A16z

Ripple, Coinbase, a16z invest $78M in pro-crypto PAC ahead of US elections

Prominent cryptocurrency companies and investors intend to support pro-cryptocurrency candidates during the 2024 U.S. election cycle.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has publicly announced the company’s intent to support “pro-crypto” candidates during the 2024 United States election season. The company is among a group to have pledged a total of $78 million to support the Fairshake political action committee (PAC).

Fairshake announced that prominent industry firms and players had contributed to a significant “war chest” to back candidates who support American crypto and blockchain innovation and responsible regulation in the upcoming 2024 elections.

The list of contributors includes Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, Circle, Coinbase, Kraken, Messari and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).

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a16z reveals lobbying plan: Throw money at tech-forward politicians

Ben Horowitz, one of the firm’s founders, has pledged to support any politician who helps push crypto and AI technology forward.

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) hopes to push pro-crypto and artificial intelligence (AI) regulation forward with a seemingly new strategy: throwing money at politicians.

“If a candidate supports an optimistic technology-enabled future, we are for them. If they want to choke off important technologies, we are against them,” wrote Ben Horowitz, one of the firm’s founders, in a Dec. 14 post, adding:

Horowitz said it would be the “first time” a16z pursues the lobbying route to promote tech-friendly politicians. However, it previously held a fundraiser for a New York representative in October 2022, according to Forbes.

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Bitcoin new high set for late 2024, Binance to lose top spot, predicts VanEck

Next year will see Binance lose its leadership position, a U.S. recession, new stablecoin market cap highs and a new peak price for Bitcoin, according to asset manager VanEck.

Bitcoin (BTC) will hit a new all-time high in late 2024 on the backdrop of a long-feared United States recession and regulatory shifts after the next U.S. presidential election, asset manager VanEck predicts.

On Dec. 8, VanEck made 15 crypto predictions for 2024, including price forecasts, timings of a spot Bitcoin ETF launch, the impact of the Bitcoin halving, and emerging dominant crypto platforms.

Magazine: Asia Express: HTX hacked again for $30M, 100K Koreans test CBDC, Binance 2.0

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Bitcoin new high set for late 2024, Binance to lose top spot — VanEck

2024 will see Binance lose its leadership position, a U.S. recession, new stablecoin market cap highs and a new peak price for Bitcoin, according to asset manager VanEck.

Bitcoin (BTC) will hit a new all-time high in late 2024 because of a long-feared United States recession and regulatory shifts after the next U.S. presidential election, asset manager VanEck predicts.

On Dec. 8, VanEck made 15 crypto predictions for 2024, including price forecasts, the timing of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) launches, the impact of the Bitcoin halving, and emerging dominant crypto platforms.

Magazine: Asia Express: HTX hacked again for $30M, 100K Koreans test CBDC, Binance 2.0

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ConsenSys adds 7.03M votes to Uniswap BNB Chain migration proposal amid VC battle

Web3 developer ConsenSys has cast 7.03 million UNI votes in favor of Uniswap v3 deploying on BNB Chain.

Web3 infrastructure developer ConsenSys, the maker of the popular MetaMask digital wallet, has cast 7.03 million votes in favor of a proposal that would see decentralized exchange Uniswap’s v3 protocol deployed on BNB Chain, according to data from Tally. The votes are denominated by the number of underlying UNI owned by ConsenSys, which is worth an estimated $47.5 million. At the time of writing, 77.56% of participants were in favor of the proposal, with 22.07% against it. The week-long voting process will close on Feb. 10.

As Cointelegraph previously reported, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz cast a vote against the proposal. A16z, which reportedly holds 55 million UNI tokens, voted 15 million UNI against the move due to its reliance on the Wormhole bridge and instead supported using LayerZero as the interoperability protocol. LayerZero Labs is part of a16z’s portfolio and raised $135 million in a funding round in March, with a $1 billion valuation.

In January 2022, Wormhole suffered a major exploit resulting in the loss of $321 million worth of Wrapped Ether (wETH) tokens. Since then, Wormhole is now secured by 19 validators, has been audited 25-plus times by leading firms and has passed all security assessments.

A16z’s vote was in part controversial within the crypto community due to a voter turnout of less than 7% for the ongoing proposal, which still passed the necessary quorum. As a result, a16z was able to disproportionally influence the voting process with just 15 million UNI out of 762 million in UNI in circulation. Critics say that such measures disrupt the decentralized nature of Uniswap by concentrating voting power in VCs.