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Europe experienced a 50% fall in fintech investments in the first half of 2023. In the midst of the global fintech market downturn, the crypto and blockchain sector managed to become a leader in investments in a number of major European markets.  According to the report “State of European FinTech”, released by the Amsterdam-based fintech venture fund Finch Capital, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region experienced a 50% drop in fintech investments in the first half of 2023. The total amount of funding fell from $27.3 billion in H1 2022 to $11.2 billion in H1 2023. However, crypto businesses stand out in the overall picture, gaining a leading position in investments attracted across several large markets. In the United Kingdom, the blockchain and crypto sector grabbed a 28% share of all the deals, struck in fintech in H1 2023. This number is even higher in the Netherlands — 35% of all deals. In Germany and France, the crypto’s share constitutes 27% and 29% respectively. Re...

Crypto gaming tokens have enjoyed their fair share of ups and downs over the past few years. Owing to the sluggish market conditions lately, they have not been faring that well. According to data from CoinMarketCap, the aggregate valuation of tokens in this space has dropped by 1.6% to $7.1 billion over the past day. This was accompanied by a 5% dip in trading volume. Source: CoinMarketCap Also Read: 74% Americans ‘Stressed’ About Personal Finances: U.S. Dollar to Drop? Gaming Industry Size The broader gaming sector has seen significant growth over the years. In fact, it has also outdone the film industry’s collections in the past. A recent report from K33 research highlighted, “In 2022, the industry saw $183 billion in revenue, which is roughly 7 times more than global movie box office revenue. To put the rate of growth into perspective, the gaming industry was valued at only $8 billion in 2006 – that is a near 23x g...

As part of the reported restructuring efforts at Rario, a number of roles are also being eliminated, according to the report. Rario, a Polygon-based platform issuing cricket-related nonfungible tokens (NFTs), has reportedly seen its founders leaving the firm after two years since launch. Founders of Rario, including Rario CEO Ankit Wadhwa and chief technology officer Sunny Bhanot, are being pushed out as investors at the startup to exert greater control over the platform, TechCrunch reported on Sept. 8. Rario CEO Ankit Wadhwa (left) and CTO Sunny Bhanot (right). Source: TechCrunch Dream11, a major Indian fantasy sports platform and the largest backer of Rario, is being ousted as well, according to the report. As part of other restructuring efforts at Rario, a number of roles are also being removed, the report said. Apart from Dream11, Rario has some prominent investors including the global investment company and cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar. In April 2022, the cricket NFT platfor...

The judge also declined to declare CEL token “not a security,” despite related rulings in the SEC vs Ripple case. Judge Martin Glenn shot down efforts to have a special shareholders class declared in the Celsius Network bankruptcy case in a court document filed on Aug. 25. The judge also declined to settle whether or not the CEL token was a security.  In a motion filed on July 25 and heard before the United States Bankruptcy Court Southern District New York on Aug. 14, investor Otis Davis asked the court to create a legal class for investors to be considered separate from Celsius Network employees and customers. Davis also requested that the court sanction the legal team representing the Unsecured Creditors Committee (UCC) over alleged failure to disclose required information. The filing further asked the court to declare CEL “not a security” in light of the recent findings in the SEC vs Ripple where, according to Davis, Judge Analisa Torres determined that XRP was not a security. R...

Visa also reportedly stopped issuing new co-branded cryptocurrency cards with Binance in Europe as of July. Global payment giant Mastercard is reportedly ending its crypto currency card partnership with Binance crypto exchange next month, according to a Bloomberg report. The report didn't divulge the reason for the change, but implied it might be due to increased regulatory scrutiny of the beleaguered crypto exchange. Mastercard and Binance will end their four crypto card programmes in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia starting Sept. 22, Bloomberg reported on Aug. 24. The decision to end the program will not impact any of Mastercard's other crypto card programmes, the firm reportedly said. The wind-down period will allow cardholders to convert any holdings in their Binance wallets, it added. The Mastercard and Binance’s prepaid crypto card allows users to make payments in local fiat currencies, funded by their crypto holdings on the exchange. The end of the collaboration comes...

Gryphon Digital is requesting dismissal from a suit filed by its former partner Sphere 3D over a scam-related Bitcoin transfer. According to Gryphon, the incident was caused by Sphere's security failures. Crypto miner Gryphon Digital is seeking dismissal from a lawsuit brought by its former partner Sphere 3D over a spoofing attack that resulted in 26 Bitcoins (BTC) being transferred to a fraudulent address. According to the initial complaint filed by Sphere 3D in April, Gryphon CEO Rob Chang allegedly wired 18 BTC in January to a fraudster posing as Sphere 3D’s chief financial officer through a spoofing attack. Within a few days, eight more Bitcoins were sent to the same address, resulting in a total loss of over $500,000 at the time. Gryphon claims, however, to be a victim of Sphere's "gross negligence" that allowed a malicious actor to access Sphere’s computer system, send spoof emails from its domain, and cause Gryphon to send cryptocurrency intended for Spher...

Lawyers of SBF stated that their client faced difficulties in thoroughly reviewing the extensive document accumulation related to the case while confined to the detention center. Seven days following the Department of Justice's bail revocation for disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, he is now seeking permission to spend five weekdays outside to collaborate with his legal team on his defense case. According to a letter sent to US District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Friday, as reported by Bloomberg, legal representatives of SBF stated that their client faced difficulties in thoroughly reviewing the extensive document accumulation related to the case while confined to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. In correspondence, Christian Everdell, the attorney for SBF, conveyed the following statement: “Just last week the government produced three-quarters of a million pages of Slack communications, which were supposed to be produced months ago, that Mr. Bankman-Fried will ha...

Musk said in a recent interview that if done right X has the potential to become half of the global financial system. The popular social media platform Twitter officially re brand ed to X after months of teasing by CEO Elon Musk. The re brand ing saw the popular social media app ditch its recognisable bird logo after two decades and replaced it with “ X” after two decades. The re brand ing also saw the social media app change its colour scheme from blue to black. As part of the rebranding, Twitter’s URL has also been changed to “x.com.” a domain name linked to Musk’s 1999-founded financial services startup that sold to PayPal is now redirecting to Twitter. https://t.co/bOUOek5Cvy now points to https://t.co/AYBszklpkE. Interim X logo goes live later today. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023 X.com was an early online bank and the company was initially funded by Elon Musk and Greg Kouri, who went on to fund Musk's later ventures: Tesla and SpaceX. Musk’s association with the ...

NFT collectibles company Dapper Labs has said goodbye to another 51 employees only months after a 20% staff reduction in February. Nonfungible token collection and technology firm Dapper Labs has announced its third round of staff layoffs in less than a year. On July 13, Dapper Labs CEO Roham Gharegozlou announced that the firm has said goodbye to “51 brilliant colleagues and friends.” In a note to employees, he said that the latest round of cuts includes full-time staff and C1 contractors. “The decision was incredibly difficult because of the amazing people affected,” he said before adding that it was necessary and the right thing to do to “ensure a lean and efficient” company. Gharegozlou however reiterated that the Dapper Labs and Flow remained “well capitalized” before adding: “With this restructure we have made the business more lean, which is going to let us do the right thing for our fans and grow our communities in the most healthy ways possible.” We said goodbye to 51 bril...

Certain members holding high positions within the firm bill an hourly rate exceeding $2,000 for their professional services. Bankrupt crypto brokerage Voyager Digital is obligated to pay $1.1 million to its legal adviser, Kirkland & Ellis, for fees and expenses associated with its involvement in the company’s bankruptcy proceedings in April. According to the available documents, Kirkland & Ellis law firm implemented a blended hourly billing rate of $1,313.18 for the provision of various services throughout April. The cumulative fees assessed for the legal services rendered by both attorneys and para legal s amounted to a figure surpassing $1.4 million. Certain members holding high positions within the law firm charged an hourly rate exceeding $2,000 for their professional services. Kirkland & Ellis is recognized for its representation of several cryptocurrency companies undergoing bankruptcy proceedings, with clients including BlockFi and Celsius. Voyager’s bankruptcy pl...

Dutch investors now have access to a Bitcoin equities exchange-traded fund on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange. The Netherlands has welcomed a new equity exchange -traded (ETF) fund that will give investors exposure to a basket of Bitcoin (BTC)-related company stock s. French investment firm Melanion Capital’s Bitcoin Equities ETF began trading on the Euronext Amsterdam Stock Exchange on June 22, introducing an equities-based approach to investing in the Bitcoin ecosystem. The ETF is designed to track the Melanion Bitcoin Exposure Index, which is a custom basket of European and American stock s closely tied to BTC’s market price. The ETF is compliant to the European Commission’s Undertakings for the Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) regulatory framework that is used for managing and trading mutual funds. UCITS funds allow investment firms to register and sell trading products across the European Union through the provision of regulatory and investor protec...

Cointelegraph analyst and writer Marcel Pechman explains why the cryptocurrency market has lost 60% of its market cap, with the S&P 500 only about 15% from its all-time high. Macro Markets, hosted by crypto analyst Marcel Pechman, airs every Friday on the Cointelegraph Markets & Research YouTube channel and explains complex concepts in layperson’s terms, focusing on the cause and effect of traditional financial events on day-to-day crypto activity. The latest Macro Markets show begins by exploring why the crypto market capitalization is some 60% below its all-time high, while the S&P 500 is less than 15% away from its peak. For Pechman, the sector is suffering from a huge problem, as it doesn’t fit a commodity nor does it fit a foreign exchange currency. Moreover, not every mutual fund can hold crypto. The lesson? If Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) are mostly understood as alternative risk assets, that’s how they’ll trade. Consequently, one should not waste time looking fo...

NFTs are purchased for a variety of reasons but according to a new survey from CoinGecko, the majority buy them for utility and long-term profits. Utility and long-term profits have been ranked as the top reason s for buying non-fungible Tokens (NFTs), according to a Survey conducted by CoinGecko and Blockchain Research Lab. An April 10 CoinGecko report found most considered how much utility an NFT collection offers and the benefits of holding the token before buying with over 77% of respondents saying using an NFT for its “intended function” had some level of importance out of the 11 listed reasons for buying an NFT. However, 15.7% responded they were "neutral" about utility and 6.7% felt it was "not important" in the decision-making process before buying an NFT. 343 responses were examined in a survey of NFT and crypto users who ranked their top reasons for buying NFTs. Source: CoinGecko The potential for long-term profits came in as the second most crucial fac...

Twenty-three days after the hack, on April 4, Euler Finance announced the total possible recovery of the lost funds, thus ending the $1 million bounty. After being robbed of $196 million in a flash loan attack, Euler Finance has convinced its hacker to return most of the funds. The outcome resulted from numerous back-and-forths over 25 days, eventually leading the hacker to do “the right thing.” On March 13, the Euler Finance hacker carried out multiple transactions, each draining millions of dollars in various tokens, including DAI (DAI), USD Coin (USDC), staked Ether (StETH) and wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC). 111 Funds stolen from Euler Finance. Source: BlockSec As a result, Euler’s total value locked inside its smart contracts has dropped from over $311 million to $10.37 million. Ultimately, 11 different decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, including Balancer, Yearn Finance and Yield Protocol, either froze or lost funds. At 10:00 UTC Balancer contributors became aware of an exploit on ...

Cathie Wood was impressed that Bitcoin “moved in a very different way” compared to the equity market in response to the recent banking crisis. The value proposition of Bitcoin (BTC) is on full display amid the current banking crisis , which will only “ attract more institutions ” to the BTC market over time, ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood believes. Wood shared her thoughts on BTC’s recent price surge in a March 21 Bloomberg interview, stating its price behavior through the crisis “is going to attract more institutions.” “The fact that Bitcoin moved in a very different way from the equity markets, in particular, was quite instructive,” she added. ARK Investment Management CEO Cathie Wood says the behavior of the Bitcoin's price through the latest banking turmoil will attract more institutions and investors https://t.co/2d8cT7SX3n pic.twitter.com/Eaymh05lhq — Bloomberg Crypto (@crypto) March 21, 2023 Institutional interest in Bitcoin may have already arrived according to Oliver...

Circle’s investment arm has joined a funding round for CNHC, the issuer of the eponymous stablecoin pegged to the offshore yuan. The investment arm of major cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin is moving to support new Stablecoin initiatives by backing a Chinese yuan-pegged Stablecoin issuer . KuCoin Ventures has led a $10 million investment into stablecoin issuer and blockchain-based payment service provider known as CNHC. Announcing the news on March 16, KuCoin Ventures said that the funding round included some prominent industry investors, including KuCoin’s investor IDG Capital and Circle Ventures, the investment arm of the USD Coin (USDC) issuer, Circle. KuCoin chief investment officer and KuCoin Ventures lead Justin Chou told Cointelegraph that the new investment in CNHC is the first time for KuCoin Ventures to invest in a stablecoin -related project. “KuCoin is always interested in building a stronger infrastructure for the financial system,” Chou said, adding that the world is like...

The new campaign features a withdrawal warning message that attempts to prevent users from sending their crypto to scammers. Binance, in cooperation with law enforcement agencies, is launching a campaign to prevent scams by issuing targeted alerts to potential victims, according to a March 3 blog post from the company. The project, called the “joint anti-scam campaign” was rolled out first in Hong Kong, and the company now intends to expand it into other jurisdictions. Keeping our ecosystem and the # Binance community safe is at the core of what we do. Which is why we partnered with law enforcement agencies across the globe to launch the Joint Anti-Scam Campaign. Read on to see what it's all about ️ https://t.co/q9LOtuZm2F — Binance (@binance) March 3, 2023 According to the company’s post, it collaborated with the Hong Police Force’s Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau (CSTCB) to build an “alert and crime prevention message” targeted at Hong Kong residents. As part ...

With the tough conditions that faced Bitcoin miners last year, Iris’ co-founder said the purchase was a “significant milestone” for the company. Australia-based Bitcoin (BTC) Mining company, Iris Energy, revealed it will nearly triple its Mining capacity with the addition of thousands of Mining rigs. On Feb. 13 the firm said it purchased an additional 4.4 Exa Hashes per second (EH/s) worth of Bitmain Antminer S19j Pro ASIC miners bringing its self-mining capacity to 5.5 EH/s from 2.0 EH/s. Based on the S19j Pro’s maximum hashrate of 100 Tera Hashes per second (TH/s), the purchase adds an estimated 44,000 miners to its fleet, according to Cointelegraph’s calculations. Daniel Roberts, Iris’ co-founder and Co-CEO said the purchase “is a significant milestone” for the company and added its been a “challenging period for both the industry and markets more generally.” Iris said the new miners will be installed in the company’s centers but did not mention in which locations. The firm operat...

The executive stated that the layoffs were due to concerns about “macroeconomic and geopolitical” issues that may affect the venture capital markets. Blockchain software developer ConsenSys retains the ability to achieve its goals after recent layoffs, CEO Joe Lubin claimed in a Feb. 7 interview with Cointelegraph, stating that “we’ve retained virtually all of our capabilities .” According to Lubin, the cuts were implemented “mostly because of potential headwinds and potential uncertainty” and partly because of declining volume in the ConsenSys ecosystem due to "macroeconomic and geopolitical" factors. Lubin said his team had been concerned that impending troubles in the venture capital market would make it hard for crypto companies to raise cash, so the company had wanted to be prepared for this possibility, as he explained: “There are some pretty concerning things happening still in supply chains, in materials and chips, in VC financing, potentially there’s a lot of dry ...

With the Hong Kong Stock Exchange being the only regulated exchange in Asia offering Bitcoin futures ETFs, some believe spot crypto ETF products will soon be allowed. Hot on the heels of its Bitcoin (BTC) futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) in Hong Kong, Samsung Asset Management has indicated it's considering the launch of a spot Bitcoin ETF on the city's exchange if policies allow for it. In an interview with Bloomberg published on Jan. 13, Hong Kong chief executive for Samsung Asset Management, Sam Park, said: “It really depends on how policy is going to be developed,” adding that the Hong Kong administrators are “clearly” interested in developing the city into a crypto hub. An ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, Rebecca Sin, noted that “Hong Kong is well positioned to become Asia’s crypto gateway,” and expects spot Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) products to be allowed there by the year's end. A spot market refers to a market where the exchange of financial instruments is set...