Kategorie: Crypto News

Crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) has had its goose finally cooked after failing to repay a $670 million loan owed to crypto brokerage firm Voyager Capital.

But while what looks like a final nail has been hooked in place by Voyager via its notice of default issued on Monday, 3AC was already massively hit by the collapse of the Terra Luna cryptocurrency last month.

Failure to meet a margin call also saw crypto lender BlockFi liquidate the company’s assets – one among multiple such moves across the ecosystem.

3AC and what it means for crypto

CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal said on Tuesday the risk is really in what happens next with those firms that are heavily exposed to 3AC.

According to the analyst, the uncertainty and jitters are already being felt in the market, with pressure on Bitcoin price on Tuesday (BTC/USD is still above $20k at the moment but it’s nearly 3% down in the past 24 hours).

But going forward, Kharpal says the industry could find a solid footing. Among issues to be addressed, however, are structural issues like the outrageous yields firms like Celsius have been offering and which a major factor in the liquidity issues are facing the lender and others.

Acquisitions and consolidations are also another outcome of the crypto winter and the credit conundrum that some projects have found themselves in. Already, several market players, including crypto exchange FTX are eyeing the M&As route as one way of navigating this.

Of course, there’s a lot that could still happen in the market, with the likely contagion linked to 3AC one to watch.

The post What does Three Arrows Capital demise mean for the crypto universe? appeared first on CoinJournal.

Rapper Snoop Dogg, one of the biggest celebrity personalities with a bullish outlook on the crypto and Web3 space, says the current “crypto winter” has been tough on investors as well as projects and companies.

But he believes the tough market conditions will pass and that crypto is here to stay.

The rapper made his comments during an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, where he discussed NFTs and their place in the music industry. Also on the “Crypto World” show was Web3 entrepreneur Cordell Broadus, aka Champ Medici.

Every industry has seen a depression

Asked to comment about his outlook for the crypto sector amid the impact of the bear market, Snoop Dogg said it would “last forever.”

According to him, whatever is setting crypto back today is not exclusive to it as there has been a “downfall” in other sectors too. He believes crypto, which has been rocked by the collapse of some major projects amid contagion, will emerge even better.

He sees the problems facing some companies and the price wipe out as growing pains experienced in almost every other industry.

“I feel like every great industry has a downfall,” he said. “There’s been a depression in every industry you can look at – alcohol, tobacco, clothing, food – every industry you can imagine,” he added.

He also notes that the crypto winter offers the market the break it needs to separate strong projects from poor ones that have “abused” the opportunities they had.

In his view, this weeding out of “all the people who weren’t supposed to be in the space,” can only mean the future will be bright.

“Now it’s going to bring on great business, and moving forward, when the market comes back, there will only be great things to pick and choose from,” he said.

The post Snoop Dogg: ‘crypto will last forever’ appeared first on CoinJournal.

Gary Gensler, the Chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said in a CNBC interview on Monday that Bitcoin (BTC) was a commodity.

Clearly, Gensler did not mention Ethereum (ETH), the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap. But did he say that Bitcoin was the “only commodity” in crypto?

Scott Melker aka ‘The Wolf of All Streets’ says the SEC chief did not make such a specification and that he was “very careful with his words.”

Recap of Gary Gensler’s remarks

One of the headlines had suggested that Gensler said Bitcoin was the only cryptocurrency that’s a commodity. Here’s what the SEC chair said:

“Many of these crypto-financial assets have the key attributes of a security. So some of them are under the SEC. Some, like Bitcoin, and that’s the only one I am going to say because I am not going to talk about any one of these tokens, my predecessors and others have said they’re a commodity.”

According to Melker, it is clear that Gensler is “non-committal as to his own thoughts” as he mentions predecessors and others. 

He also appears to be stating that there are two groups of cryptocurrencies – securities and commodities. But what he only wanted to talk about was Bitcoin, which again, has been categorized as a commodity by “others and predecessors.”

FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried also states Gensler did not specify that BTC was the only commodity in the crypto sphere.

to be clear he said BTC was the only cryptocurrency he was comfortable saying was a commodity, while many were securities

it didn’t address explicitly what all others were

“That’s the only one I’m going to say because I’m not going to talk about any one of these tokens” https://t.co/P1krUEYdtk

— SBF (@SBF_FTX) June 27, 2022

Ethereum not mentioned

On why he doesn’t mention other coins or name securities, Melker noted in his latest edition of ‘The Wolf Den’ newsletter:

“He likely wants to avoid putting a spotlight on other coins, especially while legislators are forming policy, regulators are waiting for a mandate.”

There’s a bill before the US Congress that seeks to have a clear demarcation of what falls under the purview of the SEC and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

In 2018, former SEC official William Hinman gave a speech in which he suggested both Bitcoin and Ethereum were not securities. In December 2020, the SEC sued Ripple over claims it had sold unregistered securities. 

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Chinese tech giant Tencent’s recent move to establish an ‘extended reality’ unit targeting a deep dive into the metaverse is a very significant one, Marcus Sotiriou, an analyst at digital asset platform GlobalBlock says.

Tencent is reportedly eyeing a metaverse-focused division, with an all-in-one unit that would cut across all the aspects of the technology, including hardware and software.

The Chinese firm’s plan to have over 300 employees in the division clearly signals the intent to be a big player in the sector.

Sotiriou said in comments shared on Tuesday:

“I think this move from Tencent towards the metaverse is significant as they are one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue, as they turned over $86 billion in 2021. In addition, this move coincides with Tencent executing cost-cutting measures and slowing down hiring efforts due to the macroeconomic environment – the founder of Tencent is allegedly passionate about integrating the metaverse into their company.”

BigTech steps up metaverse push

Tencent is unmistakably stepping up its metaverse push, with the unit’s creation and reported focus coming on the back of massive investments in the sector.

It also adds to the flurry of activity across the space within China, with the firm’s 100+ trademark filings part of over 1300 that had been filed by the end of last year.

Other major metaverse players from the Chinese tech industry are e-commerce giant Alibaba and video-sharing app TikTok.

And with other tech behemoths like Meta Platforms, Apple Inc., Google and Microsoft all ramping up efforts, the push to make a reality of the metaverse world seems to have got impetus from another key angle following Tencent’s move.

The post Pro: Tencent’s jump into the metaverse ‘is significant’ appeared first on CoinJournal.