition.
  • Argo has been conducting a series of changes since late December 2022 when it reported insufficient funds.

Leading Bitcoin miner Argo Blockchain has announced that Peter Wall has resigned as CEO. The company made their announcement via Twitter after Peter Wall announced his resignation from his position earlier today.

Wall’s resignation is the second resignation of the executive since the company was acquired by Galaxy Digital. He will however remain an adviser to the company for the next three months to support the transition.

The price of the ARGO token has risen by about 12% at press time following the news, adding to the bullish trend that the token started on February 7.

Argo board member Sarah Gow also resigns

The same announcement announcing the resignation of Peter Wall also announced the resignation of Argo board member Sarah Gow, which was because of health reasons.

On February 1, Argo lost its chief financial officer (CFO) Alex Appleton through resignation. According to a filing with the London Stock Exchange, Appleton stated that he was resigning to “pursue other opportunities.”

Appleton’s resignation coincided with the finalization of the Helios crypto mining facility sale to Galaxy Digital Holdings. Helios was sold for $65 million to help Argo reduce its debt as it looks for ways to avoid Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The crypto miner reported mining fewer bitcoin in December 2022.

The acquisition also allowed Argo to regain compliance with the Nasdaq minimum bid price rule. However, there is a lawsuit that was filed on January 26 alleging that Argo, some of its executives, and board members did not disclose key information like susceptibility toward capital constraints, electricity costs and network difficulties to investors.

The post ARGO token ticks higher as Peter Wall resigns as CEO of Argo appeared first on CoinJournal.

Veröffentlicht am

Robinhood to buy back Bankman-Fried’s seized 7.6% stake


Key Takeaways

  • Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX co-founder Gary Wang bought a 7.6% stake in Robinhood last May
  • Purchased for close to half a billion, the funds were raised via a loan from sister trading firm Alameda Research
  • In November, FTX was revealed to be insolvent, after it sent customer assets to Alameda to shore up trading losses, ultimately leading to an $8 billion hole on the balance sheet
  • Robinhood directors have approved a plan to purchase back the 7.6% stake 

The king of the crypto villains may be under house arrest at his parents’ $4 million home in California, but the rest of the world continues to clean up the mess caused by FTX. 

Sam Bankman-Fried’s formerly tier-1 exchange, FTX, collapsed in November. One of the interesting tidbits to come out of this, aside from employees’ apparent love of the drug Adderall, was the presence of Robinhood shares on the balance sheet. 

FTX had purchased 56 million shares of Robinhood in May 2022, the same month that LUNA collapsed, which we now know caused large losses at FTX’s sister firm Alameda Research and led to Bankman-Fried sending customer assets to cover the losses and meet margin calls. The shares comprised a 7.6% stake in Robinhood. 

Bankman-Fried bought Robinhood stake with borrowed funds

In an affidavit to a Caribbean court prior to his arrest, Bankman-Fried revealed he and FTX co-founder Gary Wang borrowed over $546 million from Alameda last April. This money was used to capitalise Fidelity Technologies Ltd, which is a shell corporation through which the Robinhood stake was bought. 

The shares had been pledged as collateral against a loan taken out by Alameda. Which if it sounds odd, it should, because as said above, Alameda is the very same firm whose funds were used to purchase the shares in the first place.

Like everything in the FTX/Alameda universe, it was a circular economy backed by nothing. Of course, hindsight is 20/20 and all that.  

Robinhood to rebuy shares

A filing Wednesday by Robinhood’s board of directors approved a plan to repurchase the stake, worth $586 million at current market prices. 

“The proposed share purchase underscores the confidence the Board of Directors and management team have in our business,” said Robinhood’s chief financial officer Jason Warnick.

Robinhood went public in July 2021, and in a lot of ways became the poster child of the pandemic market hysteria. Its app spiked to the top of downloads, with retail traders taking to the markets with their stimulus cheques. 

The firm grew meteorically, ultimately going public in July 2021, in the heat of the bull market. Its share price since has done what almost everything within the tech and crypto space has – plummeted. 

Ultimately, this shouldn’t change much for HOOD investors. As for the crypto space, the further it moves away from the disgraced Sam Bankman-Fried the better. 

The post Robinhood to buy back Bankman-Fried’s seized 7.6% stake appeared first on CoinJournal.