Tag: CoinDesk

Binance Abandons Plans to Buy FTX

Binance has abandoned plans to purchase FTX, despite being partly to blame for its rival’s woes.

FTX’s value has plummeted and sparked liquidity concerns following a CoinDesk report revealing that much of Alameda Research’s value was based on illiquid tokens, such as FTX’s FTT. Both companies were founded by FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. Following the revelation, Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao announced he would divest his FTT holdings, driving FTX down even more.

Despite initially striking a deal to purchase FTX, Binance has reversed course, deciding the deal is untenable.

“As a result of corporate due diligence, as well as the latest news reports regarding mishandled customer funds and alleged U.S. agency investigations, we have decided that we will not pursue the potential acquisition of FTX.com,” a Binance spokesperson told CoinDesk.

“In the beginning, our hope was to be able to support FTX’s customers to provide liquidity, but the issues are beyond our control or ability to help. Every time a major player in an industry fails, retail consumers will suffer. We have seen over the last several years that the crypto ecosystem is becoming more resilient and we believe in time that outliers that misuse user funds will be weeded out by the free market.

“As regulatory frameworks are developed and as the industry continues to evolve toward greater decentralization, the ecosystem will grow stronger,” the spokesperson added.

November 9, 2022
Bitcoin Hits Record High

Bitcoin reached an all-time high Wednesday, crossing the $66,000 threshold and blowing past the previous high of $64,889 in April.

Bitcoin is the most well-known and most-valuable cryptocurrency. Like the entire crypto market, it has had its ups and downs over the last few months. Threats of regulation, a ban in China and concerns over the environmental impact of mining have all taken a toll on the price.

As CoinDesk points out, the latest rally is likely being driven by “the launch of the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF, the first exchange-traded fund approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to invest in bitcoin futures.”

Now that Bitcoin has pushed past its previous high, it may have enough momentum to continue climbing.

October 20, 2021
PayPal May Buy Cryptocurrency Firm Curv

PayPal is looking to expand its cryptocurrency services with a possible purchase of crypto custody firm Curv.

PayPal only recently embraced cryptocurrency, making it possible for users to buy, sell and hold it in November 2019. Since that time, however, crypto has seen more mainstream adoption, with Tesla purchasing $1.5 billion in bitcoin, and other companies looking at similar options.

Curv was founded in 2018, and specializes in helping companies transfer and hold various digital currencies, making it an ideal candidate for PayPal’s crypto goals.

According to CoinDesk, the report could be worth $500 million.

“PayPal is buying Curv for $500 million,” a source told CoinDesk on Monday. “From where I’m hearing it, I’m pretty sure it’s true.”

If the deal goes through, it could help make PayPal a powerhouse in the crypto market.

March 3, 2021
Vodafone Leaves Facebook’s Libra Association

In the latest blow to Facebook’s Libra Association, British telecom conglomerate Vodafone has announced it is withdrawing, according to CoinDesk.

Facebook created the association to oversee the Libra cryptocurrency the company is trying to launch. The company’s efforts have been met with significant skepticism and scrutiny by governments around the world. With Facebook’s privacy track record, governments are reluctant to trust it with something as important as currency. As a result of that scrutiny, several high-profile companies had already withdrawn from the association.

Vodafone made it clear to CoinDesk that they are not leaving the association over regulatory concerns, although their reason should be equally concerning to Facebook. Vodafone is leaving “to focus on expanding its own payment service, M-Pesa, beyond the six African countries where it’s currently available. It’s not burning bridges — the company said it wouldn’t rule out the possibility of ‘future cooperation.’”

Many of the Libra Association members are companies that have the financial resources and industry ties to launch their own competing services. It remains to be seen if other companies will follow Vodafone’s lead.

January 22, 2020
YouTube Deletes Then Reverses Course On Cryptocurrency Videos

YouTube made headlines earlier this week with a wide-scale purge of cryptocurrency videos. Just as suddenly, the Google-owned company seems to have reversed course, labeling the purge a “wrong call.”

Content creators who use YouTube to publish information about cryptocurrencies were in for a rude awakening this week when they discovered that many of their videos had been removed with no explanation. In some cases, creators even received strikes for some of their content.

Nugget’s News founder Alex Saunders tweeted about his experience:

“Hi @TeamYouTube with over 100 videos removed & 2 strikes in 24 hours I have still not even received an email from you. This is really scary. We’ve hired new staff. I have a wife & baby to support. I can’t fix the problem if I don’t know what I’ve done or who to communicate with!?”

Following appeals from multiple creators, YouTube reversed course and issued the following statement to Decrypt:

“With the massive volume of videos on our site, sometimes we make the wrong call. When it’s brought to our attention that a video has been removed mistakenly, we act quickly to reinstate it.”

Unfortunately, not all creators have seen their videos reinstated, and for some it has gotten worse since the reinstatement. Chris Dunn, who runs a cryptocurrency channel with 200,000 subscribers, told CoinDesk that YouTube removed his videos a second time, after reinstating them, and even went on to delete a video they had not removed during the first round.

Much of the issue, as well as past issues other content creators have experienced, is that YouTube failed to communicate anything. As Saunders said above, it’s difficult to a address a problem without knowing what the problem is. To make matters worse, bungling the “fix” only makes the original issue that much worse.

Episodes like these make a strong case for Dave Rubin’s recently launched Locals.com, aimed at giving creators far more control over their own content and brand.

December 28, 2019