ㅤ

[bbc.reporter]

This is the type of weapon in maneuvering that FTX has in their armory but Binance does not have. Sam Bankman-Fried is a very smart CEO. Chinese regulators banned the cryptospace? Sam attacks the next biggest market potential of the cryptospace in Asia.



Cryptocurrency exchange FTX Trading Limited on Wednesday announced a partnership with the International Cricket Council (ICC), the global governing body of Cricket.

FTX will be the official cryptocurrency exchange partner for all the events organized by the global Cricket regulator.

The partnership covers all ICC tournaments- Men’s and Women’s Cricket World Cups; Men’s and Women’s T20 World Cups; Men’s U19 Cricket World Cup, and Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifiers.

The first assignment of FTX is the upcoming Men’s T20 World Cup beginning this month.

Source https://coincrunch.in/2021/10/14/ftx-partners-with-icc-launches-prediction-game/

[shogun47]

More details here: FTX crypto exchange acquires Blockfolio for $150 million

Seems like there are some congratulations due for the Blockfolio founders! Same with the guys behind Coinmarketcap when they got acquired. Neither of those founders would probably have expected to once get bought for amounts of that magnitude.

Hmm... and yet I made mention of that fact way back a month ago in post #12...

It should be noted that FTX is actually the App Blockfolio that recent changed the skin of the blockfolio app and it is now called FTX.  

So far the blockfolio / FTX app hasn't changed other than the name and logo.  It's still full of errors and exchanges that got robbed years ago listed as active.  Hopefully the new owners knew what they were buying was a slightly used app and have deep pockets to make the necessary adjustments to bring the app up to scratch.

Hm sorry for bringing it up again then, but anyway, apart from Blockfolio in specific still sucking (as offered by FTX now), I think your point is valid quite in general. They still suck and were bought out for a big bag of money. I guess that happened to quite a lot of websites, applications, products that were developed and were in the slightest related to cryptocurrencies. It didn't even have to be rocket science in terms of development or creativity, it just had to be somewhat relevant to the industry and you probably could make a fortune with it even if the thing died further down the road.

[bbc.reporter]

I have not yet considered crypto to be mainstream after watching Tom Brady’s FTX commercials or reading about Stephen Curry and David Ortiz entering the cryptospace through FTX. However, there was a new commercial of crypto.com with Matt Damon that will make you say crypto is mainstream.




The Major League Baseball legend, who hit more than 500 home runs in his career and won three World Series titles with the Red Sox, has agreed to a multiyear deal with the exchange.

As part of the pact, Ortiz, who is now retired as a player, will be compensated in cryptocurrency through the FTX app and will release multiple collections of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), according to FTX’s press release.

FTX’s athlete ambassadors also include Tampa Bay Buccaneer quarterback Tom Brady and Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry. TV commercials referencing the Ortiz deal (and mentioning Brady and Curry) began running on Tuesday night during the first game of the 2021 World Series.

Source https://www.coindesk.com/business/2021/10/27/red-sox-legend-david-ortiz-into-crypto-now-signs-multiyear-ftx-deal/



Crypto is mainstream.



The Oscar winner will star in Crypto.com’s new global ad campaign “Fortune Favors the Brave,” which begins airing in the U.S. on Thursday night.

Directed by Wally Pfister, the 60-second commercial features Damon taking viewers on a historical journey of brave men and women who’ve made a difference in the world, in the hopes of inspiring people to “be their bravest selves.” This campaign intends to formally introduce the platform — aimed to accelerate the world’s transition to cryptocurrency — to consumers around the world and will launch on TV during “Thursday Night Football” on Fox Sports, eventually running in more than 20 countries.

Source https://www.imdb.com/news/ni63451868



Should Sam Bankman-Fried be credited for the person who completely brought the cryptospace to the mainstream? It appears that other exchanges and companies in the cryptospace are following his marketing tactics.

[bbc.reporter]

Bitcoin news media website, Decrypt voted Sam Bankman-Fried as the cryptospace’s founder of the year. It appears from this interview that what they are doing in marketing was only the beginning. The regulatory progress might be where FTX would start killing the king of exchanges, Binance. I predict on the next bull market by the year 2024, FTX will be no.1 with the highest volume and liquidity in all spot trading and derivatives trading. Invest in FTT while price is low hehehe.



Scanning headlines might lead you to believe it was sponsorship and marketing deals that made 2021 a huge year for derivatives exchange FTX and its CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.

The goal of all those deals, Bankman-Fried has said, was to build FTX’s name recognition. But he sees them as mere groundwork for bigger things to come in 2022.

“I think it’s a little bit surprising exactly how much focus there was on [the sponsorships],” Bankman-Fried told Decrypt by phone. "Where we’re really excited," he said, is the regulatory progress FTX made this year, and where he thinks those efforts could end up. "But that doesn't mean that's where they are today."

Source https://decrypt.co/88831/crypto-founder-of-the-year-sam-bankman-fried-ftx

[bbc.reporter]

@Ratimov. However, it will not be FTX’s marketing that would bring the exchange the advantage. It will be the exchange’s willingness to work with regulators and fix compliance issues. This is the opposite of what Binance’s original plans were. There was an interview with CZ where he mentioned that his longterm vision for Binance was to become decentralized. He also appeared to be proud that Binance did not have an office address.

[Daltonik]

FTX allocates $1 million for regional banks ready to create deposits and withdraw customer funds based on stablecoins (which exactly is meant, they do not specify), for this FTX is ready to enter into partnerships with such banks.
https://twitter.com/FTX_Official/status/1475917176267624450

[JeromeTash]

@Ratimov. However, it will not be FTX’s marketing that would bring the exchange the advantage. It will be the exchange’s willingness to work with regulators and fix compliance issues. This is the opposite of what Binance’s original plans were. There was an interview with CZ where he mentioned that his longterm vision for Binance was to become decentralized. He also appeared to be proud that Binance did not have an office address.

Maybe if the narrative changes but what we have been seeing in the past was non regulated or semi regulated exchanges like Binance and Bitmex pulling most of the trading volumes while those that seemed to comply like Coinbase, Gemini, Kraken had less volumes.

As soon as Bitmex and Binance started to comply by asking for complete KYC verification for every user, their popularity started going on a downtrend pretty fast.

So people sort of liked the unregulated exchanges and i believe may still prefer them.

[bbc.reporter]

FTX allocates $1 million for regional banks ready to create deposits and withdraw customer funds based on stablecoins (which exactly is meant, they do not specify), for this FTX is ready to enter into partnerships with such banks.
https://twitter.com/FTX_Official/status/1475917176267624450

It does not appear to be an allocation hehehe. What it appears like is FTX is bribing the banks to accept stablecoins. I am also quite certain one of the stablecoins is Tether. Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research fund is one of the biggest market makers that use Tether.

@JeromeTash. It is not a narrative. It is something similar to a company policy. However, I agree that Binance is being forced to comply to regulations of different jurisdictions. This is because they will lose their competitiveness against exchanges that do comply.

[JeromeTash]

@JeromeTash. It is not a narrative. It is something similar to a company policy. However, I agree that Binance is being forced to comply to regulations of different jurisdictions. This is because they will lose their competitiveness against exchanges that do comply.

I probably used the narrative word badly. What I meant is maybe if the "trend" of people disliking exchanges that fully enforce KYC and all those other required documents changes then yes, it will be a walk in the park for FTX to have so many new traders using their platform but as we speak right now most true crypto lovers and traders are still hesitant to use fully complaint exchanges. It's why the likes of Bitmex lost popularity as soon as they went fully complaint.

[bbc.reporter]

@JeromeTash. I have noticed that the hesitancy on KYC are from those very idealistic holders of bitcoin. However, the traders do not really mind, I reckon. This is an accepted reality.

Also, I think Bitmex lost its popularity, not because they began asking for KYC. It lost popularity because the government was going after Arthur Hayes and the other founders hehe. This was taken advantage by FTX and grabbed much of Bitmex’s users.

[Daltonik]

More and more companies are starting to invest in the development of the metaverse ecosystem, and FTX does not stay away from this, stating that it will launch a Web3 venture fund worth $2 billion by sending them to the new FTX Ventures venture capital division headed by Amy Wu.
https://twitter.com/FTX_Official/status/1482062145315504132
https://ventures.ftx.com/

[wtsimis]

There is no doubt that FTX is a great to exchange platform for spot and future trading. But I faced a problem while verifying my KYC, for my camera I have to verify it manually. They told users it maximum would take 7 days for manual verification. but it took around 2 weeks for manual verification. I knocked them in the support in 7th day, but they replied in the verification day.

Sometimes it showing errors while instant verification, but manual verification also takes much time.

[Timelord2067]

For me personally, I have had to do the whole KYC process on a number of (crypto) exchanges only to have many months later the exchange go offline for a variety of reasons, or the exchange decide to block my geo location so I can't even view the website much less go cap in hand asking for my funds back.

So I can understand reluctance by many to go through the process yet again - chances are they've also lost funds in much the same way.

[logfiles]

For me personally, I have had to do the whole KYC process on a number of (crypto) exchanges only to have many months later the exchange go offline for a variety of reasons, or the exchange decide to block my geo location so I can't even view the website much less go cap in hand asking for my funds back.

So I can understand reluctance by many to go through the process yet again - chances are they've also lost funds in much the same way.

But most exchanges that I have seen get strict and even restrict people from certain jurisdictions from using the platforms would still leave provisions for the unwanted people to withdraw their funds. I think I saw such a thing with Binance, Bittrex, Localbitcoins etc.

Anyway, like they always say. No one should leave funds in an exchange and go on vacation from trading for months or years. Things change so fast when it comes to crypto.

[Timelord2067]

Ordinarily I wouldn't leave many funds in an exchange, but I'd managed to amass decent bags of alts (usually donated) but it wasn't viable to start vet another blockchain on my PC (and no paperwallet to speak of), so when ya gotta park the crypto somewhere, an exchange is the way to go.

bittrex

Yeh, bittrex is another exchange that just geo blocks, cuts off all means to communicate then ignore

Sham really...

[Daltonik]

Yeh, bittrex is another exchange that just geo blocks, cuts off all means to communicate then ignore

Sham really...

Yes, too, at one time at the end of 2017, I had a problem with depositing funds on bittrex, which, however, was resolved favorably for me in the end, but it took more than two months and only after contacting the Better Business Bureau with a complaint regarding the bittrex exchange, which did not transfer funds to the deposit.

[bbc.reporter]

FTX’s valuation has reached $32 billion after the exchange received $400 million in series C funding. I reckon their valuation is almost as big as Coinbase’s valuation which presently might be $38 billion. This is very good for them! FTX has less than 200 employees compared to Coinbase which has more than 1000 employees.

However, did Binance reach their size with only a funding of $15 million from their ICO? CZ’s accomplishments presently continues to be the most impressive.



Cryptocurrency exchange FTX saw its valuation swell to $32 billion in a new funding round announced Monday, highlighting continued appetite for the sector even as investors grow wary about a sharp pullback in crypto prices.

Source https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/31/crypto-exchange-ftx-valued-at-32-billion-amid-bitcoin-price-plunge.html

[Daltonik]

It seems that FTX will increase volumes much more as they report that they have reached an agreement on the acquisition of the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Liquid and its subsidiaries. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed, its closure is expected by March 2022.

Source: https://blog.liquid.com/acquisition-liquid-ftx

[Daltonik]

FTX has become interested in the gaming segment and is likely to launch its own gaming division. The structure is designed to facilitate the introduction of cryptocurrencies, blockchain and NFT by game publishers into their products.

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-21/ftx-enters-gaming-as-backlash-grows-against-crypto-s-incursion?sref=AACmJ2tc
since reading is available only by subscription, you can use reading the news archive: https://archive.fo/Zpfed

[Daltonik]

FTX reported that it is creating a charitable foundation to which it directs $100 million and expects that up to $1 billion. The fund's funds will be used to invest in what they call "ambitious projects to improve the long-term prospects of humanity," I think this is a timely initiative considering what is happening now.

Source: https://ftxfuturefund.org/announcing-the-future-fund/