The CoinGeek Pulse Episode 96: Bankrupt Celsius owes $5B, Binance fined in the Netherlands, Dubai launches metaverse strategy

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud4STiJk-bc

Celsius Network’s bankruptcy hearing revealed that the digital currency lender owes its creditors and customers about $5 billion. The first hearing took place on July 18 in Manhattan, after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York last week. The hearing showed that the company is in a dire financial position, which led to the suspension of customer withdrawals since the beginning of June this year. 

A court filing revealed a deficit of $1.2 billion off the back of $5.5 billion in total liabilities. The company proposed to repay customers and recoup its massive losses through its digital currency mining operations via Celsius Mining. Judge Martin Glenn approved the $5 million expense to help Celsius complete its mining project; however, this raises more concerns among customers, who may be at the far end of the line in getting back their losses. A bankruptcy watchdog at the U.S. Department of Treasury has reportedly said customers might object to the mining expenditure when recovery of losses is in doubt.

Meanwhile, Binance was fined over $3 million by the Dutch central bank over its alleged illegal operations in the Netherlands. The company dealt with the most stringent level of enforcement—Category 3. According to De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), they consider Binance’s non-compliance for a prolonged period to be very grave which resulted in the higher than the standard amount of the penalty. The digital currency exchange received a warning from DNB last year for operating services without authorization in the country. 

In the U.K., the financial watchdog rejected hundreds of digital currency firms under the Fifth Anti-money Laundering Directive (5MLD). The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) accepted only 35 companies out of the 273 applications. For the past two years, only 13% of the applicants have been successful as the regulator takes a tough stance on which “crypto” firms can only operate in the country. The FCA also banned Binance from operating last year as it could not be “effectively supervised.” 

Dubai launches a new strategy in the digital space as it aims to be among the world’s top metaverse economies. On July 18, the Crown Prince of Dubai announced a new metaverse strategy that will create 40,000 virtual jobs and contribute $4 billion to the city’s economy. 

In a tweet, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum said the metaverse strategy “aims to foster innovation in new technology.” This includes cultivating talent through training and education and developing metaverse use cases and applications in the Dubai government. 

We launched the Dubai Metaverse Strategy today, which aims to foster innovation in new technology. Dubai is home to over 1,000 companies operating in the metaverse and blockchain sector, which contributes $500 million to our national economy. pic.twitter.com/J1XRmd2ub3

— Hamdan bin Mohammed (@HamdanMohammed) July 18, 2022

Dubai’s goal is to become the first in the region and one of the top 10 metaverse economies in the world. 

This week, check out Becky Liggero-Fontana’s special coverage of the recent Blockchain 4 Gaming and Coingeek Bitcade in Warsaw. Plus, watch the latest episode of The Bitcoin Bridge with Jon Southurst featuring Prof. Sureswaran Ramadass on Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6). 

Watch the full videos on the CoinGeek YouTube channel. 

Watch the latest episode of The Bitcoin Bridge with Prof. Sureswaran Ramadass here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZMvkJxFaEI