January 2023

Premier League gets Ethereum-based digital cards with Sorare partnership

January 31, 2023

Blockchain-powered fantasy sports firm Sorare has sealed a deal with the English Premier League to mint Ethereum-based digital player cards on its platform. Sorare has driven an interesting use case for Ethereum-based fantasy sports and digital card trading in recent years, offering fans the ability to mint, collect and trade various player cards with other users across a variety of nonfungible token (NFT) marketplaces. Cryptox reached out to Sorare to clarify details of their latest deal which brings the Premier League to the fingertips of football fans. While the partnership…

Celsius Used New Customer Funds to Pay for Withdrawals: Independent Examiner

January 31, 2023

“In every key respect—from how Celsius described its contract with its customers to the risks it took with their crypto assets—how Celsius ran its business differed significantly from what Celsius told its customers,” Pillay wrote, after interviewing staffers, including former chief Executive Officer Alex Mashinsky, as well as customers of and vendors to the company. Source

Stablecoins Seem Unattractive as the Gap Between 3pool's APY and Treasury Yields Widens

January 31, 2023

The annualized percentage yield from providing stablecoin liquidity on Curve’s 3pool, also known as DeFi’s savings bank account, is nearly 250 basis points less than the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note. Source

NFT Marketplace SudoSwap Airdrops Tokens to Liquidity Providers and 0xmon Holders

January 31, 2023

Eligible for the airdrop were early liquidity providers on SudoSwap as well as holders of 0xmon NFTs, an NFT collection created by SudoSwap’s founding team. Furthermore, xmon (XMON), is Ethereum-based utility token 0xmons project, can lock up their tokens on SudoSwap to receive sudo tokens after one month. Source

Russians Offered Ready-made Crypto Exchange Accounts Amid Restrictions – Exchanges Bitcoin News

January 31, 2023 boss

Russian crypto traders have been looking to obtain unrestricted accounts for global exchanges as their access to such platforms is limited. Over the past year, the offering of such accounts on the dark web has increased significantly, cybersecurity experts told the Russian press. Supply of Crypto Exchange Accounts for Russian Users Doubles in a Year of Sanctions More and more ready-to-use accounts for cryptocurrency exchanges are being sold to Russian residents. While this is not a new phenomenon — such accounts are often employed by fraudsters and money launderers —…

Crypto firms cut nearly 3,000 jobs in January despite Bitcoin’s rise

January 31, 2023 boss

Crypto companies tightened their purse strings in the first month of 2023, with at least 2,900 crypto staff cut loose across 14 crypto firms in January. The latest firm to reportedly initiate a layoff is the crypto infrastructure provider Prime Trust which reduced its employee count by a third according to reports. The reduction would equate to an estimated 100 or so staff cut as Prime had 312 employees on LinkedIn at the time of writing. Other recent cuts over the last few days include 30 staff from the crypto…

BlockFi gets court nod to sell crypto mining assets

January 31, 2023 boss

Bankrupt crypto lender BlockFi has been granted court approval to sell off its crypto mining equipment as part of ongoing efforts to repay its creditors. A court document filed on Jan. 30 in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey stated that the approval for BlockFi to sell its assets was on the grounds that it was “fair, reasonable and appropriate under the circumstances.” The court acknowledged the sale of the assets is “designed” to maximize the recovery and “realizable value” of the company. With the…

Crypto wallets combat scammers with transaction previews and blocklists

January 31, 2023 boss

United States-based crypto exchange Coinbase has become the latest crypto wallet provider to roll out transaction previews and blocklists amid a rise in crypto thefts. On Jan. 30, the crypto exchange announced it had integrated a new suite of safety features to its wallet app to make it easier for users to spot and take action on potential foul play from scammers. Such integrations include a transaction preview feature which gives the user an estimation of how users “token and NFT balances will change” during a transaction before the confirm…

Mastercard, Binance to launch their second prepaid crypto card in Latin America

January 31, 2023 boss

Credit card giant Mastercard has teamed up with the world’s largest crypto exchange to launch another prepaid crypto card in Latin America. On Jan. 30, Binance announced the launch of the Binance Card in Brazil. The new card is issued by Dock, a payment institution regulated by Banco Central do Brasil, Brazil’s central bank. The new card will allow new and existing Binance users in the country with valid national IDs to make purchases and pay bills with crypto assets. The card is in a beta testing phase and will…

82% sought investment advice in 2022

January 31, 2023 boss

Despite a challenging year for crypto, 82% of millionaire clients had looked into investing in digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC) in 2022, according to a recent poll conducted by financial advisory firm deVere Group. The poll results, released on Jan. 30, found that eight out of every 10 of the firm’s high net-worth (HNW) clients surveyed — individuals with between $1.2 million and $6.1 million of investable assets — sought advice on crypto from financial advisers in the last 12 months. 82% of millionaires seek advice on crypto as Bitcoin…