As the crypto market bounced en bloc, this industry’s news cycle has been starting to look lively yet again. Rob Paone, better known as “Crypto Bobby,” recently explained that this week’s industry developments have been “big,” and in stark contrast to prices, insiders continue to “hunker down” to build bonafide valuable products, platforms, and services.
Crypto Tidbits
- Ethereum Development Studio ConsenSys May Purge 50% Employees: On Thursday morning, an exclusive report from The Verge painted a dismal picture for the future of ConsenSys, an Ethereum development studio founded by Joseph Lubin. Citing insider sources, The Verge claimed that half of ConsenSys’ 1,200 staffers could be purged in coming months, in a likely bid to reduce the New York-headquarters startup’s burn rate. Those familiar with the matter remarked that the Ethereum-centric developer consortium was looking to “spin-off” a “large” number of spokes (projects) that weren’t pertinent to its next phase, while providing little by the way of severance. Lubin has since come out to deny this hearsay, exclaiming that Consensys “remains healthy,” and that’s he’s bullish on his firm’s and Ethereum’s prospects.
- Coinbase Lists DAI, Maker (MKR), Golem (GNT), Zilliqa (ZIL): On Tuesday, amid a flurried market rally, Coinbase Pro suddenly revealed that it would be listing DAI and Maker (MKR), the two assets of the Andreessen Horowitz-backed MakerDao project, Golem (GNT), and Zilliqa (ZIL). All the aforementioned assets are situated on the Ethereum Network, with Coinbase’s decision to list these crypto assets likely stemming from the technical ease of implementation. This recent sequence of listings come just weeks after the same platform unveiled support for Civic (CVC), district0x (DNT), Loom Network (LOOM) and Decentraland (MANA). Coinbase has yet to add the aforementioned eight tokens onto its consumer-centric platform.
- Facebook May Be Working On A Stablecoin: Just a week after Cheddar reported that Facebook’s in-house blockchain unit houses 40 employees, including a number of former Paypal executives, Bloomberg divulged that the Menlo Park-based social media giant is looking to launch a crypto asset. The early-stage project, unveiled by an anonymous insider, will reportedly see Facebook’s blockchain arm launch a USD-tied stablecoin on WhatsApp, a multinational messaging platform owned by the technology conglomerate. Per the source, the integration in WhatsApp will be aimed at India’s ~200 million users, as there is a growing need for low-cost, rapid, and easy-to-use remittance transactions. Bloomberg explained that Facebook has been hesitant to divulge the venture, due to purported struggles regarding how to formally custody the underlying USD.
- Crypto Assets Will Be Excluded From SEC’s Jurisdiction With Proposed U.S. Bill: Crypto traders were treated to a nice surprise on Thursday, as the “Token Taxonomy Act,” headed by Warren Davidson of Ohio and Darren Soto of Florida, was filed for U.S. Congress. If implemented, this act will disallow the SEC from classifying fully-fledged “digital tokens (crypto assets)” as securities. CNBC, who broke the story, did not specify when the bill, likely the first of its kind, will be run through governmental proceedings. Yet, many crypto diehards have faith in the bill, as it is slated to discredit the regulatory uncertainty that has plagued this industry.
- Prominent Bitcoin Short Seller Covers: Mark Dow, a preeminent hedge fund manager and savvy chartist, shorted Bitcoin (BTC) approximately one year ago. Just last week, Dow, a skeptic of BTC’s fundamentals, finally bid farewell to his short position, covering it in full, subsequently taking to Twitter to announce his move. Speaking to Bloomberg, Dow explained that he doesn’t “want to try and ride this thing to zero,” potentially indicating that he sees some semblance of value in BTC. The investor then explained that he already took profits twice this year, making the covering of his controversial short logical, especially from a risk management standpoint.
- Blockstream Continues Bitcoin Satellite Efforts: Blockstream, founded by Proof of Work pioneer Adam Back, recently revealed that it had completed the second phase of its satellite network, which allows consumers to post Bitcoin transactions and access blockchain data without a reliable internet connection. Starting this week, users in the Asia-Pacific region will be able to interact with Blockstream’s network, which houses five satellites.
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