Autor Cointelegraph By Jesse Coghlan

Celsius founder reportedly withdrew $10M before bankruptcy filing: FT

Celsius founder reportedly withdrew $10M before bankruptcy filing: FT

Uverejnil používateľ | okt 3, 2022 |

Celsius Network founder and former CEO Alex Mashinsky allegedly withdrew $10 million from the crypto lending platform just weeks before the company froze customer funds and declared bankruptcy.The withdrawal was cited by sources from the Financial Times who said Mashinsky withdrew the funds in “mid to late May” prior to the Jun. 12 pause on all withdraws. Celsius was a popular crypto-lending platform with 1.7 million customers and $25 billion in assets under management but the prevailing poor crypto market conditions eventually led the company to a $2.85 billion gap in its balance sheet.This led Celsius to pause customer withdraws in June before filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy in July with Mashinksy attempting to restructure and revive the company to be based around crypto custody services.The withdrawal raises questions about whether Mashinsky knew ahead of time that the company would be freezing customer funds and withdrawals. However, a spokesperson for Celsius told FT that the founder withdrew cryptocurrency at the time to pay state and federal taxes.“In the nine months leading up to that withdrawal, he consistently deposited cryptocurrency in amounts that totaled what he withdrew in May,” the spokesperson said, adding Mashinsky and his family still had $44 million worth of crypto frozen on the platform.Meanwhile, sources told the FT the withdrawal was pre-planned in line with Mashinsky’s estate planning. Roughly $8 million worth of assets withdrawn were used to pay income taxes arising from the yield the assets produced, and the remaining $2 million was made up of the platform’s native token CEL.Related: Learn from Celsius: Stop exchanges from taking your moneyThe questions will likely be answered when the transactions in question will be presented by Celsius in court in the next few days as part of disclosures by the crypto-lender regarding its finances.There’s also a possibility Mashinsky could be forced to return the $10 million as in the 90 days leading up to a bankruptcy filing, payments by a company can be reversed to benefit creditors under United States laws.Mashinsky resigned as CEO of Celsius on Sept. 27 saying his role “has become an increasing distraction” but said he would continue to focus on helping find a plan to return funds to creditors.

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Nifty News: Enter the afterlife in style, Solana NFT game demo hits Epic store and more

Nifty News: Enter the afterlife in style, Solana NFT game demo hits Epic store and more

Uverejnil používateľ | sep 30, 2022 |

The company behind the Spartan Race has released a nonfungible token (NFT) collection which will immortalize the names of the initial holders in stone, with plans to build a 35-foot (10.5 meter) statue in Ancient Sparta encircled with 15,000 name-engraved stones.Spartan founder and CEO Joe De Sena plans to bury his ashes under his stone at the site dubbed the “Spartan 300 Memorial” which will pay homage to the ancient Battle of Thermopylae in which 300 Spartans were said to h fought and were killed.Of the 15,000 NFTs, 300 will be “Super Rare” with holders of that NFT type given the option of spreading their ashes over the memorial after their death, which could see it become one of the first NFTcollections to grant someone a final resting place.Owners can sell their NFT on markets such as OpenSea, but it’s unclear if this burial perk is transferred to the new owner.The passes sell for $3,000 and also permit holders up to nine years of unlimited access to all Spartan brand events, including its 70-hour long “Death Race” and its “Tough Mudder” obstacle race, as well as with exclusive merch drops.NFT holders will also be granted access to an exclusive yearly event in which they can train with pro athletes along with testing the fitness brands’ products and obstacles.Star Atlas launches demo on Epic Games storeSolana (SOL) based NFT game Star Atlas has launched its first playable pre-alpha on Sept. 29 through the Epic Games store for owners of its NFTs, allowing them to view in-game vehicles they’ve purchased within the games’ environment.Star Atlas is an open-world space exploration strategy game set in the year 2620 in which players can buy and sell NFTs representative of vehicles such as spaceships, players also mine for resources to sell on the in-game marketplace and join political factions.The “Showroom” pre-alpha demo is powered by the Unreal Engine 5, a 3D creation tool released in April by Epic Games, and is used in its flagship game Fortnite.The Star Atlas developers have also launched an open source tool, The Foundation Software Development Kit (F-KIT), which allows Unreal Engine 5 developers to more easily integrate their titles into the Solana blockchain.Build-A-Bear enters Web3Stuffed animal retailer Build-A-Bear Workshop is entering Web3, partnering with NFT marketplace Sweet to launch its first NFT collection in celebration of its 25th year in business.The NFTs will be minted on the Polygon (MATIC) blockchain and will begin with the October auction of a physical and digital bundle which includes a unique physical teddy bear studded with Swarovski crystals along with its NFT counterpart.A second November auction will offer five silver teddy bear NFTs also accompanied by matching physical counterparts before a December launch of 5,000 NFTs are made available for public mint.CryptoPunk sells for 3,300 ETHA rare CryptoPunk has sold on NFT marketplace OpenSea for 3,300 Ethereum (ETH), worth over $4.4 million, to an anonymous buyer on Sept. 28 marking the fourth-highest sale in terms of ETH spent according to data from DappRadar.Related: NFT trading volume plunges 98% from January despite rise in adoptionCryptoPunk #2924 features rare attributes such as being an “ape” type, of which only 24 exist in the 10,000-strong collection. It also has one “accessory” — a hoodie which is a rarity in the collection, and more so as it is the only “ape” to feature one. The most expensive CryptoPunk ever sold was purchased for 124,457 ETH, worth over $530 million at the time of purchase in Oct. 2021More Nifty News:Warner Music Group announced a partnership with NFT marketplace OpenSea to allow select artists to launch NFT collections on customizable and dedicated landing pages to build their Web3 presence.Facebook and Instagram users in 100 countries can connect their crypto wallets to post and share NFTs across both platforms with parent company Meta supporting digital assets from the Ethereum, Polygon and Flow blockchains.

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‘I've done nothing wrong’ — Lark Davis denies ‘pump-and-dump’ allegations

‘I've done nothing wrong’ — Lark Davis denies ‘pump-and-dump’ allegations

Uverejnil používateľ | sep 30, 2022 |

Crypto influencer Lark Davis has refuted new allegations from Twitter “on-chain sleuth” ZachXBT of shilling “low cap projects” to his audience “just to dump them shortly after.”Davis was responding to a Twitter thread posted by Zach on Sept. 29, containing allegations that he profited over $1.2 million through selling tokens from crypto projects which he was allegedly paid to promote without disclosing.In a 17-part thread, Zach pointed to eight examples of what is supposedly Davis’ crypto wallet receiving tokens from new crypto projects, with Davis subsequently tweeting or posting a video on them, and then selling the tokens shortly after.Speaking to Cointelegraph, Zach said he received requests from multiple people who lost money on the tokens shared by Davis asking to “take a closer look” at him.“Lark managed to dump with size on low cap projects time after time,” Zach said, adding they’ve investigated other crypto influencers, but the alleged amount was “never at this magnitude.”Zach alleged in the thread that the largest gain to Davis came from receiving 120,000 SHOPX tokens, with Davis tweeting hours later about the project whilst apparently simultaneously selling the tokens, gaining $435,000.6/ Example 3: $SHOPXa) Mar 31, 2021 at 3:31 pm UTC Lark receives 120k SHOPXb) Apr 1, 2021 at 12:32 am UTC Lark Tweets about the projectc) Meanwhile Lark is in the process of dumping all his 120k SHOPX for over $435k USD (finishes on 4/2) pic.twitter.com/mc3HvHrCdI— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) September 29, 2022This example along with seven others Zach presented purportedly shows Davis making over $1.2 million in a similar pattern.“Participating in seed rounds & sharing projects you genuinely like is completely fine as long as it’s done in a transparent manner,” Zach tweeted, adding:“This is not the case as Lark has a pattern of dumping his discounted launchpad bags right after shills across YT (YouTube), Twitter, & [his] newsletter.”Cointelegraph requested comment from Davis and was directed to a series of tweets posted late on Sept. 29 in which Davis calls the allegations made by Zach “ridiculous” and provided a response to each example Zach alleged he profited from.Related: ‘Far too easy’ — Crypto researcher’s fake Ponzi raises $100K in hours“I got nothing for free,” Davis tweeted to his over one million followers, adding his token sale investments are “always disclosed” on his YouTube channel of 485,000 subscribers and shared with his followers “well before the launch.”For the sales in question, I want to be clear that: 1. I disclosed that I was an investor when I initially discussed them2. I talked about it before the token sale, to give you a chance to get into the sale. 3. I paid for all of these coins, I got nothing for free.— Lark Davis (@TheCryptoLark) September 29, 2022

Davis added he was following an investing strategy he teaches, selling the tokens upon launch, which he claims is a common investing practice for token sales. Davis said the amounts he sold were “nowhere near enough to dump the price” of the tokens.“I teach this concept frequently to you all, none of this should be a surprise if you have been paying attention,” he tweeted. “What you choose to do with my opinions is completely up to you.”

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WSJ: Terraform Labs claims case against Do Kwon is ‘highly politicized’

WSJ: Terraform Labs claims case against Do Kwon is ‘highly politicized’

Uverejnil používateľ | sep 29, 2022 |

Terraform Labs, the company behind the development of the Terra (LUNA) blockchain said South Korea’s case against its co-founder Do Kwon has become political, alleging prosecutors expanded the definition of a security in response to public pressure.“We believe that this case has become highly politicized, and that the actions of the Korean prosecutors demonstrate unfairness and a failure to uphold basic rights guaranteed under Korean law,” a Terraform Labs spokesman said to The Wall Street Journal on Sept. 28.South Korean prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Kwon on Sept. 14 for violations of the countries capital markets laws, but Terraform Labs laid out a defense arguing Terra (now known as Terra Luna Classic (LUNC)) isn’t legally a security, meaning it isn’t covered by capital markets laws.The spokesman alleged prosecutors of expanding the definition of a security due to intense public pressure from the collapse of Terra and its connected algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST), now known as TerraClassicUSD (USTC).“We believe, as do most in industry, that Luna Classic is not, and has never been, a security, despite any changes in interpretation that Korean financial officials may have recently adopted.” The argument by Terraform Labs’ stems from the unclear regulatory status of cryptocurrencies and the companies who create and issue them. Currently, capital market and electronic securities’ systems in the country don’t include a legal definition of non-standardized securities issued through a blockchain.Related: South Korea’s financial watchdog wants to ‘quickly’ review crypto legislationThe country is moving to regulate the space with its financial regulator, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) preparing guidelines for security tokens by the end of 2022. A leaked government report in May further revealed South Korea’s plans to roll out a crypto framework by 2024.Kwon’s whereabouts remain unknown and Terraform Labs did not comment on his location citing physical security risks, but Kwon says he’s not making an effort to hide even after a notice was sent to global authorities by Interpol.

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SWIFT partners with Chainlink for cross-chain crypto transfer project

SWIFT partners with Chainlink for cross-chain crypto transfer project

Uverejnil používateľ | sep 29, 2022 |

Interbank messaging system SWIFT has partnered with price oracle provider Chainlink (LINK) to work on a proof-of-concept (POC) project which would allow traditional finance firms the ability to transact across blockchain networks.Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov announced the project at its SmartCon 2022 Conference in New York on Sept. 28 alongside SWIFT strategy director Jonathan Ehrenfeld Solé.SWIFT is using the Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) in an initial proof of concept.CCIP will enable SWIFT messages to instruct on-chain token transfers, helping the SWIFT network become interoperable across all blockchain environments.https://t.co/8GOBNhzwCk pic.twitter.com/Pvm0Cex45e— Chainlink (@chainlink) September 28, 2022At the conference, Solé said there is “undeniable interest from institutional investors into digital assets” adding these traditional finance players want access to digital and traditional assets on one platform.The POC utilizes Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) allowing SWIFT messages to instruct token transfers across nearly every blockchain network which, according to Nazarov, will accelerate adoption of distributed ledger technology (DLT) blockchains across capital markets and traditional finance.The SWIFT interbank messaging system is the most widely used platform for traditional cross-border fiat transactions, connecting over 11,000 banks around the world. In August the system recorded an average of 44.8 million messages per day.However, transactions on SWIFT’s network can take several days to complete and the company has also been exploring blockchain and DLT technology and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) to facilitate faster payments.Chainlink added this collaboration with SWIFT allows financial institutions to gain blockchain capability without replacing, developing, and integrating new connectivity into legacy systems, something it said would require substantial modifications with an “exceptionally high” cost.Related: Why interoperability is the key to blockchain technology’s mass adoptionMastercard CEO Michael Miebach said at a panel session in May on CBDCs that he doesn’t expect SWIFT to exist in five years, likely due to the rising competition from CBDCs for cross-border payments and settlements.Mastercard later clawed back the statement, noting that Miebach simply meant that SWIFT’s operations will continue to evolve from its current form. 

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