crypto
Cointelegraph Editor-in-Chief Kristina Cornèr talks digital currencies with Mastercard at Global Impact Week
Global Impact Week, an industry event which features fintech, policy, climate, healthcare, and media innovations, kicked off in Valencia, Spain, and is ongoing from Dec. 14 to 18. Recent figures put attendance at 100,000, with 500 speakers and 150 live sessions. Cointelegraph’s Editor-in-Chief Kristina Cornèr has been in virtual attendance at the event, moderating the panel titled Fireside Chat: Fintech Defining the Future with Mastercard’s executive VP of market development Liza Oakes. Here’s what they had to say: Kristina Cornèr: In November, Mastercard announced the launch of crypto-funded payments cards. How do you see this opportunity develop in the next few months or years? Liz Oakes: We started the service in fiat money. You can start by using Mastercard to purchas...
Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman’s Thirty-Five Ventures to create NFT drops with Coinbase
On Wednesday, Thirty Five Ventures, a venture capital firm co-founded by NBA star Kevin Durant and sports manager Rich Kleiman, announced a business partnership with Coinbase. Under the agreement, Thirty Five Ventures will work jointly with Coinbase to create nonfungible tokens, or NFT, drops, storytelling content about NFTs and crypto, as well as showcasing Coinbase’s recent growth in the sector. According to the announcement, there will additionally be a philanthropic integration with the Kevin Durant Charity Foundation. Coinbase is currently the third-largest centralized cryptocurrency exchange in the world by trading volume. At the time of publication, there is currently a waitlist of over 2.6 million users for Coinbase NFT. The company said it is currently designing a self-...
Gravity Bridge brings Ethereum to the multichain
On Wednesday, the Interchain Foundation, a Swiss non-profit serving as a steward of the Cosmos (ATOM) ecosystem, announced the launch of Gravity Bridge as built by decentralized internet service provider Althea. Gravity Bridge enables the transfer of ERC-20 tokens between the Ethereum (ETH) and Cosmos blockchains. During its initial stages, Gravity Bridge will operate as a standalone chain before migrating to Cosmos Hub early next year. Its key technical features include interchangeable token issuance across both chains and the support of Ethereum to Cosmos oracles. Simpier issued the following statement regarding the launch: In this interoperable ecosystem, Gravity Bridge’s place is a foundational piece of infrastructure, available to all Cosmos chains openly, purpose-built to update and ...
Only a paper moon: Bitcoin price briefly shows $870B on CoinMarketCap
Crypto traders experienced a moment of joy, followed by confusion, when a glitch caused several data aggregators to briefly display enormous gains for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and other cryptocurrencies. CoinMarketCap and several other price indexes showed Bitcoin’s price closing to $900 billion as ETH showed over $81 billion. The momentary glitch also impacted Cointelegraph’s price indexes. Hey @CoinMarketCap, you doing ok there buddy? pic.twitter.com/WfXwpSmURU — Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) December 14, 2021 Displayed numbers didn’t affect the trading prices on exchanges, and the platforms quickly solved the issue. CoinMarketCap explained on Twitter that the data provider is rebooting its servers as part of the remediation plan. “CoinMarketCap is now back to normal after an issue th...
The h.wood Group Announces Plans for First-Ever Metaverse Nightclub, Sunset Boulevard’s Bootsy Bellows
Los Angeles hospitality company The h.wood Group is looking to maintain their prestigious status within the world’s next technological frontier: the metaverse. The company, led by John Terzian and Brian Toll, is aiming to take The h.wood Group’s Bootsy Bellows nightclub brand to the digital realm. Working alongside Alex Shultz, the founder of Looks Rare Studio, they’ve already ushered in several promising developments to cement the brand’s digital future. The vaudeville-inspired club interior was notably modeled after Frank Sinatra’s Palm Springs home. Co-owned by actor David Arquette, Bootsy Bellows sits on one of the priciest plots of land in the U.S. on Sunset Boulevard. However, a new kind of land grab is happening befor...
Recruiters say crypto firms seeking leadership in engineering, legal and finance
The crypto industry has enjoyed astronomical growth over the last couple of years. Now, talent recruitment experts say that crypto firms are in dire need of good leadership to scale their businesses. Previously seen as a nascent market, crypto is now a fast-maturing industry that attracts a lot of talent, David Richardson, partner at executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles, told Cointelegraph. “It’s all driven by the growth rate of these firms and hiring leaders that can help them continue to scale and continue to keep pace with the growth rate in the business,” he said. Crypto companies are looking for executives who have scaled businesses successfully. They are ready to onboard such talent without prior knowledge of crypto or digital currency, added Heidrick & Struggles ...
5 times quickfire crypto traders bought the news for double (or triple) digit profits
Why do crypto traders “buy the rumor, sell the news”? Simple. Because whispers of exchange listings or big-name partnerships reach very few people… while an article in Cointelegraph can reach hundreds of thousands of crypto enthusiasts in seconds. While insiders are quietly amassing tokens on rumors, the rest of us are completely ignorant of what may be coming. But with rumors, there are no guarantees. Which can lead to disappointment and serious loss of investment for those traders who gamble that they’re true… and end up wrong. So how can you possibly compete with thousands of other market participants when important news actually breaks? You’d have to be one of the very first to know in order to catch the price before it spikes. Look at the examples below — the time between a closely-gu...
Assembly announces $100M capital raise, receives praise from Iota co-founder Dominik Schiener
On Friday, Assembly, a decentralized layer one smart contract network built within the Iota ecosystem, announced it had raised $100 million from private investors, including LD Capital, HyperChain Capital and Huobi Ventures. The project stated that the funds will be used to accelerate the development of decentralized finance protocols, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and play-to-earn crypto games. Iota is a blockchain designed for facilitating Internet-of-Things transactions. Its proprietary technology consists of a system of decentralized acyclic graphs that can connect to one another in multiple vectors as opposed to in-series as with a regular blockchain. As a result, one new block can validate two other blocks, leading to self-sustainable transaction verification. This allegedly leads to the...
Former SushiSwap CTO writes short reflection about leadership failures at blockchain DEX
On Friday, Joseph Delong, former chief technology officer of decentralized exchange, or DEX, SushiSwap, published a brief reflection of experiences during his tenure. Delong unilaterally resigned two days prior, citing internal structural chaos among developers behind the popular DEX. In explaining his decision, Delong outlined failures to scale operations, lack of organization skills, problematic contributors, and poor communication as the primary reasons. On Twitter and among blockchain personalities alike, Delong received mostly praises for coming public with his experience and learning from his mistakes. According to Delong, he did not inform the Sushi community when problems began to surface amongst developers he managed, nor did he engage with users enough to build rapport for the pr...
Don Diablo’s $1.2 Million NFT to Be Displayed Alongside Works By Basquiat, Banksy, Andy Warhol
Don Diablo‘s latest groundbreaking NFT venture comes with a spaceship-like physical structure, the largest to ever be attached to a tokenized collectible sale. The NFT, dubbed “HΞXHIBIT III,” was recently sold to a museum collection that houses original works by the likes of Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Banksy. Auctioned off by Sotheby’s for $1.2 million, the project marks a milestone for Diablo and further legitimizes the digital art world in which the EDM producer is an unquestioned pioneer. Don Diablo’s “HΞXHIBIT III” physical NFT. c/o Press Also making history is the scale of “HΞXHIBIT III,” which comes paired with one of the largest physical art pieces to ever be attached to an NFT. ...
Thief Steals Charitable Daft Punk Artwork and Sells It for $12,000 In Crypto
A Daft Punk hobby artist has fallen victim to the dark side of the NFT gold rush. The artist, who works under the pseudonym sodasprouts, had created bespoke digital artwork depicting Daft Punk to promote “One More Time,” a charitable fanzine dedicated to the legendary electronic music duo. However, she claims her work was stolen and subsequently sold as an NFT for $12,000 worth of cryptocurrency. All profits from the zine benefit The Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for the LGBTQ+ community. “That’s $12,000 that could have gone to charity, $12,000 that could have paid for my spring semester of college or that could have gone to rent,” sodasprouts tweeted. “I’m sure more has been stolen.” Re...
VRJAM Launches Public Token Sale to Revolutionize Metaverse Music Experiences
The concept of the metaverse and speculation about its impact on the future of the music industry have been buzzworthy topics throughout 2021, and those conversations are only just beginning. According to EMERGEN Research, the current $47 billion metaverse sector is expected to continue growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 43.3% through 2028. And with a long runway of upside ahead, VRJAM is wasting no time in an effort to become an early frontrunner in the emerging metaverse concert space. In partnership with Enjin.io, VRJAM is taking a multi-faceted, artist-first approach in delivering turnkey-style NFT solutions and providing a platform for virtual concerts that are easily monetized by performers. VRJAM seeks to bring artists closer to their fans by providing the...
