Crypto Biz: US elections crown Polymarket

November 9, 2024 Coin Telegraph

blackrock

This week’s Crypto Biz features Polymarket, BlackRock’s IBIT hitting $1B volume, Meta’s Llama joining the US military, Bitcoin miners posting production records in October and VanEck listing PYTH ETN.

Donald Trump may have won the race for the White House, but the crypto market has its own champion: Polymarket — a decentralized prediction market platform running on the Polygon blockchain.

Founded just four years ago, the platform has amassed over $3.2 billion in total bets tied to the United States election results, with $239.5 million placed on Election Day alone.

Behind Polymarket is 26-year-old Shayne Coplan, CEO and board member, according to Pitchbook. Some key election developments predicted by traders on Polymarket included President Joe Biden dropping out of the contest, among other geopolitical developments.

MicroStrategy completes billion convertible notes offering to buy more Bitcoin

MicroStrategy completes $3 billion convertible notes offering to buy more Bitcoin

Microstrategy Stock MSTR Soars 1,620% — Outshining Bitcoin, S&P 500, and the Magnificent 7

October 13, 2024 Bitcoin.com

Amazon

Microstrategy’s stock, MSTR, has soared 1,620% since the company adopted a bitcoin-centered strategy, far outpacing bitcoin itself, the S&P 500, and tech giants such as Nvidia. The company’s bitcoin holdings now exceed 252,000 BTC. Microstrategy’s executive chairman, Michael Saylor, remains bullish about bitcoin’s price as his company plans to further boost its BTC investments. Microstrategy’s […]

MicroStrategy completes $3 billion convertible notes offering to buy more Bitcoin

Revolut prevents $13.5M of ‘potential fraud transactions’ in crypto

October 8, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Revolut prevents .5M of ‘potential fraud transactions’ in crypto

Bitcoin

Revolut has been under fire as fraud complaints piled up in 2024, but the company has insisted it saved hundreds of millions in “potential fraudulent transfers.”

Cryptocurrency-friendly neobank Revolut said it has prevented millions of dollars in potential customer losses from fraudulent crypto transfers over the past three months

Revolut said on Oct. 7 that it blocked up to $13.5 million worth of “potentially fraudulent crypto transfers” between June 1 and Sept. 1, 2024, according to an announcement sent to Cointelegraph.

“The company’s proactive approach has seen it significantly enhance its crypto-specific security measures recently, which has led to an increase in the amount of potential fraud it has prevented,” Revolut said.

MicroStrategy completes $3 billion convertible notes offering to buy more Bitcoin

Meta shows off Web3-to-reality bridge with ‘Hyperscape’ metaverse demo

October 3, 2024 Coin Telegraph

artificial intelligence

The tech is still experimental, but its implications could change how users view reality.

Meta recently showed off a new “Hyperscape” tech that takes the idea of stitching photographs together to form a 3D environment — such as YouTube’s 360 videos — and turns it into a real-time rendering system that could potentially revolutionize telepresence and redefine the idea of working from home.

Meta’s still as bullish as ever when it comes to the metaverse. As Cointelegraph recently reported, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg showed off the company’s new “Orion” smart glasses at the company’s “Connect” event on Sept. 25.

The Orion glasses purportedly give the user an effective heads-up display, allowing them to navigate the physical world with digital information seamlessly integrated into what they are seeing.

MicroStrategy completes $3 billion convertible notes offering to buy more Bitcoin

Zuckerberg becomes fourth-wealthiest person following shift to Meta

September 29, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Big Tech

Tech giant Meta's current market capitalization is more than $1.4 trillion — making it one of the most valuable companies in the world.

Tech entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg is now the world's fourth-wealthiest billionaire — with a net worth of $201 billion — following Facebook's rebrand to Meta in October 2021, and expansion into metaverse hardware and artificial intelligence.

Meta is currently trading at approximately $567 per share at the time of this writing — a more than six-fold increase since the stock's November 2022 lows of roughly $88 per share.

In the year following the rebrand, Meta's stock fell sharply from trading in the $300 range to the November 2022 lows — reflecting investor sentiment toward the company's pivot to augmented reality experiences and the development of AI at the time.

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Meta to resume AI training in UK after regulatory pause

September 14, 2024 Coin Telegraph

The tech giant will use public information, including posts, comments, photos, and captions from adult users on Instagram and Facebook.

Meta will begin using publicly shared content from adult users in the UK on Facebook and Instagram to train its artificial intelligence models. The company will use publicly available information, such as adult users’ posts, comments, photos, and captions on both platforms.

“We’re building AI at Meta to reflect the diverse communities around the world and we look forward to launching it in more countries and languages later this year,” Meta said.

Meta said it does not use information from accounts of people in the UK under the age of 18. Source: Meta

MicroStrategy completes $3 billion convertible notes offering to buy more Bitcoin

Nvidia Q2 revenue beats expectations in record-setting boost to AI sector

August 28, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Apple

The company expects next quarter to be even better with improvement projected across nearly every vertical.

Nvidia’s earnings call did not disappoint as CFO Colette Kress announced Q2 earnings of $30 billion, beating its previous estimate by two billion dollars. This bullish signal could buoy the burgeoning artificial intelligence sector as markets reopen on Thursday Aug. 29.

Nvidia held its Q2 earnings call on Wednesday Aug. 28 in what investors and analysts have been treating as a sort of “Groundhog’s Day” for the artificial intelligence industry.

CFO Colette Kress’ announcement that the company posted a second quarter revenue of $30 billion should be enough to allay any worries over an artificial intelligence winter. These figures beat estimates by about seven percent. This continued the firm’s streak of record-breaking quarters and prompted a litany of positive responses across social media.

MicroStrategy completes $3 billion convertible notes offering to buy more Bitcoin

Meta cancels next-gen headset as Reality Labs remains mired in VR

August 24, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

There’s more to the metaverse than hardware, and Mark Zuckerberg appears to be learning that lesson the hard way.

Meta’s metaverse ambitions may not be going as well as planned. The company’s Realty Labs division reportedly stopped work on a next-generation headset amid concerns the product wouldn’t sell well enough to justify its production.

According to a report from The Information, workers were given the cease order after CEO Mark Zuckerberg weighed-in during a product update meeting. Evidently, Meta was expecting Apple’s Vision Pro — a product similar to the one Reality Labs was developing — to perform better than it has.

Despite involvement from some of the top technology firms in the world, including Sony, HTC, Meta, and Google, virtual reality hardware remains a niche market. As far as consumers are concerned, VR remains a niche product.

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Big tech is prepping an explosive pivot to robotics

August 24, 2024 Coin Telegraph

artificial intelligence

The ten most valuable tech firms in the world are all involved in developing technology for the robotics industry.

The next big thing in the technology industry appears to be consumer robotics and there could be massive implications for both Main Street and Wall Street.

An analysis of the top ten tech firms in the world by market capitalization, their 2024 performance to-date, and what we’ve been able to glean about their current budgets indicates that big tech is ready to move beyond chatbots.

There are currently countless robots in the world. They’re used to build cars, stitch clothing, and even handle nuclear materials. But these specialized machines are purpose-built to perform specific tasks and typically not available or even useful to the average person.

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Former BAYC creative director Jeff Nicholas joins Meta’s Reality Labs

August 17, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Bored Apes Yacht Club

Nicholas joins Meta as an executive mixed reality producer for entertainment experiences.

Former Yuga Labs creative director for Bored Apes Yacht Club Jeff Nicholas will be joining Meta’s Reality Labs as an executive producer for mixed reality entertainment experiences.

Nicholas announced the move on X and LinkedIn, stating that he’ll begin his new position in September.

He also added that he’d be working specifically on virtual reality products:

Meta.