Companies

U.S.-based crypto exchange Kraken said it will lay off 30% of its global workforce, or approximately 1,100 people, to “adapt to current market conditions.”

Top blockchain and crypto news: Grayscale’s cryptic reserves. Binance rides to the rescue? China hit by protests and digital dissent.

A court in South Korea will review if prosecutors are allowed to arrest and bring Terraform cofounder Daniel Shin and seven others into custody, for charges including fraud.

Employee accounts of life at Sam Bankman-Fried’s flagship cryptocurrency trading arm Alameda Research paint a picture of overworked and inexperienced millennials running a ship headed for the rocks: one seemingly escaped.

FTX subsidiary LedgerX is reportedly preparing US$175 million for its parent company’s bankruptcy proceedings, according to unnamed sources cited by Bloomberg on Wednesday.

Sony Japan unveiled Mocopi, a set of wearable motion-tracking sensors that captures user movements that are reflected by virtual avatars

CoinDesk, an online crypto news site, has attracted potential buyers to take over the media outlet from Digital Currency Group amid market turmoil, Semafor reported.

The blockchain game maker fights delisting of its symbolic WEMIX crypto token.

The largest U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc. announced that its wallet will no longer be supporting Ethereum Classic (ETC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), XRP and Stellar (XLM).

FTX’s collapse has now led to another crypto service filing for bankruptcy. Could this be the end for centralized exchanges?

India will launch its retail CBDC pilot on Thursday with plans to gradually expand trials, the RBI announced on Tuesday.

Justin Sun says CeFi must adopt DeFi’s transparency to regain public trust as 1inch Network cofounder Sergej Kunz sees crypto’s struggles as an opportunity for DeFi.

FTX Trading and its affiliates will resume paying wages to employees globally and to some non-U.S. contractors and service providers

The cryptocurrency lender was hit by the earthquake set off across the industry by the collapse and bankruptcy of the FTX crypto exchange this month, and other companies are looking vulnerable.

Christine Lagarde of the European Central Bank said regulating cryptocurrency in the EU is an “absolute necessity” following the collapse of Bahamas-based exchange FTX.com.

U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has agreed to pay over US$362,000 to settle claims that it violated sanctions against Iran, the Treasury said Monday.

The metaverse has the potential to improve access to opportunities and create a better version of the offline world. How do we prevent it from perpetuating society’s ills?

Crypto lender BlockFi Inc. and eight of its affiliates have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in the U.S.

Bitcoin and Ether fell in Tuesday morning trading in Asia as U.S.-based crypto lender Blockfi filed for bankruptcy overnight in what is seen as another casualty of the collapse of the FTX exchange this month.

LINE’s cryptocurrency exchange based in the U.S., BITFRONT, has announced closure on Monday to shift its focus to developing LINE’s blockchain ecosystem.

Asset tokenization and DeFi hold tremendous potential for the finance sector, writes Han Kwee Juan of DBS Bank. Here’s how the Singaporean government is at the forefront of change.

South Korean prosecutors may charge Terraform Labs cofounder Daniel Shin with fraud for promoting the Terra stablecoin as a payment method despite multiple warnings from financial regulators that it was against the law.

Changpeng Zhao tweeted that Binance’s proof of reserves have “absolutely no negative balances involved” after the exchange released its PoR on Friday.

Bitcoin was little changed in Monday morning trading amid mixed results from the other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies following a relatively muted few days of trading over the Thanksgiving weekend in the U.S.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance released its proof of reserves (PoR) on Friday to provide transparency on user funds.

Terra, 3AC and now FTX, it’s been a difficult year, but can crypto come back stronger?

The former CEO of the collapsed crypto exchange “needs to keep his mouth shut” and stop making public comments that could be used against him in future court cases, lawyers tell Forkast.

The delisting poses a great obstacle to the game maker’s growing blockchain empire, while Wemade’s CEO blames the crypto exchange

ConsenSys, which operates the popular cryptocurrency wallet MetaMask, said an update to the wallet has made no change to the data the platform collects from its users, only the wording had changed.

Ardana, a stablecoin project being built on the Cardano blockchain, announced the project has been halted due to funding and uncertainty over its timeline.

Singapore’s white-collar crime unit is investigating Hodlnaut on allegations of fraud, according to a statement on the website of the Singapore police dated Nov. 23.

Binance said it will establish a US$1 billion fund for its “Industry Recovery Initiative” to mitigate the damage from the collapse of the FTX exchange. 

The chief executive officer of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, regrets sending ‘too late’ a tweet that contributed to the collapse of FTX.com.

Crypto exchange Bybit has established a US$100 million fund to support its institutional clients

Cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX, India’s first crypto unicorn, published its proof of reserves on Thursday

Calls for tougher rules on cryptocurrency have been echoing ever louder through the offices of global financial regulators since the collapse of the FTX exchange. But the firm did not invent dodgy business practices, so what can regulators and the industry do?

Barry Silbert of DCG disclosed his company owes a US$575 million loan and a US$1.1 billion promissory note to its subsidiary Genesis Global Capital.

U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Sheldon Whitehouse called for holding former FTX CEO “and any complicit FTX executives” to the fullest extent of the law.

A wallet address linked to defunct crypto exchange BTC-e sent its largest transaction since August 2017 on Wednesday.

Sam Bankman-Fried will speak at a time when he’s reportedly facing investigations with FTX undergoing bankruptcy protection proceedings.

As FTX victims and creditors sift through the pieces, how much of this blowup should regulators have seen coming — and could it happen again?

Alexey Pertsev, a developer of the now-sanctioned crypto mixer Tornado Cash, has been ordered to stay in jail until Feb. 20 at least.

Top blockchain and crypto news: Fear stalks crypto as Genesis wobbles. FTX cleanup begins. China’s NFT scene shrinks.

In the first day of FTX’s bankruptcy hearing, FTX counsel says the organization was run as ‘personal fiefdom’ of Sam Bankman-Fried.

Indian crypto exchange CoinSwitch has launched CoinSwitch Pro, a multi-exchange trading platform that lets users trade crypto assets in Indian Rupees across multiple exchanges with a single login. 

A majority of downfall of FTX was caused by a handful of people, but who else is to blame?

Bitcoin and Ether strengthened in Asia trade on Wednesday afternoon, reversing some of their losses on Monday and Tuesday. Top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, except stablecoins, also increased.

Singapore-based DBS bank, the largest lender in Southeast Asia, has said it is the first bank in Asia to complete an intraday repurchase transaction on a blockchain-based network. 

CoinMarketCap has introduced a proof-of-reserve tracker for centralized crypto exchanges in a bid to improve transparency.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is reassuring users about the financial health of the Nasdaq-listed crypto exchange, following a tweet — since deleted — from CZ of Binance.

South Korea’s telecommunications giant SK Telecom (SKT) is launching its Ifland metaverse in 49 countries in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Bitcoin recovered above US$16,000 in Wednesday morning trading as it rose along with Ether and the rest of the crypto top 10 by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins.

Cathie Wood’s Ark Investment Management has bought over 1.3 million shares of Coinbase Global since the start of November, and 450,000 shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitget plans to hire about 400 more staff, taking its total workforce to 1,200 by the first quarter of 2023, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

The parents of Sam Bankman-Fried, along with senior executives of the now-bankrupt FTX, bought at least 19 properties worth nearly US$121 million in the Bahamas over the past two years.

Bitcoin falls under $16K as Genesis temporarily halted withdrawals and redemptions.

Football is the most popular sport among crypto investors and 48% of fans among these investors are interested in trading fan tokens for sports teams during the FIFA World Cup, according to a new survey by Seychelles-based crypto exchange KuCoin. 

Huobi Global, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, plans to ramp up its investments in Southeast Asia and Europe as part of its global expansion, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

Hong Kong residents spend the most time online – almost half of their lives – mainly watching videos on YouTube followed by scrolling through social media channels, according to a new survey by virtual private network provider NordVPN. 

Bitkub, one of the largest crypto exchanges in Thailand, is aiming to list in Hong Kong as early as 2024 when it goes public.

U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren, Dick Durbin and Tina Smith asked Fidelity Investments to rethink its decision to grant retirement plan exposure to Bitcoin.

The alleged hacker behind the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars from the cryptocurrency exchange FTX is moving the funds around to separate wallets.

Investors are unnerved by the possibility of more failures among companies linked to the now bankrupt FTX exchange, fearing a repeat of the Terra-Luna stablecoin collapse in May that also brought down other businesses.

The world’s largest crypto exchange seeks to hire 600 more employees by the end of this year, its founder and chief executive officer said.

Coinbase Custody Trust, the institutional investment arm of Coinbase Global, holds 635,000 BTC on behalf of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, according to a note by Coinbase Custody CEO Aaron Schnarch. Digital investment firm Grayscale has also declined to share proof of reserves, citing security concerns.

FTX Japan, a subsidiary of the now-bankrupt FTX.com, is preparing to resume withdrawals by the end of 2022 to Japanese customers, said an unnamed FTX Japan executive to local broadcaster NHK

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said on Monday that it was not possible for the central bank to protect local users from FTX’s collapse as the crypto exchange operated offshore and was not licensed by MAS.

Should we be questioning which Web3 projects need tokens?

Human greed and deception led to FTX’s fall. That’s why the antidote is not more regulations but could be found in blockchain’s original promises, writes Marieke Flament, CEO of NEAR Foundation.

The U.S. SEC has received support from sports investing group New Sports Economy Institute, which submitted its amicus brief on Friday to weigh in on the ongoing lawsuit between the SEC and Ripple.

S.Korean authorities are looking into self-issued cryptocurrencies that may exist within local exchanges following FTX.com’s FTT-led liquidity crisis.

Collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX Trading Ltd. and its affiliates owe their 50 largest creditors about US$3.1 billion, according to a court filing. The creditors were not named.