What's Appening: Kingdom of Crypto Implodes 📉🔥

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SBF’S STREET CRED DISAPPEARS ALONG WITH FTX CUSTOMER DEPOSITS

👀 TLDR:

In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover the repercussions from the FTX crypto exchange collapse. Center to the drama is Sam Bankman-Fried, the previously adored CEO and founder of FTX. The man known as SBF, or even to some “The King of Crypto” has brought an entire industry to its knees with his recklessness. The fallout continues, but we have the latest news as web3 faces its latest Black Swan Event. In other news, we provide details of layoffs at Amazon and Meta, reports of unexpected Tesla and Netflix features, and cover the most recent shenanigans on Elon Musk’s Twitter. Our Stat of the Week looks at Amazon’s value slump. And What’s dAppening has an important story on crypto custody wallets, all the more important in light of the FTX bankruptcy.

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📉💱 FTX – Crypto Industry in Turmoil as Popular Exchange Collapses

The most shocking event ever in crypto? Probably, and that’s saying something after we have already experienced the collapse of Terra Luna and other capitulations during the “Crypto Winter” this year. Up until last week, FTX was the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, making billions for its founder and CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried. A centralized exchange, FTX was a platform where the Average Joe and Jane could buy, sell, and swap tokens without the need for a wallet. And yet, unbeknownst to just about everyone, FTX was illegally funneling user funds through a secret backdoor to Bankman Fried’s hedge fund company, Alameda. The hedge fund speculated wildly with its users’ money, losing billions, thus making FTX insolvent. That’s about as simple as we can make it, but there is so much more to this story. For a start, this is not a case of “funny internet money” going up in smoke: SBF was a familiar face in Washington and global economic forums, networking with lawmakers (and, importantly, the SEC) to promote regulation. He was declared the next Warren Buffet, but the next Bernie Madoff is more apt, and, like Bernie, he’ll probably go to jail. The question, though, is what happens next? Fears of contagion still linger, although it has been remarkable how the web3 industry has banded together – Binance, for example, is working on a bailout fund for web3 projects innocently tangled up with FTX. There’s also hope that CEXs will be better scrutinized through Proof of Reserves. The main issue, though, is trust. Bankman-Fried’s recklessness might become an excuse for regulators to hammer the web3 industry. But the irony here is that this was a failure of people, not the underlying technology. By all means, lawmakers should protect folks who invest in crypto, but the fear is that they strangle the innovation too. The fallout from one man’s greed may hurt this nascent industry for years to come. #CryptoMadoff Read more here.

📰😔 Big Tech – More Layoffs with Amazon & Meta Shedding 1000s of Employees

Last week, we covered the specter of Big Tech layoffs. We now have some of the official figures, and they don’t make for pleasant reading. Amazon has plans to lay off about 10,000 workers beginning this week. Meta is going even further, with plans for 11,000 layoffs. Again, none of this is surprising, given the hit to both companies’ stocks (see our Stat of the Week). But we should not forget there are real people behind the figures, folks with families who are receiving this awful news right before the Holidays. #MassTechLayoffs Read more here.

📽️🤝 Apps – Both Tesla and Netflix Announce ‘Unexpected’ New Features

Elon Musk isn’t just about Twitter, you know, although you would be forgiven for thinking that in recent weeks. A surprising announcement came at Zoom’s Zoomtopia 2022 conference, where we learned that all standard Teslas would soon come with the video conferencing software installed. Elsewhere in ‘unexpected apps on platforms’, there’s a new trivia game landing on Netflix – the interactive Triviaverse. The app lets you play against yourself or challenge other people – it’s plenty of fun. This rounds off a busy week for Netflix, as it also announced its first foray into live streaming. Former (ahem) Oscars host Chris Rock will front the first live show. #NetflixAndTriv Read more here.

🥸🔵 Twitter – Here’s the Latest from the Elon Musk Show

Oh boy, it’s the gift that just keeps on giving. On planet Elon this week, we had the debacle of the Blue Tick. The $8 sign-up cost for verification didn’t deter pranksters, though, and we were treated to a raft of impersonator accounts, some of which did some serious damage to established brands. Elon’s solution? Suspend the Twitter Blue program. In other Twitter chaos news, an edict was announced to put an end to remote work, leading to mass criticism from employees suddenly finding themselves having to commute on short notice. Mr Musk has also spent the week firing employees by Tweet, scrapping free lunches, posting dubious advice on Twitter’s software, and, of course, wading into international politics. #ElonsBlues Read more here.

🧐 Stat of the Week – $1.09T

📉💰 Amazon – Company’s Valuation Declines By Over $1T in 4 Months An unwanted accolade for Amazon this week - it became the first public company in history to lose $1 trillion in value. Of course, other Big Tech companies have lost a lot of value this year, but none have seen a nose-dive quite like Amazon. Why so much? A perfect storm, unfortunately: The pandemic boom (particularly beneficial for Amazon) is gone, inflation, recession threats, and the unprofitability of its device businesses (👋Alexa) have all worried investors. #AmazonSubPrime Read more here.

🕸️ What’s dAppening?

A dApp is a decentralized app. Here’s the latest in web3, NFTs and blockchain apps.

🌉🔐 MetaMask – New DApp Allows Users to Bridge Across Multiple Blockchains

Given the fallout from the FTX bankruptcy this week, a lot of focus has gone on how and where people store their cryptocurrency tokens. Fortuitous timing then that ConsenSys has announced a new bridge feature for its MetaMask wallet. Effectively, the dApp allows users to bridge across multiple blockchains using MetaMask Bridges, which acts to aggregate different bridges in one place. MetaMask Bridges is compatible with all EVM-compatible blockchains, including Ethereum, Polygon, BNB, and Avalanche. For users, it means greater efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and security. As to that last point, we want to remind any readers of what has become a web3 maxim in this last week in light of FTX’s collapse – Take Your (Unstaked) Crypto Off Exchanges and Store It in a Wallet. Remember: Not Your Keys, Not Your Crypto. #MetaMaskBetaBridge Read more here.

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