The trio visited Dresden, NY, home of Greenidge Generation’s bitcoin mining operation, which has become a lightning rod in the wider debate over Bitcoin’s environmental impact and, in particular, the political battles over New York State’s move last year to impose a ban on new mining projects. They found that both sides have made wildly exaggerated claims about the harm or benefits of Greenidge’s operation. New York Assemblywoman Anna Kelles, a Democrat, has repeatedly made the false claim that the facility is heating nearby Seneca Lake and killing aquatic life. At the same time, many mining advocates dramatically overstate community benefits such as the number of jobs created.

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Digital Currency Group (DCG), the parent company of CoinDesk is closing down its trade execution and prime brokerage services unit, TradeBlock, citing crypto winter and regulatory uncertainties. The shutdown of the unit, which provides trading services to institutional investors, will be effective as of May 31, a DCG spokesperson told CoinDesk. TradeBlock was acquired in 2020 by CoinDesk, and was later spun out as its own standalone business. CoinDesk kept the index data operating from the deal, which was rebranded as CoinDesk Indices, and “has proven to be a successful acquisition,” the spokesperson said. The story was first reported by Bloomberg.

In addition to its untapped potential, crypto and blockchain have come to be defined by such features as decentralization, security, transparency, efficiency, innovation and financial inclusion. Many of these facets are attractive to financial advisors as they scan the macroeconomic landscape for investment opportunities for their clients. With a difficult 2022 behind us – during which almost every asset class went down – and the traditional 60/40 portfolio had its worst year in over a century, it is important for advisors to be open to possibilities in the future landscape to rebuild, protect and grow their client portfolios.

Managing a digital asset portfolio is operationally complex, with investors requiring a comprehensive set of capabilities such as custody, trading, investment products, advisory and efficient fiat on-off ramps. In this regard, many CEXes integrate these solutions into a single platform, greatly reducing the technical complexity of owning and managing tokens native to different blockchains. This value proposition is clear when considering the alternative: where investors manage several wallets and directly participate in multiple liquidity pools across different blockchains. While some investors will have the capabilities to do so, the steep learning curve suggests that CEXes will remain the preferred platform for many.

If Greenidge is any indication, the real conversations we could be having around bitcoin mining and class will be increasingly consumed by another conflict: the Culture War. I’ve said for a while, perhaps being too reductionist, that bitcoin is going to become a red-blue issue in the U.S., with Republicans increasingly endorsing it and Democrats disavowing. Although the network itself will likely always remain “credibly neutral,” the way we think about it, and politicize it, will fall along predictable lines. Many topics have traveled thus. Before climate change became a wedge issue in American politics, for example, it was a relatively non-partisan issue that many politicians agreed on the need to do something about.

Crypto consortium Fahrenheit has won a bid to acquire insolvent lender Celsius Network, whose assets were previously valued at around $2 billion, according to court filings made early Thursday morning. The group will acquire Celsius’ institutional loan portfolio, staked cryptocurrencies, mining unit and additional alternative investments, and must pay a deposit of $10 million within three days to cement the deal, court filings show. A consortium of buyers that includes venture capital firm Arrington Capital and miner US Bitcoin Corp, Farenheit was selected as successful bidder following a lengthy auction process. Under the terms of the deal, the newly-formed company will get between $450 and $500 million in liquid cryptocurrency, and US Bitcoin Corp will construct a range of crypto mining facilities including a new 100 megawatt plant.

The bid, though accepted by Celsius and a committee of its creditors, must still be approved by regulators to finalize the acquisition. Months ago, Bankruptcy Court Judge Martin Glenn warned “regulatory roadblocks” could plague the sale of Celsius much like it thwarted a fellow lender’s acquisition. In April, crypto exchange Binance.US abruptly terminated its purchase of bankrupt crypto lender Voyager’s $1 billion in assets after federal officials appealed the sale, citing the “hostile and uncertain regulatory climate” in the U.S.

Bitcoin was recently trading at $26,362, down about 3.1% over the past 24 hours. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization had been hovering in a narrow range before dipping below its recent $26,500 support early Wednesday. Markets have been roiled by an ongoing debt ceiling stalemate and inflationary and crypto regulatory concerns. Federal Open Market Committee minutes showing a difference of opinion among U.S. central bankers about further rate hikes did little if anything, to soothe markets – crypto or otherwise.

As part of Unciphered’s effort to demonstrate its capability, company officials asked CoinDesk to acquire a new Trezor T wallet, set it up with our own seed phrase and write that down somewhere safe. We then sent it via a secure mailing option to Unciphered’s lab, where they then proceeded to hack into it (recording some of the steps on a video) and ultimately were able to retrieve our seed phrase and pin. The extra step of involving CoinDesk was suggested by the Unciphered team as a way of providing assurance that the procedure wasn’t faked or that the device wasn’t compromised by a previous owner.