Bitcoin's Price Surges & $4.6 Billion ETH Destroyed!
TL;DR
Major Headlines
Gemini Lays Off Another 10% of its Staff
Crypto lender Gemini is about to go into its third round of layoffs since June 2022. Gemini has been involved in crypto lender Genesis Global Capital's woes. It is estimated that approximately 27,000 jobs in the crypto industry have been lost since April 2022. The ongoing crypto winter has forced other companies to lay off their staff. Gemini and Genesis' yield-generating Earn program promised to pay back as much as 8% of interest rates to depositors. Read more. . .
BlockFi Exec Petitions for “Key Employee Bonuses”
BlockFi's chief people officer Megan Crowell petitioned a court to allow BlockFi to give bonuses for "key employees". Crowell argues that if BlockFi doesn't provide financial incentives, the crypto lender might not be able to make it through its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. BlockFi was one of many crypto firms hit heavily by FTX's collapse in November. Sources: BlockFi is selling $160 million in BTC mining-backed loans.? Read more. . .
$4.6 Billion ETH Burned Since EIP-1559
Since the launch of EIP-1559, the network is 'burning' (permanently removing from supply) ETH at an unprecedented rate. As of now, a total of 2.8 million ETH has been burnt – an amount equalling $4.6 billion at today's prices. Read more. .?
Bank of America Commits to CBDCs, Calls It “The Future of Money”
Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and stablecoins are the natural evolution of money and payments. Both use blockchain technology to increase efficiency and lower costs. The introduction of CBDCs could also lead to a loss of monetary autonomy, privacy and equality among countries worldwide. Read more. . .
Sam Bankman-Fried Insists that FTX US is “Fully Solvent”
FTX founder and ex-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried denies claims by FTX's restructuring team that the company's US operations are missing millions of customer funds. Insists that FTX US has 'hundreds of millions of dollars in excess of customer balances'. FTX founder Bankman-Fried's criminal charges from the US Department of Justice (DoJ) include conspiracy to commit wire fraud.? Read more. . .
China Experiments with Digital Yuan and Smart Contracts Through E-Commerce Apps
China is recruiting the help of Meituan to test out smart contract functionality for its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC): the digital Yuan. The government has allowed a daily prize of 8,888RMB ($1,312) to be divided up between users. Read more. . .
Coinbase To Terminate Operations in Japan
Coinbase has ceased operations in Japan. Customers will have until February 16th, 2023 JST to liquidate their JPY and crypto holdings. The company had originally planned to expand to Japan since the 2018 bear market. Circumstances for shutting down business in Japan include facing difficulties in the crypto industry, and a "weak crypto market". Coinbase announced its second major wave of layoffs on January 10, 2023.? Read more. . .
Crypto Mining Stocks Surge After Bitcoin’s Comeback
Crypto mining stocks have shown their best monthly performance after a year of dire market conditions. During the first two weeks of 2023, Bitfarms recorded a 140% surge in prices. The top 10 debtors of Bitcoin mining collectively face nearly $2.6 billion in liabilities. Read more. . .
Ethereum Layer 2 Protocol Optimism Outperforms Arbitrum In Transaction Volumes
Optimism has surpassed Arbitrum in transactional volume since December. Optimism's OP token ranks at #84 on CoinMarketCap, and has seen gains of over 200%. Arbitrum however does not have its own token, and traders are looking for new ways to gain exposure to the protocol. Optimism is the second-most popular layer-2 optimistic rollup network, and runs on a validation mechanism called 'single-round fraud proof'. Arbitrum has a clear lead in the markets with a total value locked (TVL) of $1.1b USD, whereas Optimism has $592.22m USD. Read more. . .