DEFI

Bank Protests and Holdups Continue to Rise in Lebanon, as Depositors Demand Savings

Bank Holdups and Protests Continue to Rise in Lebanon as Depositors Demand Their Own Savings

On Dec. 17, reports detail that residents in Lebanon have been staging sit-ins and protests at banks in order to access their own savings accounts. Since the economic collapse in 2019, Lebanon’s banks froze Lebanese bank accounts, and a number of branches have remained closed indefinitely. Although a few Lebanese have been forced to fork over their savings, most of the residents have fled or been arrested without any money.

Lebanon Banks Respond to Protests and Gunpoint Requests from People Wanting Their Savings Back

In August 2019, it became apparent to the world that Lebanon was suffering from a liquidity crisis, and there have been many reports that say financial coverups and U.S. sanctions put Lebanon’s economy in a vice grip. It has been reported that by late 2018, a handful of Lebanese commercial banks froze people’s accounts and by the first week of March 2020, Lebanon said it would default on its Eurobond debt.

The country began seeking restructuring agreements. However, Lebanon’s lira rate diverged from the black market rate in August . A report published in August 2022 details that the “black market rate is what the currency is actually worth now.” In June 2022, Bitcoin.com News reported on Lebanon’s inflation rate surging to 211% which highlighted the economist Steve Hanke, who said the country should leverage a currency board.

Bank Holdups and Protests Continue to Rise in Lebanon as Depositors Demand Their Own Savings — Lebanese soldiers who are still able to make a living as enforcers protect Lebanon’s central bank and current politicians.

On Dec. 17, NPR columnist Ruth Sherlock described how poverty-stricken Lebanese have been outside of banks protesting in order to get access to their own savings accounts. In Tripoli, Lebanon at an IBL Bank branch, Sherlock said a 53-year-old woman named Zahra Khaled sat in a wheelchair and would not leave the bank until the staff gave up her life savings. Sherlock reports that Khaled said the bank had frozen “tens of thousand dollars”.

Sherlock explains that Khaled’s protest was “one of the gentler tactics” and that some are using real or toy guns in order to recover their money. The NPR reporter does note that some Lebanese who resort to this tactic only want “what they are owed.” Countless reports, littered all over the internet, confirm Sherlock’s account that says Lebanese bank accounts have been frozen since 2019, since the onset of Lebanon’s economic collapse. In 2020, angry depositors and protests got so bad that the commercial banks armored the fronts of specific branch buildings with steel and cement walls.

Reuters reported in Sept. 2022 that “bank holdups snowball in Lebanon as depositors demand their own money,” as these types of acts have become a normal occurrence in the country. Reuters elaborated that five depositors held up banks in order to access their own funds and some depositors managed to get around $60K, while some people were taken into custody. In Nov. 2022, Al Jazeera detailed that banks in Lebanon reopened for two weeks. Al Jazeera was told by a Lebanese photographer that he had been waiting for a cheque to be cashed for over two weeks.

Sherlock’s reports stated that Khaled had negotiated for hours with the bank staff but they eventually left. Khaled was then taken out by the Internal Security Forces, Lebanese police who are also known as the ISF. Lebanese depositors have protested at banks such as Bank Audi, IBL Bank and Blom Bank. On Dec. 16, Reuters reported that a U.S. court of appeals has decided that Lebanese commercial banks can be tried outside Lebanon.

This story contains tags

Bank Audi, bank holdups, Bank of Beirut, banks, Black Market, black market rate, BLC Bank, Blom Bank, Byblos Bank, commercial banks, Eurobond debt, Fransabank, IBL Bank, Lebanese bank accounts, Lebanese commercial banks, Lebanon, Lebanon Banks, Lira, lira exchange rate, NPR reporter, Protests, Ruth Sherlock, Zahra Khaled

What do you think about Sherlock’s report that says Lebanese citizens are resorting to trying to get their funds at gunpoint and assembling protests in front of Lebanon’s commercial banks? Please comment below to let us know your thoughts on this topic.

Jamie Redman

Jamie Redman, the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News, is a Florida-based financial journalist. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. Redman is passionate about Bitcoin, open-source codes, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 6,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. This article is not intended to be a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any products or services. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. The author and the company are not responsible for any loss or damage resulting from or in connection to the content, goods, or services discussed in this article.

DEFI

Drones, Fertility and Defi –

Drones, Fertility, and Defi — A Look at Alameda Research's Massive $5.4 Billion Portfolio of Investments

A lot has been revealed about the Alameda Research and FTX disasters in the past few weeks. The Financial Times (FT), Dec. 6, published documents that show Alameda’s investment portfolio. It claims the company spent over $5 billion on hundreds investments. Some funds were used for odd investments, such as Ivy Natal, a fertility company, and Brinc Drones, a drone manufacturer.

Alameda Invested in Close to 500 Firms and Projects

In the past two years, FTX 720 spent billions of dollars on investments, sponsorships and deals. At the end of January 2022, FTX looked colossal after it raised $400 million from investors like Softbank Vision Fund 2, Tiger Global, Temasek, Paradigm, and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board.

After the Series C raise, FTX was valued at $32 billion and the former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) said FTX aimed to expand the firm’s “global reach.” After the revelations concerning Alameda’s balance sheet during the first week of November, FTX and SBF’s quantitative trading firm imploded.

Since then, FTX’s parent firm West Realm Shires Services, Alameda Research, and approximately 130 additional affiliated companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. This week on Dec. 6, 2022, FT released documentation tied to Alameda Research’s investments, which were close to 500 investments that added up to roughly $5.4 billion.

Drones, Fertility, and Defi — A Look at Alameda Research's Massive $5.4 Billion Portfolio of Investments — Genesis Digital Assets and Anthropic received the most funding from Alameda Research.

In addition to FT, The Block’s VP of research, Larry Cermak, exported the entire list of Alameda-based investments into an excel sheet. Cermak also noted that Alameda has made the largest investments in Genesis Digital Assets and Anthropic Digital Assets DA AG. K5 and IEX.

If the data is correct, the documentation shows Alameda spent a lot of money in blockchain projects, foundations, tokens and non-fungible token projects (NFT). These include Hole Tokens and Near, 1inch, Lido. Xterio. Aptos. Polygon for instance received $50,000,000 from Maclaurin Investments Ltd., otherwise known as Alameda Ventures.

Near gathered $50 million from FTX Ventures Ltd., and Maclaurin gave Near $30,000,000. FTX Ventures gave Yuga Labs roughly $50 million and Aptos scored $74.9 million from Clifton Bay Investments, also known as Alameda Research Ventures. Alameda has invested in well-known funds such as the Multicoin Venture Fund II or the Skybridge Capital II.

Money was sent to Chinese news companies like Blockbeats and O’daily News. The company invested in Paxos and Starkware, Circles, Fanatics (AxieInfinity), Paxos, Paxos, Paxos, Starkware, Circles, Starkware and Starkware. An Ohio-based produce and vertical farming firm called 80 Acres got $25 million and $11.5 million was funneled to a firm called Geniome.

A whopping $500 million went to the artificial intelligence (AI) research firm Anthropic and $1.5 million went to a fertility venture called Ivy Natal. FT described Alameda’s portfolio as a “disparate bundle of nearly 500 illiquid investments split across 10 holding companies.” The FT author further notes that “FT makes no claim as to the data’s accuracy or completeness” as far as the documentation of Alameda’s investments are concerned.

This story contains tags

500 illiquid investments, Alameda Research, Alameda Research CEO, aptos, Caroline Ellison, Circle, Fanatics, ftx, FTX companies, Geniome, Holding Companies, Lead up, Magic Eden, messari, Multicoin Venture, NEAR, O’daily News, Paxos, Polygon, Sam Bankman-Fried, sbf, Skybridge Capital, starkware, Yuga Labs

What do you think about all the alleged investments Alameda made? Please comment below to let us know your thoughts on this topic.

Jamie Redman

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DEFI

Football Fever is Infecting DeFi Project with Excitement

press release

PRESS RELEASE. Doha, Qatar: For the next couple of weeks, over a billion people are glued to the TV every day watching players of their favorite team working brilliantly together to win the ultimate prize. This time, what’s truly different is the role crypto plays in football. Christiano Ronaldo released NFT collections and team fan tokens.

And now, leading communities in crypto are joining football fever and even using it as an opportunity to bring crypto to the masses. With this World Cup, billions will learn about the Web3 ways of working together and winning big thanks to the Binance Football Fever 2022 campaign that allows anyone to get their football fever on while having a chance to win part of the $1,000,000 in prizes.

The DeXe DAO community, being a close partner of Binance and running a number of joint activities with them, has also joined Binance’s Football Fever in true DAO fashion — by proposing and passing onchain a sponsorship of Binance Football Fever. Football fans now have the opportunity to win $DEXE tokens and learn about DeFI. The DeXe community is full of football enthusiasts. The project is all about teamwork in Asset Management and DAO Management so Binance’s partnership was a natural fit with the DeXe DAO.

In Asset Management, traders have skills but need more capital to win big. Investors have the capital, but they need traders that can trust them to manage it. DeXe’s platform for asset management gives traders freedom to trade and is well-rewarded. Investors get transparency and multilayer security to protect their capital. DeXe maximizes your chances of winning while minimising the risk of losing — a world-class approach worthy of a World Cup.

Can you imagine if players on the pitch would get rewarded for how many passes they made rather than for scoring? This team would not win even a single game. This World Cup has proven that even teams with lower star power can still defeat those who are more talented on paper. It is important to be effective. DeXe coordinates incentives in DAO management so community members are rewarded for their most efficient DAO activities. Onchain proposals can also be used to modify any aspect of the DAO. DeFi is like football. It’s important to make it easy for people to score, defend and adjust strategies to maximize their actions.

With DeXe’s and Binance’s involvement in the World Cup media hype, football fans can both cheer for their favorite teams and learn more about DeFi. Binance and DeXe’s efforts to promote crypto among football fans could lead to the next World Cup being run on-chain.

About The Dexe Network

Dexe Network is an Asset and DAO Management platform that brings the dreams of DeFi into practical reality by giving fund and DAO creators the power to effectively, quickly, and securely grow their organizations. DeXe allows traders to become managers in the same way that they trade, and DAOs can be governed in an autonomous and decentralized manner thanks to on-chain governance and proper incentives. DeXe’s Ambassador Program has laid the groundwork for community-generated rewards for effective DAO participation.

Contact via email for more information: info@dexe.network

This is a press release. This is a press release. Readers are responsible for their own research before making any decisions about the promoted company, or any of its affiliates. Bitcoin.com does not assume any responsibility for any loss or damage caused or alleged by the use or reliance of any content, goods, or services mentioned in this press release.

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DEFI

Smart Contract Tokens Drop $22 Billion in 36 Days to Lock Defi Value at its Lowest Point since March 2021

Value Locked in Defi Is at Its Lowest Point Since March 2021, Smart Contract Tokens Shed $22 Billion in 36 Days

Smart contract platform tokens, and decentralized finance protocols (defi), have suffered a severe blow since the FTX crash last week. The market capitalization of all the smart contract platform tokens in existence lost more than $22 billion during the last 36 days. The total value locked (TVL) in defi protocols has dropped to $43 billion, the lowest defi TVL since the first week of March 2021.

Smart contract Tokens and Defi protocols See Significant Value Reductions since FTX’s Collapse

Decentralized Finance and smart contract platform tokens suffered a lot during the week following the FTX collapse. Today, smart contract platform tokens are much lower in value, as a large number of coins shed 8% to over 20% during the last seven days.

Value Locked in Defi at Its Lowest Point Since March 2021, Smart Contract Tokens Shed $22 Billion in 36 Days — Solana lost more than 41% against the U.S. dollar during the last seven days.

Solana’s smart contract token SOL, on the other hand, lost 41% against the U.S. dollar during the past week. SOL, the largest loser of all the top ten smart contracts platform tokens, was over the past week.

Two tokens that saw significant losses similar to SOL’s include phantasma (SOUL) down 35.6% and velas (VLX) down 29.6% this week. Two smart contract tokens that gained this week include qanplatform (QAN) up 368.5% and secret (SCT), which gained 29% against the U.S. dollar.

Since Oct. 11, 2022, or 36 days ago, $22 billion has left the smart contract token economy, as the market cap has dropped from $283 billion to today’s $261 billion. The top defi platforms have seen a significant amount of value drop over the past week.

The total value locked (TVL) in defi is at the lowest point since March 2021. At the time of writing on Nov. 16, 2022, the TVL in defi is $43. 24 billion. Ethereum’s defi dominance represents 57. 63% of the $43. 24 billion aggregate with $24. 92 billion total value locked on the blockchain’s defi protocols.

The Binance Smart Chain (BSC), which has $4. 83 billion in value locked. Tron is in third place with 10. 11% of the aggregate $43. 24 billion or roughly $4. 33 billion in value locked on Nov. 16.

Makerdao is the largest defi protocol today in terms of TVL in defi protocols, as it dominates by 15. 47% on Wednesday. Makerdao is worth $6. 69 billion TVL today which is followed by the liquid staking protocol Lido.

The defi application Lido commands $5. 92 billion in value locked on Wednesday. Makerdao’s TVL shed 13. 87% during the past 30 days, while Lido shed 0. 90% this past month. Makerdao has lost 4. 70% this past week and Lido lost 2. 54% during the last seven days.

This week’s top defi protocol include Aave and Uniswap. Cross-chain bridges during the last day have seen $141. 87 million in volume, and during the last seven days, bridges moved $1. 93 billion.

The top five most popular chains by volume are Ethereum and Fantom. FTX’s collapse has seen a huge number of withdrawals from all cross-chain bridge protocol.

This story contains tags

Assets, Avalanche, Binance Smart Chain, Cross-chain Bridges, crypto assets, decentralized finance, DeFi, Defi protocols, Defi TVL, Ethereum, Fantom, Lido, makerdao, phantasma (SOUL), qanplatform (QAN), secret (SCT), Smart Contract Tokens, Smart Contracts, Solana, token economy, total value locked, tron, velas (VLX)

What do you think about the state of decentralized finance protocols and the $22 billion smart contract tokens lost in 36 days? Please comment below to let us know your thoughts on this topic.