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The disgraced crypto executive claimed that he merely acted on various lapses in the company's data retention policy. Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) tried to explain his rationale for deleting corporate messages during a closed-door testimony without the presence of the trial's jury on Oct. 26. When prompted as to why he started using corporate communications on the encrypted messaging app Signal by prosecutor Danielle Sassoon of the Southern District of New York, SBF claimed that he only did so with the approval of FTX counsel Daniel Friedberg. However, SBF later said that while counsel approved the use of Signal, he never sought prior approval before utilizing the app's auto-delete feature. "At some point I remember changing my toggle to one week auto delete ," the former crypto executive said, adding that the practice has been in place since 2021. "Did you seek approval?" Asked Sassoon. "No," replied SBF. When asked to exp...

Marcus said there’s still no universal protocol when it comes to transferring money, unlike information which can be shared via email. While information today can be easily transferred over the internet via email or text, global payment s on the other hand, have remained in a “fax era," according to the former president of PayPal.  In a Sept. 11 interview with CNBC, the former PayPal executive and co-founder of Bitcoin Lightning-focused payment service Lightspark said he believes Bitcoin's Lightning network could solve the cumbersome process of sending money across jurisdictions.  “If you were to stop [someone] and wanting to communicate with them you could ask them for an email address and you can email them easily the next minute [and] you could text them,” said Marcus.  However, there’s no universal protocol when it comes to transferring money over the internet, he said: “If you were to send them money [but] they were not a U.S citizen here using one of the same fintech ...

The Arbitrum-building Offchain Labs co-founder Ed Felten said its new tool would allow more seasoned devs to build EVMs, possibly making them safer. A recently released tool for Arbitrum developers could onboard more devs to Ethereum Virtual Machines (EVM) and improve its code, says Offchain Labs co-founder Ed Felten. Speaking to Cointelegraph at Korea Blockchain Week, Felten lauded Arbitrum Stylus, which Offchain released on a testnet on Aug. 31, allowing developers to use languages including Rust, C, and C++ to build Arbitrum apps. Felten said Stylus would allow non-Web3 native devs to “use the languages and the development tools that they're used to.” Today is Arbitrum Day Last year we took one giant leap with the launch of Arbitrum Nitro. Today we’re excited to announce that we are taking another big leap with the release of the code and public testnet for Arbitrum Stylus. https://t.co/NaxOuir5WH — Offchain Labs (@OffchainLabs) August 31, 2023 He added it would onboard “a l...

Clockwork’s planned closure comes about a year after receiving $4 million in a seed round led by Multicoin Capital. The developers behind Solana-based smart contract automation project Clockwork is set to turn off key infrastructure for the protocol at the end of October, citing “ limited commercial upside ." In a series of X (Twitter) posts on Aug. 27, Clockwork founder Nick Garfield Garfield said he and the team will stop active development of the protocol and on Oct. 31 will turn off its nodes on devnet and mainnet. Garfield cited “simple opportunity cost” as the reason for the team stepping back from Clockwork, admitting there were limited commercial benefits to continuing its development and the team had a growing interest in exploring other opportunities. Clockwork is a protocol that allows users to schedule transactions on the Solana network and create smart contracts automated to run applications when triggered by an event. Garfield said Clockwork’s code will remain ...

CME reported nearly half of its crypto volume year to date came from non-U.S. trading hours and around 11% from the Asia Pacific region. Derivatives marketplace CME Group is launching Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) reference rates for the Asia Pacific region, in another sign of growing institutional interest in crypto from Asia. On Aug. 16, derivatives marketplace CME Group said it’s partnered with crypto indices provider CF Benchmarks and on Sept. 11 to launch the two Asia Pacific-focused crypto reference rates. Reference rates are used as a credible source of a cryptocurrency’s price and are used — in CME’s case — to price settlements of crypto futures contracts. CME Group said from Sept. 11, Asia-based crypto institutions and investors will get two reference rates that will track BTC and ETH, which will be published once a day at 4 pm Hong Kong time. CME Group has existing reference rates for the two cryptocurrencies, but they are published at times more suitable to investors in...

The Bitcoin mining company kicked off the second phase of its mining campus in Georgia, gearing up for the next Bitcoin halving. Bitcoin miner CleanSpark has begun the second phase of operations at its mining campus in Washington, a city in the U.S. state of Georgia, reaching 8.0 exahashes per second (EH/s), halfway to its year-end target of 16 EH/s.  The second phase saw an investment of nearly $55 million in the site, including construction, infrastructure and machines. The facility , bought in August 2022 for $25.1 million, had 15,000 mining machines with a power capacity of 50 megawatts (MW). According to the company, the capital deployed expands its total power capacity to 86 MW. “Today, it’s 50 megawatts of new power added on to the 36 megawatts we previously had constructed there. So, there’s 86 megawatts, or 12 times the load provided by the city," said Matthew Schultz, CleanSpark’s executive chairman, during an investors' conference on July 13. According to Schu...

The company has raised $1.525 billion in funding since its inception last year. On June 29, Palo Alto-based Inflection AI announced the completion of a $1.3 billion raise led by Microsoft, Reid Hoffman, Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt and Nvidia. The new capital will be partly allocated to building a 22,000-unit Nvidia H100 Tensor GPU cluster, which the company claims is the largest in the world. The GPUs will be used to develop large-scale artificial intelligence models. Developers wrote:  “We estimate that if we entered our cluster in the recent TOP500 list of supercomputers, it would be the 2nd and close to the top entry, despite being optimized for AI — rather than scientific — applications." Inflection AI is also developing its own personal adjutant AI system dubbed “Pi." The firm explained that Pi is “a teacher, coach, confidante, creative partner, and sounding board” that can be accessed directly via social media or WhatsApp. The company’s total funding amount has reached...

The Terra Allies senior full stack engineering team, known as the Six Samurai, has presented their Q3 spend proposal, emphasizing their deep passion as Luna Classic holders. After a joint governance proposal on liquid staking derivatives in Terra Classic (LUNC), a new proposal emerged for the next quarter suggesting the formation of a dedicated team consisting of six senior full-stack engineers. The Terra Allies senior full stack engineering team — known as the “Six Samurai” — has presented their Q3 spend proposal, emphasizing their deep passion as LUNC holders. With a firm commitment to achieving “a true revival of the ecosystem ,” the team pledges to dedicate their efforts and expertise toward this goal. Terra was originally an ecosystem with several moving parts. However, its TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin and LUNA asset faced catastrophe in 2022, causing vast changes to the project. Terra now has a new blockchain called Terra 2.0 with a new asset that is also called LUNA but referred ...

Some Twitter users posted transactions showing large inflows of MULTI and FTM to Gate.io, leading them to perceive a connection between the two organizations. Centralized crypto exchange Gate.io denied rumors of illiquidity on May 31, stating that “there are no issues with our operations or withdrawals as rumored.” The statement comes after numerous Twitter channels had alleged that the exchange was experiencing insolvency due to an alleged connection between it and the cross-chain router protocol Multichain (MULTI). The Gate.io team said the company's "operations are running healthy" and that it is focused on establishing an affiliated trading platform in Hong Kong called Gate.HK. Rumors about Gate.io's insolvency erupted after a series of events relating to Multichain. On May 24, blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence posted data showing large inflows of MULTI to Gate.io, which Arkham said was related to rumors of the protocol's team "allegedly bein...

Starting May 31, TradeBlock will commence the official procedure of winding down its operations. Venture capital conglomerate Digital Currency Group (DCG) is closing its prime brokerage subsidiary TradeBlock, citing the state of the broader economy and an uncertain regulatory environment for crypto in the United States.  According to a May 25 report from Bloomberg, TradeBlock, led by Breanne Madigan, will officially begin the process of shutting down effective May 31. Barry Silbert’s crypto conglomerate, Digital Currency Group, is shuttering its TradeBlock institutional trading platform https://t.co/duE4YnknrR — Bloomberg Crypto (@crypto) May 25, 2023 “Due to the state of the broader economy and prolonged crypto winter, along with the challenging regulatory environment for digital assets in the US, we made the decision to sunset the institutional trading platform side of the business,” a spokesperson reportedly told Bloomberg.  DCG and its portfolio of companies have faced chal...

Palihapitiya did concede the crypto sector has “pushed more boundaries” than other startup sectors which may have attracted the SEC’s attention. Regulators in the United States have choked out the cryptocurrency sector to the point of death according to Bitcoin (BTC) bull and billionaire tech investor Chamath Palihapitiya. “Crypto is dead in America,” he boldly claimed in an April 22 episode of the All-In podcast. Palihapitiya’s comment came in response to the news that cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is now considering a move offshore. He pointed the finger at Gary Gensler, the Chair of the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC): “Crypto is dead in America. I mean now you have Gensler even blaming the banking crisis on crypto — so the United States authorities have firmly pointed their guns at crypto.” While Palihapitiya said that the U.S. likely views crypto as a threat to its “establishment,” the tech investor did however attribute some fault to the sector: “In fairness to the ...

Join Our Telegram channel to stay up to date on breaking news coverage While many are looking for ways to enter the crypto industry and attract crypto users and community members to their business , the situation is completely reversed when it comes to the Metropolitan Commercial Bank. The bank has decided to leave the crypto industry some time ago, and while doing so has been a process, its recent filing suggests that it is approaching its end. Metropolitan Commercial Bank wants out of crypto The bank explained in its recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that there is only $278.5 million in crypto-related deposits left. Once this final portion has been resolved, the bank will be completely out of the crypto market. According to Metropolitan Commercial Bank’s SEC filing, the termination of cryptocurrency-related services is almost complete, with only $278.5 million in cryptocurrency-related deposits remaining as of March 31, 2023. Beyond t...

At a London fintech conference, CEO Brian Armstrong disclosed that Coinbase might consider leaving the U.S. due to the lack of regulatory clarity in the country. United States cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is gearing up for a lengthy legal battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after the regulator warned the company of potential securities law violations, CEO Brian Armstrong told CNBC in an interview on April 18. Coinbase received a Wells notice from the U.S. SEC on March 22, indicating a possible enforcement action. The notice is usually the last step before the regulator files charges. In response, Armstrong expressed disappointment and revealed that the company had not received any clear details from the SEC about the alleged violations. He told CNBC: “We’ve met with them over 30 times in the last year … never got a single piece of feedback from them about what we can be doing better or differently, and then this Wells Notice arrived. I think we’re going to ha...

Once again, the Bitcoin creator's age increased by one year on their P2P Foundation profile — suggesting a birthday of April 5, 1975. The legendary creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto turned 48 years old today, at least according to information provided to the global network P2P Foundation when they registered. Though the identity of the Bitcoin (BTC) creator and thus their birthday remains unknown to the public, crypto enthusiasts took note of when Satoshi’s age increased by one year on their P2P Foundation profile — suggesting a birthday of April 5, 1975. Crypto users have suggested that the date — since Satoshi may represent a group of people rather than an individual — may come from a day in 1933 when United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt started taking the country off the gold standard, issuing an executive order for all U.S. citizens to return gold coins and gold certificates worth more than $100 to the Federal Reserve. Screenshot of Satoshi Nakamoto's profi...

Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino believes that USDT is becoming the “safest asset to hold in the world” amid the banking crisis. Cryptocurrency firm Tether, which issues the stablecoin USDT (USDT), expects to make a $700 million profit in the first quarter of 2023, matching the profits of the last quarter of 2022, Tether chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino told Cointelegraph at Paris Blockchain Week 2023. “I don’t have the final figures yet, but the profit of this quarter will probably match the last quarter of 2022,” Ardoino said, adding that in Q4 2022, Tether generated $700 million of profits. He added that Tether also has an “addition to that $950 million” at Dec. 31, 2022, noting: “So it means that our company equity will grow to $1.5 billion or $1.7 billion that are on top of the reserves that we have that are backing 100% of the assets.” Tether CTO went on to say that USDT is becoming more the “safest asset to hold in the world” because the company is different from the banks that a...

The company stated that it previously had a relationship with Signature but said it no longer has funds there. Crypto exchange Gemini had no funds at Signature Bank, and its Gemini US Dollar (GUSD) Stablecoin was not backed by any deposits at the failed bank, according to a March 13 official tweet from the company. 1/ It’s very sad to hear the news about Signature Bank. They have been incredible partners to Gemini and our industry for the better part of a decade. We have zero customer funds and zero Gemini dollar (GUSD) funds held at Signature Bank. — Gemini (@Gemini) March 13, 2023 The exchange further clarified that it had partnered with Signature in the past, stating, “They [Signature] have been incredible partners to Gemini and our industry for the better part of a decade.” However, all current reserves are held at only three United Stat banks — State Street Bank, Goldman Sachs and Fidelity — Gemini said. The company also stated that it is actively monitoring bank counte...

Blockchain’s transparency and traceability can aid sustainability and reduce carbon emissions for climate change. With rising temperatures, melting ice caps and more frequent and intense extreme weather events, the effects of climate change are becoming more and more obvious. There is an urgent need to prevent climate change, and numerous technologies and methods are being investigated to do so. Blockchain technology is one of these possibilities, and it has the potential to be very effective in the fight against climate change. At its core, blockchain is a decentralized ledger that can securely and transparently record transactions and store data. This technology has already been used in a variety of applications, from cryptocurrency to supply chain management. However, its potential applications in combating climate change are still being explored. Here are a few ways in which blockchain can help combat climate change. Bring it on, Global Warming! The United Citizens Organization la...

German asset manager DZ Bank collaborated with Swiss technology firm Metaco to add digital asset management into its services. DZ Bank, Germany’s second-largest bank in terms of asset size, will fully integrate digital currencies into its asset management services in collaboration with the digital asset firm Metaco. According to the announcement sent to Cointelegraph, DZ Bank selected Metaco's custody platform Harmonize to offer digital currencies to its institutional clients. Nils Christopeit, an executive at DZ Bank, said that the Metaco Harmonize platform suits their requirements in terms of security and scalability. “With the offering, we can build by using this technology, we trust to create a durable and fast-growing Business cooperation as well as an attractive solution for our clients that can also meet the requirements of digital currencies and decentralized financial instruments,” Christopeit added. Craig Perrin, the chief sales officer at Metaco, also commented on t...

The Shark Tank star said all unregulated exchanges are seeing “massive outflows” right now, and rightly so. Unregulated crypto exchanges will continue to fall like dominoes post-FTX, with plenty more “meltdowns” to come, warns Shark Tank star and investor Kevin O’Leary. O’Leary, a former spokesperson and proponent for the now-bankrupt FTX exchange, told Kitco anchor David Lin in a Jan. 17 interview that the collapse was just one in a long line of “unregulated exchanges” likely to fail: “If you’re asking me if there’s going to be another meltdown to zero? Absolutely. 100% it’ll happen, and it’ll keep happening over, and over and over again.” Unregulated exchanges are those that aren't subject to regular auditing, aren’t registered and regulated by a securities commission, and don’t operate under rules similar to traditional stock exchanges and brokerages. “Well, all of these exchanges, all the unregulated exchanges are having massive outflows right now. Smart money has got the joke...

Other new features include a subnet deployment service and GovCloud integration for compliance-friendly Dapps Ava Labs, developer of the Avalanche network (AVAX), has partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to implement new features intended to make running a node easier, according to a January 11 blog post from Ava Labs. The new Features include one -click node deployment through the AWS Marketplace, AWS GovCloud integration for Dapp developers concerned about compliance, and the ability to create Avalanche subnets with just a few clicks. It’s official! @Amazon #ChoseAvalanche to bring scalable blockchain solutions to enterprises and governments #AWS fully supports Avalanche’s infrastructure and dApp ecosystem, including one-click node deployment, offering the best tooling for these high compliance use cases. pic.twitter.com/syInSrU9XD — Avalanche (@avalancheavax) January 11, 2023 In the announcement post, Ava Labs CEO Emin Gün Sirer stated that AWS has been an important ...