Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Goldman Sachs looks to buy Celsius’ assets for $2B as it is advised to file for bankruptcy

Goldman Sachs is allegedly shopping around for investors to form a web3 fund to purchase Celsius assets.　　The multinational investment bank is raising $2 billion from a wide range of funds to take advantage of a potential discount on Celsius crypto assets.　　Should Celsius be forced to file for bankruptcy, it may be required to sell off its assets quickly to pay back any creditors. The exchange has allegedly already been advised to file for bankruptcy by Citigroup and Akin Group.　　The news was initially reported by Coin Desk, which cites people familiar with the matter as the source of information.　　The struggling exchange reportedly had over $11 billion in assets as of May 2022, meaning if Goldman Sachs could purchase all of Celsius assets, it would be paying just 20 cents on the dollar. Whether the group is looking to take Celsius on as a going concern or strip and sell its assets is unknown at this time.　　Celsius also received an unsolicited offer from rival exchange Nexo on June 12, which was not accepted. However, Coin Desk reported that Citigroup had been brought in to assess the deal. Nexo has over 4 million users compared to Celisus 1.7 million who claimed:　　“Nexo is in

2022-06-27Deep Dive

BlockFi Increased Deposit Rates And Removed Free Withdrawals

Crypto lending platform BlockFi has recently announced that it will be increasing its deposit rates spread across spread across a wide range of cryptocurrencies. It also mentioned that it has decided to rescind permitting the policy of one free withdrawal that was previously available every month.　　This particular announcement was followed after BlockFi provisionally bagging a $250 million revolving credit line from FTX. Amidst concerns regarding the companys financial status , the lending platform has fired 20% of its staff in order to improve their finances.　　The policies that BlockFi has decided to implement shall be made effective from July 1. The reason behind such policies are attributed to proper risk management strategies as mentioned by the company.　　It also includes effectively helping bring down its market competition and overall enhance the macroeconomic yield conditions of the platform.　　 BlockFi And Its Recent Policy　　In BlockFis recent most policy, the rates for BTC, ETH, USDC, GUSD, PAX, BUSD and USDT into BlockFi Interest Account (BIA) have all been hiked.　　In order to defend the price initiative the platform stated that the previous rates had provided chance of bigger customer rewards during the crypto market crash. In their official Twitter account, it had announced the increase of

2022-06-27Deep Dive

Binance Launches New Platform for VIP and Institutional Crypto Investors

Crypto exchange Binance has launched a new platform for VIP and institutional investors. The VIP program allows Binance users to “get rewarded with more discounts and VIP privileges” as their trading volume climbs up VIP tiers.　　‘Binance Institutional’ Launched　　Global cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced Thursday the launch of “Binance Institutional,” a new platform for VIP and institutional cryptocurrency investors. It is one of Binances efforts “to upgrade its institutional offerings and services,” the exchange said.　　Binance Institutionals services are tailored for all types of institutions, its website describes. They include asset managers, brokers, hedge funds, family offices, proprietary trading firms, liquidity providers, high net worth individuals, and mining companies.　　The new platform offers a number of services, including direct access to OTC liquidity, asset management, custody, and brokerage.　　Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) commented:　　“Brokerage services are well positioned to help our industry bridge some of the gaps between the crypto and traditional financial markets and drive continued digital asset growth.”　　The VIP program allows users to “get rewarded with more discounts and VIP privileges” as their trading volume climbs up VIP tiers, Binance explained. VIP privileges include fee discounts and higher 24-hour withdrawal limits.　　The exchange offers nine VIP tiers. A VIP must have a 30-day trade

2022-06-27Deep Dive

What Lido staking dominance may mean for Ethereum’s future

Lido DAO token holders have commenced voting to determine whether the DeFi platform should reduce its staking pool. The vote is a follow-up to a governance proposal released on June 24.　　The voting process results from a month-long deliberation over Lidos staking dominance and whether it should limit itself to curb potential centralization risks.　　Lido currently holds 31% of all staked Ether on the Ethereum proof-of-stake blockchain, the Beacon chain. The staking dominance has raised fears within the Ethereum community, and critics fear it will threaten Ethereums decentralization.　　The vote is expected to end on July 1, and the result will determine whether Lido will self-limit or not. Should the majority of voters vote in favor, another vote will take place on how the self-limiting process should work.Concerns over stETH dominance　　In the governance proposal, Lido stated that its staking dominance would give it more voting power once the Beacon chain goes live. As a platform that started to counter centralized exchanges, it argued that such centralized voting power poses an existential threat to the blockchain.　　The Ethereum community has raised similar fears about the centralization of voting powers. The DeFi platform currently has around one-third of all staked Ether, which could give voting leverage

2022-06-26Deep Dive

Why Solana Is Going Big on Mobile—And Making a Smartphone

Solana‘s teasers leading up to yesterday’s “SMS” event suggested something to do with mobile, but few could have imagined the twist that was announced in New York City. Yes, Solana Labs has built a mobile software platform… but its also releasing a smartphone.　　Solana Labs yesterday revealed the Solana Mobile Stack (SMS) software kit, which provides tools for developing native Android mobile apps, walls, and games, and also includes a decentralized app store. The company also revealed the Saga, a powerful Android smartphone that will be released in early 2023.　　Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana and CEO of Solana Labs, told Decrypt that his team has been working on the SMS push for about five months, and the hardware itself for a bit longer. But the idea of improving Web3 access and functionality on mobile has been in his head for years, particularly given his past experience as a Qualcomm engineer.　　“What does it look like with 1 billion people using [crypto]？ What do you imagine？ Its in this device—the device you use everyday,” he said, holding up the Solana Saga prototype. “That has to be your hardware wallet. Thats just something that we always felt.”　　Yakovenko said the idea went from concept to

2022-06-26Deep Dive

Yuga Labs Lawsuit Accuses Ryder Ripps of 'Scamming Consumers' With Fake Bored Apes

Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club, has filed a lawsuit against Ryder Ripps, claiming the online provocateur has been “scamming” buyers with falsely equivalent NFTs in a “deliberate effort to harm Yuga Labs at the expense of consumers.”　　NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are unique blockchain tokens that prove ownership over digital or physical assets, such as pieces of artwork or items in video games.　　Ripps, referred to in the suit as “a self-proclaimed conceptual artist,” is the creator of RR/BAYC, an Ethereum NFT collection that features identical BAYC images he did not purchase. Ripps first began minting his RR/BAYC NFTs on May 13 on Foundation, and after Yuga sent him an initial DMCA takedown claim, it quickly rescinded the claim when Ripps fought it. OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace, has since removed Rippss collection because of “a claim of intellectual property infringement,” but not before it saw nearly $3.5 million in total volume traded.　　Ripps responded to the lawsuit on Twitter, but didnt respond to Decrypt on Friday when asked for additional comment about a blog post by BAYC co-founder Gordon Goner (real name Wylie Aronow) that called Ripps a “demented troll.”　　Yuga Labs, in part, wrote on Twitter on Friday

2022-06-26Deep Dive

Singapore Based Crypto Exchange Bybit Expands to Argentina

Bybit Lands in Argentina　　The growth of the cryptocurrency industry in Argentina has not gone unnoticed by international companies. Bybit, a Singapore-based, top-ten crypto exchange by volume traded, has announced that it will expand its trading operations to support Argentinian customers directly.　　To better achieve this goal, the company will dedicate a team to attend to applicable requirements and support its upcoming Argentinian customers, allowing them to transact, purchase, and sell cryptocurrencies on Bybits platform. Also, the platform will be available in Spanish, the native language of the country.　　Regarding this development, the exchange declared:　　Taking into account the level of penetration and the rapid growth in the adoption of cryptocurrencies in Argentina, Bybit has made this decision, which is due to the importance of the Argentinian market in the Latin American region.　　Due to all of this, Bybit considers it is the right time to expand its operations to the country, given that there is an opportunity for onboarding users still new to the cryptocurrency movement.Argentinian Crypto Appeal　　In recent years, Argentinians have been getting closer and closer to crypto, with this phenomenon starting after the government established limits to the number of dollars citizens could exchange, establishing a foreign currency exchange control, similar to

2022-06-25Deep Dive

Crypto Scammer Who Defrauded League of Legends Developer Jailed for 10 Years

Matthew Ho, a 32-year-old resident of Singapore, has been jailed for 10 years after stealing identities in order to purchase cloud computing services and mine Ethereum, the second biggest cryptocurrency, The Straits Times reports. His father has posted a $180,000 bail.　　Riot Games co-founder Marc Merrill, who is known for developing popular multiplayer video game League of Legends, was among the victims of the fraud.　　Ho was able to get his hands on Merrills American Express credit card details on a dark web forum. He then managed to seize control over the game developers Amex account and use it to register with the Amazon Web Service (AWS) in November 2017. As an esteemed game developer, Merrill had access to “elevated levels” of AWSs cloud computing services.　　Because of his document-forging skills, Ho was able to fake Merrills drivers license to fool Amazon.　　The South Korean impersonator managed to mine $350,000 worth of Ether over the aforementioned period of time. For more blockchain news, please download WikiBit - the Global Blockchain Regulatory Inquiry APP.　　Merrill ended up racking up bills surpassing $5 million within a few months. The fraud was discovered only in January 2018. He also used Merrills identity to buy Googles computing services for

2022-06-24Deep Dive

Ripple opened a crypto hub in Toronto, Canada, with intentions to employ 50 programmers

Ripple Labs have opened a new office in Toronto, Canada with the intention of creating an engineering hub to drive crypto innovation by recruiting top engineering talent in the area. This will be Ripples first office in Canada as they continue to expand across North America.　　The company behind the XRP (XRP) cryptocurrency made this announcement on Wednesday. According to the announcement, Ripple initially plans to hire 50 engineers with the aim of expanding its office to include hundreds of blockchain engineers, from data scientists and machine learning scientists to product managers.　　“Crypto and blockchain present an incredible opportunity for engineers to tackle difficult problems, with the potential for these solutions to impact the movement of value around the world,” says Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple.　　As blockchain technology becomes more mainstream, Ripple plans to take advantage of this by hiring top tech talent and expanding its presence across the globe. CEO Brad Garlinghouse continued to say:　　“Nearly every financial institution is coming up with its crypto strategy to take advantage of this technology that will underpin our future global financial systems. Crypto is one of the most thrilling industries to work in, so its no surprise that talent is leaving tech incumbents and

2022-06-24Deep Dive

Indian crypto investors have lost $128 million due to fake exchanges and wallets

Crypto investors in India have lost over $128 million (nearly Rs 1,000 crore) due to a sophisticated phishing scam that includes fake cryptocurrency exchanges. This scheme was uncovered by cybersecurity firm CloudSEK who said the operation involved malicious domains and Android applications.　　CEO of CloudSEK, Rahul Sasi said, “We estimate that threat actors have defrauded victims of up to $128 million (about Rs 1,000 crore) via such crypto scams,”　　According to the report, many of the fake websites were impersonating CoinEgg, a UK-based crypto exchange:　　“This large-scale campaign entices unwary individuals into a huge gambling scam. Many of these bogus websites impersonate ”CoinEgg“, a legitimate UK-based cryptocurrency trading platform,”.　　The scam works by the fraudsters buying domain names that are very similar to the websites they want to impersonate. They then go on to build websites that look visually similar to the target website, from the frontend design to the user dashboard.　　Potential victims are found via social media where the fraudsters create fake accounts with female names and profile pictures. They use these accounts to convince unsuspecting users into trading and investing in cryptocurrency via the fake exchanges. $100 dollar credits are offered in an attempt to entice the users into joining the fake

2022-06-24Deep Dive

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