Celsius And Huobi Drama And More

Crypto firms continue to struggle even in the first week of the new year, with businesses laying off workforces and announcing bankruptcy. 

Let’s find out how crypto has been faring in 2023. 

Bitcoin

In the wake of the devastating winter storm in Texas in December 2022, Bitcoin miners returned up to 1,500 megawatts of energy to the grid, enough to power over 1.5 million small homes.

According to an Mt Gox announcement, base and intermediate payments will be moved back from July to September 2023.

Investor Michael Burry has said that the US will have a recession and more inflation in 2023. He thinks that inflation is currently very high, but it will not remain so.

Eric Voorhees, founder and CEO of crypto exchange Shapeshifter, says he cannot call the next bull market with any exactitude, but it would come in the next 6 months to 3 years.

DeFi

DeFi protocol Balancer has warned LPs on the protocol to withdraw their liquidity immediately due to an ongoing issue. 

Uniswap’s newly implemented bug bounty program has uncovered and subsequently resolved an existing vulnerability in its Universal Router smart contract.

DeFi protocol SushiSwap has announced it would be shutting down its lending protocol, Kashi, and its token launchpad, Miso. 

Technology

South Korean tech giant LG Electronics has announced a partnership with the cloud-based technology platform Oorbit to bring the metaverse directly into the living room of TV viewers. 

A hack that exploited and drained GMX tokens from a whale enabled the perpetrator to exchange the assets for 2,627 Ether.

Crypto suffered its worst-ever year for hacks in 2022, with most of them affecting DeFi platforms which saw a third of all such activity in the last year.

Business

Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi is planning to lay off 20% of its staff amid the crypto market downturn and the fallout from collapsed crypto exchange FTX.

Tron founder Justin Sun made headlines when a wallet connected to him transferred $100 million worth of stablecoins to the cryptocurrency exchange Huobi. 

The crypto lending platform Genesis is considering filing for bankruptcy and has laid off around 30% of its staff. 

Customers of crypto-focused US bank Silvergate have withdrawn over $8 billion of their crypto-linked deposits, resulting in a drop in its share value. 

In the latest court ruling, Celsius Network has been rewarded the rights to interest-bearing accounts, pushing actual account holders to the end of the repayment queue. 

The US government has seized hundreds of millions of dollars worth of shares in Robinhood Markets Inc. as part of the fraud case against Sam Bankman-Fried.

With the crypto winter showing no signs of abating, crypto payment companies Wyre and EmpireDAO have become its latest casualties. 

Core Scientific has come to an agreement with Celsius Network to shut down the 37,000 mining rigs that it was hosting for the latter. 

Indonesia is set to launch a cryptocurrency exchange in 2023 as part of a financial reform plan,

Lee Jung-Hoon, the former chairman of South Korea’s Bithumb exchange, was declared not guilty of fraud over the failed acquisition of the exchange. 

Co-founder of crypto exchange Gemini Trust Co, Cameron Winklevoss, has accused the CEO of Digital Currency Group (DCG), Barry Silbert, of negotiating in bad faith. 

Regulation

The Thai Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has launched a cryptocurrency academy aimed at educating those wanting to invest in digital assets free of charge.

The governor of the Bank of France is calling for stricter and more comprehensive licensing requirements for cryptocurrency companies in France, given the recent turmoil in the market.

Liquidators found a unique way to subpoena Three Arrows Capital co-founders Kyle Davies and Su Zhu, issuing them a copy of the subpoena via Twitter. 

New York Attorney General Letitia James has sued the founder and former CEO of collapsed crypto bank Celsius, Alex Mashinsk, for misrepresenting the financial condition of Celsius.

Fabio Panetta of the ECB has written that trading in cryptocurrencies is akin to gambling and should be treated as such by regulators.

Brian Armstrong-led cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has reached a $100 million settlement with New York’s Department of Financial Services (DFS).

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.