Ledger Stax: designed by Tony Fadell, secured and built by Ledger

Paris, France. 6 December 2022 – Ledger, the world leader in critical digital asset security, has teamed up with Tony Fadell, builder of the iPod, to bring clarity and confidence to owning digital value. Ledger Stax™ is a usable way for you to take control of cryptocurrency and digital collectibles. It’s built on uncompromisingly secure architecture, and introduces a unique form designed for unprecedented accessibility and interactivity. 

Ledger Stax has a new E-Ink display, which covers the front and curves around the spine—you can view complete transaction details at a glance. E Ink is always viewable: your favorite art appears on the Ledger Stax screen, even when it is off. It also provides unmatched energy efficiency, so the battery can last for weeks or even months on one battery charge. 

“With the Ledger Nano™ series, we created the most successful digital asset security hardware of all time—with more than 5 million sold and none ever hacked,” says Pascal Gauthier, CEO and Chairman of Ledger. “Digital assets are increasingly about identity and digital ownership, not just crypto like Bitcoin. The time is now for a device for more mainstream users. At the same time, we must not compromise on security. This is Ledger Stax—secure and accessible.” 

Sam Bankman-Fried to Binance CEO: You Won, Stop Lying

Binance and FTX’s bosses have two different accounts of their exchange’s business dealings prior to the latter firm’s collapse. 

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) and ex-FTX boss Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) traded barbs over Twitter on Friday as each contested the true nature of their private business dealings.

During the exchange, Bankman-Fried asked CZ why he would “lie” about their situation, given he had already “won,” post bankruptcy.

CZ’s Story

CZ began with reference to Kevin O’Leary’s latest comments on FTX’s fallout. 

In his interview with CNBC, the Shark Tank star suggested that FTX spent much of its cash attempting to buy back its equity from Binance due to the latter’s “opque” ownership. He also refrained from accusing Bankman-Fried of fraud, as he has done multiple times since FTX’s bankrupcy.

O’Leary was paid $15 million to promote FTX’s brand in August 2021, and was an early investor in the company. CZ believes this has something to do with why he would seemingly run defense for FTX and SBF – even after the exchange’s collapse. 

“Unlike Kevin O’Leary, we continue to do due diligence even after we make an investment,” said CZ. “As an early investor in FTX, we became increasingly uncomfortable with Alameda/SBF and initiated the exit process more than 1.5 years ago.”

According to CZ, Binance began to leave behind its equity position in July 2021 due to worries about SBF and Alameda’s practices. This, per the Binance CEO, set off Bankman-Fried on multiple “unhinged” tirades against Binance team members, wherein the former billionaire threatened to “go to extraordinary lengths” to punish Binance. “We still have those text messages,” said CZ. 

This apparently sparked FTX to launch a mass investment campaign among “friends in high places,” including media, politicans, and celebrities like Kevin O’Leary to steer public opinion in favor of FTX, and against its opponents. 

In early November, CZ implied that FTX was lobbying against other player in the crypto industry in congress. Later that month, congressman Tom Emmer said he’d received reports of SBF conspiring with the SEC to forge a regulatory monopoly for FTX in the exchange business. 

“You don’t have to be a genius to know something don’t smell right at FTX,” continued CZ. “They were 1/10th our size, yet outspent us 100/1 on marketing & “partnerships”, fancy parties in the Bahamas, trips across the globe, and mansions for all of their senior staff.”

CZ boasted in June that his company was especially frugal during the 2021 crypto bull market, and had developed a large “war chest” relative to other more profligate competitors. 

SBF’s Story

Unlike CZ, Bankman-Fried alleged that his company was the one that initiated talks about buying out Binance’s stake in FTX, echoing his word to Kevin O’Leary on the matter. 

He also claimed that Binance never had the right to pull out as an investor unless FTX voluntarily opted for a buyout. 

“But again, none of this is necessary. You won. Why are you lying about this now?” he asked. 

CZ contested SBF’s framing of their dealings as a “competition” or “fight,” asserting that “no one won,” as an outcome. 

Bitcoin Stagnates Below $17K as Extreme Fear Returns to Crypto

The cryptocurrency market has failed to produce any meaningful movements in the past 24 hours and is found more or less where it was yesterday.

This includes Bitcoin, which continues to trade below $17K.

Prolonged periods of diminished volatility are not typical in the cryptocurrency market and are usually a precursor to a big move.

That said, Bitcoin’s price has been trapped within a fairly narrow range over the past couple of weeks, unable to break out in any direction. At the time of this writing, the cryptocurrency trades at $16,800 – exactly where it was yesterday.

The BTC dominance also remains the same as yesterday, highlighting the lack of activity from market participants and the overall state of stagnation.

Overall Market in State of Extreme Fear

Most of the altcoins failed to produce any gains too. On the somewhat bright side – they didn’t decrease either.

The majority of them are charting slight losses or gains but nothing noteworthy, as seen in the heatmap below.

Today’s best performer is FXS, up 8%, followed by Radix (XRD) – up 75.%. On the losing side of the spectrum, ImmutableX (IMX) is down 4.1%, followed by BTSE – down 2.5%.

Data also shows that the overall market sentiment has returned to a state of “extreme fear.” This is based on numerous factors, including volatility (or the lack of it), market momentum and volume, and social media sentiment.

Galaxy Digital gets 60% off Celsius assets after crypto lender’s bankruptcy

 Galaxy Digital, Mike Novogratz’s crypto-focused financial services firm, announced Friday that it had won an auction to purchase GK8 from insolvent cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network.

Price lower than what Celsius spent a year ago

Galaxy spokesperson Michael Wursthorn said the price was significantly lower than what Celsius spent a year ago, though the sale specifics were not released. As previously reported, Celsius paid $115,000,000 to acquire GK8 in November of 2021.

The purchase is part of Galaxy’s strategy to grow its premier brokerage business. About 40 employees, including blockchain developers and cryptographers, will join Galaxy’s team. According to Galaxy, with this deal in place (which is still subject to regulatory approval), they will be able to open a new facility in Tel Aviv, Israel, thus strengthening their presence worldwide.

Taking advantage of important opportunities to expand Galaxy sustainably, as demonstrated by the addition of GK8 to our flagship portfolio at a watershed time for the industry. Michael Novogratz established the firm to provide trading, asset management, and investment banking to businesses in the cryptocurrency industry. 

According to an article from August, San Francisco-based digital payments provider Ripple Labs Inc was considering making an offer to buy the assets of defunct cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network.

Crypto assets crash

In May, the prominent terraUSD and luna coins crashed, while in June, the crypto exchange FTX went down. Galaxy CEO and founder Mike Novogratz made the statement. Due to the decline in the cryptocurrency market, Celsius declared bankruptcy in July and is now selling off some of its assets.

On the other hand, Galaxy has decided against spending $1.2 billion to acquire cryptocurrency custody firm BitGo. Galaxy claimed at the time, in August, that BitGo had missed a July deadline to deliver financial statements. BitGo filed a lawsuit against Galaxy in September, seeking compensation for damages resulting from the termination of the merger.

While the recent valuation of FTX was $32 billion, the implosion of Celsius has not been without its critics. An October court document claims high-level employees stole millions of dollars before the company stopped allowing customers to withdraw their money.

An ex-employee who didn’t want to be identified stated the company’s financials were poorly monitored, which resulted in major deficits. Celsius’s synthetic short, which occurs when an organization’s assets and liabilities don’t match up, was a major issue.

Coca-Cola to launch the World Cup-themed NFT collection in partnership with Сrуptо.соm

Coca-Cola has announced the release of a set of FIFA World Cup NFTs based on heatmaps of the games played. The collection of 10,000 NFTs, generated by tracking the in-game movements of players in FIFA World Cup matches, will be developed and hosted on Сrуptо.соm's NFT platform. 

Bull Market Signal? Jim Cramer Advises Crypto Investors to Sell

Cramer believes Ripple (XRP), Dogecoin (DOGE), Cardano (ADA), and Polygon (MATIC) could crash to zero in the future.

The host of CNBC’s Mad Money show – Jim Cramer – said cryptocurrency investors still have time to sell their “awful” positions.

His previous advice has often been inaccurate, prompting numerous participants to anticipate a market surge after the latest comments.

Cramer’s on the Spotlight Again

During his most recent show, Mad Money’s host urged investors to cash out their cryptocurrency at all costs. He thinks “it’s never too late” to exit the market, hinting the crypto winter is nowhere near its end:

“You can’t just beat yourself up and say, ‘hey, it’s too late to sell.’ The truth is, it’s never too late to sell an awful position, and that’s what you have if you own these so-called digital assets.”

Cramer believes the most speculative cryptocurrencies that could possibly crash to virtually zero are Ripple (XRP), Dogecoin (DOGE), Cardano (ADA), and Polygon (MATIC). 

Most digital currencies have lost a significant chunk of their valuation, with bitcoin being down nearly 65% since the beginning of 2022. In addition, investors’ interest has significantly dropped, while multiple companies experiencing liquidity issues. Former giants in the field, including FTX, BlockFi, Three Arrows Capital, and Celsius, even filed for bankruptcy.

However, the market has been through other “winters” in the past, and many digital currencies endured the turbulence, including bitcoin.

Subsequently, Cramer argued that the industry is full of “boosters” who try desperately to inflate the market with considerable financial efforts, giving an example is Tether, the company issuing USDT.

“There’s still a whole industry of crypto boosters trying desperately to keep all of these things up in the air — not too different from what happened with bad stocks during the dotcom collapse.”

The American has displayed a highly controversial stance on crypto over the years. He predicted in 2017 that bitcoin will surge to $1 million in the future but later changed his mind and labeled it an “outlaw currency.”

Cramer joined the pro-bitcoin team in 2020 again, praising the coin’s maximum supply of 21 million as a significant advantage over the traditional financial system and fiat currencies. He compared BTC to gold at the end of 2020 and even purchased some amounts of the asset when it was trading at around $17,500. 

As bitcoin was heading north, so was Cramer’s support toward it. He even requested his salary to be paid in BTC instead of fiat currency in April 2021. The recent market crash, though, has changed his vision entirely, and he has returned as a crypto critic. 

Many of his crypto predictions have been proven wrong. In September 2021, he advised investors to cash out their holdings, saying the Evergrande debt crisis in China could trigger a market crash. Bitcoin skyrocketed to an all-time high of nearly $69,000 two months later.

He also opined in January 2022 that the correction from BTC and ETH could be over, meaning investors should reconsider entering the market. Contrary to that forecast, the leading cryptocurrencies continued their downfall and are currently trading at $17,000 and $1,250, respectively, down from $47,000 and $3,700 from the beginning of the year.

Nike launches “1st native web3 sneaker”

Nike has formally released its first “native web3 sneaker”, through its NFT and Web3 arm, RTFKT, per an announcement on Monday.

RTFKT revealed details of what can be expected from the new product launch, including a ‘walk-to-earn’ mechanic, utility via authenticity, app connectivity, and more.

However, the thread closes with a keynote that the product will only be shipped to users in the U.S. They noted: “Due to advanced technology and product regulation, products can ONLY be shipped to the US.”

Nike is the industry leader in the sneaker game market and has continued to invest in its infrastructure, emerging technology and web3-related fields.

The major drawback regarding its introduction has far less to do with price and much more to do with accessibility since Nike has only allowed U.S.-based addresses to fulfill orders for its web3 sneakers. 

The lack of clarity and foresight in not sharing this pertinent detail until after outside U.S. money has been contributed to the project has led to an abundance of criticism around another brand with web3 visions and web2 execution. The MONOLITH price dropped substantially, recording averages north of 1.5ETH in recent days and recording sales for less than 0.5 ETH today.

Nike & RTFKT acquisition

Among companies who have entered the NFT industry with a longer time perspective, Nike’s acquisition of RTFKT last year has primarily functioned as the most successful case study from a traditional brand using an NFT platform.

The transaction happened a year ago in the thick of the NFT bull market’s mania. After the acquisition, the company last month also released its specific web3 platform, Swoosh, demonstrating an ongoing commitment to playing in the web3 sandbox.