Cypto

Block scales back TIDAL investment and shutters TBD in favor of Bitcoin mining

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Jack Dorsey’s Block is scaling back its investment in TIDAL, the music streaming platform once owned by Jay-Z, according to a shareholder letter on Thursday. Block is also shutting down TBD, a Bitcoin-focused arm of the business that previously set out to build a decentralized internet, dubbed “Web5.” These cuts will free up the company […]

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Crypto CEO kidnapped in Toronto, released after paying $1M ransom

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The CEO of Canadian cryptocurrency firm WonderFi was kidnapped and held for ransom on Wednesday, according to CBC. Dean Skurka was reportedly shoved into a vehicle in downtown Toronto during rush hour, only to be released uninjured after electronically sending $1 million (presumably CAD) to his captors. The WonderFi CEO is the latest crypto celebrity

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Three venture capitalists try to find the consensus of crypto VC

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In the crypto space, it’s time to scale. All signs point toward a period of growth with high market prices, a more favorable regulatory landscape and a large ecosystem of scaling solutions that work. Watch as TechCrunch Reporter Romain Dillet talks with NFX General Partner Morgan Beller, Galaxy Ventures General Partner Will Nuelle, and Dragonfly

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Prominent crypto critic says someone offered bribes to take down a blog post

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In August, the crypto news website Web3 Is Going Just Great published a post about the arrest of Roman Ziemian, the founder of crypto trading platform FutureNet, which is alleged to have defrauded victims out of a combined $21 million.  For the news site’s administrator, Molly White, a software engineer and one of the world’s

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Sam Altman’s Worldcoin becomes World, and shows new iris-scanning Orb to prove your humanity

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Worldcoin, the Sam Altman co-founded “proof of personhood” crypto startup that scans people’s eyeballs, announced on Thursday that it dropped the “coin” from its name and is now just “World.” The startup also unveiled its next generation of iris-scanning “Orb” and other tools at a live event in San Francisco. Co-founder and CEO of World,

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FTX’s Ryan Salame posts jokes on LinkedIn as he heads to prison

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After the criminal implosion of the crypto exchange FTX, many of the company’s executives have been found guilty on various counts of fraud or conspiracy to commit such acts. Ryan Salame, the former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, is starting his seven-and-a-half-year fraud sentence today, but not before posting an all-time absurd LinkedIn post (and

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Chainalysis CEO Michael Gronager steps down in move described as temporary

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Michael Gronager, co-founder and CEO of Chainalysis, has taken a personal leave of absence from the company. The blockchain analysis outfit isn’t sharing why but says the development is temporary.   According to The Block, which first reported the news, Chainalysis President and COO Sari Granat,  who joined the outfit in 2022, is acting as interim

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Binance founder ‘CZ’ released from custody after four-month sentence

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Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao was released from US custody on Friday after serving out his four-month sentence in a low-security correctional facility. CZ’s sentence was the product of a federal investigation that found Binance had failed to stop widespread criminal activity on the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. CZ pleaded guilty to the DOJ’s charges,

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Tomasz Tunguz’s Theory Ventures bets $12M on Initia, the ‘iOS for web3’

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The promise of blockchain to change the world hasn’t materialized. For the most part, the technology has instead enabled people to speculate on a new asset class. A big hurdle to realizing blockchain’s full potential, web3 proponents argue, is that decentralized services are incredibly hard to build. Tomasz Tunguz, best known for his popular startup

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Caroline Ellison sentenced to two years in prison for FTX fraud

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Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of FTX affiliate Alameda Research, was sentenced to two years in prison on Tuesday. Ellison had pled guilty to conspiring with FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried to steal $8 billion worth of customers’ funds, but she was an exceedingly cooperative witness, helping law enforcement to investigate the massive fraud scheme. Her two-year

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