The cryptocurrency market had a crazy weekend! The cryptocurrency business is thriving, but there are a lot of things happening, including Acala community voting to destroy $2.97 billion USD stablecoins that were incorrectly created, NFTs democratising the music business and sharing the rights to songs, and Australian exchange Swyftx reducing employees by 21% due to the bad market…..Recent weeks have been very hectic!
In this issue:
- Amid a surge in cyberattacks, crypto security professionals are raking in $430,000 in compensation.
- Acala community votes to destroy $2.97 billion USD stablecoins that were incorrectly created.
- Creditors of Voyager reject a $1.9M employee retention plan.
- Leaked papers indicate that FTX’s income surged by 1000% in one year.
- NFTs democratise the music business and share the rights to songs.
- Australian exchange Swyftx reduces employees by 21% due to the bad market.
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Amid a surge in cyberattacks, crypto security professionals are raking in $430,000 in compensation.
Demand for blockchain security professionals has surged over the course of 2022, with some auditors earning more than $430,000 year.
According to a research published by Chainalysis earlier this month, hackers took more than $2 billion using cross-chain bridge protocols this year alone.
Paul Frambot, CEO of decentralised loan provider Morpho Labs, said in an August 22 Bloomberg article that crypto security audits had shifted from a “nice to have” corporate expenditure to a “must have” one.
He said, “In my perspective, DeFi does not take security seriously enough.”
The increased need for crypto security auditors has led to a proliferation of “for hiring” advertisements across the sector.
According to job postings on Cryptocurrency Jobs, the majority of blockchain auditing firms need experienced programmers with knowledge of blockchain technology, cybersecurity, and cryptography.
According to Web3.career’s job board, although most security audit salaries fall between $100,000 and $250,000 per year, certain organisations are ready to pay upwards of $430,000 per year.
In a similar vein, the CEO of the crypto recruiting business Plexus Resource Solutions, Zeth Couceiro, said to Bloomberg that blockchain security auditors may earn up to $400,000 yearly.
These auditors earn almost 20% more than engineers who specialise in Solidity, the most common programming language used to implement smart contracts on Ethereum and other Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible blockchains, according to Couceiro.
Acala community votes to destroy $2.97 billion USD stablecoins that were incorrectly created.
Bette Chen, co-founder of Acala Network, said in a blog post that the community has opted to destroy $2.97 billion worth of Acala USD (aUSD).
Acala is a financial platform that utilises the Polkadot (DOT) ecosystem. The previous week, the price of aUSD fell to less than $0.01 from its dollar peg when it was discovered that 3,022 billion aUSD were generated in accident owing to a misconfigured iBTC/aUSD liquidity pool that went up on August 14.
Since then, the setup error has been resolved, and wallet addresses that received the erroneously created aUSD have been identified via on-chain tracking. Over 99% of newly minted aUSD remain on the Acala parachain. Nevertheless, about $9.69 million was changed from aUSD to DOT and sent to regulated exchanges.
In addition, 35 accounts were discovered to have acquired an excess of 12.38 million aUSD that had been established in error.
aUSD is over-collateralized by several digital assets inside the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystem, with a deposit rate of 195% per newly-issued aUSD. Despite this, the stablecoin’s current price of $0.84 indicates that wrongly produced coins continue to disturb the system’s equilibrium. Developers have offered incentives and made public calls for the restoration of the compromised assets on the Acala network.
Creditors of Voyager reject a $1.9M employee retention plan.
The committee of unsecured creditors of Voyager Digital Holdings has filed a petition to protest to the company’s plan to retain its workers via the payment of monetary bonuses.
Voyager Digital filed an application with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on August 2 to adopt the Key Employee Retention Plan (KERP), which intends to disperse $1.9 million to 38 key workers considered essential to the exchange’s operations.
Nonetheless, the exchange’s creditors opposed the idea. The creditors outlined their concerns to the planned KERP and its associated relief awards in a petition filed on Friday.
In addition, creditors argued in their complaint that the present crypto winter enables the company to employ from a pool of accessible expertise. They added, “with the recent cutbacks and layoffs throughout the business, a multitude of recently terminated professionals may replace their positions.”
Mark Cuban, a millionaire, was sued earlier last month for advertising Voyager goods. A legal firm filed a civil lawsuit against Cuban and requested a jury trial. According to the complaint, Cuban utilised his skills to convince clients to invest their life savings in Voyager.
The cryptocurrency exchange filed for bankruptcy in July, citing a debt to more than 100,000 creditors. According to the company, this action is part of a recovery strategy intended to restore value to its consumers.
Leaked papers indicate that FTX’s income surged by 1000% in one year.
In 2021, when Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies reached their all-time highs, FTX was among the several crypto exchanges that had a front-row ticket to the crypto craze. According to internal papers, FTX’s income increased by 1000% in 2021 due to enormous client acquisition, collaborations, sponsorships, and other reasons.
According to records obtained by CNBC, FTX’s income would climb by a factor of ten from $90 million in 2020 to $1.2 billion in 2021, based on audited financial statements for fiscal years 2020-2021.
The revenue breakdown reveals that FTX’s operating income increased by 1842.85% in one year, from $14 million to $272 million. The crypto exchange’s net income was $388 million, a 2182.35 percent rise from $17 million in the prior year.
According to reports, FTX earned $270 million during the first quarter of 2022. However, the exchange’s performance throughout the crypto winter remains unknown. Despite the exceptional success in the first quarter, the prolonged crypto winter has certainly hampered the growth trajectory as a result of several market collapses.
According to the research, FTX had $2.5 billion in cash and a 27% profit margin at the end of 2021.
NFTs democratise the music business and share the rights to songs.
To the advantage of both artists and listeners, the music business continues to discover imaginative methods to incorporate decentralised technology into new releases.
On Friday, R3HAB, an electronic dance music (EDM) musician, and anotherblock, a blockchain-based music community, released a song with the intention of “democratising music rights.” The nonfungible token (NFT) included in the airdrop enables holders to receive streaming royalties.
“Weekend on a Tuesday” was released with an exclusive NFT. Each of the available 250 NFTs represents a 0.02% stake in the streaming income. The value tracking function on Anotherblock’s platform allows holders to estimate dividends and total value.
Numerous artists have started using digital assets as a means of connecting with their fan base by offering NFT-exclusive extras. Extras often consist of artwork, supplementary music, and behind-the-scenes content.
Australian exchange Swyftx reduces employees by 21% due to the bad market.
As a result of the current bear market, the Australian cryptocurrency exchange Swyftx was forced to lay off 21% of its workers to reduce expenses.
According to a message sent by co-CEOs Alex Harper and Ryan Parsons on Wednesday, 74 employees had to be let go since the economic situation in which they were employed has drastically changed.
They said, “We want to make very clear that affecting our colleagues in this manner is a last choice and in no way reflects the quality or dedication of those people.”
A spokesperson for Swyftx elaborated on the decision to Cointelegraph, stating that “this was a difficult but prudent decision that ensures our costs are compatible with this prolonged period of economic uncertainty.”
“We are extremely grateful for everything the departing team members have done for us, and we are doing everything we can to help them through this extremely difficult time,” they said.
Swyftx joins a long list of crypto enterprises that have experienced growing pains as a consequence of the significant bear market in cryptocurrencies this year, with US exchanges Coinbase and Gemini reducing personnel by 18% and 20%, respectively, during the previous few months.
The crypto exchange announced in June that it would combine with the Australian online investment platform Superhero as part of a $1.5 billion merger slated to be finalised by mid-2023.
John Winters, co-founder of Superhero, said at the time that the two platforms would function independently and that no employment losses are anticipated as a result of the merger.
In June, Crypto.com, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange, lay off 260 employees, representing 5% of its workforce.
According to unsubstantiated web claims this week, the number might reach as high as 1,000, however it should be noted that this information was provided by unknown persons claiming to be familiar with the situation.
Closing
That’s it for now! Thanks for reading todays newsletter! Be sure to have a look at the Blog section to read our previous editions as well! Have a look at our Guides section if you’re interested in learning more about crypto! And finally, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter!