A prominent crypto influencer is doubling down on his belief that Bitcoin (BTC) continues to serve as an inflation hedge even after its deep correction last year. In a lengthy thread, Bitcoin bull Anthony Pompliano explains to his 1.6 million Twitter followers why BTC is still the best hedge against inflation despite the king crypto’s […]
The post Bitcoin Is the Big Winner in an Inflationary Environment, Says BTC Bull Anthony Pompliano – Here’s Why appeared first on The Daily Hodl.
Web3 infrastructure firm Quicknode raised $60 million in a Series B funding round, according to an announcement the company made on Tuesday. The capital injection brings the company’s post-valuation to $800 million, and Quicknode says the funds will be used to “further fuel blockchain adoption.” Quicknode Aims to Streamline Web2 to Web3 Movement With $60 […]
The crypto industry has already seen more than 1,600 layoffs across the industry in the first two weeks of January.
Despite a wave of heavy crypto layoffs to start the new year, employees in technical and engineering roles, as well as senior management, will likely continue to see “strong demand” for their skills, recruitment professionals believe.
It’s been a tough first few weeks of 2023 for crypto businesses and their staff. Within just two weeks, the market has already seen more than 1,600 crypto-related job cuts as a result of continued market volatility and uncertainty.
However, not all departments have seen the same level of cuts.
Rob Paone, founder and CEO of crypto recruitment firm Proof of Talent, told Cointelegraph that technical and engineering roles are by a “wide margin” the most in-demand jobs, even during bear markets.
He said his firm is still seeing “strong demand” for these functions, adding that these salaries are still “very competitive” despite “bidding war type scenarios” no longer being the case for these employees.
Johncy Agregado, director of crypto recruitment firm CapMan Consulting, said that it’s common for mid-level roles to be trimmed during a bear market, but said that senior functions tend to “double or triple” during a bear market.
Agregado added that roles such as chief technology officer and chief information security officer tend to be safe, because people in those positions have to maintain the fluidity of the business and keep “things in order” while the market corrects itself.
Paone however said the jobs that crypto firms tend to cut first are “usually around” in-house recruiting, customer service, compliance, and anything “non-revenue or product generating.”
Investor and podcaster Anthony Pompliano — who is also the founder of crypto recruitment firm Inflection Points — said while each company approaches bear markets differently, he has historically seen the “non-mission critical jobs” affected most by layoffs.
These roles, according to Pompliano, are any roles outside of product, engineering, operations, customer service and management.
Commenting on the ongoing bear market, Pompliano said he has heard “numerous reports” of salary reductions in smaller companies, while others have put a freeze on raises and annual bonuses.
Paone also added that in some cases, even those in technical roles might not be able to entirely avoid job cuts, explaining that the crypto firms forced to make “deeper cuts” have had to reduce their engineering and product teams too.
Related: Crypto layoffs trigger mixed responses from the community
Recent months have seen a string of crypto firms, particularly exchanges, cutting staff amid the market downturn.
Last week crypto exchanges Crypto.com and Coinbase both announced cuts to its global workforce.
Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek tweeted on Jan. 13 that the exchange had made the “difficult decision” to reduce its global workforce by “about 20%” because of the tough market conditions and recent industry events.
Meanwhile, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced on Jan. 10 that the exchange would cut 950 jobs as part of a plan to reduce operating costs by around 25% amid the ongoing crypto winter.
Crypto exchange Binance was one of few to announce the opposite, hinting at plans for a “hiring spree” in 2023 during a crypto conference in Switzerland.
However, Paone suggested that while crypto layoffs have been front and center, it hasn’t prompted crypto professionals to pivot away from the industry.
Venture capitalist Tim Draper says Bitcoin (BTC) will likely transform El Salvador from one of the poorest countries in the world to one of the richest. In a new interview with popular crypto bull Anthony Pompliano, the billionaire predicts that the decision by El Salvador President Nayib Bukele to invest in the king crypto and […]
The post Billionaire Tim Draper Says Bitcoin (BTC) Will Make El Salvador One of the Richest Nations on Earth appeared first on The Daily Hodl.
The crypto investor and Bitcoin bull said that in crypto, market forces tend to eliminate bad people as quickly as bad businesses.
Prolific podcaster and cryptocurrency investor Anthony Pompliano has not lost faith in people or the crypto industry despite the disappointing conduct of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.
Bankman-Fried, once widely regarded as crypto’s “white knight” is now a pariah in the crypto industry due to — by his own admission — the “careless” mishandling of FTX customer funds and his ongoing strange behavior on Twitter.
Appearing on Nov. 17 at the Texas Blockchain Summit, Pompliano was asked about how to ensure high-quality representation “in the halls of power,” responding that market forces eliminate bad people as quickly as bad businesses:
“It might be a little counterintuitive, but the free market is a hell of a fucking referee. If you watch what just happened, this industry is who held the industry accountable. […] CZ is the one who used market forces to take that company [FTX] down,” he said.
“At the end of the day, the judge, jury, and executioner was the free market and the industry itself.”
Pompliano continued, “The good people, they survive, the bad people, they end up getting washed out.”
Always enjoy visiting the great state of Texas, where the citizens understand the importance of private property, personal defense, and economic liberty pic.twitter.com/5POeuSDuex
— Pomp (@APompliano) November 17, 2022
Speaking on CNBC on Nov. 15, Pompliano said, “I think there are a lot of people saying, ‘I don’t have any information. I don’t know what’s going on.’”
Pompliano added he had businesses with money on FTX's platforms and an advertising relationship with the crypto exchange.
Related: Crypto will generate more wealth than the internet, says Morgan Creek Capital CEO
Pompliano, an ardent Bitcoin supporter, founded North Carolina-based Morgan Creek Digital Assets with Mark Yusko in 2018. He also runs the Pomp Crypto Jobs website. He has attracted attention for saying pseudonymous Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto deserves a Nobel Peace Prize, advocated for the inclusion of crypto in pension funds, and dismissed crypto mining’s energy consumption saying, “crucial things in the world use energy.”
Morgan Creek Digital Assets was reportedly putting together an alternative offer for BlockFi before FTX invested $680 million in the crypto lender in a bailout in July.
Well-known Bitcoin (BTC) bull Anthony Pompliano says multiple sources claim Wall Street investors and the biggest financial institutions are planning to invest heavily in cryptocurrency. Pompliano tells his 436,000 Youtube subscribers that financial institutions are already dedicating a lot of resources to the crypto space with an eye toward the future. “Regardless of what happens […]
The post Wall Street and Top Financial Institutions Waiting To Go All-In on Crypto, Says Bitcoin Bull Anthony Pompliano appeared first on The Daily Hodl.
Since Tesla’s Elon Musk attempted to purchase Twitter and tried to get information on the number of bots on the social media platform, Twitter bots have infested tens of thousands of posts day after day. In the cryptocurrency industry, bots are very prevalent and any time a popular crypto account posts, the thread is teeming […]
Billionaire David Rubenstein says that crypto investors are essentially playing at casinos and that he’s identified the motivation behind it. In a new interview on crypto influencer Anthony Pompliano’s YouTube channel, the Bloomberg host says that traders are choosing to buy crypto assets because they are trusting governments and fiat currencies less. “I used to […]
The post Billionaire David Rubenstein Compares Crypto to Gambling, Says Investors Take the Risk for This Reason appeared first on The Daily Hodl.
Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary says that a massive wave of blue-chip capital could flood into the crypto asset space if proper conditions are met. In a new interview with crypto influencer Anthony Pompliano, the venture capitalist says that billions of dollars worth of institutional capital could make its way to leading digital assets Bitcoin […]
The post Institutional Capital Could Flood Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and Polygon Under This Condition: Kevin O’Leary appeared first on The Daily Hodl.
A leaked investor call from Morgan Creek Digital suggests BlockFi liquidated 3AC for $1 billion, while Celsius reportedly maintained a highly risky assets-to-equity ratio last year that may have caused its recent liquidity woes.
It’s been another day of watching the ripples of contagion spread through the crypto market.
With Three Arrows Capital being ordered into liquidation by a British court, details have also emerged today of BlockFi liquidating a $1B loan to 3AC, and the fallout from the insolvency was partly to blame for lending firm and market maker Genesis Trading facing losses of “a few hundred million dollars."
Withdrawals remain suspended at the possibly insolvent lending and borrowing platform Celsius, which was revealed to have had a highly risky 19 to 1 assets-to-equity ratio before it ran into liquidity troubles this year.
According to documents reviewed and reported on by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on June 29, Celsius was operating on very fine and risky margins as it ballooned in value over 2021.
According to documents prepared before the last equity raise, Celsius, which claimed to be a less risky alternative to a bank, had an assets-to-equity ratio of $19 billion to $1 billion midway through last year, while also issuing out many loans that were undercollateralized.
The assets-to-equity ratio refers to the proportion of a firm’s assets that has been funded by shareholders. The ratio generally represents an indicator of how much debt a firm has leveraged to finance its operations, with higher ratios often suggesting a firm has utilized substantial financing and debt to remain afloat.
The ratios differ from sector to sector, as do the assets held by the specific entities, however Celsius’s already high 19-to-1 ratio is seen as extra risky due to the firm’s exposure to crypto, leverage and lending.
Eric Budish, an crypto-versed economist at the University of Chicago’s business school stated that “It’s just a risky structure,” as he likened Celsius’ operations to that of financial firms in the lead up to the 2008 housing bubble:
“It strikes me as diversified as the same way that portfolios of mortgages were diversified in 2006. It was all housing— here it’s all crypto.“
Reports also surfaced that Voyager Digital has sent more than $174 million to Celsius over the past few months. The transactions were confirmed by analytics platform Nansen this week, however the nature of the funding or whether it is a loan is unclear.
Digital Currency Group’s market maker and lending firm Genesis Trading is reportedly facing losses in the hundreds of millions according to sources reported by DCG publication Coin Desk.
The losses relate in part to the company’s exposure to 3AC and the crypto lender Babel Finance. Genesis is putting a brave face on the losses and still has hope of receiving partial repayments, with other losses offset by hedging. CEO Michael Moro said the firm had mitigated losses with “a large counterparty who failed to meet a margin call to us.”
“We sold collateral, hedged our downside, and moved on. Our business continues to operate normally and we are meeting all of our clients' needs."
A leaked investor call from hedge fund Morgan Creek Digital confirmed the liquidation of a large unnamed client by BlockFi on June 16 was 3AC.
During the call, Morgan Creek’s managing partner Mark Yusko and co-founder Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano stated that BlockFi had “reported” to the firm the loan was worth $1 billion and overcollateralized by 30%.
Pomp went on to state that roughly two-thirds of $1.33 billion collateralization was in Bitcoin (BTC) and was immediately liquidated once 3AC was unable to make repayments. The other third was said to be in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) shares worth around $400 million.
Grayscale’s BTC trust is designed to be pegged to the spot value of BTC, however it often trades for either a premium or a discount.
Related: British Virgin Islands court reportedly orders to liquidate 3AC
According to Pomp, BlockFi ran into troubles liquidating the position as the GBTC discount dropped to around 34%, and the price went down as the firm went to sell the holdings.
With FTX reportedly planning to purchase a stake in BlockFi following the issuance of a $250 million revolving credit facility to the firm, the call also discusses how Morgan Creek was looking to raise $250 million to purchase 51% of the firm. Such a sum would give BlockFi a valuation of just $500 million, well below its reported valuation of $5 billion in June 2021.
