Here’s a quick breakdown of the biggest news stories and developments in the cryptocurrency sector for September 27, 2022.
1. Celsius Network CEO Alex Mashinsky resigns
Alex Mashinsky, the CEO of bankrupt cryptocurrency lending firm Celsius, has resigned from his position at the company. In a press release, Mashinsky said that he “will continue to maintain my focus on working to help the community unite behind a plan that will provide the best outcome for all creditors”.
Chris Ferraro, the chief financial officer of Celsius, will assume the role of interim CEO after Mashinsky’s resignation.
Celsius was among the largest cryptocurrency lending businesses of its kind, but was caught off-guard by the sudden collapse of the Terra ecosystem in May and the subsequent domino effect that impacted numerous companies in the cryptocurrency industry. Celsius abruptly froze withdrawals of customer assets from its platform in June, and filed for bankruptcy about a month later.
CEL, the token issued by Celsius, is down about 6% in the last 24 hours despite the total cryptocurrency market cap growing by 3.8% in the same time period.
2. FTX US wins auction for assets of bankrupt crypto lender Voyager
The FTX US cryptocurrency exchange has won the bidding war to acquire the assets of bankrupt crypto lender Voyager. According to reports, FTX US will be paying roughly $1.4 billion to acquire Voyager’s assets.
The conclusion of the auction could also mean that customers affected by the collapse of Voyager could be closer to seeing some compensation for their losses. In a press release, Voyager commented on what the conclusion of the auction means for the company’s creditors:
“FTX US’s bid maximizes value and minimizes the remaining duration of the Company’s restructuring by providing a clear path forward for the Debtors to consummate a chapter 11 plan and return value to their customers and other creditors.”
3. Strike raises $80 million investment
Lightning Network-powered Bitcoin payments app Strike has raised a $80 million Series B funding round led by Ten31. Other participants in the investment round included the Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Wyoming, as well as existing investors in the company. The valuation at which Strike raised the capital hasn’t been disclosed.
Strike says it plans to leverage the fresh capital to support the growth of its app, expand on existing partnerships and secure additional partnerships. The company also plans to launch new products that are tailored for businesses and large financial institutions that want to utilize the Strike payments infrastructure.
Strike’s API has been integrated by some of the leading names in e-commerce and point of sale technologies, including Shopify, Blackhawk and NCR. This means that merchants using these platforms can offer Strike as a payment option to their customers.
4. Robinhood releases beta version of its web3 wallet
Popular investing app Robinhood has released the beta version of its web3 wallet. The product is called Robinhood Wallet and it’s initially available to 10,000 users on the iOS mobile platform. Robinhood Wallet is a standalone, non-custodial cryptocurrency wallet that allows users to store their crypto assets and trade them with no network fees.
Interestingly enough, the first blockchain supported by Robinhood Wallet is Polygon, an Ethereum-compatible blockchain that offers lower fees and faster transactions. Robinhood says they selected Polygon as the wallet’s first supported blockchain due to its “scalability, speed, low network fees, and robust developer ecosystem”.
Moving forward, Robinhood says that the wallet will also support “a wide number” of other blockchains. The wallet will also implement NFT-related functionality.
5. Key contributors to Cosmos release new whitepaper
Developers of Cosmos, a platform designed to support a network of interoperable blockchains, have presented a new whitepaper that proposes to tweak the role of the ATOM token in the Cosmos ecosystem and introduce new features.
The whitepaper proposes two major upgrades. The first is the Interchain Scheduler, which is a block space marketplace that would allow users to capitalize on MEV (maximal extractable value) opportunities on the blockchains connected by the IBC (inter-blockchain communications) protocol. The second is the Interchain Allocator, a module that would allow different Cosmos-based projects to coordinate conomically. This could incentivize the creation of new blockchains in the Cosmos ecosystem, which would also increase the amount of opportunities available through the Interchain Scheduler.
Through the concept of “Interchain Security”, chains that are part of Cosmos will be able to “borrow” the security of the Cosmos Hub blockchain, which is secured by ATOM stakers. This is expected to make ATOM more closely connected to the growth of the Cosmos ecosystem as a whole.
