More than six months after the collapse of the Terra ecosystem, South Korean authorities continue to investigate and freeze the funds of persons involved in Terra. After seizing 140 billion won ($108 million) from Terra co-founder Shin Hyun-Seong in November, the Seoul Southern District Court has recently ruled to confiscate more assets related to Terra.
Meta will continue to invest in VR (virtual reality) tech in 2023, according to statements made by Andrew Bosworth, head of Reality Labs, the metaverse division of the company. While Meta has made some changes and adapted to the current shaky economic atmosphere, Bosworth states that the company is still committed to its metaverse pivot.
Busan, the blockchain city of South Korea, has moved a step closer to forming a local crypto exchange, but it has dropped most of the global centralized exchange partners. The drastic decision comes in the wake of the recent colossal failure of centralized exchanges. The city announced the steering committee comprising 18 local blockchain experts
Bitcoin (BTC) recovered from an overnight dip on Dec. 20 as Japan’s central bank sparked chaos on global financial markets. Analyst likens BoJ policy to FTX Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD returning to near $17,000 after falling over 3% through the course of Dec. 19. The largest cryptocurrency benefitted from the
The Lightning Network strikes again. In a small yet significant development for Bitcoin (BTC), a new type of BTC address has been introduced: the “Lightning Address.” These unique identifiers are specifically designed for use on the Lightning Network, a layer-2 payment protocol that operates on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. A user-friendly addition to ways in which
FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) had a difficult day in court on Monday according to a number of accounts that said SBF’s local attorney seemed to be in conflict with his U.S. legal team. Furthermore, courtroom reports noted that SBF dozed off for an extended period of time and had to be shaken awake by
John Carmack, the founder of renowned company ID Software and executive consultant on VR for Meta, has announced he is leaving Meta. Among the reasons for this departure, Carmack signals that there are inefficiencies and self-sabotage at Meta that have affected the work that the company is doing regarding its VR (virtual reality) and metaverse
While self-custody is considered the ultimate way to secure one’s funds, many fail to acknowledge the risks associated with physically storing seed phrases. A search conducted by the State Police agency for Nevada ended up making a suspect’s seed phrase public after being picked up by the body cam. A viral video making rounds on
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has pushed for stricter regulations on centralized crypto actors but says decentralized protocols should be allowed to flourish given that open-source code and smart contracts are “the ultimate form of disclosure.” Armstrong shared his views on cryptocurrency regulation in a Dec. 20 Coinbase blog where he proposed how regulators can help
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has shared three “huge” opportunities yet to be realized in crypto: mass wallet adoption, inflation-resistant stablecoins and Ethereum-powered website logins. During an interview with Bankless co-owner David Hoffman, Buterin shared his outlook for the crypto industry in 2023, responding to Hoffman’s raised concern that the “adoption wave” for decentralized applications is
The government of India has provided some updates on its cryptocurrency bill and investigations of crypto exchanges in Lok Sabha, the lower house of India’s parliament. “Crypto assets are by definition borderless and require international collaboration to prevent regulatory arbitrage,” said the minister of state in the Ministry of Finance. Indian Government Answers Questions About
Crypto-users may one day be able to automatically pay their electricity and telephone bills through their self-custodial crypto wallets, according to payments giant Visa. In a Dec. 20 blog post, Visa’s crypto thought leadership team proposed a solution that would allow providers to automaticall “pull” funds from users’ Ethereum-powered crypto wallets, without requiring the user
Bankrupt crypto lending platform BlockFi has filed a motion requesting authority from the United States Bankruptcy Court to allow its users to withdraw digital assets currently locked up in BlockFi Wallets. In a motion filed on Dec .19 with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the District of New Jersey, the lender asked the court for
Tesla CEO and Twitter chief Elon Musk has promised to step down as head of Twitter. As the billionaire seeks a new CEO to run the social media platform, privacy advocate Edward Snowden threw his name in the hat, stating that he takes payment in bitcoin. “The question is not finding a CEO, the question
North Carolina Representative Patrick McHenry, the current ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee and chair starting in January, has reintroduced legislation aimed at creating innovation offices within government agencies dealing with financial services. In a Dec. 19 announcement, McHenry said he had reintroduced the Financial Services Innovation Act, a bill he previously pushed
On Dec. 17, reports detail that residents in Lebanon have been staging sit-ins and protests at banks in order to access their own savings accounts. Since the economic collapse in 2019, Lebanon’s banks froze Lebanese bank accounts, and a number of branches have remained closed indefinitely. The deprivation of wealth has caused a few impoverished
Five wallets tied to the defunct Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX, previously thought to be inaccessible, have just been spotted moving around $1.7 million worth of Bitcoin after years of dormancy. Crypto researcher ZachXBT alerted the crypto community in a Twitter post on Dec. 19, highlighting the five wallets have transferred around 104 Bitcoin (BTC) on
It would be ideal for the industry for Congress to weigh in on its fate rather than leaving it to unelected regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). To that end, representatives from both sides of the aisle have introduced bills designed to offer “regulatory clarity.” The moderate position seems to favor placing crypto
Staffers at the Bank of Canada released an analytic note on fiat-referenced crypto assets, otherwise known as stablecoins, Dec. 19. In addition to a review of mechanisms for creating and distributing stablecoins and a list of the potential risks and benefits they involve, the note expressed the authors’ support for further regulation of the crypto
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, currently in the custody of Bahamian authorities, has reportedly agreed to be extradited to the United States to face charges. According to a Dec. 19 report from Reuters, Bankman-Fried’s legal team said it planned to prepare documents to have him reappear before the Bahamas Magistrate Court sometime this week. The