Rap Star Snoop Dogg Believes Crypto Industry Will Bounce Back — Crash ‘Weeded’ Out Bad Apples

This week, the rapper Snoop Dogg spoke about the crypto crash in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday and explained that he believes the cryptocurrency economy will bounce back. Snoop said that he feels like the crash “‘weeded’ out all of the people” that were not supposed to be in the space in the first place.

Snoop Says Crypto Crash Is Transitory and Great Choices Will Follow the Aftermath

Snoop Dogg thinks the current crypto crash is temporary and in time he believes the ecosystem will bounce back. Speaking with CNBC on Tuesday, the hip-hop recording artist discussed his current perspective on non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and cryptocurrencies.

While talking about NFTs, Snoop said that what drew him toward the digital collectibles space was the intellectual property (IP) ideas and “being able to own and control the whole IP and not be used as a face or marketing tool … but to actually be the owner, the CEO.”

When Snoop was questioned about the current crypto market drawdown, he responded by saying that he doesn’t think it will last long.

“It’s crypto… It’s crypto, you know that right?” Snoop jokingly asked the CNBC reporter. “I feel like it was a beautiful industry that was created. I feel like every great industry has a downfall, there’s always a depression in every industry you could look at. Alcohol, tobacco, clothing, and food,” the rapper added.

Snoop continued by remarking that he thinks the crash is ridding the industry of bad apples. The recording artist and entrepreneur stressed:

I just feel like this ‘weeded’ out all of the people that wasn’t supposed to be in that space and all the people who were abusing the opportunities that were there. Now its going to bring great business, and moving forward the market will have great things to pick and choose from.

Hip-Hop Recording Artist Has Been Into Bitcoin Since 2013, Snoop Says Music Labels Will Have to Come to the Table When It Comes to NFTs

Snoop not only is an early rap star in the music world, selling 35 million albums worldwide, he’s also been into the digital currency space for a very long time. The hip-hop artist was one of the first rappers to accept bitcoin (BTC) for payment toward one of his studio albums.

In 2013, after releasing his 12th record under the reggae persona “Snoop Lion,” Snoop explained that he wanted to accept BTC for payments for his next album. “My next record available in bitcoin n delivered in a drone,” the rapper tweeted at the time. When Snoop tweeted about his interest in accepting BTC, the crypto firms Bitpay and Coinbase responded to the recording artist.

“Hey Snoop Dogg. We can help you with that,” the Atlanta-based Bitpay replied to the musician. “We could make the bitcoin part a reality for you,” Coinbase told Snoop as well.

The musician responded to both companies and remarked that if they direct messaged him, he wanted to make it happen. No one is exactly sure how many albums the rapper sold for BTC, although, one bitcoin address (from Snoop’s old QR code) suggests the rapper only got around 0.01245982 before abandoning the idea.

During his interview on Tuesday, Snoop was asked about his interest in NFTs and he said that he knows NFTs will be big in the music industry because sooner or later the labels will have to jump in. “[The labels] are gonna have to come on home. They are going to have to sit at the table and understand that their catalogs and things that they hold onto are better served on the blockchain, [rather] than sitting in the catalog collecting cobwebs” Snoop said.

While Snoop’s label Death Row Records embraced NFTs, the rapper was asked if other music labels have come to Snoop for crypto advice. “All of them,” Snoop claimed and the Web3 entrepreneur known as Champ Medici also responded and said it wasn’t just music labels. “Movie studios, tech companies, beverage companies, everybody is rushing to Web3,” Medici told the CNBC reporter.

What do you think about the rap star Snoop Dogg’s opinion on the cryptocurrency space and NFTs? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

source https://news.bitcoin.com/rap-star-snoop-dogg-crypto-industry-will-bounce-back-crash-weeded-out-bad-apples/

Recruiting in a downmarket

There are recruiting wars and mortgage brokerages appear to be among the most active!

Good afternoon! Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here. Hello, LOs!   Even in a downmarket, there are recruiting wars. Mortgage brokerages appear to be among the most active. And they're often recruiting from retail shops, scooping up experienced LOs whose pipelines have thinned of late. It hasn't quite been a mass exodus, though.    "LOs are willing to stick it out for the next three to six months," said Roberto Salas, a recruiter at national brokerage shop Nexa Mortgage. He said some LOs that have joined the brokerage side are already top producers who bring their own book of business with them. It generally means the 100% commission-based model is not an issue for them.   The brokerage brought on more than 200 LOs in June, and now has more than 1,700 at the firm. Nexa plans to hit the 2,000 mark by the end of the year.    Retail LOs, I'd like to hear from you – are you considering moving to the brokerage side? Why or why not?   Please share your thoughts anonymously at: connie@hwmedia.com   Connie Kim Mortgage Reporter, HW Media After implosion, FGMC files for bankruptcy Mortgage FGMC, controlled by global investment management firm PIMCO, said it had "significant operating losses and cash flow challenges due to unforeseen historical adverse market conditions for the mortgage lending industry, including unanticipated market volatility." To purchase leads, or not to purchase leads? That is the question! Whether you want to grow your database or drive referral business, there are several mortgage marketing best practices, digital tools and prioritization strategies lenders should consider as they generate leads in 2022. Get the full guide. Sponsored by Black Knight Here's why some lenders choose IPEN over RON Presented by EscrowTab In-person electronic notarization (IPEN) is quickly gaining industry-wide traction with lenders, title agencies and settlement companies due to its convenience, cost savings and improved borrower experience. Purchase mortgage rates drop, ending 2-week climb Mortgage, Real Estate, Politics & Money Purchase mortgage rates this week dropped 11 basis points to 5.70%, according to the latest Freddie Mac PMMS index. eClosing: How to Generate More Revenue in Today's Market Join Notarize for an interactive discussion where you'll learn how to generate more business, close loans faster, and reduce funding cycle time, while providing an exceptional borrower closing experience. Register today! Sponsored by Notarize How home-price growth has damaged the housing market Real Estate It's never a good thing when you see vertical home-price growth. This either means a massive supply shortage or you had a credit boom. HousingWire, 433 East Las Colinas Blvd., Suite 830, Irving, TX 75039 Manage preferences

Report Claims Samsung Is Producing 3nm ASIC Chips — Speculators Assume First Customer Is a Bitcoin Mining Rig Manufacturer

The electronics giant and largest corporation in South Korea, Samsung, is in the midst of creating 3-nanometer (3nm) semiconductors for a Chinese application-specific IC firm, sources have said. The new chip design has caused speculation among the crypto community that it’s possible Samsung may be creating application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for bitcoin miners.

Sources Say Samsung to Start 3nm Process This Week, Crypto Community Believes Chinese IC Firm May Be a Bitcoin Mining Rig Maker

• There is speculation that Samsung is creating ASICs for bitcoin mining and the BTC mining rig manufacturer Microbt may be a future customer. The sources stem from thelec.net publication which explains that the electronics company aims to trial the foundry production of the 3nm chips this week.
• Other reports have noted that Samsung hinted about the new chips in a 2022 earnings call. The company has also been involved in non-fungible token (NFT) assets this year and introduced smart televisions that support NFT infrastructure.
• The report stemming from thelec.net notes that an unnamed Chinese company focused on ASICs will be Samsung’s first 3nm chip customer but Qualcomm has also “made reservations for the process.”
• Rumors about Samsung creating 3nm chips specifically for bitcoin mining have spread like wildfire on social media. If Samsung is creating ASICs for bitcoin mining it will follow the lead of a couple of competitors like Intel and TSMC.
• Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has been producing ASICs crypto miners can use for years, and Intel just recently jumped into creating semiconductors for bitcoin mining this year.
• The Samsung speculation concerning the company building bitcoin-friendly ASICs has been published by a number of crypto news publications, and the original source thelec.net, cites people familiar with the matter.

• It’s possible that Samsung has already been creating bitcoin-friendly ASICs without anyone knowing about the production. For instance, while TSMC has supplied chips to companies like Bitmain, the Taiwan firm doesn’t formally announce these products.
• Local reports from South Korea in January 2018 say that Samsung was already working with a Chinese company by creating ASIC chips for mining digital currencies.
• “Samsung is operating a foundry that supplies a Chinese cryptocurrency mining firm with mining equipment and ASIC chips. Since Samsung has just begun its cryptocurrency mining venture, it is unsure of the revenues it can generate from it,” the local media reported at the time.

What do you think about the sources that say Samsung is creating 3nm ASIC chips? Do you think the electronics giant may be creating bitcoin mining chips? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

source https://news.bitcoin.com/report-claims-samsung-is-producing-3nm-asic-chips-speculators-assume-first-customer-is-a-bitcoin-mining-rig-manufacturer/

Grayscale Sues SEC Over Bitcoin ETF Rejection

ALSO: Genesis faces "hundreds of millions" in losses, Coinbase sells data to ICE and more |

June 30, 2022 The biggest crypto news and ideas of the day  Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here. Supported by Welcome to The Node.    In today's edition: Grayscale sues SEC over bitcoin ETF application rejection. Genesis faces "hundreds of millions" in losses as 3AC exposure swamps crypto lenders. And Coinbase is reportedly selling geo-location data to ICE.   – Daniel Kuhn Today's must-reads Top Shelf ETF REJECTED, DCG UNIT SUES: Grayscale Investments sued the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission barely an hour after the regulatory agency rejected its application to convert its flagship Grayscale Bitcoin Trust product to an exchange-traded fund.  The SEC stated in its filing that the application failed to answer the SEC's questions about preventing market manipulation, as well as other concerns. On Wednesday, the SEC rejected Bitwise's application for a spot bitcoin ETF, which would hold bitcoin directly. Messari Research's Ryan Selkis said that "Grayscale and [SEC Chair Gary] Gensler have won, while investors have lost." He also said an alternative regulatory path, called Reg M relief, "could be the move that reverses the toxic trade." (Grayscale is a CoinDesk sister company.) GENESIS OF LOSSES? Cryptocurrency market maker and lending firm Genesis Trading is facing potential losses into the "hundreds of millions." The losses at Genesis relate, in part, to exposure to over-leveraged hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) and crypto lender Babel Finance. (Genesis is another CoinDesk sister company.) Elsewhere, Singapore's central bank reprimanded 3AC for misleading it with allegedly false information. The failing crypto hedge fund also exceeded the threshold of assets it could manage in Singapore. Last, JPMorgan analysts predict the crypto market deleveraging will be brief. That's in part because better capitalized firms including FTX and venture capitalists are stemming the contagion. SELLING LOCATION DATA: Coinbase  is reportedly selling "historical geotracking data" and transaction history to the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency. A representative for Coinbase denied that the information provided by the analytics software is the exchange's customer data. Meanwhile, the Lazarus Group, a North Korean hacking group believed to be supported by the Kim regime, is likely behind last week's hack of Harmony Bridge. The attack drained the service of $100 million worth of crypto. REGULATING CRYPTO: Basel Committee on Banking Supervision said conventional banks should have a cap on their holdings of unbacked crypto assets. Holdings of unbacked crypto like bitcoin and algorithmic stablecoins would be limited to 1% of a lender's capital under the standard-setter's new plans.  Separately, the Financial Action Task Force said authorities need to fast-track checks on crypto users' identity as part of the globally enforced "travel rule" for crypto transfers. The global standard-setters have their eyes on DeFi, NFTs and unhosted wallets. Finally, DeFi advocates reportedly told the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority that decentralized finance should not be regulated in a recent forum.  DATA ON THE OPENSEA: An employee at Customer.io, a platform for managing email newsletters and campaigns and tasked with managing OpenSea email newsletters, copied the list of customer emails and shared it with an outside party. Email newsletter management platforms and Customer Relationship Management software appear to be a weak spot for crypto firms. In other non-fungible token news, Nansen has begun tracking Solana-based projects amid a surge in NFT volumes on that blockchain.  - Xinyi Luo Overheard on CoinDesk TV... Sound Bites "We believe the SEC is acting both arbitrarily and capriciously, and discriminating against issuers by approving futures based bitcoin ETFs but continuing to deny spot based bitcoin ETFs."    – Grayscale Investments Chief Legal Officer Craig Salm, on CoinDesk TV's "First Mover"  Strong Fundamentals, Higher Insurance   In today's market conditions, uncertainty can be overwhelming. That's why having a strong fundamental layer as a base for our business model has always been essential for Nexo. Strict over-collateralized lending, a real-time audit, prudent risk management, global licensing, and fully-automated processes, are the pillars that ensure the robustness of our products and the safety of your funds at all times.    As a security-first platform, we recently increased our total insurance on custodial assets to $775 million. These additional protections come through our years-long collaborations with BitGo, Ledger Vault, Bakkt, and other industry-renowned custodians via the most prestigious underwriters, including Lloyd's of London, and Marsh & Arch. Nexo's fundamentals are in place to keep your funds safe and to provide you with confidence that regardless of market conditions you can rely on your assets. We urge you to read more about these features and our sustainable practices on our Security page. What others are writing Off-Chain Signals  FTX walked away from a deal with Celsius after seeing state of its finances: sources (The Block) 'Gray Glacier' Upgrade Goes Live on Ethereum Network (Decrypt) MakerDAO Jolts its Members with Bold Governance Proposals (The Defiant) Korean Crypto Scene Still Shooting For The Moon In The Post-Terra Era (Forbes) Even with worsening market conditions, crypto remains a hotspot for employment. CoinDesk's "Future of Work Week" takes a look at the jobs market, offers advice on landing a role, and explores how crypto itself could change how we work, including through decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). Stay tuned for features, profiles and op-eds throughout the week.   How DAOs Open Doors for the Unbanked It's a new, borderless world.    How I Made It in Crypto: Life as a Play-to-Earn Guilder "We turn our scholars into investors," says Philippines-based Spraky, tournament host for Yield Guild Games. Putting the news into perspective The Takeaway Can Crypto Be Blamed for Inflation?  It shouldn't be controversial to say that bitcoin (BTC) benefited from the huge money prints the U.S. and other governments made during the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. monetary supply about doubled in the first two years of the third decade of the 21st century – and some of that capital surely spilled into digital assets.  At the time the CARES Acts were passed (which pushed over $3 trillion into the economy), there was a popular but mostly untested hypothesis that bitcoin would act as a hedge against inflation. Because bitcoin is limited to just 21 million coins, some argued it would function like gold and could be used to hedge against rising prices.    Inflation happens when there's more money chasing the same amount of goods, causing prices to rise. As it happened, crypto – along with most other speculative asset classes – saw a dramatic rally as the money printers "went brrr." Now, as the U.S. Federal Reserve hikes rates to curb the highest inflation in decades, BTC is on pace to record its worst quarter ever.   To be fair, it seems like everyone is learning on the spot. "We now understand better how little we understand about inflation," Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday. As prices began to rise last year, the Fed's position was that inflation would be "transitory," the result of an economy jolting back after pandemic closures.   There's still little consensus – officially and among us civilians – about what caused inflation. In truth, there's likely a multitude of factors that contributed to this unique economic moment. Barry L. Ritholtz, co-founder, chairman and chief investment officer of Ritholtz Wealth Management LLC., recently published a list of 15 inflation drivers. This list spans from the U.S. CARES Acts to the more recent war in Ukraine, as well as other factors including just-in-time delivery and semiconductor factory slowdowns that economists have noted created supply shortages across the global economy. At the bottom of Ritholtz's list is, interestingly, crypto.    Bitcoiners may not have the hedge they wanted, but they do have a solid economic theory that printing money will devalue a currency. Further, in terms of asset inflation, the Fed has been pursuing "quantitative easing" – where it would enter markets with the aim of forcing financial institutions to make more loans and drive riskier economic activity.    In other words, the U.S. government's fiscal stimulus and the Fed's monetary policy created buyers who took on increasingly risky bets. This is at least part of an explanation for why speculative industries, including the nascent digital asset sector, become so valuable. Built on viable tech but still finding durable use cases, crypto grew into a $3 trillion behemoth at its height mostly based on speculation.    Ritholtz places a fair amount of burden on consumers for rocketing inflation, arguing that the Fed's zero percent interest rates (ZIRP) – a policy essentially in effect since 2008's Great Financial Crisis – "did nothing for inflation for a decade-plus."   "Consumers who continue to buy homes and cars despite substantial price increases are not suffering from inflation, they are (in part) a driver of inflation," he wrote. "Pre-pandemic, consumers spent 38.7% on goods, but a whopping 61.3% on services. In 2020, the demand for goods rose 20% globally, but production increases were barely 5%. Prices rose accordingly."   At a small scale, this might have happened in crypto, too. There's evidence to suggest that people put their $1,600 stimulus relief checks directly into exchanges like Coinbase (COIN) and Kraken (just as average Americans reportedly used these relief payments to buy all sorts of goods and services – from AMC stock to new bikes).   But Ritholtz doesn't seem to be blaming the small guy for crypto's insane overvaluation and any inflationary effects that may have caused. He pointed to anecdotes like Lamborghinis being sold out for two years and sales of $100 million mansions "as hedge funds and VCs cashed in" their crypto holdings.    Indeed, crypto functions in a way pretty similar to fiat currencies in that they can become valuable based primarily on collective belief. The difference is that crypto gives everyone a money printer, by enabling anyone to make a token and convince buyers it could have utility. To the extent that this activity drove inflation is an open question. There were plenty of reports of crypto founders buying yachts and New York City properties, having made a real fortune on virtual goods.   Many first-time bitcoin buyers were likely convinced by arguments that as the Fed debased the U.S. dollar the world would need an alternative reserve currency. There was a period of time where bitcoin's price rose alongside inflation, causing something of a "positive feedback loop."   The idea of digital gold, or bitcoin being resistant to inflation rather than being swept up in it, was – as crypto often says – a "narrative." That doesn't mean bitcoin could not appreciate in price later, especially if more people again see the value in owning a programmatically scarce digital asset. But, at this moment, the story might be that bitcoin caused inflation.   – D.K.   Filling the Knowledge Gap: CryptoStudio's Independent Comparison and Education Hub Promises to Help Crypto Adoption Go Mainstream*   A lack of knowledge remains the single biggest roadblock to crypto adoption. CryptoStudio is solving that problem by offering educational resources and tools that are empowering investors to make informed decisions and helping to enhance trust across the whole digital-assets space.   Continue reading here    *This is sponsored content from CryptoStudio. The Chaser... The Node A newsletter from CoinDesk Were you forwarded this newsletter? Sign up here. See Previous Editions Copyright © 2022 CoinDesk, All rights reserved.  250 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10003, USA See all of CoinDesk's newsletters | Opt out