Xapo is also expected to expand beyond its Bitcoin-only by allowing customers to trade Ether as well.
Crypto-friendly bank Xapohas been granted a securities broker license that allows it to offer its European clients the ability to trade S&P 500 stocks like Apple along with its crypto asset management offering. Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) license will enable the bank to expand beyond the speculative trading strategies used in crypto into more long-term investment strategies.
Commenting on the news, Xapo CEO Seamus Rocca said in an interview:
“Our target customer is not your stereotypical 25-year-old Gen Z, who wants to trade crypto […] It’s a slightly older demographic who bought bitcoin a few years ago to hold and to be like a pension pot, or perhaps to buy a property when the price is right. They want a diversified portfolio perhaps with some stocks, a savings account that earns interest, as well as a bitcoin allocation.”
Xapo was launched in 2013 with only a wallet, a cold-storage custody vault and a 30,000 Bitcoin cache. It then went on to set up in Gibraltar as a virtual asset service provider (VASP). The bank has gone on to acquire a banking license, principal membership with Visa and Mastercard and membership in SWIFT – the global messaging system used by financial institutions to send information and money to each other. This allows the bank to engage directly with correspondent banks and have access to money market accounts.
Europe’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regime, which regulates crypto-asset issuance and service provision in the region, has been attracting banks to the region. Xapo, however, took a step away from driving institutional crypto adoption with the 2017 sale of its enterprise custody business to Coinbase. The firm instead decided to stick to retail investment and adhere to Bitcoin’s ‘financial freedom for all’ code.
“Banks are adopting crypto, but only for institutional services. Not for people like you and me. That’s where I think we were breaking the mold. We could see the need to build a bank that bridges crypto with day-to-day use cases because traditional banks weren’t going to do it,” Rocca said.
The CEO also commented on the increased calls for and adoption of non-custodial wallets following the collapse of major crypto firms last year. He said:
“I think that’s a bad idea. People don’t keep cash in a suitcase with a four-digit PIN under their bed. Why would you do that with your bitcoin? You can keep it on a laptop or a pendrive, but it’s risky. And when you want to transact with it, you have to cross the bridge to traditional financial services.”
The exec also revealed that due to popular demand, Xapo will soon be expanding beyond its Bitcoin-only by allowing customers to trade Ether as well. “So you’ll be able to store Ethereum and buy and sell it at Xapo, probably in about a month,” added the CEO.
nextBlockchain News, Cryptocurrency News, Market News, News, Stocks
Author Mercy Tukiya Mutanya
Mercy Mutanya is a Tech enthusiast, Digital Marketer, Writer and IT Business Management Student. She enjoys reading, writing, doing crosswords and binge-watching her favourite TV series.
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Despite these financial challenges, Google, which acquired DeepMind in 2014, has committed to extending financial support to the company for at least another 12 months from September 28.
DeepMind, Alphabet Inc‘s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) division responsible for developing general-purpose artificial intelligence (AI) technology, reduced employee expenses by 39% last year within its cost-cutting strategy. According to DeepMind’s filingwith a UK government agency, the staff costs and related expenses totaled 594.5 million pounds ($731 million) in fiscal 2022, down from 969.4 million pounds ($1.2 billion) in 2021. As a result of the staff cost reduction, administration expenses decreased as well.
Notably, the efforts affected the company’s profitability. In 2022, DeepMind generated 60.9 million pounds ($74.9 million) in revenue, which is more than 40% lower compared to 2021.
One of the latest headcount cuts took place in January when Alphabet said it would lay off 12,000 employees, or roughly 6% of its workforce, as well as announced its decision to shut DeepMind’s operations in Edmonton, Canada. The office used to be the only one DeepMind directly managed, which led to high resource consumption.
Prior to being acquired by Google in 2014, DeepMind made all of its money by selling the technologies it developed to businesses and companies. Now, DeepMind generates revenue from the research and development services it provides to other entities within Alphabet. Despite DeepMind’s financial challenges, Google has committed to extending financial support to the company for at least another 12 months from September 28.
Since the acquisition, DeepMind has been negotiating with Alphabet to get a certain independence in running its business. However, it abandoned its attempts amid the announcement about the merger of DeepMind and Google Brain AI research units. The move aimed to “deliver AI research and products that dramatically improve the lives of billions of people, transform industries, advance science, and serve diverse communities.”
Announcing the merger, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichaistated:
“Beginning in the second quarter of 2023, the costs associated with teams and activities transferred from Google Research will move from Google Services to Google DeepMind within Alphabet’s unallocated corporate costs.”
Known as Google DeepMind, the combined unit is run by Demis Hassabis, DeepMind’s co-founder.
Layoffs Across Alphabet
2022 was a year of profound change and challenge for Alphabet. The world contended with concurrent health, economic, social, and climate challenges, which affected the tech giant’s business across all of its units. Looking for ways to get the maximum in given circumstances, the executive board of Alphabet took a number of cost-cutting measures, including massive layoffs.
In November 2022, Alphabet announced it would let go of 10,000 employees. In fact, at the beginning of 2023, as many as 12,000 people lost their jobs at Alphabet. It was the largest-ever downsizing measure taken by the tech giant.
Last month, Alphabet started implementing staff reductions within its global recruiting team as part of its ongoing slowdown in hiring. A few hundred employees have to search for new roles within the company and elsewhere. A significant majority of the team has been kept for hiring critical roles.
nextBusiness News, News, Technology News
Author Darya Rudz
Darya is a crypto enthusiast who strongly believes in the future of blockchain. Being a hospitality professional, she is interested in finding the ways blockchain can change different industries and bring our life to a different level.
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AI is being used in hiring in the areas of creating job descriptions, sourcing talents, creating and scoring assessments, screening new applicants, and training new employees.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been gradually disrupting many industries, including the hiring/recruitment space. However, experts have shared that hiring companies may not be able to fully integrate AI with their practices.
Businesses Exercise Caution as Technology Mixes with Talent Acquisition
According to a CNBC report, which cited a 2023 Hiring Benchmark Report by Criteria, only 12% of recruiters currently use AI in their talent hunt and management processes. That is even though AI solutions are “very actively being marketed” in the space, Criteria CEO Josh Millet confirms.
The slow pace at which AI is infiltrating the recruitment industry, however, may appear to justify the expert opinions. Nonetheless, the cautionary approach by recruiters is also of utmost importance as hiring can have various implications – legal or cultural – on businesses.
First and foremost, AI-backed recruitment processes must retain the trust that is peculiar to the traditional system of hiring. That is, businesses acquiring talents with the use of AI must be able to do so without prejudice.
Additionally, the use of artificial intelligence in hiring may also have legal implications for businesses. So, organizations are treading with caution as they await the expansion of laws like New York City’s AI bias law.
Microsoft, Amazon to Shape AI-Backed Recruitment Policy
Meanwhile, tech giants such as Microsoftand Amazon are already teaming up with the Center for Industry Self-Regulation (CISR) and BBB National Programs’ 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation to publish a set of policies for trustworthy AI in hiring and recruiting.
These policies will focus on fairness, transparency, non-discrimination, accountability, technical robustness, and safety in AI-backed recruitment.
Furthermore, the policies will also seek to take accountability even beyond the employer. That is by specifying the requirements for third-party AI vendor certification.
According to Eric Reicin, president and CEO of BBB National Programs, AI tools can be greatly beneficial. However, they must be properly regulated to maximize their full potential. Reicin said:
“When AI tools are well designed, deployed, and monitored properly, the technology has the potential to mitigate discrimination and bias on a broader scale.”
Presently, AI is being used in hiring in the areas of creating job descriptions, sourcing talents, creating and scoring assessments, screening new applicants, and training new employees. Tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, recruiting chatbots and proprietary solutions have all been very helpful in this regard.
nextArtificial Intelligence, Business News, News, Technology News
Author Mayowa Adebajo
Mayowa is a crypto enthusiast/writer whose conversational character is quite evident in his style of writing. He strongly believes in the potential of digital assets and takes every opportunity to reiterate this. He's a reader, a researcher, an astute speaker, and also a budding entrepreneur. Away from crypto however, Mayowa's fancied distractions include soccer or discussing world politics.
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CoinMarketCap is not the only crypto company exploring the benefits of AI technologies since the AI hype began.
Crypto data aggregator CoinMarketCap announced its foray into the world of artificial intelligence through the launch of a ChatGPT plugin that promises to redefine crypto analysis for users across the world.
According to the company, the new plugin is designed to function as an AI crypto analyst. To achieve this goal, the tool will combine CoinMarketCap’s crypto data repository with the large-language model (LLM)-based AI chatbot capabilities to enable users to analyze digital assets performance and patterns during significant events.
CoinMarketCap Embraces ChatGPT for Crypto Data Analysis
In an announcementon October 11, the company said the new AIfeature aims to democratize access to detailed crypto analysis for users across the globe, making it more accessible to a wider range of participants in the emerging economy.
The ChatGPT plugin, available to ChatGPT Plus subscribers using GPT-4, offers answers to questions about crypto market correlations, performance, and trends.
While the tool is free to use, it’s exclusively accessible to GPT-4 users without incurring additional fees, aside from the standard $20 subscription fee.
“We’re very proud of what we’re delivering with the CoinMarketCap plugin for ChatGPT. Combining AI with a real-time, comprehensive data source like CoinMarketCap will transform the way people do research. It’s like giving every crypto investor their own personal Crypto Analyst,” said David Salamon, the director of product at CoinMarketCap.
CoinMarketCap to Introduce More AI Features
The crypto data company owned by the world’s largest exchange Binancesaid it plans to introduce more AI features in the future.
David Salamon, the company’s product director described the new milestone as an initial version (V1) claiming there will more features in the future.
“This is v1; there’s a lot more to come, and we’re looking forward to getting feedback from our community. It’s another step forward on our mission to organize the world’s crypto intelligence and make it easily accessible to all.”
Crypto Companies Exploring AI Technologies
Meanwhile, CoinMarketCap is not the only crypto company exploring the benefits of AI technologies since the AI hype began. Several companies including Binance have introduced AI tools to help users navigate the intricacies of blockchain technology.
Binance launched an AI-powered non-fungible token (NFT) generator for verified users. Another crypto exchange Bitget have also rolled out new AI features to help users navigate the intricacies of grid trading. The company announced in July that it has launched the AI feature for its grid trading strategies, leveraging the use of trading algorithms to automate transactions for users.
Additionally, Bitget’s managing director Gracy Chen revealed in a recent interview that the crypto exchange is making use of other AI technologies to handle translation for its multi-language services as well as its customer service department.
In a different financial sector, stock trading exchange Nasdaq which also offers crypto trading options received approval from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in September to execute AI-based trade orders.
nextArtificial Intelligence, Blockchain News, Cryptocurrency News, News, Technology News
Author Chimamanda U. Martha
Chimamanda is a crypto enthusiast and experienced writer focusing on the dynamic world of cryptocurrencies. She joined the industry in 2019 and has since developed an interest in the emerging economy. She combines her passion for blockchain technology with her love for travel and food, bringing a fresh and engaging perspective to her work.
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Ellison told the New York court that SBF ordered her to lie about the state of financial statements for Alameda Research to secure more loans against customers’ deposits at FTX.
Details of how former crypto empire FTX and Alameda Research have emerged through the testimony from Caroline Ellison, former Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF) girlfriend. Ellison led the Alameda Research team but used funds from FTXcustomers to make risky crypto bets without traditional risk management practices. As a result, the duo was entangled in a web of lies that deceived other crypto firms that are now caught up in the bankruptcy including Gemini Earn users, and Digital Currency Group.
Alameda Research CEO Ellison Nails SBF for the Loss of FTX Customers’ Funds
The SBF attorneys will have a challenging time ahead fighting the details being revealed by Ellison, with more expected in the coming weeks from other top FTX executives who have pleaded guilty and agreed to work with the prosecutors. In a Wednesday court session, Ellison testified that she felt relieved when the FTX and Alameda Research started to collapse as she knew the lies could soon end.
According to courtroom testimony, Ellison prepared several balance sheets to conceal the financial turmoil in a bid to secure more debts. Interestingly, Ellison began playing by the SBF playbook more than a year before filing for bankruptcy protection.
“He told me to come up with alternative ways to present the information. He wanted me to conceal things on our balance sheet. So I prepared seven different balance sheets. I did not want to be dishonest but I presented the alternatives to Sam and let him decide,” Ellison noted.
On several occasions, SBF ostensibly instructed Ellison to repay Alameda Research debts using FTX customers’ funds despite being aware of the involved risks. By selling customers’ funds, FTX supported its native token FTT, whose price plummeted more than 99 percent after the bankruptcy filing.
During the courtroom testimonial session, Ellison said that she collaborated with other top executives to bribe the Chinese government officials with over $150 million to obtain access to local exchange accounts that had been frozen. At one time, Ellison said that SBF instructed them to use fake accounts from Thai prostitutes.
In a bid to keep FTX relevant to the global market, Ellison said that SBF orchestrated a move to have Binance scrutinized by the regulators. Moreover, SBF has paid millions of customers’ funds to politicians to have a controlling stake in the crypto regulatory process.
Before breaking the day’s testimony, Ellison told the court that SBF had plans to acquire Snap Inc(NYSE: SNAP). Additionally, SBF had long-term plans to become the president of the United States, which now remains a dream as he faces over 100 years in prison.
nextBlockchain News, Cryptocurrency News, News
Author Steve Muchoki
Let’s talk crypto, Metaverse, NFTs, CeDeFi, and Stocks, and focus on multi-chain as the future of blockchain technology. Let us all WIN!
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