As Bitcoin (BTC) shows a minor bull run, the connected sub-ecosystems’ year-long struggle for survival has started to pay off. For starters, the Bitcoin mining community experienced a 50% increase in revenue — through mining rewards and transaction fees — in the first month of 2023. On Dec. 28, 2022, Bitcoin mining revenue dipped to $13.6 million for the first time since October 2020. This, coupled with rising energy prices amid geopolitical tensions, imposed tremendous financial pressure on the companies running mining operations – forcing a few to shut shop. As Bitcoin remains well-positioned for a steady recovery, the mining …

The trademark infringement trial between French luxury brand Hermès and digital artist Mason Rothschild is set to go ahead on Jan. 30 in a Manhattan federal court. The luxury brand accused the nonfungible token (NFT) artist of trademark infringement for promoting and selling MetaBirkins, an NFT collection said to be inspired by the group's Birkin bags. The trial and its related lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York can be first traced back to Jan. 14, 2022, when Hermès first filed a complaint against Mason Rothschild after the artist allegedly refused to stop …

The recent launch of a nonfungible token (NFT) protocol on the Bitcoin mainnet has the crypto community divided over whether it’ll be good for the Bitcoin ecosystem. The protocol, referred to as “Ordinals,” was created by software engineer Casey Rodarmor, who officially launched the program on the Bitcoin mainnet following a Jan. 21 blog post. The protocol essentially allows for the Bitcoin version of NFTs — described as “digital artifacts” on the Bitcoin network. These “digital artificats” can comprise of JPEG-like images, PDFs, video and audio formats. The introduction of the protocol has the Bitcoin community divided however, with some …

A major validator for the privacy smart contract layer-1 blockchain Secret Network has announced that it will no longer provide nodes and support for the network. On Jan. 29, major validator Smart Stake announced that it would be shutting down its Secret Network validator nodes on Feb. 21. Smart Stake cited “complex/stressful validator operations, cost/effort of validator ops, and recent events,” as reasons for withdrawing its services. Smart Stake is a staking and validator service provider that supports several networks including Crypto.com, Polygon, Cosmos, and until recently Secret Network. PSA for @SecretNetwork delegates of Smart Stake: Smart Stake will be …

Australia’s financial regulator reportedly raised concerns over FTX’s local Australian subsidiary as much as eight months before the exchange met its untimely end in November. According to documents obtained by Guardian Australia, officers of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) were concerned about the way in which FTX Australia was operating as it was able to obtain a license in the country through a company takeover. As per a previous report from Cointelegraph, FTX acquired its Australian financial services license (AFSL) by taking over financial institution IFS Markets in December 2021 before opening up for business months later in …

Nonfungible token (NFT) entrepreneur Wylie Aronow of Yuga Labs — the team behind Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and CryptoPunks — will be taking a leave of absence from the office to manage a host of heart failure symptoms. In a Jan. 28 Twitter post to his 144,900 followers, Aronow said the tough decision to step back came on the back of a heart failure diagnosis after experiencing a myriad of symptoms over the last few months. Some heavy news: a few days ago I was told by my doctor I have congestive heart failure. Symptoms started last year out …

Bankrupt Bitcoin (BTC) mining firm Core Scientific filed on Jan. 25 an emergency motion seeking to sell Bitmain coupons worth $6.6 million, according to court records. As per the filing, some conditions applied to the coupons make them useless for Core Scientific's business. Specifically, the coupons can "only be used to pay 30% of any new order of S19 Miners from Bitmain, and cannot be exchanged with Bitmain for cash." Additionally, the coupons are limited to S19 models, which provides a lower hash rate output compared to Bitmain's recent models. "The Debtors do not believe that utilizing their liquidity to …

Sam Bankman-Fried's legal team is seeking to remove a bail condition that prevented him from accessing FTX's funds, according to court filings from Jan. 28. A letter from Bankman-Fried's lawyer, Mark Cohen, to United States District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan stated that Bankman-Fried should have access to assets held by FTX, claiming the client was not involved in previous unauthorized transactions. FTX and FTX US have sought over $659 million in unauthorized transfers amid the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange in November 2022, according to Nansen data reported by Cointelegraph. Bankman-Fried denied any involvement in the transactions. As per the …

As traditional institutions proactively reduce exposure to cryptocurrencies as a reaction to ecosystem collapses in 2022, Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao believes this move could potentially have a negative impact on such traditional financial players. The collapse of major crypto platforms, such as FTX and Terraform Labs, not only reduced trust among investors but also forced the traditional market to reevaluate their strategies for stepping into the crypto ecosystem. While the reluctance of traditional players stands as a deterrent to crypto’s adoption in the short term, CZ argues that the decision might backfire over the next two decades. as they …

California-based crypto bank Silvergate has suspended dividend payouts to preserve its “highly liquid balance sheet.” In a Jan. 27 announcement, the firm stated that it is halting “the payment of dividends on its 5.375% Fixed Rate Non-Cumulative Perpetual Preferred Stock, Series A, in order to preserve capital.” The company outlined that it made the decision so that it can weather the storm of crypto winter, but did stress that it still maintains a “cash position in excess of its digital asset customer-related deposits.” “This decision reflects the Company’s focus on maintaining a highly liquid balance sheet with a strong capital …

Monica Long has been named the new president of Ripple, moving up from the general manager position. Long joined the company in 2013 as director of communications and expanded her role last year from general manager of RippleX, the blockchain development side of the business, to general manager of the company as a whole, adding RippleNet, the company’s financial network, to her purview. The presidency of Ripple has been a somewhat nebulous position until now, with the title being ascribed to both co-founders Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen at various times. Long’s promotion comes at a good moment for the …

Crypto lender BlockFi has had a highly tumultuous 12 months. After getting caught up in the Terra fiasco, which resulted in one of the most prolific asset death spirals of all time, the company managed to avoid bankruptcy after receiving a $400 million lifeline in July 2022. The problem? Its lender was FTX US, and we all know what happened next. Although BlockFi has attempted to separate itself from Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraud in the aftermath of FTX’s collapse, its secret financials tell a different story. This week’s Crypto Biz delves into BlockFi’s uncensored financials, the likelihood of “Celsius token” ever …