| Hey Insider! It's been a day in which the tech industry embraced the crypto market more, with moves from Google and Telegram. Today's Inside Cryptocurrency newsletter also covers Dapper Labs' third round of mass layoffs in less than a year, Polygon's proposal to switch from MATIC to POL, the bankrupt crypto lender Celsius' former CEO Alex Mashinsky being arrested, and more. Enjoy your reading! Doğa
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| 1 | | U.S. law enforcement authorities have recently arrested the bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network's former CEO, Alex Mashinsky, with the charges of conducting fraud and attempting to manipulate the crypto market. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also simultaneously filed lawsuits against the firm and Mashinsky. More: - Prosecutors claimed that the former CEO organized a scheme to defraud Celsius customers from 2018 to June 2022.
- Celsius' chief revenue officer, Roni Cohen-Pavon, was similarly arrested by U.S. authorities.
- The SEC accused Mashinsky and Celsius of making misleading statements to encourage investors to invest in the firm's products and misrepresenting the company's financial condition to make it appear more profitable than it really was.
- Besides, the FTC fined Celsius $4.7B, permanently banning the company from offering, marketing, or promoting any product or service used to deposit, exchange, invest, or withdraw any assets.
- The increased scrutiny from the regulators came shortly after the investigators in the CFTC determined that Celsius and Mashinsky violated U.S. laws before the collapse by misleading investors and operating without registration.
- New York Attorney General Letitia James also previously claimed that Mashinsky made false statements about the declining financial condition of Celsius, misleading investors.
Zoom Out: - Celsius offered loans and paid high interest rates on crypto deposits.
- The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July 2022, mainly due to its liquidity issues and the crypto market downturn triggered by the multi-billion dollar Terra ecosystem's collapse that wiped over $60B off the industry.
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What the numbers say: A recent report from the Web3 data platform DappRadar has pointed out that NFT trading volumes worldwide declined to $2.9B in Q2, with a 38% decrease from $4.7B in the previous quarter. The NFT market again entered a downward trend in the second three-month period of the year after seeing a slight recovery in Q1. The sales count also retreated to the $18M level, with a quarterly down from $20.5M. Both trading volumes and sales counts in H1 2023 are nearly 65% below the amounts in the same period of last year. Over the past month, several high-profile NFT collections, including Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Azuki, also saw a strong drop in floor prices. Relevance: The NFT market downturn has impacted many NFT firms negatively. Most recently, Dapper Labs, the firm behind the famous NBA Top Shot and CryptoKitties NFTs, had to lay off its 51 employees, representing 12% of its headcount. CEO Roham Gharegozlou said the layoff affected full-time staff and C1 contractors. Gharegozlou also added that the job cut was necessary and the right thing to do to ensure a lean and efficient company, underlining that the firm is still well-capitalized. The move has become the third round of mass layoffs in Dapper Labs in less than a year. The firm also farewelled 22% of its workforce in November 2022 and another 20% in February this year. Brands that should care: Many other NFT-related companies, including OpenSea, Magic Eden, Candy, Metaplex, Autograph, and SuperRare, also had to reduce their headcount over the last months. These job cuts mainly stemmed from a prolonged crypto winter triggered by the collapses of high-profile companies in the industry, such as the previously third-largest crypto exchange FTX and the multi-billion dollar Terra ecosystem. | | | |
| 3 | | The popular instant messaging app Telegram has enabled crypto payments for merchants on the platform through a new feature dubbed WalletPay. The feature will allow merchants on Telegram to receive payments through Bitcoin (BTC), Tether (USDT), and Toncoin (TON) for goods and services. More: - The platform has already added support for BTC and USDT, in addition to TON, to its Wallet payment solution for users.
- The support enabled crypto transfers between users directly within the chat, and users started being able to buy and sell the famous tokens just like sending a text or photograph.
- The latest move expanded the feature to include merchants.
- Merchants can now integrate supported cryptocurrencies into the bots they use to accept payments and receive instant payments directly within chats.
- Wallet Pay users do not need to hold cryptocurrencies before the payment and can load funds to their accounts during the payment process.
- The @wallet bot is Telegram's payment solution built on The Open Network (TON), and 2 million of the more than 700 million Telegram members currently use the Wallet services.
Zoom Out: - Telegram took its first big step toward Web3 by starting the development of its own blockchain project dubbed TON.
- The platform abandoned the project in 2020 due to legal conflicts with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), but the TON Foundation embodying community members kept it alive.
- The popular messaging app has also been developing a blockchain-based auction platform called Fragment on the TON network since last year.
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| 4 | | The U.S.-based tech giant Google has updated its platform guidelines on Play Store, allowing developers to integrate NFTs into games as part of the gaming experience. The new conditions will go into effect on Dec. 7. More: - Under the new guidelines, developers will be able to offer games where players can buy, sell, and earn tokenized assets, including NFTs.
- However, the transactions involving tokenized assets will not be able to pave the way for gambling activities.
- Google also said the platform's existing Real-Money Gambling, Games, and Contests Policy would continue to apply to all the games on the platform.
- Developers will have to clearly state if a game allows users to earn or buy NFTs or cryptocurrencies.
- The company will also require developers to ensure that the value of an NFT is made clear to a player at the time of purchase.
- The tech giant stated that it adjusted its Play Store guidelines in cooperation with Web3 gaming leaders and would continue to talk to developers to understand their challenges and opportunities.
Zoom Out: - On the other hand, Google Play Store has not allowed crypto mining apps since 2018.
- Rival Apple's App Store also started allowing games to feature NFTs, though they cannot unlock additional features, benefits, or content.
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| 5 | | As part of the network's transition to Polygon 2.0, the team behind the popular Polygon blockchain has proposed a new token dubbed POL that would replace the native token, MATIC. POL will serve as a single token for all Polygon-based networks, including the main blockchain, the application-specific blockchains, and the Polygon zkEVM network. More: - The team defined POL as a third-generation token after Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).
- The new token will allow all the holders to become validators within the network and to support the operation of multiple chains using a single token.
- The Polygon team will share more details of the token's smart contracts at a later date.
- The switch from MATIC to POL will require a simple technical action: Sending MATIC to the upgrade smart contract.
- Following this simple action, the contract will automatically return the equivalent amount of POL.
- If the community agrees upon the proposed token upgrade, the migration will start within a few months.
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| 6 | | Canada-based crypto mining firm Hive Blockchain has rebranded as Hive Digital Technologies, dropping blockchain from its name. The company said the move aims to represent the company's evolving focus on revenue opportunities in graphics processing units (GPUs), cloud computing, AI, and the new Web3 ecosystem. More: - The company's CEO, Aydin Kilic, pointed out that they want their names to better reflect both sides of their business.
- Kilic added that they also build infrastructure for emerging digital technologies in addition to blockchain.
- The firm executive also underlined that they believe AI and machine learning (ML) technologies would drive significant demand for GPUs.
Zoom Out: - The U.S.-based crypto mining firm Riot also dropped the blockchain phrase from its name in January, rebranding as Riot Platforms to reflect its diversified business operations.
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| 7 | | Quick Hits: - Combine traditional project management with your docs, knowledge base, and AI.*
- The lawmakers in the upper house of the U.K. Parliament have agreed that the new online safety bill aimed to prevent children from being harmed on online platforms will apply to the metaverse.
- Binance Labs, the venture capital (VC) arm of the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, has committed to investing $15M in the Web3 gaming startup Xterio.
- HDFC Bank, India's largest private bank, has announced that it signed up more than 100,000 customers and 170,000 merchants in the country's central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot program.
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 | Staff Writer | | Doga is a tech and science editor who has been writing news for nearly 10 years. She worked for leading tech platforms and mainstrem media channels as an editor and presenter throughout his career. Then, she carried her know-how to more than one platform. She is a part-time cat lover and binge-watcher, and also fond of science, space, and emerging tech. She always has a story to tell. She is a bit addict to the laughter and -unfortunately- the '90s culture. | | This newsletter was edited by Aaron Crutchfield | |
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