Twitter is now worth half of the $44B Elon Musk paid for it: Report

Elon Musk’s social media platform, X (formerly Twitter), is worth less than half of what the tech billionaire bought it for in October last year, an internal memo has reportedly revealed.

According to an Oct. 30 report from Bloomberg, the internal memo and sources familiar with the matter said that restricted stock units recently paid to employees of the company were valued at $45 a share, which puts the company’s value at around $19 billion, less than half of the $44 billion that Musk paid for the company on Oct. 27, 2022.

Musk has made a series of controversial moves since taking over the platform, including rebranding it to X, changing many of its content rules and laying off…

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‘I don’t own Bitcoin, but I should,’ says Druckenmiller

Investor Stanley Druckenmiller recently spoke about bitcoin during a fireside chat with Paul Tudor Jones.

The 70-year-old investor admitted that he doesn’t currently own any bitcoin — “but I should,” he continued.

To Druckenmiller, gold and bitcoin are similar, just with a huge age gap. 

“I’m 70 years old, I own gold. I was surprised that bitcoin got going, but you know, it’s clear that the young people look at it as a store of value because it’s a lot easier to do stuff with. 17 years, to me, it’s a brand. I like gold because it’s a 5,000-year-old brand, but the young people have all the money, certainly the ones on the West Coast do,” he told Paul Tudor Jones…

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DeFi is facing a ‘full frontal assault’ from regulators

The US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network recently published a proposal regarding the mixing of what they call “convertible virtual currencies” or CVCs.

Cryptocurrency transactions can be “mixed” via certain services in an effort to hide origins and quantities from any forms of surveillance.

The proposal is not a bill, the chief legal and policy officer at Polygon Labs Rebecca Rettig explains, but is a set of rules that the regulatory agency has proposed. The rules aim to curb money laundering and address the obfuscation of illicit flows of funds via crypto mixing mechanisms.

But the risks of such a proposal may outweigh the benefits, Rettig says. Now, she…

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SBF claims innocence, contradicts other witnesses: Law Decoded

Last week, the criminal trial of FTX founder and CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried continued in New York, with the man himself giving testimony as part of his defense. According to the SBF, he didn’t know any details about the creation of North Dimension, an alleged “shadowy entity” used to launder customer funds from the crypto exchange through Alameda Research. It was former chief regulatory officer Dan Friedberg who provided him with the papers setting up the firm, which he signed without question, SBF claimed. 

Bankman-Fried denied knowing why crypto exchange FTX began moving user funds from a bank account with Alameda to North Dimension. He suggested that banks may have been…

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A16z eyes $3.4B raise for next venture funds: Axios

Andreessen Horowitz reportedly expects to raise $3.4 billion for its next early and seed-stage venture funds.

Axios reported Monday that a16z, the largest venture capital firm by assets under management, will launch its fundraising efforts by the end of this year with an aim of closing them during the first half of 2024.

Blockworks reached out to a16z but didn’t receive an immediate response.

While a16z is chiefly known for focusing on tech, the burgeoning AI sector, and social media platforms for investment, the firm’s portfolio also includes buying in crypto projects and businesses. 

A16z’s notable crypto investments include Coinbase, Aptos, Avalanche, Dapper Labs, Layer Zero,…

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Uniswap’s DAO poised to try its hand at venture capital

In a bid to put some of its treasury’s $1.7 billion nest egg to use, Uniswap’s DAO may soon send $12 million to a little-known protocol for a 20% share in its future governance token supply.

Uniswap passed a temperature check over the weekend to invest some of its native token stash (UNI) in the recently-founded Ekubo Protocol. This kind of poll is a measure of sentiment, positive or negative, ahead of an official decision-making vote. 

One industry member said the pending investment could present a new paradigm for DAO treasury management as such groups struggle to put their capital to use.

Ekubo Protocol is an automated market maker (AMM) built on the layer-2 protocol Starknet….

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LATEST: Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Soars to Second Place in Bitcoin Futures Market

In a significant development for the cryptocurrency world, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has surged to second place in Bitcoin futures exchanges, with an open interest of $3.58 billion as of October 30th. This leap pushed CME ahead of Bybit and OKX, trailing just behind Binance’s $3.9 billion. CME’s success is attributed to its standard Bitcoin futures contracts, driven by increasing institutional interest amid Bitcoin’s impressive surge to over $35,000 in October. This rise in open interest signals a bullish sentiment, solidifying CME’s position with 25% of the Bitcoin futures market share.

Day 2 on the stand — and Sam Bankman-Fried recalls next to nothing

A little more than an hour into his cross examination, Sam Bankman-Fried — potentially the last witness in his own criminal trial — appears to be having a hard time recalling some key details. 

“Would you agree you know how to tell a good story,” lead prosecutor Danielle Sassoon asked early on during the cross examination. 

“It depends on what metric you use,” Bankman-Fried replied. 

Sassoon went on to produce document after document in an effort to prove the former crypto mogul made misleading statements to investors and customers, both before and after his exchange collapsed. 

“Isn’t it true that you said,” Sassoon started a myriad of her questions, going on to…

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WSJ debacle fueled US lawmakers’ ill-informed crusade against crypto

Following October’s tragic events in Israel, a narrative linking Hamas funding to cryptocurrencies emerged from The Wall Street Journal in an Oct. 10 story authored by the paper’s Angus Berwick and Ian Talley. It fueled Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s crusade against the crypto sector. Subsequent insights from Chainalysis and Elliptic cast serious doubt on the claims, demanding a more judicious examination of the accusations levied against the crypto industry.

At the heart of this discourse is an underlying issue — the United States’ precarious position on crypto regulations. The narrative surrounding Hamas’s crypto funding is emblematic of the U.S. government’s broader inability to…

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