With investor confidence seemingly at an all-time low thanks to the recent slew of insolvencies, a new saga seems to be now unfolding in real time. This one involves crypto exchange Gemini’s Winklevoss twins and Barry Silbert, CEO of Digital Currency Group (DCG) — the parent firm behind crypto market maker and lender Genesis. On Jan. 2, Cameron Winklevoss posted an open letter to Barry Silbert reminding him of the fact that it had been “47 days since Genesis halted withdrawals” while also providing a blunt, seemingly confrontational assessment of DCG’s existing business practices: “For the past six weeks, we have done everything we can to engage with you in a good faith and collaborative manner in order to reach a consensual resolution for you to pay back the $900 million that you owe.” Th...
Peter Thiel-backed city-building startup Praxis has raised $15 million in Series A funding from a variety of crypto venture firms led by Paradigm Capital, Sam Bankman-Fried‘s Alameda Research and Three Arrows Capital. Dryden Brown of New York University and Charlie Callinan of Boston College co-founded Praxis, formerly Bluebook Cities, in 2019. they described their goal as: “building the city-crypto state to realize a more vital future,” according to the company website. Praxis wants to pivot away from “artificially scarce metaverses” to build a city-state that is organized around “shared values,” rather than the “labor market principles of the Industrial Age.” The cryptocurrency-run city will reportedly focus heavily on functional architecture and environmental technology. Money made from...