NFT / BTC / DEFI News 📣

2022-09-03 18:03:11 ​​3AC’s Zhu was in Bangkok, disputed liquidator’s court filing in Singapore.

Zhu, whose whereabouts had been unknown for weeks, delivered an affidavit that disputed Teneo claims and elucidated the internal structure of the failed hedge fund.

According to a document seen by Bloomberg, Zhu delivered the affidavit in person on Aug. 19. In it, Zhu states that Teneo “had not provided an entirely complete or accurate version of events” to the Singapore court, which granted Teneo’s request for access to 3AC records in Singapore on Aug. 22.

Teneo, an advisory firm, was appointed in June to liquidate 3AC assets by a court in the British Virgin Islands, where Singapore-based 3AC had moved its registration. The fund had also announced its intention to move its headquarters to Dubai.

According to the affidavit, Teneo misrepresented the operations and relationships between 3AC-related entities, as well as the timeline of events. Zhu stated that Three Arrows Capital Pte Ltd (TACPL) was registered in Singapore until July 31, 2021. It was replaced on Sept. 1 of that year by ThreeAC Ltd in the British Virgin Islands as the manager of the master fund and two feeder funds — Three Arrows Fund Ltd, which was registered in the British Virgin Islands, and Three Arrows Fund LP, registered in the U.S. state of Delaware.

Because of this structure, TACPL may not be able to comply with Teneo’s requests for information, Zhu stated, and that could lead to “potentially draconian consequences arising from the Liquidators’ exercise of their wide powers,” up to fines and the imprisonment of TACPL officers and representatives for contempt of court.

Teneo responded in a statement to Zhu’s affidavit saying, “The joint liquidators strongly disagree with the positions set out in Su Zhu’s affidavit. We remain optimistic that such parties will provide access to complete records and all relevant information to enable us to discharge our responsibilities fully in the interests of the creditors of 3AC.”

3AC has debts approaching $3 billion, and its collapse has had a ripple effect throughout the industry. Open / Comment

2022-08-28 11:41:28 ​​Nvidia cites limited visibility into crypto mining's impact on Q2 results.

Nvidia’s CFO said falling crypto prices and changes in consensus mechanisms have in the past impacted demand for its products and the company’s ability to estimate it.

Graphics card giant Nvidia CFO Colette Kress says the company has been unable to estimate reduced crypto mining demand impacted its Q2 results, which fell short of analyst expectations on Wednesday.

The chip giant released its financial results for the three months ended July 31, which revealed a 19% quarter-on-quarter drop in revenue to $6.5 billion, while net income fell 59% to $656 million.

Revenue for its gaming division, which includes sales of its high-end GPUs, fell 44% in revenue from the previous quarter to $2.04 billion, which Nvidia attributed to “challenging market conditions.”

Kress, who also serves as executive vice president of the company, said Nvidia has limited visibility on how the crypto market affects the demand for their gaming products:

“Our GPUs are capable of cryptocurrency mining, though we have limited visibility into how much this impacts our overall GPU demand.”

“We are unable to accurately quantify the extent to which reduced cryptocurrency mining contributed to the decline in Gaming demand,” she added.

While the chip giant’s graphic processing units (GPUs) were designed for gaming purposes, high demand for crypto mining activities over the past few years has contributed to a 320% increase in the company’s share price over the last five years.

Kress said, however, that falling crypto prices and changes in consensus mechanism have in the past impacted demand for its products and the ability to estimate it:

“Volatility in the cryptocurrency market – such as declines in cryptocurrency prices or changes in method of verifying transactions, including proof of work or proof of stake — has in the past impacted, and can in the future impact, demand for our products and our ability to accurately estimate it.”

With the Ethereum Merge scheduled for Sept. 15, the network’s consensus change to proof-of-stake could further drive down the demand for crypto mining hardware. This could spell trouble for cryptocurrency mining products such as Nvidia’s CMP170 HX, which currently costs around $4,695. Open / Comment

2022-08-24 22:13:37 ​​Russian Hospital Employee ‘Mined Crypto in a COVID-19 Ward’; SBI Crypto to Halt Mining in Russia

A Russian medical specialist could face up to two years behind bars after authorities caught him allegedly running an illegal mining setup in a facility designed to treat coronavirus patients.

The specialist had been placed in charge of information security at a state-run hospital in Gorno-Altaisk, a town in the Altai Republic, in Southern Siberia.

RBC reported that the man began mining unspecified tokens in February 2021 and managed to connect his own mining rigs to the hospital’s server. After the need for ventilators and other such equipment slowly began to subside in the city, the room used appears to have laid vacant – and the specialist appears to have taken full advantage.

The republic’s Ministry of Internal Affairs eventually teamed up with the nation’s secret services agency, the FSB. Together, the parties raided the hospital, and also conducted a search of the suspect’s place of residence.

The investigators claimed to have found that the specialist had been “illegally using” the hospital’s electricity “for about a year,” and claimed that he had “caused material damages” to the tune of around USD 6,800.

The investigators decided to press charges against the individual on the basis of the evidence they collected.

Crypto mining is not illegal under Russian law, but police and the courts have previously come down hard on individuals they believe have stolen power from state-operated institutions or the grid to pay for their own private mining activities.

Meanwhile, the crypto mining arm of the Japanese securities giant SBI – SBI Crypto – has announced it will halt its Russia-based crypto mining activities, Interfax reported. This follows a call from Washington-based diplomats last month, who urged Japanese crypto players to sever their remaining ties with Russia.

A number of Japanese mining firms had previously launched Siberia-based mining farms, taking advantage of low electricity costs and even lower cooling fees. Open / Comment

2022-08-21 15:51:44 ​​Philippine Regulator Warns the Public of Engaging With Foreign Crypto Service Providers

The central bank of the Philippines, the primary regulator of the country’s crypto sector, has warned investors about engaging with unregistered and foreign crypto service providers. They “may present additional challenges on enforcing legal recourse and consumer protection and redress mechanisms for local customers, among others,” the regulator said.

The central bank of the Philippines, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), issued a public warning Tuesday regarding unregistered and foreign crypto service providers. In the Philippines, the central bank is the primary regulator of the crypto sector.

The announcement states:

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Bangko Sentral) strongly urges the public not to deal with virtual asset service providers (VASPs) that are either unregistered or domiciled abroad.

The central bank’s website shows that 19 VASPs have been registered as of June.

Besides the risk from price volatility associated with virtual assets (VAs), the central bank explained that VASPs that are based abroad “may present additional challenges on enforcing legal recourse and consumer protection and redress mechanisms for local customers, among others.”

The Bangko Sentral emphasized:

VA dealings are generally considered as high-risk activities which may result in huge financial losses due to price swings.

Furthermore, the central bank warned that the government does not guarantee protection against financial losses stemming from crypto price fluctuations. “The public should exercise caution, conduct their own due diligence, and always be mindful of the risks prior to engaging with VA-related activities,” the regulator emphasized.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has urged the public to immediately report unlawful activities facilitated through cryptocurrencies and/or crypto service providers to the central bank.

Last week, the central bank announced that it will stop accepting new VASP license applications for three years, starting Sept. 1. The regulator explained that it “aims to strike a balance between promoting innovation in the financial sector and ensuring that associated risks remain within manageable levels.” Open / Comment

2022-08-18 17:07:50 ​​Leading European Tire Retreader Vaculug to Accept Crypto Payments

Vaculug, a British company that brands itself as Europe’s largest independent tire retreader, will now accept cryptocurrencies for its products and services. Its management says the business must move with the times and offer customers more options than pounds and pence.

U.K.-based tire retreading firm Vaculug has announced it will accept two leading cryptocurrencies, bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) as a means of payment for tires and related services. The company claims it’s the first in the industry to do that.

In a press release, Vaculug also revealed it intends to sign fixed price contracts in ‘crypto per kilometer’ and ‘crypto per vehicle’ formats, if customers would like to fix or link them to the prices of the two supported cryptocurrencies.

Blockchain is not the future but the now, says Vaculug’s IT manager Jason Humphries. “We believe that all companies will have to accept cryptocurrencies in the near future and we are proud to be the first retreader to do so,” he commented.

Humphries thinks the company, which he describes as customer-centric, must move with the times and offer clients “more options than just pounds and pence.” He also insists that crypto payments will lower transaction costs for both sides while providing more value to the buyer.

“We are proud to have partnered with Vaculug to develop the modules required for their industry leading VMS management system to be able to receive secure payments through the blockchain,” said Sam Dunross, the CEO of Dunross and Chan Ltd. which will process the crypto transactions. He added that its platform has been developed with cybersecurity firms from Israel to ensure it’s secure.

Despite the latest crypto market downturn, the number of businesses introducing bitcoin payments has continued to grow. For example, Swiss luxury watchmaker TAG Heuer announced earlier this year that it accepts a dozen coins in the U.S. through an integration with Bitpay. And a survey conducted by financial services firm Deloitte and payment processor Paypal showed that 85% of merchants consider enabling this payment method a high priority. Open / Comment

2022-08-13 11:13:49 ​​Axie Infinity cuts rewards from classic game, subtly forcing P2E players to new mode.

The team described the move as part of its efforts to balance the economy for the Smooth Love Potion token.

Play-to-earn (P2E) blockchain game Axie Infinity (AXS) has completely removed the token rewards from its classic game mode to attract its users to a new game mode called Axie Infinity Origin.

The Axie Infinity team announced that starting on Friday, there will be no more Smooth Love Potions (SLP) to be minted on its classic mode. According to the team, the SLP rewards will be migrated to their new game mode. However, minting will be unavailable for 30 days as the team conducts a monitoring phase to search for bugs, abuses and exploits.

Apart from this, the team highlighted that moving from classic to the new game mode will help “balance the SLP economy.” In addition to removing classic rewards, the team will also enable using SLP to craft various in-game boosts such as runes and charms in the new mode to add utility to SLP.

Back in February, the Axie Infinity team already removed the SLP rewards for the adventure mini-game and daily quests reward in classic mode in an earlier attempt to balance the economy for the SLP token. Despite the team’s efforts to make economic adjustments, the token is still down 98.7% from its all-time high of $0.39 in July 2021.

In 2021, the nonfungible token (NFT) game has popularized the P2E model and accounted for nearly two-thirds of all blockchain game NFT transactions. Within the last year, the project showed $3.5 billion worth of NFT exchanges, according to the token information website NonFungible.

Even though the crypto tokens of the Axie Infinity project have not performed well during the crypto winter, the NFT transaction volume for the project surged 205% in July. Its co-founder Jeff Zirlin noted that the project is “healing,” referring to the positive reception of the game’s NFT land staking feature. Open / Comment

2022-08-07 14:13:16 ​​Argo Blockchain Makes More Bitcoin Sales to Repay Debt.

UK-based cryptocurrency miner Argo Blockchaincontinues selling parts of its bitcoin holdings to lower its obligations from a loan it took from Galaxy Digital.

In the announcement detailing the firm’s operations for July, the crypto miner sold another 887 BTC to lower obligations to its bitcoin-backed loan.

The BTC was sold on average for $22,670, which amounted to $20.1 million. The proceeds from these sales were channeled into offsetting some of its loan obligations and funding operational expenses and growth capital.

According to the announcement, It now has an outstanding balance of just $6.72 million under the BTC-backed loan as of the end of July.

Interestingly the July sales follow the 637 BTC it sold in June for a total of $15.6 million at an average price of $24,500. Moving on to production, Argo Blockchain mined 219 BTC in July which is an improvement on June’s 179 BTC. This better performance is attributed to increasing its hash rate capacity.

The firm’s mining revenue was slightly better compared to the previous month. It generated a total of $4.73 million in July compared to $4.35 million in June.

Other Argo Blockchain Business Highlights
Notably, Argo Blockchain completed its S19 machine swap with its business partner, Core Scientific, in July. It expects better performance in the coming months following the completion.

So far in 2022, the company has been selling a significant portion of its monthly bitcoin production, steadily reducing its exposure to its BTC-backed loan and strengthening its balance sheet.

Despite these continued sales, the firm still has a notable amount of digital assets in its holding. As of the end of July, Agro held 1,295 BTC in its possession; out of this amount, 227 represent BTC equivalent. Open / Comment

2022-08-03 09:03:45 ​​Bitcoin, Ethereum Technical Analysis: BTC, ETH Enter August Trading Below $24,000 and $1,700 Respectively

Bitcoin was trading marginally lower to start the week, as prices of the token fell lower for a fourth consecutive session. The world’s largest cryptocurrency has suffered from increased market volatility, following last Saturday’s surge to a six-week high above $24,000. Ethereum was also in the red on Monday.

Bitcoin (BTC) was trading in the red to start the week, as markets fell for a fourth consecutive session on Monday.

Following last Saturday’s peak of $24,678, which saw BTC/USD hit its highest level since June 13, the token has fallen in back-to-back sessions.

This latest decline saw bitcoin hit a bottom of $22,994.61 earlier in the day, cementing a five-day low in the process.

Bearish sentiment appears to have begun following the breakout attempt, where bulls were unsuccessful in keeping prices above $24,400.

This comes as price strength hit a ceiling of its own at 62 via the 14-day relative strength index (RSI), which seems to be the primary reason behind the recent decline.

The RSI is now tracking at 56, but looks to be moving towards a floor of 54, and should this happen, we could see prices fall near $21,000.

In addition to bitcoin, ethereum (ETH) was also lower for a fourth straight day, as bearish sentiment continues to sweep through crypto markets.

After a high of $1,745.88 on Sunday, ETH/USD fell to an intraday low of $1,650.42 earlier in today’s session.

Following almost a week of lower lows, prices now seem to be moving towards a support point of $1,620.

Like bitcoin, the 14-day RSI on the ETH chart was recently held at a resistance point, which then triggered this latest bearish downtrend.

As of writing, the relative strength index is tracking at 62.35, following a recent breakout of a floor of 63.

Should bearish pressure persist, the next floor on the indicator seems to be the 58 level, which may be a point that traders are now targeting. Open / Comment

2022-07-30 10:53:16 ​​Condense to live stream IRL events into the metaverse.

Metaverse infrastructure company Condense closes a $4.5M seed round with plans to livestream real-world events into the Metaverse.

The Metaverse infrastructure company closed a seed funding round to continue the development of 3D live streaming technology. Condense raised $4.5 million in a round led by LocalGlobe, 7percent Ventures and Deeptech Labs.

The technology employed by Condense live streams 3D videos into the Metaverse via games and existing platforms. The firm states that such technology has the potential to create an entirely new world of content creation and entertainment engagement with real-time connections.

Additionally, Condense had participation from angel investors and music industry insiders such as English footballer and platinum-selling artist Tom Blomfield (Mozo) and music manager Grace Ladoja.

Funding from this round will go toward relationship building with content creators, artists, labels and existing Metaverse platforms.

The underlying technology of Condense utilizes, “cutting-edge computer vision, machine learning and proprietary streaming infrastructure to capture and embed live 3D video (Video 3.0).” This live video experience is then streamed into metaverse games, mobile applications or platforms created with Unity or Unreal Engine.

The 3D aspect of these live streamed events will allow a unique and dynamic perspective for every player simulating a physical live event. Such technology adds a level of individualism to Metaverse events, moreover, to simply watching a standard event live stream.

This development comes as the music industry continues its push for engagement with Web3. technologies and digital interactions. Open / Comment

2022-07-27 17:57:33 ​​Square Enix partners with Enjin to launch Final Fantasy VII collectibles.

Fans can pre-order Final Fantasy VII’s 25th-anniversary figures at the Square Enix store while the digital collectibles will be available in 2023.

Game development giant Square Enix partnered with nonfungible token (NFT) platform Enjin (ENJ) to launch a digital and physical collection featuring Final Fantasy VII, a highly popular video game series.

In an announcement, Enjin said that to get the NFTs, fans must pre-order Final Fantasy VII's 25th-anniversary products at Square Enix's store. The products will include a code to the digital collectible counterpart, which can be redeemed on the NFT platform Efinity network in 2023.

According to Enjin chief technology Witek Radomski, the partnership will have a good effect on digital assets and entertainment. The CTO noted that this is because Square Enix is making its way into the industry, setting an example for other big gaming firms.

In May, the gaming giant revealed its plans to issue tokens and make investments in the Web3 gaming space. The firm highlighted that it will launch more NFTs featuring its games as part of its 2022 business strategy. The success of its initial venture into NFTs has pushed the firm to pursue more initiatives in the blockchain space.

Back in 2020, the game development firm led an investment round for The Sandbox (SAND). With Square Enix and other investors, The Sandbox was able to raise $2 million in cash and digital assets.

Earlier in July, Cointelegraph Markets Pro spoke with Radomski through an Ask-Me-Anything session. According to the Enjin chief technology officer, once the bear market settles down, blockchain gaming will emerge, and more established developers will create fun games with NFT utility that are not just play-to-earn.

Meanwhile, experts are clashing on virtual reality's (VR) place in the Metaverse. While many believe that the Metaverse and VR are a natural fit with each othe, some believe that the two should develop separately without any mutual considerations. Open / Comment