Weekly Digest: BitMEX Lays Off Employees, Meta to Issue its Own Tokens

What happened to crypto market this week

Cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX laid off 75 employees just a few days after it abandoned plans to acquire 268-year-old German bank Bankhaus von der Heydt, The Block reports, citing people familiar with the matter. BitMEX currently employs about 300 people, which means the move will affect about a quarter of the exchange's staff.

Meta (formerly Facebook) is exploring the possibility of creating centralized tokens for its own metaverse, the Financial Times has learned citing informed sources. According to the report, Meta Financial Technologies, the company’s fintech division, is studying the launch of a digital currency, which the employees of the structure call "Zuck Bucks."

Ethereum's Co-Founder, Vitalik Buterin, made a donation of 1,500 ETH (~$5 million) to Ukraine and Unchain Fund, a charity project created by blockchain activists to support Ukraine with humanitarian aid. The fund said in a tweet that Buterin made two transactions: one in 750 ETH directly to Ukraine's crypto wallet and the other — with the same amount — to Unchain's address.

The US Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions on darknet marketplace Hydra and cryptocurrency exchange Garantex. The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) identified over 100 crypto addresses associated with illegal transactions. According to the investigation conducted by the agency, around $8 million related to ransomware proceeds, including Ryuk, Sodinokibi and Conti, have passed through Hydra accounts.

MicroStrategy now hodls 129,218 BTC (EXANTE: Bitcoin) as the company's arm, MacroStrategy, made another purchase of 4,167 BTC for ~$190.5 million, MicroStrategy CEO, Michael Saylor, wrote in a tweet. The average purchase price of the latest deal was $45,714 per BTC and the total holdings have been acquired for ~$3.97 billion at an average price of ~$30,700 per BTC.

Waves Platform CEO and founder Alexander Ivanov said Alameda Research is manipulating the price of WAVES and has set up a FUD campaign to panic sell the asset. Last month, the project's native token hit its all-time high at $61.3, registering a 234.3% increase.