Celsius Network (CEL) is seeking legal advice from Akin Grump Strauss Hauer & Feld regarding financial restructuring and the firm's financial challenges. There are ongoing rumors of a Celsius insolvency, and the firm is now seeking strategic alternatives and possible financing options. More: - The firm is also looking for investors that will offer financing options after it paused withdrawals from its platform on Monday.
- Celsius has also unstaked roughly $247M in Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) from liquidity protocol Aave and $74.5M in Ether, sending both to the FTX exchange.
- Nexo, a crypto exchange, along with its partners and affiliates, may also acquire some or all of Celsius' outstanding "collateralized loan receivables."
- Apart from Celsius, Binance halted Bitcoin withdrawals briefly on Monday but reassured holders that their funds were safe. Withdrawals on Binance were restored a few hours later.
Bitcoin.com 
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Bitcoin and Ethereum are at a 52-week low as the crypto sell-off period continues. Bitcoin dropped to $20,184 amid rising inflation rates and the anticipated rate hike from the U.S. Federal Reserve. More: - Bitcoin's market cap sits at $386B today, which has dropped from $1.27T in Nov. 2021.
- Ethereum, with a market cap of $128.9B, is currently trading at $1,029, down 15% at the time of writing, and has lost 80% of its value since Nov. 2021.
- Cryptocurrencies took a hard hit this week after Celsius froze withdrawals and transfers between accounts that invoked fears in digital assets since the crash of TerraUSD and Luna tokens.
- Sharp U.S. Federal Reserve interest hikes have also put pressure on cryptocurrencies and stocks as investors dump riskier investments.
- Crypto funds saw outflows of $102M last week, and "The ripples running through the market haven't stopped yet... I think we're still in the middle of it; unfortunately, the game isn't over," says Scottie Siu, investment director at Hong Kong-based Axion Global Asset Management.
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Binance is hiring and has 2,000 open positions as other crypto exchanges, including Coinbase, Crypto.com, and Gemini, announce layoffs. The company is actively hiring engineers, product managers, and marketing and business development managers. More: - Changpeng Zhao, the exchange's co-founder and CEO, made the announcement on his Twitter: "It was not easy saying no to Super Bowl ads, stadium naming rights, large sponsor deals a few months ago, but we did. Today, we are hiring for 2,000 open positions for Binance."
- Coinbase announced that it is laying off 18% of its staff, and Gemini is reducing its team by 10% in preparation for the upcoming crypto winter. BlockFi is also reducing its headcount by 20%.
- Binance, on the other hand, is making the most of crypto winter and expanding hiring and believes that this is the right time to bring on top talent: "If we are in a crypto winter, we will leverage that; we will use that to the max," says Zhao.
- FTX, a crypto exchange, is also hiring more talent. CEO Sam Bankman-Fried tweeted that the exchange was "going to keep pushing forward" by continuing to hire. Polygon also plans to hire 15% more new talent this year.
Finance Magnates
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Three Arrows Capital, a multibillion-dollar hedge fund that has invested heavily in Ethereum, Bitcoin, Solana, and BlockFi, is battling rumors of possible insolvency. More: - The Singapore-based hedge fund had $18B in its last public financial statement and is known for bullish investments in cryptocurrency. The current downtrend has reduced the value of holdings and decreased the stake in the fund, including 2AC, Terra, and Axie Infinity.
- Zhu Su, the Dubai-based investor, tweeted, "we are in the process of communicating with relevant parties and fully committed to working this out."
- After Celsius suspended withdrawals, Three Arrows Capital's rumored insolvency is causing more panic in the crypto industry as the sell-off period continues.
- The Tron DAO reserve project, which backs the USDD algorithmic stablecoin, also announced that it would withdraw $100M worth of cryptocurrency from Binance to support the dollar peg of its stablecoin.
- Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao described the situation as a "bloodbath."
The Guardian
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 A message from INCOGNIA How to achieve the right balance between friction and fraud in crypto mobile apps? Current fraud prevention methods in crypto apps are not effective against the increasing fraud scams in crypto, which hit losses of $14 Billion in 2021. On the other hand, users hate the friction imposed by authentication methods. Incognia has analyzed twenty-one major cryptocurrency mobile apps for a complete review of the login authentication, password reset and device change process. This report includes an investigation of the level of friction that security measures, designed to keep out fraudsters, introduce for all users. Download this report to: - Learn which apps provide the lowest friction for password reset and device change.
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Russia's bill to ban cryptocurrency for payment of goods and services has passed the first reading in Parliament. Legal professionals have expressed concerns over the bill for tightening the regulation of digital rights and tokenized assets. More: - The bill is sponsored by the head of the Financial Markets Committee of the State Duma, Anatoly Aksakov.
- If the bill gets passed into law, it would ban the use of "digital financial actives" (DFA) to pay for goods and services.
- The problem is that the bill treats DFAs as tokens and not cryptocurrencies as a payment method, although they have been used as security tokens.
- The idea of electronic payments would be recognized as national payment systems, which is given a loose definition as a financial, investment platform or information system.
Coin Telegraph
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Bill Gates says crypto and NFTs as an asset class are 100% based on the "greater fool theory." He criticized the cryptocurrency and NFT investments citing that the industry is primarily speculation-driven. More: - The greater fool theory rests on the idea that someone can purchase an overvalued asset and still make money by selling it at a higher price to a "greater fool." The idea works as long as each "fool" can find a greater fool, but once it becomes too apparent that the asset is overvalued, the price crashes, and the last fool loses a lot of money.
- Gates also criticized people for spending millions on NFTs: "Obviously, expensive digital images of monkeys are going to improve the world immensely," he said in a sarcastic tone.
- Gates reaffirmed that he is not involved in the cryptocurrency industry and has said he prefers investing in "things that have valuable output" but takes a neutral view on crypto.
Zoom out: - Warren Buffet has also expressed similar opinions about Bitcoin and said, "I don't have any Bitcoin. I don't own any cryptocurrency, and I never will."
- The top three reasons that Buffet gave for not investing in crypto include:
- It has no unique value;
- he believes that crypto does not count as real money;
- and lastly, he just does not understand it.
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 |  | Gia Mattu is based in Calgary, Alberta. She is an entrepreneur with experience in climate technology, drones, AI, machine learning, and blockchain technology. When she's not working, she loves to hike the Canadian Rockies, try new cuisine, and travel. | | | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford. | |
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Incognia is a privacy-first location identity company that provides frictionless mobile authentication for reduced fraud. | |
