Tom Farren
In an industry milestone, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has become the first corporation within the crypto and blockchain space to be featured on the prominent Fortune 500 list.
A 68-year-old annual tradition, the Fortune 500 list is synonymous with ranking the leading corporations in the United States by total revenue, as well as other quantifiable metrics such as percentage profit margins, assets and the number of employees, among others.
Retail giant Walmart captured the top spot for the tenth consecutive year with $572,754 million in revenue and a growth of 2.4%. Amazon registered second place with $469,822 and 21.7%, while Apple took third with $365,817 and 33.3%.
Coinbase Global’s inclusion at 437th was supported by revenues recorded of $7,839.4 million, a 513.7% annual gain, and 3,730 employees globally.
In the other news, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was featured in The Most Influential People of 2022 by TIME Magazine.
Nominated by TIME correspondent Andrew R. Chow — the author of the recent Vitalik Buterin feature piece — maverick leader Bankman-Fried was noted as an "effective altruist" and recognized for his instrumental role in advancing a positive narrative for the crypto space, "using every tool imaginable to convince the public of its strengths," according to the 99-year-old magazine.
A recently published report documenting Coinbase’s financial performance across Q1 of 2022 revealed $430 million in losses, the first incident of the company’s public history following four prior quarters of substantial profit.
CEO Brian Armstrong was not fazed by the fortunes though, declaring that these cyclical periods of low market volume provide the opportunity for the company to “focus more intently on product development”.
This optimistic sentiment also applies to Coinbase’s publicly-traded Nasdaq stock COIN, which has plummeted 82% from all-time highs of $368.90 following the initial coin offering bump in April 2021 to $66.10, at the time of writing.
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Zhiyuan Sun
On Tuesday, the European Central Bank, or ECB, published the results of a new survey conducted in six eurozone areas: the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Belgium, France and Germany. Together, approximately 10% of respondents from the surveyed countries said they own cryptocurrencies. Out of this group, only 6% of respondents said they own digital assets worth more than 30,000 euros ($32,037). Meanwhile, 37% of respondents said they owned up to 999 euros ($1066) in crypto.
Across all of the countries surveyed, investors in the fifth income quintile (or the wealthiest 20% of the population) consistently had the highest proportion of cryptocurrency ownership relative to other income groups. The Consumer Expectation Survey asked adults aged 18 to 70 if they or anyone in their household owned financial assets in various categories, such as crypto-assets.
The survey was included in a new report published by the ECB the same day regarding the growing adoption of crypto assets despite their risk factors. As cited by the ECB, 56% of respondents in a recent Fidelity survey said they had some exposure to crypto assets, up from 45% in 2020. The increased availability of crypto-based derivatives and securities on regulated exchanges, such as futures, exchange-traded notes, exchange-traded funds, and OTC-traded trusts, ha contributed to the momentum.
In addition, increased regulation has been taken as a sign that public authorities endorse crypto. As an example, the ECB cited Germany allowing institutional funds to invest up to 20% of their holdings in crypto. However, the ECB highlighted at the end of the report that if current trends in digital asset adoption continue, then they will eventually pose a threat to financial stability.
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Brian Newar
Austin Powers supporting actor Seth Green has sparked a debate over who owns the commercial rights to use a Bored Ape Yacht Club nonfungible token (NFT) after his Apes were stolen and sold to another party
Green tweeted on May 18 that four of his NFTs including BAYC #8398, Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) #9964 and #19182 and Doodle #7546 were stolen from him after he visited a phishing site.
Green, the creator of Robot Chicken and co-star on Family Guy, noted that someone with the pseudonym DarkWing84 had already bought the BAYC NFT. Now, legal experts and community members are weighing in about the implications of theft on BAYC intellectual property (IP) rights.
BAYC’s license does not stipulate instances of theft. It merely states that “When you purchase an NFT, you own the underlying Bored Ape, the Art, completely.” Some believe this means that even if the NFT is bought from a thief, the usage rights transfer to the new owner.
Green has a TV show called White Horse Tavern in development which features the Bored Ape in question, so if this interpretation is correct, he may not be able to move forward with the show because he’s lost the commercial usage rights. A trailer for the show debuted on Saturday at the VeeCon NFT conference in Minneapolis, but the launch date is unknown.
IP and tech law professor at Santa Clara University Eric Goldman told Buzzfeed News on Wednesday that buyers are usually legally protected if they unwittingly buy a stolen item, and Coin Center communications director Neeraj K. Agrawal suggested that Green could get sued if he still uses the BAYC in his show.
But, head of policy at The Blockchain Association Jake Chervinsky said this interpretation is incorrect and a court would likely rule in favor of Green retaining the legal rights to the BAYC’s image, adding, “In other words, code is not law.”
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This Daily Dose was brought to you by Cointelegraph.
