Over the weekend, the spotlight in cryptocurrencies shifted from FTX’s problems to those for Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. The exchange, which does not have a headquarters, is attempting to take charge of the crypto ecosystem after FTX’s shenanigans have left it without a representative. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has replaced FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried as the public face of cryptocurrencies. … Continue reading Notes 12/12: Binance’s Problems Multiply

What to make of the action at Grayscale’s Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC) and Ethereum Trust (ETH)? Both are trading at deep discounts to the price of their underlying assets. There’s talk that they might be affected by the liquidity crisis afflicting crypto and that they might wind down soon. Why Does GBTC Trade at a Discount? Since their launch (GBTC in 2013 and ETH in … Continue reading Notes 12/8: GBTC Discount, Withdrawing Staked Ether

Disney veteran Bob Iger became a boomerang CEO last week, two years after he retired from the company. After flirting with a bankruptcy filing earlier this year, crypto lending form BlockFi has also boomeranged right back to towards it. The lending firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in its home state and Bahamas yesterday. The filing was expected since it had documented exposure to FTX, … Continue reading BlockFi Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

The Digital Currency Group (DCG), a crypto conglomerate with interests in media, trading, and lending, is estimating a 20 percent decline in its revenue to $800 million this year due to the crypto contagion, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. DCG owns Genesis Global Capital, a lending firm, that is supposed to be in talks for an emergency loan of $1 billion … Continue reading Notes 11/23: DCG and Genesis, An Irrepressible CEO, and Huobi’s Mystery

The Proof of Reserves (PoR) train – a supposed panacea to crypto’s transparency problem – has gathered momentum among cryptocurrency exchanges in recent times. But it seems to have run out of steam at the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). The world’s biggest bitcoin trading vehicle cited “security concerns” and refused to divulge the contents of its trust in a Proof of Reserves report. Discounts to … Continue reading Notes 11/21: GBTC Discount, FTX Customers

Regulation can’t come soon enough to cryptocurrencies. The asset class, which surpassed $1 trillion in market capitalization during the pandemic, seems to be imploding under its own bloated valuations. FTX, the world’s fourth largest (or third largest, depending on the source) cryptocurrency exchange, has become the latest crypto entity to fall by the wayside. The value of its native token FTT has plunged and the … Continue reading Notes 11/10: FTX Crashes

A bridge connecting the BNB Beacon Chain, home to Binance’s native token BNB, to the Binance smart chain, was hacked last Friday. The hacker did not steal funds; In fact, they minted $570 million worth of BNB and, reportedly, got away with $100 million worth of tokens. BNB validators – systems responsible for approving transactions and creating new blocks – shut down in response to … Continue reading Notes 10/10: BNB Hack, MakerDAO Invests in Treasuries

Bitcoin price rose in tandem with equities this morning. The cryptocurrency, which had traded below $20,000 most of last week, breached that mark and climbed to a high of $20,356.87 at 8:57 EDT. It has retrenched those gains, since, and is currently trading at $18,878, down almost 1.47% from its price the same time a day ago. In explaining the price movements of cryptocurrencies, analysts … Continue reading Notes 9/27: Bitcoin Price, Ethereum PoW Hash Rate