Friday, 5th of August. As the week comes to an end, we can focus on the highlights of the crypto industry over the past few days.
Robinhood to cut 23% of its workforce
Robinhood, an online broker, expects to reduce its staff by about 23% in light of the deteriorating macroeconomic environment and the downbeat crypto market. This is what Vlad Tenev, the company’s CEO, said in a message.
“In this new environment, we are operating with more staffing than appropriate. As CEO, I approved and took responsibility for our ambitious staffing trajectory”, stated the head of Robinhood.
As he says, the redundancies will reach employees in all divisions. Some 780 people will be made unemployed, according to the Financial Times.
Moreover, Tenev revealed amendments in the company’s management structure. What the changes should do is “flatten hierarchies” and remove “redundant roles and positions.”
“Departing Robinhoodies will be offered the opportunity to remain employed with Robinhood through October 1, 2022 and receive their regular pay and benefits,” the letter reads.
He promised the laid-off employees severance pay, insurance premiums and job search assistance.
On Aug. 2, Robinhood released its financial report for the Q2, estimating that the monthly number of its users shrank by 1.9 million, to 14 million. Operating expenses fell 12%, to $610 million.
The firm’s net income was $318 million, up 6% from the first quarter. Unlike April-June 2021, however, the figure plummeted by 44%. Loss per share totaled $0.34.
“While the decision to undertake this action wasn’t easy, it is a deliberate step to ensure we are able to continue delivering on our strategic goals and furthering our mission to democratize finance,” Tenev explained.
Shares of the online broker closed the Aug. 2 trading session with an uptick of 2.1% , which is $9.23. On the postmarket, the quotations fell to $9.17.
NFT trading volume crashed by 26% in July
In July, the trading volume of NFTs on the secondary market dipped 26% to $647.2 million compared to the previous month. This is shown by data from CryptoSlam.
According to the aggregator, the number of unique buyers declined for the third month in a row. The number was 694,850 in May, dropped to 574,133 in June and to 532,378 in July.
Anndy Lian, an Influxo NFT studio co-founder, pointed to an ongoing bearish trend in a commentary for Forkast.Yehudah Petscher, an NFT relations strategist for CryptoSlam, doubts that the market “will find a bottom this year”.
“I believe this bear market we’re in could extend for multiple years,” the expert admitted.
Petscher added that something of an optimism lies in the number of unique buyers. The figure was down about 7 percent in July, he said, and it was higher than a year earlier (432,317).
“NFTs are in rough place right now, but I still think in a very healthy place as far as growth [or] as far as transactions,” Petscher noted.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club collection was the best-selling in July topping the list with $51.4 million. The second rank is held by CryptoPunks with $50.7 million.
According to Lian, Ethereum’s Merge to the Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm could give the NFT market a boost. Prior to that, developers had provisionally approved a blockchain’s Merge for September 19, 2022.
The Goerli test network will switch to the new consensus algorithm when the cumulative network complexity reaches 10,790,000. It is estimated that this will happen between August 6 and 12.
BitMEX adds fiat currency perpetual contracts
BitMEX crypto exchange has introduced FX Swap – perpetual foreign exchange contracts with up to 50x leverage. This is reported in the platform’s official blog.
FX contracts are traded around the clock. Throughout the weekend, the contract price is fluctuating around Friday’s closing market rates.
You can open long and short positions on 22 currency pairs: EURUSD, EURCHF, EURTRY, USDCHF and others.
The exchange uses Bitcoin (XBT) or Tether (USDT ERC-20) as margin. Holders of open positions pay the funding rate.
There are three types of contracts for currency swaps offered by BitMEX:
quanto contracts: two assets represent a currency pair, for example, the dollar and the Indian rupee (USDINR), while the collateral and payments are secured through a third asset, Bitcoin (XBT);
inverse contract: both margin and yield are calculated in the base currency, not the quoted one. For example, in the USDTMXN pair, the margin is based on USDT, not MXN;
linear contract: collateral and payments are settled in Tether stablecoin (USDT).
BitMEX is a top-10 derivatives trading platform on CoinMarketCap for cryptocurrency and derivatives trading, as well as for staking and passive income.
You may remember that earlier BitMEX announced the launch of its native token BMEX as well as the airdrop.
Binance subpoenaed over Elon Musk’s buyout of Twitter
Twitter has sued a division of the Binance crypto exchange due to the funding it received for the takeover of the social network by Elon Musk. This is reported by Bloomberg.
Back in May, the trading platform gave the businessman $500 million to make the deal. According to court documents, Twitter’s lawyers are eager to know about the terms of the investment and the billionaire’s efforts to syndicate the funds.
The subpoenas were also issued to Musk’s potential creditors, including Factorial Funds, Benefit Street, Bandera Partners, Founders Fund Growth II Management, a number of Silicon Valley investors, financial advisers from Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and specialty investment bank Allen & Co. Later on, Tesla, SpaceX, and Ken Griffin, the founder of the Citadel hedge fund, were counted either.
Twitter is requesting information about private negotiations with Musk regarding the sale of the social network, as well as documentary evidence of the billionaire’s assumptions about underestimating the number of actual platform users.
The company’s demands refer to Elon Musk’s tweets dated May 15 and 17, where he claims, in particular, that the proportion of bots on Twitter “may exceed 90% of daily active users.”
As a result, the social network sought more information from Musk’s attorneys at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and McDermott Will & Emery.
The Delaware Court of Chancery granted Twitter a five-day trial in the case. It’s supposed to start on October 17.
As you may remember, in April 2022, Elon Musk purchased a 9.2% share of Twitter, subsequently offering to acquire the company at a price of $54.2 per share. The social network’s leaders accepted the terms.
The CEO of Tesla explained the initiative by his longing to create “an inclusive arena for free speech.”
In May, however, Musk suspended the buyout process after reports that the social network’s audience figures were being inflated. Since then, Twitter shareholders have filed a lawsuit over the “chaotic process” of taking over the company, accusing the head of Tesla of manipulating the market.
And in July, Musk declared the agreement to acquire the social network had been terminated.
That same month, Twitter sued the head of Tesla because of his pulling out of the deal. Now, the platform is determined to force the entrepreneur to stick to his commitments and complete the purchase.