Blockchain venture capital inflows sharply decreased in October from the previous month. According to Cointelegraph Research, the number of individual deals dropped from 93 to 69 monthly. The Cointelegraph Research Terminal VC database, which compiles comprehensive details on deals, mergers and acquisition activity, investors, crypto companies, funds and more, shows venture capital inflows plummeted 48.6%, totaling $843.5 million in venture capital (VC) investment, down from $1.64 billion in September. Big raises despite difficult market conditions It’s not all bad news. Signals that there is still active interest by VCs in the blockchain industry are flashing daily. In the decentralized finance …

The ongoing crypto bear market has proven itself to be a builders market as investments continue to find projects with promise. Onomy, a Cosmos blockchain-based ecosystem, just secured million from investors for the development of its new protocol. The project merges decentralized finance (DeFi) and the foreign exchange market (FX) to bring the latter on-chain. According to the developers, the latest funding round garnered $10 million from big industry players such as Bitfinex, Ava Labs, the Maker Foundation and CMS Holdings among others. Lalo Bazzi, co-founder of Onomy, says the underlying goal of building a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) with …

Coinbase was trending on Twitter on Nov. 22 after Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, known also as CZ, sent out a tweet that appeared to question Coinbase’s Bitcoin holdings. In the since deleted tweet, CZ referenced a yahoo finance article that alleged that “Coinbase Custody holds 635,000 BTC on behalf of Grayscale.” CZ added, “4 months ago, Coinbase (I assume exchange) has less than 600K,” with a link to a 4 month old article from Bitcoinist. The Binance CEO made it clear that he was simply quoting “news reports", and not making any claims of his own. However, his tweet was …

Perianne Boring, founder and CEO of blockchain advocacy group Chamber of Digital Commerce, placed the lack of approval of a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund in the United States squarely on Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler, suggesting politics played more of a role than economics. Speaking to Cointelegraph at the Texas Blockchain Summit in Austin on Nov. 18, Boring said the events surrounding FTX’s collapse may have “emboldened the regulation by enforcement approach” from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Treasury, with Republican lawmakers likely to focus on oversight using their House majority in the next Congress. According to …

CoinMarketCap, a leading market researcher and tracker in the crypto industry, announced the launch of a new feature on its platform which allows users updated financial insights on exchanges. The proof of reserves (PoR) tracker audits active cryptocurrency exchanges in the industry for transparency on liquidity at a given moment. According to the announcement, the tracker details the total assets of the company, and its affiliated public wallet addresses, along with the balances, current price and values of the wallets. CoinMarketCap reports the PoR trackers will update data every 5 minutes. On Nov. 22 the company tweeted a guide for …

The latest revelation from the FTX case reveals that Bahamian properties worth millions were bought in the company name. FTX, at the time operated by Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), his parents and other high-level executives of the company, reportedly purchased at least 19 properties in the Bahamas over the last two years. Collectively, these purchases have a worth of over $121 million, according to a Reuters report of the official property records. Among the acquired properties were seven luxury condos. While the residents of the condos remain unknown at the time of writing, the property deed claims they were to be …

Institutional investors have responded to the negative sentiment caused by FTX’s collapse, with record institutional inflows into crypto-focused short-investment products. According to CoinShares’ chief strategy officer James Butterfill, 75% of the total inflows by institutional crypto investors for the week ending Nov. 18 were placed in short investment products — essentially a bet that crypto prices will decline. Butterfill said the takeup of short positions by investors is likely “a direct result of the ongoing fallout from the FTX collapse,” while the total assets under management (AUM) for institutional investors is now at $22 billion — the lowest in two …

The cryptocurrency exchange Binance is making a move in the hardware wallet industry, with its venture capital arm investing in the cold wallet platform Ngrave. Binance Labs has made a strategic investment in the Belgian hardware wallet firm Ngrave and will lead its upcoming Series A round, the firm officially announced on Nov. 21. Founded in Belgium in 2018, Ngrave specializes in self-custody, providing a security suite comprising three major elements, including connectionless hardware wallet Zero, key backup tool Graphene and the Liquid mobile app. Yi He, co-founder of Binance and head of Binance Labs, pinpointed that security remains one …

Billionaire investor and hedge fund manager Bill Ackman says he remains bullish about cryptocurrencies, despite the recent collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange and the market turmoil that’s followed it. In a Nov. 20 Twitter thread, the CEO and founder of hedge fund management firm Pershing Square Capital Management said he believes “crypto is here to stay” despite recent challenges, though there’s a need to increase oversight and remove “fraudulent actors” in the space. Bill Ackman is a billionaire American investor most recently calling for the removal of regulatory barriers and easing regulations in New York in order to make …

The collapse of FTX has shown that where there’s smoke, there’s fire. In a year filled with jaw-dropping unveilings, none compare to the bewildering fall of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX exchange. While many were stunned, there were a few tell-tale signs that may have indicated not everything was peachy-perfect over at FTX headquarters. These issues began to compound and, on Oct. 5, I published a detailed commentary about my decision to begin pulling funds out of FTX and short FTT. Im taking all of my capital out of @FTX_Official and going short $FTT FTX has been swinging and missing all year …

The collapse of numerous major crypto ecosystems in 2022 revealed the urgent need for revamping the way crypto exchanges operate. Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin believed in exploring beyond “fiat” methods to ensure the stability of crypto exchanges, including technologies such as Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge (ZK-SNARKs). Following a discussion with angel investor Balaji Srinivasan and crypto exchanges such as Coinbase, Kraken and Binance, Buterin recommended options for the creation of cryptographic proofs of on-chain funds that can cover investor liabilities when required, a.k.a, safe centralized exchanges (CEX). Having a safe CEX: proof of solvency and beyondhttps://t.co/AKEweYZfj2 Big …

Nickel Digital Asset Management is not the only company feeling the effects of FTX’s collapse and bankruptcy. NFT protocol Metaplex also laid off, “several members of the Metaplex Studios team” due to the "indirect impact" from the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. The co-founder and CEO of Metaplex Studios Stephen Hess shared in a thread on Twitter that: “While our treasury wasn’t directly impacted by the collapse of FTX and our fundamentals remain strong, the indirect impact on the market is significant and requires that we take a more conservative approach moving forward.” (3/7) While our treasury wasn’t directly impacted …