The United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, has announced a $1.4-million settlement with former NBA player Paul Pierce for allegedly promoting a token project on social media. In a Feb. 17 announcement, the SEC said Pierce touted EthereumMax (EMAX) tokens through social media channels without disclosing he had received payment for the promotion and made “false and misleading statements” regarding the project. According to the SEC, promoters paid the former NBA star $244,000 worth of EMAX in addition to him posting messages allegedly showing misleading information about profits on Twitter. The financial regulator has previously targeted celebrities promoting …

The upcoming Ethereum (ETH) Shanghai hardfork is slated to occur in March 2023 and the upgrade will cap off the network's move to proof-of-stake (PoS) which started during the “Merge” on Sept. 15, 2022. Once Shanghai is implemented, previously locked Ether will gradually become liquid for the first time since December 2020. According to on-chain Etherscan data, over 16.6 million Ether are currently locked in the PoS staking protocol which was valued at $28 billion on Feb. 16, 2023. Ethereum’s move from proof-of-work (PoW) to PoS has started to achieve the original goal which was to make Ether’s supply deflationary. …

Bitcoin miner CleanSpark is growing its mining capacity in the United States, with the purchase of 20,000 new Antminer S19j Pro+ units for $43.6 million. The acquisition is expected to boost the company's computing power by 37%, and brings the total number of miners purchased during the bear market to 46,500 units. According to a statement on Feb. 16, CleanSpark will pay $32.3 million for the machines after applying coupons, at a 25% discount or a total price per terrahash of approximately $13.25. The Pro+ rigs are 22% more productive than its previous models and are planned to be delivered …

Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX’s subsidiary in Japan, FTX Japan, reportedly plans to resume withdrawals for affected users as early as February. According to a Feb. 17 report from Bloomberg, FTX Japan sent out notifications asking users to verify their account balances as part of the process to begin allowing withdrawals. Seth Melamed, chief operating officer of the exchange, reportedly said users could transfer assets to accounts on the FTX-owned Liquid Global platform, with withdrawals expected to begin “very soon”. “We are confident that we will adhere to the timeline,” said Melamed. The schedule for restart of withdrawals for all FTX …

What is the next upgrade for Ethereum? The Shanghai upgrade is a stepping stone toward making the Ethereum blockchain more scalable. Features like sharding, zero-knowledge (ZK)-SNARKs and more, decorate the Ethereum roadmap. The EIPs included in the Shanghai upgrade will be a good step toward achieving sharding later in 2023. Sharding is extremely important to improve higher transaction throughputs as the chain will be able to perform “parallel processing.” Sharding is expected to be achieved in two stages in 2023 and 2024. The first stage brings better data availability to the Ethereum blockchain. Combining that with the rollup feature that …

Bitcoin (BTC) climbed back above $24,000 at the Feb. 17 Wall Street open as analysis favored “consolidation and continuation” higher. Bitcoin faces key level to "break" bear trend Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD recovering some overnight losses after dipping to $23,369 on Bitstamp. The pair had hit fresh six-month highs the day prior, these facing stiff resistance in the form of two weekly moving averages (MAs) and a heavy sell wall. Scott Melker, the trader and podcast host known as “The Wolf of All Streets,” stressed the importance of levels acting as lines in the sand …

In a year of crypto upheavals, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s settlement with crypto exchange Kraken, announced on Feb. 9, set off yet another tremor. Agency chief Gary Gensler took to mainstream media last week to explain the agency’s action, which seemed to be an attack on crypto staking — part of the validation mechanism used by a number of blockchain platforms, including Ethereum, the world’s second-largest network. The immediate issue, in the agency’s view, was that Kraken had been selling unregistered investment products. Indeed, it was advertising big returns on staking crypto — up to 21%, Gensler …

Non fungible tokens (NFTs) started as what are essentially tamper-proof ledgers to verify authenticity and guarantee collectors’ ownership rights over artworks. However, since their emergence several years ago, NFTs have become much more than that. Now, many projects claim to seek to deliver new forms of value and utility. So far, many have centered around community building and intellectual property. As of yet though, no notable projects have tried to center their build around the potential of the core technology that is blockchain. Simultaneously, growing traction of the Metaverse concept and Web3 culture have led to many enthusiasts identifying themselves …

A lot is riding on 2023 after such an eventful year for the cryptocurrency industry, and we look forward to seeing some vindication for the entire space. January may have given us a glimpse of hope, but more recently, with Kraken staking services and the Paxos-issued Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin taking a beating from ever-unpredictable regulators, the crypto space is seemingly being shown its place, and we are reminded that the worst may not be over even if we wish it to be. But we have a few things going for us. We believe in decentralization, which has never let …

Learning from the greatest investors of all time can provide valuable insights into successful investment strategies and philosophies. Their success stories and experiences can inspire and guide new investors. Studying their methods can help individuals develop their own investment approach and improve their chances of achieving success in the financial world. Here are the top 11 investors of all time. Learn about the investment strategies and philosophies that have made these individuals some of the most successful investors in history. Warren Buffett Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, is known as the “Oracle of Omaha,” has a net …

The Bank of Russia is preparing to roll out the first consumer pilot for the nation’s central bank digital currency (CDBC) on April 1, 2023. The central bank of Russia is set to debut soon the first real-world digital ruble transactions involving 13 local banks and several merchants, first deputy governor Olga Skorobogatova said. The official noted that the upcoming CBDC pilot will involve real operations and real consumers in Russia, but will be limited to a certain number of transactions and customers, the local news agency TASS reported. “We plan to launch the digital ruble project on April 1, …

On this week’s episode of NFT Steez, co-hosts Alyssa Expósito and Ray Salmond continue their chat with Justin and J.P. Alanis, the co-founders of StoryCo — an open media platform — on the prospect of a community of creators franchising intellectual property (IP) through collaboration and soulbound tokens. Speaking on his experience with musician Tyler the Creator, J.P. Alanis said that content creation is not limited to one particular creator, but should be open to all types, including fans. However, despite the symbiotic nature between fans and creators, there are still barriers to incentivizing the creators and navigating the bureaucratic …