Day: May 18, 2023

Crypto Custodian M&A Likely After Ripple Deal, Says Advisory Firm

Traditional finance custodians such as Northern Trust and BNY Mellon have been wary of entering the crypto market due to the regulatory and market risks, but Architect Partners expects that to change in the future, which would represent “both a threat and an opportunity for those building specialized digital and crypto asset custody businesses.” The crypto winter has also put pressure on custodians and has slowed or stalled growth of assets under custody, leading to flat or declining revenues and recruiting financial staying power and conviction that an upturn is…

NFT Monthly Trading Volume Down, Sales Consistent: DappRadar

Sara Gherghelas, a blockchain analyst at DappRadar, told CoinDesk that the number of NFT sales appears to be on track to reach or surpass last month’s numbers, as opposed to trading volume, which is significantly lagging behind last month’s count. In her view, this could signal that there are more NFT traders in the market making smaller dollar-figure trades. Source

Cryptocurrency Exchange FTX Files Lawsuit Against Former CEO and Executives Over Controversial Acquisition

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Cryptocurrency exchange FTX has taken legal action against its former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder Zixiao Wang, and former senior executive Nishad Singh. The lawsuit stems from the controversial $220 million acquisition of stock-clearing platform Embed, with FTX lawyers claiming a lack of due diligence in the transaction. In a filing on May 17, FTX alleged that it had acquired Embed through its United States subsidiary without conducting thorough due diligence. Following FTX’s bankruptcy filing, the court approved the sale of Embed and other FTX assets, but the highest bid for…

Congressional crypto hearing illustrates political stalemate on digital assets

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On May 10, the United States House of Representatives Financial Services Committee and Agriculture Committee held their first joint hearing on digital asset regulation. The event felt like a logical continuation of another recent hearing where representatives lambasted Securities Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler for perceived regulatory overreach.  The principal narrative, articulated by the hearing’s initiators, was that Congress should intervene with its own regulatory project to provide certainty, stop “regulation through enforcement” and address the competition between regulating agencies. But maybe it actually shouldn’t, believe many lawyers as well.…

Is ChatGPT king? How top free AI chatbots fared during field testing

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While OpenAI’s ChatGPT was the first artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot to captivate the world after its public release in November 2022, a variety of competitors have entered the marketplace since then. Tech giants Google and Microsoft have launched their AI chatbots, with Google’s Bard removing its waitlist, and opening up to over 180 countries and territories on May 10, after Microsoft beat it to the punch and fully released its AI-powered Bing search engine on May 4. With several chatbots to choose from, Cointelegraph decided to put some of the…

Ripple Labs Debuts CBDC Platform for Central Banks

The CBDC Private Ledger, according to Ripple, will handle tens of thousands of transactions per second. Popular blockchain payments firm Ripple Labs Inc is set to launch its own Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) platform, which will allow central banks, governments, and financial institutions to issue digital currencies. The news comes shortly after Ripple and the Central Bank of Montenegro agreed to collaborate on the development of a pilot project for a national digital currency. This platform’s goal is to equip Central Banks with the technology and infrastructure required to…

BT Shares Drop 8% after BT Group Announced Move to Cut Up to 55K Jobs by 2030

The job cuts will happen despite an increase in its network connection, whereby BT Group reported a total of 8.6 million 5G connections, up 62% last year. Shares of BT Group PLC (LSE: BT.A) dropped as much as 8 percent on Thursday to trade around £136.85. The sudden drop in the £14.91 billion valued British multinational telecommunications holding company was attributed to the announcement that between 40,000 to 55,000 of its workforce will be reduced by 2030. According to the company, the workforce reduction is set to begin in five…

Walmart Q1 2023 Results Sees Retail Giant Beat Expectations on Earnings & Revenue despite Prudent Consumer Spending

Walmart “leveraged expenses and expanded operating margin” in Q1 2023 and now expects a 3.5% increase in consolidated net sales for the year.  Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT) has raised its 2023 full-year guidance following its stellar Q1 earnings report. On Thursday, the multinational retail corporation reported better-than-expected revenue, which was boosted by grocery and online businesses. For the first quarter of the year, Walmart posted revenue of $152.30 billion compared to the $148.76 billion analysts expected. In addition, the Arkansas-based retail giant reported earnings per share of $1.47 adjusted versus $1.32 expected. Walmart’s…

Goldman Sachs Expects AI Tech to Boost S&P 500 Profits by 30% Over Next Decade

The investor community is brewing with optimism as it expects AI to drive profit growth at a time of rising borrowing costs and supply chain problems Although the onslaught of artificial intelligence (AI) is creating a major disruption in the market date, banking giant Goldman Sachs is bullish about the tech and expects it to boost the S&P 500 profits over the next decade. The emergence of ChatGPT from OpenAI and several AI platforms subsequently, has created a significant storm in the tech space. While on the one hand, AT…

Sony Mulls Finance Unit Listing amid Plans to Steepen Entertainment Interests

Sony could pursue a partial divisional spin-off by listing its finance unit within the next two to three years. Sony Group Corp is reportedly mulling a partial spin-off and listing of its finance unit just three years after assuming full ownership. The Japanese multinational conglomerate could retain a stake of slightly less than 20% of Sony Financial Group. In addition to a possible spin-off, Sony is also focusing on other operational plans, including strengthening its entertainment and image sensor businesses. The Tokyo-based company’s shares rose 6% on positive investor reception to…