business

Bitcoin Is Surging—So Why All the Crypto Layoffs?

Published

4 hours ago

November 2, 2024

The American crypto industry had plenty to celebrate this week: Bitcoin came within inches of reaching its all-time high price, crypto ETFs rang in new milestones on Wall Street, and next week’s presidential election appears poised to boost the ecosystem regardless of who wins.

You’d hardly notice, then, that it was one of the worst weeks ever for America’s top crypto employers. On Tuesday, Ethereum software giant Consensys laid off 20% of its global workforce. Hours later, DYdX, a New York-based decentralized crypto exchange, cut its team by 35%. The next morning, Kraken, one of America’s largest crypto exchanges, slashed its headcount by 15%.

Rounding out the week, Coinbase reported a disappointing Q3 that missed targets, and an overall decline in customer activity. What gives?

Experts told Decrypt a multitude of factors may be at play—ranging from shorter term election- and regulation-related anxieties that may resolve soon, to more existential issues concerning the place for crypto-native companies in an industry increasingly populated by traditional finance giants.

“This is definitely the most bearish bull market of all time,” Alex Tapscott, managing director of digital assets at Ninepoint Partners, told Decrypt.

While rosy headlines about crypto’s rising tides may appear omnipresent, that narrative really only pertains to Bitcoin, which is more than ever “in a league of its own,” Tapscott said.

And even Bitcoin’s strength is no longer necessarily the crypto industry’s gain.

“Yeah, Bitcoin’s price went up a lot, but where did that inflow go?” Owen Lau, a senior analyst at investment firm Oppenheimer & Co., told Decrypt. “It’s going into traditional finance companies, as opposed to crypto-native companies.”

With Wall Street titans like BlackRock scooping up billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin trades through its exchange-traded fund thanks to brand trust and rock-bottom fees, crypto exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken are getting left out in the cold, Lau said. Companies tied to sagging cryptocurrencies like ETH—such as Consensys—are faring even worse, he added. (Disclosure: Consensys is one of 22 investors in Decrypt, which is editorially independent.)

Fears related to regulatory uncertainty and the looming presidential election may also be playing a substantial role in chilling crypto activity and investment—at least for the moment.

Kristin Smith, CEO of the Blockchain Association, a leading crypto lobbying group, told Decrypt that while she is optimistic that both a Trump and Harris administration look poised to bring regulatory clarity and support to crypto, the current U.S. Security and Exchange Commission’s hostility to the industry has done substantial damage to business that won’t be remedied until next year at the earliest.

“A lot of the capital, I think, is sitting on the sidelines, and is nervous about coming into this space until they see some more clarity,” Smith said. “So I do think the regulatory issues and the political issues are a big factor in all of this.”

Earlier this week, the Blockchain Association launched an initiative to track how much money leading crypto firms have spent on lawsuits initiated by the SEC. It says that figure is already in excess of $400 million. On Tuesday, when Consensys announced it would lay off 20% of its staff, the company’s CEO, Joe Lubin, said the staff cuts were linked to the “many millions of dollars” Consensys has spent defending itself against the SEC in court.

And yet, some experts insist crypto’s woes won’t fade away even if the U.S. government embraces the industry. Oppenheimer’s Lau thinks the current landscape of crypto-native companies—particularly centralized exchanges—is much too overcrowded, and that many such companies will end up either dying out or getting acquired by traditional finance firms.

“I don’t know why the market would allow 200 exchanges in the world,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense to me.”

Ninepoint’s Tapscott, meanwhile, thinks it’s going to take a lot more than getting rid of SEC Chair Gary Gensler to unleash a true crypto bull market.

“It’s not just the election,” he said. “If you look at previous cycles, there’s always been some set of new applications or capabilities that got people really excited.”

Tapscott points to the landmark innovations of decentralized applications (dapps) or NFTs, both of which propelled crypto markets to then-unprecedented highs.

“This time around, is there something that has galvanized people in quite the same way?” he said. “I think the answer is, not yet.”

While the prospect of politicians and Wall Street embracing crypto is certainly exciting, Tapscott added, that development has not been sufficient to kickstart a true industry-wide bull run—and can’t replace the zeal generated by a bonafide new use case for blockchain tech.

“How do you do something with the technology that wasn’t possible before?” he said.

Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.

Source link

business

Trump Advisor Vivek Ramaswamy Adds Bitcoin to $1.7 Billion Asset Management Firm

Published

20 hours ago

November 1, 2024

admin

Strive Asset Management, a financial services firm co-founded by former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, said Friday that it’s embracing Bitcoin in Texas.

Managing $1.7 billion in assets, the company said in a press release that a core part of its business moving forward will be “integrating Bitcoin into standard portfolios of everyday Americans,” as its headquarters relocates to the Lone Star state from Ohio.

Part of Strive’s new wealth management business, the firm cited “unsustainable global debt levels, rising fixed income yields, long-run inflationary pressures, persistent geopolitical pressures, and potential restrictive monetary controls” as factors making Bitcoin a valid hedge.

Meanwhile, Strive announced that it had completed a $30 million Series B round led by Cantor Fitzgerald. Serving as a campaign surrogate for former President Donald Trump, Ramaswamy had been a vocal crypto supporter before exiting the 2024 race, while Cantor Fitzgerald Chairman and CEO Howard Lutnick has co-chaired Trump’s transition team.

“The moment is now ripe to launch a pro-capitalism wealth management business focused on true financial freedom, with a focus on integrating Bitcoin into standard portfolios,” Ramaswamy said in a statement, pointing to shifts in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) attitudes.

With four days until Election Day, Ramaswamy’s firm is aligning itself with elements of a so-called Trump trade. Because the Republican candidate has made several overtures to crypto owners this year, analysts believe crypto prices could benefit from Trump’s reelection. In September, for example, analysts at Bernstein said Bitcoin could hit $90,000 if Trump wins the White House.

According to Fox Business, Strive is an “anti-woke” investment company, with other backers tied to the Republican ticket. Narya Capital, which invested in Strive’s Series B round, was co-founded by Trump running mate and Ohio Senator JD Vance in 2020.

Leveraging experience from the brokerage firm Sanford C. Bernstein, Strive said Gary Dorfman will helm Strive’s new business as president. Randol Curtis, formerly deputy chief investment officer at One Capital Management, will meanwhile serve as the business’s CIO.

Earlier this year, Ramaswamy spoke at a Bitcoin conference in Nashville where Trump promised to turn America into a “Bitcoin superpower.” Prior to that, Ramaswamy said that he would implement a “comprehensive crypto policy framework” if elected commander-in-chief.

Earlier this month, Vice President Kamala Harris adopted a pro-crypto stance, signaling that she would support a regulatory framework for digital assets. The pledge was predicted by Ramaswamy, who wrote on Twitter (aka X) in July after Trump’s speech in Nashville that she’ll be forced to come up with a “policy framework to pander to pro-crypto voters.”

Edited by Andrew Hayward

Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.

Source link

Bitcoin

I Did Basically Nothing And Got $500 in Bitcoin

Published

1 day ago

November 1, 2024

admin

A couple of summers ago, I used to order lunch via Grubhub while working long days in the office. When ordering, I always made sure I was logged into Lolli, a bitcoin rewards platform with a browser extension, so that I earned sats back on my purchases.

I eventually stopped eating out so much and began cooking food at home, and over time, I mostly forgot about how I used to stack sats on everyday purchases with Lolli. However, I recently checked my wallet and found 312,770 sats that had risen in value to be worth $220 at the time of writing this.

Looking through my transaction history, the majority of my Lolli purchases were via Grubhub.

My bitcoin rewards for just ordering lunch

My bitcoin back rewards from my ~$20 lunch purchases are currently worth $3-4 each. As bitcoin continues to increase in price, it is pretty wild to think that the rewards I earned will one day be worth more than the purchases I made to get them…

Honestly, it feels like the greatest financial hack that ever existed.

Then, I remembered I had an account with Fold, another bitcoin rewards app. I logged into my account and found 300,416 sats, currently worth $226, just chilling in my wallet there. I also saw that I had accumulated my total rewards earned 1,057,710 sats, currently worth $750, using Fold. Again, all this for doing nothing more than making everyday purchases.

Why did I ever stop using these products? I think I was just lazy and now I’m kicking myself at all the extra bitcoin I could have stacked if I had kept using these platforms — especially through the bear market…

That’s when I realized the genius of these platforms: they don’t require customers to go out of their way to acquire bitcoin. They just allow them to live their lives and get rewards. They make it so that no real change in behavior is required, and people don’t have to invest their hard-earned dollars to get their hands on some bitcoin.

Most Bitcoin companies cater to a pretty niche market that is more technical. But using these products makes me think there is another way to get people into Bitcoin. Bitcoin rewards apps are a clever gateway that my friends who are not into Bitcoin would probably think is really cool and would probably be interested in using to stack their first sats.

While I wish I could go back in time to the bear market and redo all my everyday purchases utilizing a BTC rewards platform, I can’t.

However, I can control my actions today and while moving forward — so I’ll be downloading these apps again. You should, too.

This article is a Take. Opinions expressed are entirely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

Source link

business

Coinbase Shares Dip After Earnings Miss as Crypto Exchange Plans $1 Billion Buyback

Published

3 days ago

October 30, 2024

admin

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase reported a decrease in revenue from the previous quarter Thursday, finding its customers were less engaged in trading crypto over the summer.

Company sales fell to $1.2 billion in Q3 2024 from $1.45 billion in the previous quarter, while coming in below analysts’ expectations of $1.26 billion, according to FactSet data. Meanwhile, Coinbase reported a $75 million profit compared to a $2 million loss a year ago.

“It was a solid quarter for the business across the three priorities we set forth early in the year: driving revenue, driving crypto utility, and driving regulatory clarity,” Anil Gupta, vice president of investor relations told Decrypt, adding it was the company’s fourth straight profitable quarter.

Coinbase’s stock price climbed as high as $279 in March, not long after Bitcoin’s price set an all-time high of around $73,000. While shares had since fallen to $211, as of Wednesday’s market close, the stock was still up 35% in price year-to-date. During after-hours trading, Coinbase’s stock price was down 4%, falling to $202 as of this writing.

The company attributed its decline in third-quarter revenue to decreased trading volumes, which clocked in at $185 billion compared to $226 billion in the second quarter. Representing the company’s main source of revenue, the dip was more pronounced among its retail customers.

Coinbase disclosed that transaction revenue derived from retail users dipped quarter-over-quarter to $483 million, falling 27% from $664 million. Meanwhile, transaction revenue from institutional users fell 13% to $55 million from $63 million in the second quarter.

The company also disclosed that its board of directors had authorized a $1 billion stock repurchasing program, with the “the timing and amount of any repurchases” dependent on market conditions.

In a research note earlier this month, Oppenheimer analysts attributed a forecast slowdown in trading volume to a “lack of positive catalysts together with the U.S. election overhang.” Still, Oppenheimer viewed Vice President Kamala Harris’ support of a regulatory framework for digital assets as a factor that could benefit Coinbase trading volumes in the fourth quarter.

“We continue to build great products, with a focus on some of the building blocks that are now in place to help bring one billion users on-chain,” Coinbase said in a letter to shareholders. “Looking beyond Election Day 2024, we are prepared to work with either administration and believe the odds of pro-crypto legislation are better than ever.”

When cryptocurrency prices were depressed during the bear market, Coinbase embraced subscriptions and services revenue as a way to diversify its business. Including income earned on assets backing Circle’s USDC stablecoin, subscriptions and services revenue briefly overtook transaction-based revenue in the third quarter of last year.

Oppenheimer analysts wrote that Coinbase’s stablecoin revenue will likely fall as the Federal Reserve pushes forward with its easing campaign. Coinbase reported Thursday, however, that stablecoin revenue came in at $246 million, rising sequentially from $240 million.

While lower interest rates dented stablecoin revenue, the company said in its shareholder letter that the figure was bolstered by a growing amount of USDC on its platform, which increased 7% to $6.6 billion quarter-over-quarter.

“We’re continuing to grow the native units on the platform,” Gupta said. “We’re optimistic about long-term stablecoin revenue.”

The company’s Ethereum layer-2 scaling network, Base, has been a bright spot for the exchange, serving as a popular destination for its on-chain products. In its shareholder letter, the company said that Base “solidified its position as the leader in on-chain activity,” with the number of transactions it processed rising 55% quarter-over-quarter.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.

Source link