Following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, which was headquartered in the island nation of Bahamas, Bahamians are reportedly still trying to find a way to make sense of everything, while remaining optimistic about the future. According to a report by the WSJ, the island nation — which encouraged cryptocurrency companies to feel at home with their “copacetic regulatory touch” — has been rocked by the implosion of FTX. The Bahamas, which was also hard hit by hurricane Dorian in 2019 and the pandemic shortly afterward in 2020, was already struggling to find ways to strengthen its economy which relies …

Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter crafted to bring you significant developments over the last week. The prolonged crypto winter aided by the collapse of FTX has kept investors from backing a new protocol that merges DeFi and the foreign exchange market. A new Cosmos blockchain-based DeFi protocol has caught the eyes of investors who have put $10 million behind the project. Cardano-based leading stablecoin ecosystem Ardana abruptly stopped its development after several launch delays. However, the project remains open-source for others to add to it until they restart the …

Despite the market downturn and the widespread negative sentiment in the industry in the wake of the FTX collapse, on-chain data still show reasons to be bullish on Bitcoin. As pointed out by on-chain analyst Will Clemente, it’s enough to look at the long-term holders’s Bitcoin positions: they reached an all-time high despite their profitability being at an all-time low. “Long-term holders buy heavily into the bear market. They set the floor[...] and then those long-term holders distribute their holdings to new market participants in the bull market”, he told Cointelegraph in an exclusive interview. Another positive trend worth noticing …

FTX’s collapse dealt a major blow to the already fragile sentiment among cryptocurrency investors. Although a quick recovery is unlikely, Blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis said that the crypto universe could emerge stronger from this crisis. Chainalysis’ research lead Eric Jardine arrived at the conclusion after comparing FTX’s fall to that of Mt. Gox. Another calming statement came from Bloomberg Intelligence exchange-traded fund analyst James Seyffart, who said that there was a “99.9% chance” that the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) held the Bitcoin (BTC) it claimed. He added that GBTC was “unlikely” to be liquidated. The negative events of the past …

Two weeks after Binance initially pledged to develop a proof-of-reserve (PoR) mechanism in response to the FTX liquidity and bankruptcy fiasco, it published its official response. In an announcement on the Binance website, the exchange outlined how users can use the mechanism to verify its holdings. Currently, the only token available to verify through the Merkle Tree-based system is Bitcoin (BTC), though the announcement says additional coins will be added in the coming weeks. It also highlighted upcoming transparency updates which include the involvement of third-party auditors to audit its PoR results and implementation of ZK-SNARKs in its PoR methods, …

The bankruptcy proceedings of cryptocurrency exchange FTX have revealed many new aspects of its unethical practices. The latest revelation around its stake in one of the smallest United States banks from rural Washington has raised fresh concerns about its operations and alleged misuse of banking loopholes. Farmington State Bank in Washington State, now renamed Moonstone, is the 26th smallest bank in the U.S. with a single branch and three employees. FTX invested in the rural bank through its now-bankrupt sister company Alameda with an investment of $11.5 million in its parent company FBH in March 2022. The Alameda investment was …

Matrixport, the cryptocurrency firm founded by Bitmain co-founder Wu Jihan, is in the process of raising $100 million funding despite the ongoing crypto market crisis. Lead investors have already committed $50 million for Matrixport’s new funding round at a $1.5 billion valuation, Bloomberg reported on Nov. 25. The deal has yet to be finalized as Matrixport is still looking for investors for the other half of the round. We're excited and look forward to engaging with participants, on similar terms, in the other half of the #funding round. Appreciate the trust and confidence our investors continue have in Team #Matrixport.@business …

As Uzbekistan prepares to adopt a new cryptocurrency framework in 2023, the Uzbek regulators have started issuing regulatory approvals to local crypto service providers. The National Agency for Perspective Projects (NAPP), Uzbekistan’s major cryptocurrency market watchdog, has issued the nation’s first crypto licenses, according to an official announcement released on Nov. 17. The licenses officially authorize the offering of cryptocurrency-related services by two “cryptocurrency stores,” including Crypto Trade NET LLC and Crypto Market LLC. According to the information from the NAPP’s electronic license register, both Crypto Trade NET and Crypto Market are based in Tashkent. The data also refers to …

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is calling for increased regulation of Africa's crypto markets, one of the fastest-growing markets in the world, the global institution blog reported on Nov. 22. Among the reasons why countries in the region should embrace regulation, the monetary fund cited the collapse of FTX and its ripple effect in cryptocurrencies prices, which is "prompting renewed calls for greater consumer protection and regulation of the crypto industry." Moreover, the authors argue that "risks from crypto assets are evident" and "it’s time to regulate" to find a balance between minimizing risk and maximizing innovation. Based on the …

Polkadot, a protocol that connects blockchains, has announced its latest initiative to help its ecosystem fight scams. According to the company, relying on security-minded individuals within its community to fight scams has proven to be an effective method of safeguarding its ecosystem. To incentivize the members of its community to continue to do the work, Polkadot consistently rewards them with bounties paid in USDC. Polkadot shared that its bounty is currently managed by the general curators, which for now, consists of three community members, and two people from the W3F Anti-Scam department. However, in the long term, Polkadot hopes that …

On Nov. 24, Ardana, a leading decentralized finance (DeFi) and stablecoin ecosystem building on Cardano (ADA), abruptly halted development, citing "funding and project timeline uncertainty." The project will remain open-source for builders while treasury balances and remaining funds will be held by Ardana Labs "until another competent dev team in the community comes forward to continue our work." "Development on Cardano has been difficult with alot of funding going into tooling, infrastructure and security. This alongside the uncertainty around development completion has led to the best course of action being halting development of dUSD." The move came as a shock …

These forecasts are driven by deteriorating structural fundamentals. For example, credit card debt has surged past even 2020 levels, with interest rates charged by banks that are just slightly higher than those observed leading up to the post-2000 dot-com crash. And yet, labor force participation rates — or the proportion of the population that is able to work and is working — have still not recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Furthermore, inflation — as measured by the consumer price index — has surged over the past few years. Economic forecasts suggest that we are in for greater economic turbulence. The United …