Ever heard of the saying “When the money goes, you find out who your real friends are?” – the bear market has given us the perfect opportunity to uncover the real gamers present in Web 3.0, and the outlook isn’t that bright after all.
The mass exodus from GameFi’s ‘Rising Stars’ such as Axie Infinity and SolChicks have shown us one thing – the gameplay just isn’t there. GameFi isn’t as much for the gamers as it is for the earners, and this is becoming crystal clear in the bear-market backdrop.
So, what’s the solution?
Putting the ‘Game’ Back Into ‘GameFi’
Marketing itself as a ‘Play-AND-Earn’ ecosystem, Ryber is bringing its addictive state-of-the-art gameplay up to the level of the earning potential. Sure, Ryber’s NFT owners can earn 220% APY from staking, but they’ll stick around for the immersion, the lore, the competitive racing, exploration and never-ending fun from a never-ending selection of AAA blockchain games.
“P2E games over the past few years have served primarily as a form of income instead of a good medium for entertainment. With Ryber, we’re disrupting this trend, aiming to inflate the industry with AAA gameplay – it’s going to be epic” – Dmitry Nevskiiy, Ryber’s CEO
Okay – but what’s Ryber? A platform for game developers? Steam but blockchain? A gamified metaverse?
A 3-in-1 GameFi Spectacle to be Reckoned With
Ryber is a triple-barreled 2022 shotgun of an ecosystem, set to change the world of GameFi for good. Let’s unpack those barrels one by one.
– First up is the RyberVerse – a three-stage, gamified metaverse offering innovative Play-and-Earn game mechanics. Initially, the team is going to kick the show off with Ryber: The Lost Data Runner. Staying true to its philosophy of ‘play and earn’, the debut runner will introduce Robros, fascinatingly cute creatures, brilliantly talented at maneuvering vehicles through unimaginable twists and turns as commanded by the player. Second in the trilogy will come Ryber: Battle Royale, which will pay homage to the success of the game mode in the traditional gaming segment. Finally, Ryber’s fully-fledged gamified metaverse will be released, uniting the games aforementioned, while providing players with an unprecedented level of immersion.
– Next up is the RyberMetaMaker – a tool for adding blockchain and P2E mechanics to games. Indeed, Web3 game developers are currently facing a myriad of issues associated with the fact that blockchain games are technically challenging to set up. Because of this, Ryber is in the process of developing a solution that will provide accessible, industry-grade tools to developers looking to create their own blockchain games. The RyberMetaMaker will lower barriers to entry for blockchain game development, catalyzing the mass adoption of blockchain technology
– And lastly, the RyberHub – a digital blockchain game distribution center. Ryber doesn’t just intend to help create AAA games on the blockchain through the RyberMetaMaker, but it aims to assist in their promotion, bringing them to their players. The RyberHub will feature unique rating and sorting mechanics, making sure that players are able to quickly find and access the games that they’ll surely enjoy, all under one roof.
Sounds exciting – what about backing?
With best-in-class partners, we’re not the only ones excited about Ryber.
As a top 50 crypto exchange entering the market in 2017, Tidex currently has a trading volume that extends up to 2 million USD per day. The exchange itself is known for an incredibly comfortable user experience, with a transparent fee structure, fees that are significantly below the market average, and more than 100 pairs on offer. Tidex also offers a launchpad and engages in a variety of well-researched investment endeavors. Of course, Ryber is one of their most recent additions.
Next up is Digital Finance Group (DFG), a global blockchain and cryptocurrency investment firm. The group was founded in 2015 and already manages assets valued at over 1 billion USD. Backing by DFG is a good sign, considering the extent of their analytical research processes. Indeed, DFG’s investment is notorious for only landing on the most impactful and promising blockchain and Web 3.0 projects globally. The fact that Ryber now makes up a portion of their investment portfolio speaks volumes as to the potential of the Ryber project and ecosystem.
Then, there’s WeWay – a major stakeholder and partner in the Ryber project, and functions as a full-scale ecosystem for brand promotion in the Web 3.0 arena. They service bridges between brands, link creators with NFTs and Metaverse promotion and are even known for their work on Web 3.0 blockchain marketplaces. They offer full-cycle services when it comes to realizing ideas on the blockchain and are marketing experts. The relationship between WeWay and Ryber is very hands-on, and this will go a long way to ensure the success of the Ryber project by making sure that no stone is unturned when it comes to propagating the social momentum of the project.
Adding its metaverse experience to the pot, the DAX estate program is a unique stakeholder in Ryber as the project aims at increasing confidence in real estate tokenization. Indeed, they look to reduce risks associated with metaverse creation, and property tokenization while protecting the rights of all participants. Dax is known for their involvement in projects functioning as a guarantor and escrow, providing due diligence, monitoring, and the necessary transparency. The RyberVerse is sure to benefit from the guidance of DAX, with their planned gamified metaverse.
I’m in, what’s next?
Ryber is only Just Getting Started…
With its NFT mint imminent, now is the time for prospective gamers, investors and collectors to get involved. Slowly but surely, Ryber will be building up their ecosystem, achieving significant milestones along the way. It’s your opportunity to get in on the ground floor, so check out their whitepaper below, and make sure to follow them on all relevant social media channels.
Site: https://ryber.io
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ryberofficial
Discord: https://discord.gg/rybergame
Since finding a bottom in mid-June, ether has massively outperformed bitcoin as investors anticipate a major upgrade to the ethereum blockchain.
Bitcoin hit a low of $17,601 on June 19 and is up around 31% since then as of Friday’s trading price, according to CoinDesk data.
Ether also hit its recent low on June 19 at $880.93, but has surged 106% since then.
The huge divergence in performance in the two cryptocurrencies come down to one major factor: a big upgrade in the ethereum blockchain. Ether is the native cryptocurrency of the ethereum network.
Ethereum’s upgrade, called the “merge,” is slated to take place on Sept. 15 after numerous delays. The blockchain will change from a so-called proof-of-work system to a model called proof-of-stake. A full explanation of the merge can be found here.
Proponents say that the move will make the ethereum network faster and more energy-efficient.
“The upcoming Ethereum Merge is the biggest narrative in crypto right now and explains why Ether has left Bitcoin in its wake in the past month,” Antoni Trenchev, co-founder of crypto trading platform Nexo, told CNBC via email.
“A blockchain that pitches itself as being energy efficient will always capture the imagination of the masses and that’s why Ether has the wind in its sails ahead of the Merge, a move to proof of stake.”
Sustainable rally?
Both bitcoin and ether are still more than 60% off their all-time highs — which were reached in November — as a result of a crash in the crypto market this year.
The industry has been plagued by a swathe of bankruptcy and liquidity issues and failed projects which led to nearly $2 trillion of value wiped off the entire market since the peak in mid-November.
But the recent ether rally, which has seen its price double in the space of two months, has been rapid.
One analyst said that the rally could continue but there may be some resistance at around the $2,000 mark. Ether was trading at $1,814 on Friday.
Jacob Joseph, research analyst at data service CryptoCompare, said that with no Federal Open Market Committee meeting scheduled for August and stocks seeing a rebound, “it is reasonable to believe Ethereum can still rally as we edge closer to the Merge.”
“However … $2,000 has proved to be a major resistance for Ether and the asset needs more wind behind its sail to break that level.”
Joseph added that bitcoin is unlikely to outperform ether in the near term.
There are risks to the ether price rally, according to Trenchev.
“Any further (unlikely) delays to the mid-September Merge will see an unwind in a large portion of Ether’s 50% rally since mid-July,” he said.
There is always the chance that traders take profits too on the huge rally, Trenchev said.
“The Merge, if successful, might well prove to be a ‘buy the rumour sell the news’ type event, given the jaw-dropping gains we’ve seen in Ether,” Trenchev added.
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Big tech critics have long singled out the industry as having too much power, and the cofounder of a powerful crypto giant just chimed in on the matter.
Yat Sui, who leads Hong Kong-based Animoca Brands — which backs a number of major crypto projects and owns The Sandbox — told Bloomberg in a report published Wednesday that his company has invested in more than 340 firms spanning finance, gaming, and blockchain.
The goal, he told Bloomberg, is to tear down tech giants’ dominion over the industry and return online ownership of one’s digital identities and properties back to users. He called the likes of Meta, Facebook’s new parent company, and Microsoft “digital dictatorships” without saying more in the interview.
Siu did not immediately respond to a request to elaborate.
Web3 is, in theory, the future of the internet that will live on the blockchain, the same backbone supporting cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. It won’t be controlled by entities like Google or Twitter.
It’s been a core part of Web3’s argument that a decentralized online world can strip power from the tech monopolies of Web2, namely Meta, Google, Apple, and others. The idea is that since people’s data would theoretically be decentralized — meaning living on the blockchain instead of servers owned by tech conglomerates like Amazon — that would weaken our reliance on the large companies currently dominating the space.
Web3, as it stands right now, is still merely a thought, despite Mark Zuckerberg’s screaming from the rooftops that the metaverse is the future — and spending $10 billion on making it so.
However, Siu and Animoca Brands have been in the Web3 sphere since before the term became a buzzword.
The company was founded in 2014 and has poured cash into a number of significant crypto projects — it bought a stake in Dapper Labs, the parent company of Cryptokitties, in 2018 and owns The Sandbox, one of the more fleshed-out metaverses where rapper Snoop Dogg “lives.”
Animoca has also backed Axie Infinity, a hot crypto game, and OpenSea, the world’s largest online NFT marketplace.
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At the end of this summer, from Sept. 15 to 16, the Aeternity Universe Two conference is set to take place at Burgscheidungen Crypto Castle in Germany.
The Aeternity Universe Two conference follows the hugely successful first edition, which took place in Prague on Sept. 20 and 21 in 2019.
This September, attendees have the opportunity to become a part of Aeternity’s blockchain history! The Aeternity Universe Two conference, consisting of the conference itself on Sept. 15 and 16 as well as a grand finale of the hackathon on Sept. 17 and 18, stands to draw in hundreds of blockchain developers, researchers, entrepreneurs, designers and enthusiasts all set on a common goal: to exchange knowledge, experiences, and best practices in an effort to grow and perfect the world of blockchain technology.
The Aeternity Universe Two conference will have its doors open for everyone and will present a unique business opportunity for all interested parties to engage in networking and showcase events. Numerous blockchain experts and backers will be available for conversation in a friendly in-house atmosphere, the perfect environment for ideas to grow.
Moreover, a wide range of development workshops will take place during the conference, facilitating intense knowledge transfers and allowing blockchain experts to gain info on the latest trending areas. Of course, Aeternity’s blockchain development team will be readily available to provide further insights into protocol development and the state of Aeternity.
Additionally, Aeternity Universe Two will feature a fully immersive art experience — both via 3D art and VR — which is sure to draw the attention of various artists and designers from the blockchain sphere. Allowing diverse sets of artists to engage with NFT technology, as well as physical and digital crypto art, will be sure to provide inspiration for future pieces.
Finally, the location itself — Crypto Castle. Dating back to the first millennia, it is one of the oldest, best-preserved baroque secular buildings in the Thuringian and Saxon-Anhalt region. Well-preserved and renovated, the castle now includes a dedicated hacker’s lab that is utilizing Aeternity’s blockchain technology.
Early registration for Aternity Universe Two is open, as is the registration for the Aeternity Universe Hackathon that began remotely on Aug. 1 via DevPost.
The event is fully powered by Aeternity. Founded in 2016 by Yanislav Malahov, the Aeternity blockchain project was born out of a desire for a more fair internet supported by scalable, open-source and cryptographic software, with a commitment to technical excellence.
The Aeternity blockchain itself launched as the public Aeternity mainnet in 2018. It is now a blossoming community of enthusiasts supported via the Aeternity crypto foundation.
Engineered to scale and last, Aeternity is an easily accessible blockchain platform for the global public. With numerous innovative functionalities and performance far ahead of earlier blockchains, Aeternity allows its users and community to seamlessly venture into the new era of society, economy and digital interactions. Its core components are written in the functional programming and fault-tolerant language Erlang, and its Sophia smart contracts are also functional.
Singapore, Aug. 17 — BENQI and Yeti Finance have chosen to partner with the highly capital efficient KyberSwap in a joint initiative to enhance liquidity and provide the best rates for sAVAX and YUSD tokens on Avalanche (AVAX).
This first phase of this joint initiative is set to bring liquidity providers over $200,000 in liquidity mining rewards, with more incentives to come in the near future.
BENQI is a decentralized non-custodial liquidity market and liquid staking protocol built on Avalanche. Benqi Liquid Staked AVAX (sAVAX) is the token that users receive when staking their AVAX on the Benqi Liquid Staking (BLS) protocol. AVAX holders can get sAVAX by staking AVAX on BENQI.
This is not the first time BENQI has partnered with KyberSwap for its capital efficiency benefits. Learn about BENQI’s first joint initiative with KyberSwap.
Yeti Finance is a cross-margin lending protocol on Avalanche that allows users to borrow up to 21-fold against their portfolio of liquidity provider (LPs) tokens, staked assets such as sAVAX and yield-bearing stablecoins in a single debt position for zero interest. Borrowers receive YUSD, an overcollateralized stablecoin that can be swapped for additional assets and subsequently re-deposited into Yeti Finance to build a leverage position.
What is KyberSwap Elastic?
KyberSwap’s newest protocol, dubbed Elastic, is a tick-based automated market maker that gives LPs the advantages of concentrated liquidity and the flexibility to achieve capital efficiency and manage risks.
With concentrated liquidity, LPs have the flexibility to supply liquidity to an Elastic pool, either by concentrating the liquidity to a narrower price range or setting it to a wider price range. Concentrated liquidity would use the pool’s liquidity more efficiently, mimicking much higher levels of liquidity and achieving better slippage, volume and earnings for LPs while a wider range would ensure liquidity for uncorrelated token pairs such as USD Coin (USDC) and Ether (ETH) to remain active even with big price swings during high market volatility.
KyberSwap Elastic also has a reinvestment curve, which compounds fees by automatically reinvesting the fee earnings of LPs back into the liquidity pool so LPs earn higher APY while saving time.
LPs on KyberSwap Elastic can also choose from multiple fee tiers to select the best-suited rates for individuals, taking into consideration factors such as token volatility, individual risk appetites and more. In addition, KyberSwap Elastic comes with a Just-In-Time (JIT) Attack Protection feature, which protects LP earnings from snipe attacks that would reduce the earnings of other honest LPs. So, LPs can earn securely while enjoying peace of mind.
Starting from Aug. 17, 2022, liquidity providers can add liquidity to the eligible sAVAX and YUSD pools on KyberSwap Elastic on Avalanche and earn KNC, QI and YETI rewards.
With KyberSwap’s Elastic protocol, LPs can enjoy benefits such as concentrated liquidity and compounding fees, providing higher capital efficiency and optimized rewards. KyberSwap Elastic also has JIT protection, so LPs will have their earnings better protected and enjoy better peace of mind.
BENQI and Yeti finance pools on KyberSwap Elastic: Avalanche
Eligible pools and fee tiers:
- sAVAX and AVAX: 0.01%
- sAVAX and YUSD: 0.04%
- USD Coin (USDC) and YUSD: 0.01%
A full list of eligible pools for yield farming on Avalanche can be viewed on kyberswap.com.
KyberSwap: Benefits for the BENQI and Yeti ecosystem
For traders:
- Best swap rates for sAVAX and YUSD through decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregation while letting users identify other tokens even before they trend or moon via on-chain metrics.
For LPs:
- Concentrated liquidity for sAVAX and YUSD pairs and any other tokens, stables and non-stables
- Auto-compounded LP fees
- Bonus liquidity incentives through yield farming
- Sniping and JIT attack protection to protect earnings for BENQI and Yeti LPs.
For developers
DApps can integrate with KyberSwap’s pools and aggregation API to provide the best rates for their own users, saving time and resources.
With these benefits in mind, KyberSwap is proud to partner with BENQI and Yeti Finance in this initiative to enhance liquidity on Avalanche for the benefit of all four ecosystems.
About Kyber Network
Kyber Network is building a world where any token is usable anywhere. KyberSwap.com, its flagship DEX aggregator and liquidity platform, provides the best rates for traders in DeFi and maximizes returns for liquidity providers.
KyberSwap powers 100-plus integrated projects and has facilitated over $9.9 billion worth of transactions for thousands of users since its inception. It is currently deployed across 12 chains, including Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, Avalanche, Fantom, Cronos, Arbitrum, Velas, Aurora, Oasis, BitTorrent and Optimism.
Digital asset brokerage Genesis said on Wednesday that CEO Michael Moro is stepping down and the company is slashing 20% of its workforce, the latest casualties as the cryptocurrency market unwinds.
Derar Islim, Genesis’ operating chief, will take over as interim CEO while the company searches for a permanent replacement, the company said in a statement.
Genesis is a unit of Digital Currency Group, the crypto investor and conglomerate founded by Barry Silbert. Genesis was early in the market, launching the first over-the-counter crypto trading desk in 2013, and then expanding to become a major lender.
During the 2021 crypto boom, Genesis boosted its book dramatically. Loan originations surged more than sevenfold to $131 billion, and the company increased headcount by 22% to 170 employees. By mid-2022, that number had swelled to 260. A cut of 20% equates to the loss of about 52 jobs.
The rapid turn in the crypto market this year, which sent bitcoin and ethereum tumbling, wiped out firms whose businesses were tied directly to prices of digital assets. Hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, or 3AC, filed for bankruptcy as did brokerage Voyager Digital and crypto lender Celsius Network.
While Genesis has weathered the storm better than other players in the market, the firm suffered significant losses due its exposure to 3AC. In July, Genesis filed a $1.2 billion claim against 3AC because of breached loans.
“Genesis was not immune to the market drop and the damage to overall sentiment,” the company said in a report on second-quarter market observations. “As we’ve stated publicly, Genesis had loan exposure to Three Arrows Capital. Our parent company DCG assumed the liability related to losses on these loans, leaving our balance sheet healthy so Genesis could continue to be a source of strength for our clients.”
Moro, who joined Genesis in 2015 and took over as CEO the following year, will stay on during the leadership transition, Genesis said. The company said it also recently hired new executives as chief risk officer, chief compliance officer and chief technology officer.
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Taking place on Sept. 18 to 24, ETHSafari is an event that will be held in Kenya to bring together an auspicious group of 1,000 people from Africa and around the world to learn, hack, discuss and celebrate the Ethereum ecosystem, the decentralized future, the use cases transforming Africa, and the people that are building them in the continent.
Safari means “journey” in Swahili. Everyone today is on this journey of decentralization together. The question is: Safari Wapi? Journey to where?
The event will host learning, hacking, speakers, discussions and celebrations to showcase innovation around the region and bridge the gap between the global Ethereum ecosystem and the African ecosystem. The event will feature five main tracks: DAOs, DeFi, Gaming, NFTs and impact.
For those that want to get up to speed before the hackathon, ETHSafari is hosting a two-day bootcamp on Sept. 18 and 19 with both in-person and online content. The hackathon will start on Sept. 1 and run through Sept. 22. It will pair teams with local and international mentors to take on critical challenges and will generally follow the five event tracks, but any teams can enter.
ETHSafari core contributor Sunny Satva said, “Great events leave space for others to bring their creativity and energy. We’ve purposely left lots of gaps in the Nairobi schedule so that our local frens can host events and meetups.” On Sept. 22, ETHSafari will board the “blocktrain,” aka the Madaraka Express, from Nairobi to the coast through the Kenyan savannah and Tsavo National Park with views of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Hacker teams will hack aboard the train while others will attend talks and meetups in other train cars.
Everyone will then arrive at the venue Beneath the Baobabs in Kilifi to welcome drinks in the afternoon and a fireside chat in the evening. There will be a two-day conference to bring together global and local players, strengthening the bonds between ecosystems. The event will close with an epic celebration of the decentralized future on Sept. 24.
Ethereum Foundation Africa Fellow and an instigator of ETHSafari, Benson Njuguna, said, “We’ve already had more than 300 signups for the event with nothing more than some dates and a logo announced to date. It shows that there’s huge interest in the space and we’re excited to fill a gap in hosting the very first Ethereum ecosystem event in the region, and setting the stage for many future ETHSafari events around the continent.”
Also launching at ETHSafari will be Artstorm.nft, a sister project of ETHSafari to transform brown spaces around Kenya into Green Art Spaces together with partners and the local communities.
About ETHSafari
ETHSafari is a DAO, established to raise the profile of African Web3 projects and bridge the gap with the larger Ethereum ecosystem around the world through conferences, hackathons and other projects across the continent.
Learn more about ETHSafari on via its website, Twitter or Instagram.
Support ETH Safari via its Juicebox.
Ceres is proud to announce the launch of DEO Arena, one of the first play-to-earn games in the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystems.
DEO Arena is built on the Sora network and is currently available to play at deoarena.io. In its beta phase, DEO Area is available as a player-vs-player game, with each match costing 4 DEO tokens. Players receive points in each match, which are used to determine their rank on the leaderboard within the DEO Arena league. Each league season will last four weeks. A player must have played at least 100 games to enter the leaderboard.
The prize pool for the first season is a minimum of $20,000 in XOR, divided into four different ranks — meaning over 50% of all participating players could be eligible to win prizes!
There is also an optional NFT Boost, which gives you more season points while playing the game, but the game itself is purely skill-based.
The maps in DEO Arena will be large enough to accommodate several players, which will be necessary when facing other players in Battle Royale mode, which will be available soon. A referral system will allow players to invite their friends to face off in DEO Arena and earn special prizes.
The Ceres team commented:
“It will be quite fun, as many players are going to face each other at the same time, and the last one to survive will take the tokens of all the others. This mode will attract the most attention from users since you can earn a lot with very little money — if you can win, of course.”
See you in the arena!
About Ceres
Ceres has developed several DApps on the Sora network, including: Ceres Tools, the most trustworthy source of information about tokens on the Sora network; Liquidity Locker, a transparent safeguard for the liquidity of projects building on the Sora network; Token Locker, a service for vesting a project’s team tokens integrated with the Ceres Launchpad; the Demeter Farming platform; and most recently, DEO Arena.
The amount stolen in cryptocurrency heists is up 60% this year according to a report by Chainalysis, which estimates the industry has lost $1.9 billion in hacks from January to July of this year.
That’s up from $1.2 billion reported in hacks the year prior.
“No area of cryptocurrency-based crime is bucking the 2022 trend of declining revenue like stolen funds,” the blockchain analytics firm said in a blog post on Tuesday.
The upward trend is also likely to continue, given the increasing severity of crypto hacks this year. $192 million was just stolen this month in a hack on Nomad bridge alone, followed by another $200 million stolen from 8,000 hacked Solana wallets later in the same week.
Much of that is largely due to DeFi protocols, which hackers have been targeting since 2021, Chainalysis said. Protocols, which are programs that connect crypto transactions without a middleman, can make users vulnerable to hackers, as they’re based on open-source code that can be studied by would-be thieves before executing a heist.
The research firm added that cyberattacks have largely come at the hands of North Korean hackers, who US authorities alleged stole at least $1 billion in crypto hacks and laundered money via Tornado Cash, a so-called crypto mixed which the Treasury Department sanctioned this month. Chainalysis estimated those heists likely stemmed from hackers finding an in through DeFi protocols.
Surprisingly, crypto scams are down this year, despite a big rise in 2021. The amount stolen in scams fell 65% to $1.6 billion, which Chainalysis said is in tandem with the fall in the price of bitcoin, which is down about 50% since January.
“Nobody likes a crypto bear market, but the one silver lining is that illicit cryptocurrency activity has fallen along with legitimate activity … Still, with huge increases in stolen funds, we can’t afford to rest on our laurels,” the research firm warned, pointing to the need for increased regulation in the blockchain.
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A special committee for bankrupt crypto lender Celsius is investigating “allegations of misconduct,” at the company, a lawyer for Celsius said Tuesday.
Joshua Sussberg of Kirkland & Ellis, the lawyer representing Celsius, said in a bankruptcy hearing that the two new board directors that Celsius appointed this summer — David Barse, the former CEO of Third Avenue Management, and Alan Carr, the founder of restructuring services firm Drivetrain — could “take remedial action” depending on the findings of their investigation.
The Celsius bankruptcy docket has swelled with hundreds of letters from Celsius users — its 1.7 million customers are its creditor base in the bankruptcy — with many suggesting they felt defrauded by the positive messaging of founders Alex Mashinsky and Nuke Goldstein.
Those letters pointed to cheery missives like a blog post from June titled, “Damn the Torpedoes, Full Speed Ahead,” which assured Celsius users that the company “has the reserves” to serve them, that they can make withdrawals, and that the company has a “world-class risk management team.”
“We try to read every one of these letters, and we take the accusations therein, as the court does, very seriously,” Sussberg told the court. “If there’s a there there, we are going to find out, and an investigation is being conducted.”
Gregory Pesce of White & Case, who represents the creditors committee (which is made up of a group Celsius customers), told the court about its own investigation. The committee has enlisted M3 Partners as its financial advisors, and hired Elementus, a boutique blockchain consultant to aid its inquiry, Pesce told the court.
Elementus will “help us with the important task of tracking the movements of cryptocurrency on the blockchain so we can find out where the coins went and when, and find out if there’s a way to bring them back to Celsius,” Pesce said.
Celsius is also fielding inquiries from US state and federal agencies and foreign regulators, who are looking into the company’s compliance with state and federal securities laws, Sussberg said. The company has also been cooperating with state lending and money transmitter authorities, he said.
Celsius faces an uncertain road ahead in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process, where it could pursue a full scale reorganization, a potential sale of assets through bankruptcy, or a combination of both.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Martin Glenn, chief judge of the US Bankruptcy Court for the southern district of New York, also acknowledged broader existential questions facing Celsius, as bereft customers clamored about lost savings. One customer told the court that he had less than $500 left in his checking account, having put most of his savings in Celsius.
“I know this case has generated a great deal of interest, and I think it’s very important that the creditors, whether they’re represented by counsel or not, have an opportunity to make their views known,” Glenn said.
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