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CyberConnect co-founder Ryan Li believes that creators who want their content to live forever will ditch Web2 social media platforms for Web3 alternatives. The Web3 industry continues its mission to disrupt the World Wide Web, and social media is one of its primary targets. In the 34th episode of Cointelegraph’s Hashing It Out , host Elisha Owusu Akyaw interviews Ryan Li, co-founder of CyberConnect, about the concept of decentralized social media.  Li kicks off the episode by explaining the rationale behind creating social media platforms running on blockchain. Li points out that Web3 social media platforms give content creators the confidence that they won’t be abandoned when the platform gets bigger or shifts its focus to ad revenue, unlike traditional platforms. This feature is built on top of a decentralized financial system, and the speculative nature of the space creates a strong case for SocialFi. Li also highlights updates in recent years that have shone a spotlight on decent...

Launched in May, the Gemini Gurgaon Hub has since added over 70 staff. Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini is allocating 2 billion rupees ($24 million) for its expansion in India. According to the Sept. 26 announcement, the funds will be used to grow Gemini's development center in Gurgaon. The exchange said:  "Our teams based in Gurgaon will also be responsible for core platform fundamentals in the areas of compliance, data pipelines and warehousing, security, and payments, complementing our 500+ strong global workforce." Since its initial launch in May, the Gemini Gurgaon Development Center has expanded to over 70 staff, with active hiring for software engineers, technical product managers, talent acquisition, finance, support, and compliance. In supporting the expansion , Gemini cited the Indian government's "robust support framework that allows startups to thrive." The site also acts as a developer for the exchange's new Features in nonfungible tokens ...

The SEC argues that as ETH validators are concentrated more densely in the United States, ETH transactions are seen as taking place in the country. The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) has made an unprecedented claim that Ethereum transactions take place in the United States as ETH nodes are “clustered more densely” in the United States than any other country.  The SEC argument is found within a Sept. 19 lawsuit against crypto researcher and YouTuber Ian Balina, which alleged, among many other complaints, that Balina conducted an unregistered offering of Sparkster (SPRK) tokens when he formed an investing pool on Telegram in 2018. The SEC claims that at the time that U.S.-based investors participated in Balina’s investing pool, the ETH contributions were validated by a network of nodes on the Ethereum blockchain, “which are clustered more densely in the United States than in any other country.” The SEC argued that as a result, “those transactions took place in the United States.”...

Big Four accounting firm Deloitte said the partnership could help authorities identify and take down bad actors hiding "behind the keyboard." Professional services giant Deloitte is set to boost its clients’ blockchain-tracking capabilities following a strategic alliance with crypto analytics firm Chainalysis. Announced during a Chainalysis conference in Washington DC on July 25, the tie-up will see Chainalysis’ blockchain datasets, analytics software and training programs assist Deloitte’s clients with their crypto forensic, investigative and compliance needs. A Chainalysis spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the alliance had been in the works for years, with the aim of helping more organizations to adopt blockchain technology. Our alliance with @Deloitte, announced today at #TraceDC, will provide public and private organizations with bespoke solutions and specialized services related to risk, compliance, and investigations. Read more:https://t.co/NqbPPA6HYb pic.twitter...

Chris Maurice, founder and CEO of crypto exchange Yellow Card said in Africa, crypto isn't the "casino" that it can sometimes feel like in the West. While many investors in the West may look to crypto to speculate the next biggest trend, blockchain technology is actually solving “real-world problems” in Africa such as hyper inflation and " corruption ," executives told Cointelegraph. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Chris Maurice, founder and CEO of Yellow Card — Africa’s largest cryptocurrency exchange — said crypto in Africa “is growing at the speed of light” because it allows many Africans to escape from the traditional financial system’s failures and transact more freely. “Crypto solves real-world problems with banking and currencies on the continent, and it isn't the casino that it can feel like sometimes in the West.” Maurice said the most common use cases in Africa are to make international payments, to send money to friends and family and to “save money ...

Trevor Power hopes the framework will fall closer on the “spectrum” to the EU’s MiCA, as opposed to the current regulatory position in the U.S. The Australian Treasury’s token mapping of digital assets will adopt a “tech agnostic ” and “principles-based” approach in order to define crypto assets, according to a Treasury official . Speaking to Cointelegraph on June 26 at the Australian Blockchain Week, Trevor Power, an Australian Treasury Assistant Secretary said the framework will be structured to easily classify tokens based on their “function” and “purpose.” “The token mapping paper spends a lot of time talking about the token, the system, the value delivered for the very purpose of trying to structure whatever regulation such that it draws on those principles so then a token can be placed within that,” Power said, adding: “It's trying to be tech agnostic. It's not trying to be token specific.” Power said “it’s fair to assume” crypto-specific legislation will appear someti...

Bitcoin miner CleanSpark entered into a definitive agreement to purchase two turnkey mining campuses in the U.S. state of Georgia. Crypto mining firm CleanSpark is moving forward with its aggressive infrastructure expansion in the United States by acquiring two Bitcoin (BTC) mining facilities in a $9.3 million cash deal.  According to a June 21 announcement, CleanSpark entered into a definitive agreement to purchase two turnkey Bitcoin mining campuses in Dalton, Georgia. In turnkey Bitcoin mining , users can buy an assembled, configured, and optimized Bitcoin mining rig to use on mining farms. The facilities will host over 6,000 Antminer S19 XPs and S19J Pro+s, which are expected to add about 1 exahash per second (EH/s) to CleanSpark’s hashrate after the deal. According to Zach Bradford, CEO of CleanSpark, the newly acquired infrastructure will enable the company to reach its target of 16EH/s by the end of the year. The purchase follows several acquisitions by CleanSpark in rec...

Ledger’s “Recover” service may be concerning, but some crypto industry participants think the feature may onboard new users while helping crypto natives. Hardware crypto wallet firm Ledger has faced harsh criticism from the crypto community after announcing its “Recover” service, which is an optional paid feature that will eventually allow users to back up and restore their private seed phrase. Due to concerns expressed about the security elements of Ledger Recover, the hardware wallet manufacturer decided to postpone the launch of its service. On May 23, Charles Guillemet, chief technology officer of Ledger, explained in a Twitter thread that Ledger will “accelerate our open-sourcing roadmap to bring more verifiability to everything we do.” Ledger’s mission is, and will always be, to provide our users with the right tools to own their digital value securely. We have decided to accelerate our open-sourcing roadmap to bring more verifiability to everything we do. A thread pic.twitter....

The market cap of USDC, a stablecoin issued by Circle, has reduced nearly by half over the past six months following a regulatory crackdown and banking crisis. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire says that a cryptocurrency crackdown by the United States regulators has been a major factor behind the declining market capitalization of its stablecoin, USD Coin (USDC). Circle chief’s comments on the U.S. crackdown come amid heavy regulatory scrutiny following the collapse of the FTX exchange, a banking crisis and USDC’s momentary depegging. During an interview with Bloomberg TV, Allaire noted that there is a “huge amount of concern globally about the U.S. banking system,” and the “regulatory environment in the U.S..” USDC depegged in March, a direct result of the U.S. banking crisis. Circle’s $3.3 billion worth of USDC reserves was stuck with Silicon Valley Bank, which was one of the three crypto-friendly banks shut down by regulators. At the time, Circle had assured its customers that it had the b...

The minimum purchase amount for the hotel's tokenized ownership is $1,000. On Apr. 11, token ization infrastructure provider Tokeny announced a new partnership with Ethereum real-estate token ization marketplace CoFund. The deal would enable CoFund to issue regulatory-compliant ERC-3643 security token s on the Polygon (MATIC) network to token ize a $10 million hotel in the Indonesian island resort of Bali.  According to Tokeny, investors can own a piece of the hotel starting with a minimum investment of $1,000. Luc Falempin, CEO of Tokeny, commented: "Simple ERC20 tokens and NFTs don't meet compliance needs. Our technology platform leverages the ERC-3643 token standard to ensure our partners can enforce compliance, even on a permissionless blockchain." Meanwhile, Giri Kayogiswara, CEO of CoFund, added: "With Tokeny's proven platform, we can create a secure and accessible real estate investment market that meets the needs of all types of investors while en...

The collaboration is set to allow founders building on Celo to access credits for Google Cloud and Google’s mobile development platform, Firebase. The Celo Foundation has partnered with Google Cloud to support mission-aligned projects in Celo's blockchain ecosystem and advance the early adoption of Google Cloud services. The collaboration is set to allow founders building on Celo to access credits for Google Cloud and Firebase usage, thereby enhancing Celo's mobile-first infrastructure and decentralized applications (Dapps). Firebase is a mobile and web application development platform developed by Google that provides developers with various tools and services for building apps, including authentication, real-time databases, cloud storage, and messaging. According to the announcement, the Google Cloud team will also provide mentorship and guidance to the Celo Foundation's Founders in Residence program and participate in the virtual Celo Camp accelerator program, which su...

Despite the ongoing tumultuous market conditions, VC investments in European crypto startups hit an all-time high of $5.7 billion in 2022. 2022 was a turbulent year for the crypto space, to say the least; from an ongoing bear market and crash for LUNA to the downfall of FTX one of the industry’s most prominent players. Despite the setbacks, VC investors continued to show support for crypto startups. According to a new study released by European investment firmRockawayX, VC investment in crypto startups based in Europe reached its all-time high in 2022 with $5.7 billion invested European DeFi Startups hit $1.2 billion in 2022, which is a 120% increase from the previous year’s Investments of $534 million Viktor Fischer, the CEO of RockawayX, pointed out that the crypto market is cyclical and during the 2018 winter, “the total digital asset market cap fell by 80%, but startup funding activity held steady.” “Investments made when digital asset prices were depressed materialized in tech ...

The platform didn’t disclose the reason for its closure, but Solana NFTs haven’t been having the best run lately. Formfunction, a Solana (SOL)-based nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace, has announced its closing up shop after only 13 months of operation amid a slump in Solana NFT prices and trading volumes. On March 15, Formfunction announced it is "shutting down" on March 29 saying it “cannot continue to operate” after “much discussion and careful consideration.” We have some sad news to share today—Formfunction is shutting down on Wednesday, March 29th. This was an extremely difficult decision; however, after much discussion and careful consideration, we’ve come to the conclusion that we cannot continue to operate Formfunction. — Formfunction (@formfunction) March 15, 2023 The exact reason for closing the platform was not disclosed in the announcement. Formfunction’s head of community and marketing, known by their pseudonym “Magellan,” tweeted on March 15 that the cofoun...

NatWest’s head of fraud protection emphasized the importance of self-custody in crypto amid the bank imposing new crypto restrictions. NatWest, a retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom, is taking measures to protect customers from potential crypto losses amid Bitcoin (BTC) hitting multi-month highs. On March 14, NatWest introduced major restrictions on payments to cryptocurrency exchanges, imposing daily and monthly caps for such transactions. According to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph, NatWest has set a 1,000 British pounds ($1,216) limit for daily transactions involving crypto exchanges. The bank has also imposed a 30-day payment limit of 5,000 GBP ($6,080). The latest restrictions by NatWest aim to help protect customers from losing “life changing sums of money,” the bank said, adding that crypto investments are risky due to a significant amount of scams in the industry. “We have seen an increase in the number of Scams using crypto currency exchange s and we ...

Bitcoin futures on CME have traded 550,000 contracts since inception. On Mar. 13, American derivatives marketplace CME announced the launch of Bitcoin (BTC) futures event contracts . The exchange, which is fully regulated and has cleared administrative review, will henceforth facilitate cash-settled, daily expiring contracts tied to Bitcoin futures with a "lower-cost way for investors to trade their views on the up or down price moves of bitcoin." Tim McCourt, global head of equity and FX products at CME Group, commented: Our new event contracts on Bitcoin futures provide a limited-risk, highly transparent way for a wide range of investors to access the bitcoin market via a fully regulated exchange. These cash-settled, daily expiring contracts will further complement our existing suite  which have traded more than 550,000 contracts to-date. On Mar. 10, Cointelegraph reported that asset manager VanEck's spot Bitcoin trust application was denied by the U.S. Securities ...

It is unclear how much assets custodied on behalf of crypto VCs are stuck in Silicon Valley Bank. According to a report that began circulating on March 11 in the aftermath of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), prominent Blockchain venture capitalists (VCs) have over $6 billion worth of assets held by the now-defunct financial entity. These include $2.85 billion from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), $1.72 billion from Paradigm and $560 million from Pantera Capital. A16z currently holds active investments in projects such as Alchemy, Sky Mavis and Yuga Labs, and was previously an investor in crypto currency exchange Coinbase. Paradigm has invested in projects such as Compound, Cosmos and Uniswap. Meanwhile, Pantera Capital holds stakes in projects such as 1inch, Ankr and Zcash. The report, compiled by Castle Hall due diligence and extracted from United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings, is a point-time disclosure of the VCs’ assets held in custody by SVB. It does not...

Crypto ownership among U.S. adults has remained steady over the last 12 months, with a large portion seemingly "frustrated" by the one-sided global financial system. A whopping 80% of American adults believe the financial system favors those with “powerful interests,” while 20% currently own cryptocurrency — a new survey has revealed. Commissioned by crypto exchange Coinbase, the February online survey of more than 2,000 American adults found that 80% of respondents said the “global financial system unfairly favors powerful interests,” while 67% have called for “major changes” or a “complete overhaul” of the financial system. A large portion of respondents are disillusioned with the Global Financial System and want change. Source: Morning Consult  The Survey was conducted by Business intelligence firm Morning Consult and was aimed at examining the perception of the global financial system and how United States adults and crypto investors viewed the future of the crypto m...

According to CoinShares, digital asset investment products saw inflows totaling $76 million last week On Feb. 6, European cryptocurrency investment firm CoinShares published its “Digital Asset Fund Flows Report,” which revealed that investors are showing a strong interest in digital asset investment products, with inflows totaling $76 million last week, marking the fourth consecutive week of inflows. The report indicates a change in investor sentiment for the start of 2023, with year-to-date inflows now at $230 million. This growth has led to an increase in total asset s under management (AUM), which now stands at $30.3 billion — the highest since mid-August 2022. Investors are primarily focusing on Bitcoin (BTC), with weekly inflows of $69 million, accounting for 90% of total flows for the week. This investment growth primarily comes from the United States, Canada and Germany, with weekly inflows of $38 million, $25 million and $24 million, respectively. However, opinions are divide...

The Busan Digital Asset Exchange Establishment Promotion Committee said it plans to create a functional exchange by the end of the year. According to local news outlet News1, Busan, South Korea will establish a decentralized digital commodities exchange. Officials said the platform is scheduled to start operations this year and will support local cultural content via digital assets. “Taking advantage of the strengths of Busan, such as the Busan International Film Festival, G-Star; [the exchange] will include tokenization of intellectual property rights in the film and game fields, as well as gold, precious metals, agricultural and livestock products, ships, real estate, etc.” As told by the Busan Digital Asset Exchange Establishment Promotion Committee, the plan involves coordinating domestic financial companies and digital asset exchange s and building a transaction support system serving as the basis for the exchange . “The Busan Digital Asset Exchange has a decentralized fair exc...

Cointelegraph’s editor-in-chief Kristina Lucrezia Cornèr moderated a panel discussion at the 2023 Davos conference in Switzerland on sustainability in the world of blockchain. The World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, brings together global leaders and thinkers across various industries to hone in on global issues each year. As the world of crypto and blockchain continues to push into the mainstream view, it, too, has become a topic of discussion at the legacy event.  Cointelegraph editor-in-chief Kristina Lucrezia Cornèr moderated a panel on Jan. 17, which touched on sustainability efforts in the blockchain industry.  Even though not all panelists come from the same background, they unanimously highlighted education and learning as the key way to drive sustainability in emerging technologies during "The emergence of Breakthrough Technologies" panel. The focus of the panel viewed sustainability in the blockchain industry through two lenses. One of which is in ...