Cointelegraph has reached the No. 2 spot on its 2023 Top 100 list: Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who had a significant impact in 2022 and is expected to continue influencing the crypto space in 2023. Sitting among a sizable list of other co-founders of the Ethereum blockchain, Buterin was the one who wrote its white paper. DISCOVER COINTELEGRAPH’S TOP 100 IN CRYPTO AND BLOCKCHAIN 2023 Ethereum has since gone on to become a dominant force in the crypto space, with two other co-founders also sitting high atop Cointelegraph’s 2023 Top 100 — Polkadot co-founder Gavin Wood at No. 5 and …

The Cointelegraph Markets Pro platform was created with the aim to narrow the divide between institutional and retail investors. Its proprietary tools, like the Newsquakes™ indicator, the VORTECS™ Score and the Tweet Sentiment indicator, are the platform’s primary methods of achieving this goal. Looking back at Cointelegraph Markets Pro alerts performance shows that the institutional-grade platform has been a resounding success. Since 2021, the platform has produced an average return of at least: 2,895% in gains from score-based trading strategies (potentially turning $10,000 into $289,549) 546% in gains from time-based trading strategies (potentially turning $10,000 into $54,635) 851% in gains …

Some 2,500 crypto-curious blockchain believers descended on Barcelona’s Hyatt Tower conference suites last week in a networking bonanza. The 8th edition of the European Blockchain Convention, and the fourth occurrence in Barcelona, also coincided with Bitcoin (BTC) sitting tight below $25,000. Despite an over 60% crypto drawdown, the conference was packed, and reportedly 2,500 attendees from banks, blockchain companies and crypto drank in the sights and sounds of the cosmopolitan capital of Spain’s Catalonia region. Nonetheless, the crypto scars of 2022 are still tender and raw; many attendees raised real concerns about regulation and rules. Among the clarion calls for …

Binance Australia Derivatives users reported abrupt notifications sent by the digital asset platform on Feb. 23, saying it is starting to close certain derivatives positions and accounts. According to screenshots posted by various users on Twitter, users who did not meet the requirements to be a “wholesale investor” were told all of their positions would be closed, and they would no longer be able to access the Binance Australia Derivatives Platform. Binance closed derivative positions for many Australian users abruptly #Australia #binance pic.twitter.com/4t1gL08oK6 — Moidul Islam (@Mi_moidulislam1) February 23, 2023 Users were informed that to continue using Binance Australia’s derivatives …

In this episode of Hashing It Out, Pacman, the founder and core contributor of the nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace Blur, joins Elisha Owusu Akyaw to discuss how Blur has captured the attention of the NFT market. The tides in the NFT ecosystem changed in December 2022 when the newly launched NFT marketplace overtook OpenSea as the largest NFT trading platform by trading volume. Pacman describes this as a similar situation to the progression of the general token market. He explains that Blur created a marketplace that puts professional traders first, a niche not covered by popular platforms that prioritize a …

Bitcoin (BTC) can hit $10 million per coin or more as it eats 25% of the global wealth, new analysis has concluded. In a blog post released on Feb. 16, fund manager and Bitcoin expert advisor Jesse Myers revealed his own “outrageous” BTC price target. Myers: "Bitcoin could 500x over the coming decades" Bitcoin may struggle with “brutal” volatility, but hodlers and critics alike should be in no doubt about its long-term price trajectory, Myers says. Analyzing Bitcoin’s value proposition, he argues that Bitcoin’s ability to appreciate over time means that it is all but destined to suck in value …

Galaxy Digital has invested $44 million into an institutional cryptocurrency custody platform to tap into its proprietary asset storage and management capabilities. Mike Novogratz’s cryptocurrency investment firm has completed the acquisition of GK8, which has developed its own patent cryptocurrency custody technology aimed at giving secure asset management for institutional users. The service specializes in providing cold vault technology that allows the execution of transactions without internet connectivity. Its in-house multi-party computation (MPC) vault provides the ability to automate transactions, and the service also provides access to Decentralized Finance (DeFi) networks, tokenization, NFT and trading. A statement from Novogratz highlighted …

Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) belonging to the bankrupt hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) will be sold by its liquidators Teneo, according to a recent announcement. In a notice dated Feb. 22, Joint Liquidator Christopher Farmer announced that the liquidators are intending to begin the sales of NFTs that belong to 3AC. The announcement highlighted that the sale will be done to “realize the value of the NFTs for the purposes of the liquidation.” According to the announcement, the sales will begin 28 days after the notice. Within the announcement, the liquidators clarified that it will not include the list of …

The adoption of blockchain technology is on the rise, with the majority of enterprises looking into the technology in some capacity. As blockchain becomes more pervasive, all types of users will need the most efficient access to the capabilities of this technology. One of the responses to this has been the development of blockchain chips as energy-efficient accelerators. On Feb. 23, the Tel Aviv-based blockchain chip startup Chain Reaction announced it raised $70 million to expand its engineering team for developing its next chip. Alon Webman, the co-founder and CEO of Chain Reaction, said the new chip will be a …

Music streaming platform Spotify expands its Web3 efforts by testing token-enabled playlists in several key markets. Overlord, a Web3 gaming ecosystem, reported on Feb. 22 the start of its partnership with Spotify. The token-enabled community-curated playlist from Overlord may now be accessed via Web3 wallets of those who hold the Creepz nonfungible tokens (NFTs) on Spotify. For now, only Android users from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and New Zealand can unlock the playlists. Other participants in the three-month pilot are Fluf, Moonbirds and Kingship metaverse communities. While Fluf and Moonbirds didn’t share any details on their partnership …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has objected to Binance.US’ move to acquire over $1 billion of assets belonging to the defunct cryptocurrency lending firm Voyager Digital. According to a Feb. 22 filing submitted to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York, the SEC believes that certain elements of the asset restructuring plan of Binance.US’ acquisition could breach Securities Laws. The SEC is formally investigating whether Binance.US and related debtors violated anti-fraud, registration and other provisions of the federal securities laws. The SEC noted particular concern around the security of assets through the planned …

USD Coin (USDC) issuer Circle plans to increase its workforce by 15-25% in 2023 amid a sea of layoffs across the industry, reported the Wall Street Journal. At a time when a significant chunk of industry-wide firms is laying off staff to mitigate their financial woes, Circle has gone against the tide to hire more people. 41% of all layoffs in 2023 came from the cryptocurrency industry. Major cryptocurrency firms that made significant employee cuts include Polygon, Chainalysis, Bittrex, Huobi, Crypto.com, Coinbase, Gemini, Genesis, and Wyre. A major factor behind crypto companies reducing manpower was attributed to the prolonged crypto …