OpenSea reduced staff by 50%.

NFT marketplace OpenSea has reduced its staff by 50% ahead of the launch of a new version of the service. This was confirmed by the company's CEO Devin Finzer.

According to him, the project team is working on launching OpenSea 2.0 - a new version of the marketplace. Finzer is confident that this will allow the company to once again take a leading position in the segment.

The marketplace has faced many challenges in recent months. The ex-OpenSea manager received three months in prison for insider trading.

Another employee of the company was accused of involvement in a $60 million fraud. All this happened against the backdrop of a prolonged decline in the NFT market. The price of some tokens has fallen hundreds of times or even more.

 

Elon Musk: None of my companies will ever release a crypto asset.

The owner of Company X (formerly Twitter) and billionaire Elon Musk said that his companies will not create cryptocurrencies.

Musk responded to a message from a Dogecoin graphic designer that featured a screenshot of fake news about the growth of the XAI token. He wrote:

“To be very clear, none of my companies will ever issue a cryptocurrency token.”

Let us remember that Musk earlier announced the launch of the first product based on artificial intelligence from his company xAI.

In August 2023, the billionaire denied rumours about the release of the X token. He said that the service would never have its own cryptocurrency.

 

Ledger users lost 16.8 BTC due to a fraudulent app in the Microsoft Store.

“Cryptocurrency detective” ZachXBT warned about a fake Ledger Live application in the Microsoft app store. Users who downloaded it have already lost 16.8 BTC for a total of $588,000. As ZachXBT reported, the fake Ledger Live Web3 application imitated the manufacturer of Ledger hardware wallets used to store bitcoins offline. People who downloaded a fake app from the Microsoft App Store had $588,000 worth of Bitcoin stolen across 38 transactions. Most transactions took place after November 2nd, with the largest transfer of $81,200 occurring on November 4th.

 

Magic Eden and Yuga Labs launched the Ethereum NFT platform.

Solana-based NFT marketplace Magic Eden has announced its partnership with Yuga Labs, the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club and Cryptopunk NFT collections, to launch a new marketplace for Ethereum NFTs that will pay royalties to creators.

The marketplace is scheduled to launch "by the end of the year," Magic Eden said in its announcement. Yuga Labs called the project “the first major ETH marketplace that is contractually obligated to pay royalties to creators.”
 

The German bank DZ Bank will offer a cryptocurrency storage service.

A large banking group, DZ Bank Group, announced the launch of a platform designed for storing digital assets.

According to the bank's statement, the platform will work with institutional clients. The head of the securities and digital custody services department, Holger Meffert, confirmed the bank’s interest in developing distributed ledger technology (DLT).

Representatives of the bank confirmed that they have been working with blockchain for a long time, and in 2022 they began creating a platform for institutional investors.

 

Proof Group plans to relaunch the FTX exchange.

Silicon Valley investment firm Proof Group plans to relaunch FTX. The exchange received several applications to relaunch, but now, according to Perella Weinberg Partners, a bank involved in the process, the list has been reduced to three applicants.

A decision should be made by mid-December, Kevin Kofsky, a partner at Perella Weinberg, said earlier.

As the exchange restarts, it will have to deal with various aspects of customer complaints and regulatory compliance issues.

 

The SEC reported difficulties in hiring crypto experts.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is finding it difficult to hire crypto experts because the right talent is reluctant to sell their digital assets. This is stated in the report of the office of the inspector general of the department.

According to the document, the ban on officials “harms recruitment.” Most potential employees prefer the private sector.

The report also outlines the regulator's senior management and performance issues. Along with artificial intelligence, the Commission called cryptocurrency “an evolving area that poses particular challenges.”