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Google slashes price of Gemini AI model, opens up to developers

Google parent company Alphabet said it was slashing prices for its pro version of AI model Gemini and plans to make its tools more accessible to developers to create their own versions.

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, announced on Dec. 13 that it plans to slash the cost of a version of its most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) model, Gemini, and make it more accessible to developers.

According to reports, the company said the price for the Pro model of Gemini has been cut by 25%–50% from what it was in June.

Gemini was introduced in three variations on Dec. 6, with its most sophisticated version being able to reason and understand information at a higher level than other Google technology, along with computing video and audio.

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Ethereum team lead sees zero interest from university in collaborating

Peter Szilagyi, Ethereum’s team lead, voiced dissatisfaction with his former university’s lack of enthusiasm in recommending students for collaboration with Ethereum.

Peter Szilagyi, the team lead of Ethereum, has expressed frustration over his alma mater’s lack of interest in providing opportunities for students to collaborate with Ethereum (ETH).

In a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter), Szilagyi explained that he had always felt a lack of genuine interest when he returned to his old university to deliver talks about Ethereum.

He stated that the students appeared to be more focused on the price of Ethereum rather than the project itself.

“The audience seems to have been stuck in the number go up aspect; and the organizers always used it as an ad campaign.”

Szilagyi noted that this year he organized a grant for 9 students to participate in Devconnect, including flights and accommodation.

“I haven’t met the students myself, but someone supposedly has.

“Figured lets see if this piqued some interest.

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Elon Musk reportedly plans AI startup to rival ChatGPT-maker OpenAI

While Musk left the board of OpenAI in 2018, the launch of the new AI startup will place Musk among other tech giants, such as Google and Microsoft, to build next-gen AI.

Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk is reportedly developing plans to create an artificial intelligence (AI) startup to compete with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, one of the most popular generative AI companies he co-founded in 2015. 

The revelation came after information surfaced that Musk is assembling a team of AI researchers and engineers, according to the Financial Times (FT). While Musk left the board of OpenAI in 2018, the launch of the new AI startup will place him among other tech giants, such as Google and Microsoft, to build next-gen AI.

The report suggests that Musk is in talks with existing SpaceX and Tesla investors regarding investments in the upcoming AI venture. “A bunch of people are investing in it . . . it’s real and they are excited about it,” added FT’s source.

The alleged findings complement a recent report from April 12, wherein an anonymous source revealed that Musk procured nearly 10,000 graphics processing units to power Twitter’s AI initiatives.

On March 9, Musk incorporated a company named X (X.AI), listing himself as the company’s sole director. In addition, Musk also changed the name of Twitter to “X Corp” in company filings as part of his plans to create an “everything app” under the “X” brand.

In contrast, Musk and more than 2,600 tech leaders and researchers signed an open letter urging a temporary pause on further AI development on March 30, fearing “profound risks to society and humanity.”

Related: Google ChatGPT rival AI faces in-house resistance: Report

Yet another tech giant joining the AI race is Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The Amazon Bedrock initiative will allow AWS users to build generative AI from foundation models.

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Amazon launches new Bedrock AI service to take on Google and OpenAI

AWS is launching Bedrock, an AI service that will allow users to build out generative models from AI21 Labs, Anthropic, Stability AI and Amazon.

Generative artificial intelligence models such as ChatGPT have taken the technology world by storm as they threaten to permeate the mainstream. With the announcement of Bedrock, it’s clear that Amazon is ready to go all-in just as Big Tech competitors Microsoft and Google have.

Bedrock will allow Amazon Web Services (AWS) users to build out generative AI from foundation models (FMs). GPT-4 is an example of such a model, with ChatGPT being a generative AI application built on top of it.

According to a blog post announcing the service, Bedrock is “a serverless experience” where users can “privately customize FMs with their own data, and easily integrate and deploy them into their applications.”

To coincide with Bedrock’s launch, Amazon also announced Titan, which includes two new foundational models developed by Amazon Machine Learning.

Details are scarce concerning Titan at the moment, with Amazon reps keeping technical specifications under wraps. However, AWS vice president Bratin Saha told reporters that Amazon has been using “a fine-tuned version” of Titan to surface search results on the company’s homepage.

Users won’t be limited to Amazon’s in-house FMs, though, as the company also announced Bedrock integration for some of the industry’s most popular models, including Jurassic-2, a multi-lingual language learning model (LLM), and Claude, a conversational agent from Anthropic built on the company’s “Constitutional AI” foundation.

Bedrock will also provide on-platform API access to Stability AI’s models, including Stable Diffusion, a popular text-to-image generator.

Amazon may be arriving a bit late to the party, with the launch of GPT-4 now a month in the rearview, but Bedrock and Titan could prove troublesome for the incumbent sector leaders thanks to the near-ubiquity of AWS and the ease-of-use it provides.

The costs of training a generative AI model can be phenomenal. Unfortunately, once a model is trained on a given data set, it is essentially “dirty” with that data and potentially prone to “hallucinate” information from it in response to unrelated queries.

Related: Elon Musk reportedly buys thousands of GPUs for Twitter AI project

Bedrock allows users to get around this problem by giving them the option to use preexisting FMs as a backbone in support of their data. For customers already on AWS, and those bringing their data to the AWS ecosystem, this means their data remains as secure as it normally is on Amazon’s cloud and is never injected into training data sets.

Per the Amazon announcement, “none of the customer’s data is used to train the underlying models, and since all data is encrypted and does not leave a customer’s Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), customers can trust that their data will remain private and confidential.”

Amazon is hoping to turn the generative AI duel between Google’s Bard and Microsoft/OpenAI’s ChatGPT into a battle royale with the announcement of its Bedrock service and the debut of two new in-house large LLMs. 

Baidu, another Chinese tech company, attempted to break through with the launch of Ernie — a nod to Google’s Bard — but poor reception to the product caused a 10% tumble in the company’s shares.

As Titan and Bedrock get set to join the first wave of public-facing generative AI models, tech outfits around the world are readying their entrances. Chinese tech firm Alibaba is set to debut its own AI chatbot, called “Tongyi Qianwen,” in hopes of bringing some competition to the Western corporations currently dominating the space. 

Avalanche ‘bull trap’ risks pushing AVAX price down by 30% in February

The price of AVAX has more than doubled in 2023 but a growing divergence between several key metrics hints at a bearish reversal ahead.

Avalanche (AVAX) bulls should brace themselves for impact led by a growing divergence between severalkey indicators on the daily-timeframe chart.

AVAX price chart paints bearish divergence

The daily AVAX chart shows a classic bearish divergence between its price and relative strength index (RSI), a momentum oscillator forming since Jan. 11.

In other words, the price of AVAX has been making higher highs since the said date. But, on the other hand, the coin’s daily RSI has been forming lower highs. This divergence suggest a slowdown in the  momentum of the AVAX/USD pair, which may lead to a price reversal.

AVAX/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView

In addition, the declining volumes during the course of AVAX’s ongoing uptrend also hints at the same bearish cues.

The price-RSI and price-volume divergences appear as AVAX price continues its 2023 uptrend . Notably, Avalanche has rallied by more than 100% year-to-date to $22.50 as of Feb. 2, helped by improving risk-on sentiments and  news of its partnership with Amazon.

On Jan. 31, Avalanche partnered with Intain, a structured finance platform that facilitates more than $5.5B in assets across more than 25 deals to run its digital marketplace IntainMARKETS via IntainMARKETS Subnet.

The price of AVAX rallied nearly 20% after the announcement.

Avalanche price risks drop 30% in February

AVAX’s price has successfully closed above two key resistance levels: a multi-month descending trendline (blacked) and its 200-day exponential moving average (200-day EMA; the blue wave) during the ongoing rally. 

AVAX/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView

Avalanche now eyes a breakout above $22.75, which has been serving as resistance since August 2022, for a potential breakout to $30 as its next upside target. This level also coincides with the falling wedge breakout target discussed in this analysis.

In other words, an approximately 30% gain from the current price levels. 

Conversely, a pullback from the resistance level, fueled by the bearish divergence indicators discussed above, could send AVAX price toward its 50-day EMA (the red wave) at approximately $15-$16, down about 30% from current prices.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Avalanche ‘bull trap’ risks pushing AVAX price down by 30% in February

The price of AVAX has more than doubled in 2023, but a growing divergence between several key metrics hints at a bearish reversal ahead.

Avalanche (AVAX) bulls should brace themselves for impact led by a growing divergence between several key indicators on the daily-timeframe chart.

AVAX price chart paints bearish divergence

The daily AVAX chart shows a classic bearish divergence between its price and relative strength index (RSI), a momentum oscillator forming since Jan. 11.

In other words, the price of AVAX has been making higher highs since the said date. But, on the other hand, the coin’s daily RSI has been forming lower highs. This divergence suggests a slowdown in the momentum of the AVAX/USD pair, which may lead to a price reversal.

AVAX/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView

In addition, the declining volumes during the course of AVAX’s ongoing uptrend also hint at the same bearish cues.

The price-RSI and price-volume divergences appear as AVAX price continues its 2023 uptrend. Notably, Avalanche has rallied by more than 100% year-to-date to $22.50 as of Feb. 2, helped by improving risk-on sentiments and news of its partnership with Amazon.

On Jan. 31, Avalanche partnered with Intain, a structured finance platform that facilitates more than $5.5 billion in assets across more than 25 deals to run its digital marketplace IntainMARKETS via IntainMARKETS Subnet.

The price of AVAX rallied nearly 20% after the announcement.

AVAX’s price risks drop 30% in February

AVAX’s price has successfully closed above two key resistance levels: a multi-month descending trendline (blacked) and its 200-day exponential moving average (200-day EMA; the blue wave) during the ongoing rally. 

AVAX/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView

Avalanche now eyes a breakout above $22.75, which has been serving as resistance since August 2022, for a potential breakout to $30 as its next upside target. This level also coincides with the falling wedge breakout target discussed in this analysis.

In other words, an approximately 30% gain from the current price levels. 

Conversely, a pullback from the resistance level, fueled by the bearish divergence indicators discussed above, could send AVAX’s price toward its 50-day EMA (the red wave) at approximately $15–$16, down about 30% from current prices.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Ava Labs and Amazon’s partnership could ‘expand the pie’ for blockchain

The collaboration will allow both individuals and institutions to launch subnets that can operate as self-sufficient blockchain systems.

The Amazon Web Services (AWS)-Avalanche “cooperation,” as it was carefully described last week, should almost immediately make it easy for developers to establish nodes on the Avalanche blockchain, including via “one-click node deployment.” 

Eventually, too, it might make it simpler for everyday businesses — i.e., non-crypto-related enterprises — and even individuals to establish their own subnets like smaller, private, layer-2 blockchains.

But perhaps the outstanding message from the Jan. 11 announcement is that the blockchain revolution isn’t just about cryptocurrencies. It’s also about things as prosaic as storing documents more securely and sensibly so they can be quickly retrieved during emergencies. It encompasses decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible tokens (NFTs), but it’s also about bringing “scalable blockchain solutions to enterprises and governments,” including such humdrum but important use cases as compliance management, Ava Labs, creator of Avalanche, said last week.

In a webinar on Jan. 12, which included both Ava Labs and Amazon Web Services representatives, Ava Labs vice president John Nahas, explained, “Crypto products or crypto infrastructures have been very geared up until this point to cater to crypto-native people. […] We need to expand the pie here. We need to expand the developers, the companies, the people who are going to be utilizing this technology in a mass-market way to bring in more people into this ecosystem.”

A ‘fake partnership’?

The Avalanche community generally welcomed the Amazon Web Services news, but others took issue with some of the language and claims, like Ava Labs CEO Emin Gün Sirer’s assertion that “This is a big deal. It’s not your grandfather’s ‘AWS partnership announcement.’”

Was this really a “partnership,” some questioned, or just a hyped-up “use of services” agreement? Maybe Amazon Web Services was really more “tech aggregator” than collaborator? Hadn’t other layer-1 chain developers, like Casper Labs, already “partnered” with the tech colossus to allow developers to directly deploy node infrastructures or design private networks via Amazon? Indeed, developers had been invited to “set up your own managed Ethereum node” on Amazon Managed Blockchain back in May 2021, no?

In a tweet, Alejandro Pastore, CEO of Pastore Capital, described the announcement as a “fake partnership between @avalancheavax and @amazon” where Ava Labs “sold us a service rental disguised as an association with Amazon.”

Be that as it may, the Jan. 12 webinar presented three Ava Labs managers, including president John Wu, appearing beside AWS global tech lead for Web3 Shai Perednik and Bradley Feinstein, Web3 lead at Amazon Web Services. Feinstein specifically used the word “partnership” to describe the new Ava-AWS association and no one present objected. AWS and Ava Labs will hold another joint webinar together in February and a jointly sponsored hackathon in May, they announced.

More important, perhaps, is a larger question: What, if anything, does this association mean for blockchain evolution generally?

Catalyzing innovation

“It appears that Avalanche will get the best shelf space on AWS among blockchain platforms,” Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets research at VanEck, told Cointelegraph. Businesses looking to launch blockchain-based applications from their AWS environment will get the best support and pricing if they choose Avalanche, Sigel further noted, adding:

“On a Twitter Spaces with AWS and Avalanche reps, AWS committed to marketing, education and discounts for businesses launching Avalanche subnets within AWS.”

The collaboration could have some positive industry spin-offs too, in Sigel’s view, catalyzing “meaningful innovation in the space.” Businesses may now find it easier to launch permissionless blockchains faster and easier if Amazon Web Services becomes an active presence in this market.

Recent: FTX fallout: SBF trial could set precedent for the crypto industry

Nor is Amazon the only tech giant moving in this direction. “Recall that, in November, Google Cloud launched what looks like a similar partnership with Solana,” Sigel said. Given that so much computing has moved to the cloud, it’s “positive to see this kind of commitment from the big providers.”

“The main news here is that we are seeing Amazon Web Services supporting the Avalanche blockchain ecosystem,” Sarson Funds analyst Evan LaMontange told Cointelegraph, allowing Avalanche’s custom subnets to be integrated into the AWS marketplace. It will be allowing both individuals and institutions to launch subnets that can operate as self-sufficient blockchains. systems. He added:

“This has sparked a new vision of scalability, allowing entities to easily spin up their own standalone blockchain systems.” 

Others doubted the new collaboration rises to industry-level significance, however. “It certainly means that launching/running AVAX nodes is easier on AWS,” Freddy Zwanzger, Ethereum ecosystem lead at Blockdaemon, told Cointelegraph, but “there are already other blockchain nodes/templates available from different cloud or hosting providers.”

Of course, any improvements with regard to running blockchain infrastructure is positive, Zwanzger added, “but our institutional customers expect from us, as an institutional infrastructure provider, best-in-class service” which includes specialized setups.

Elsewhere, Howard Wright, vice president and global head of startups at AWS, called the firm’s teaming up with Ava Labs “a seminal moment,” an inflection point where blockchain technology becomes “commonplace and used in our marketplace by developers.”

Some of the Twitter commentary suggested the announcement was designed principally to pump the price of the AVAX token. “It’s not the first time it has happened in this market,” noted Pastore in his 15-part Twitter thread. “This market is full of manipulation,” adding:

On the other hand, almost all coins had a boost after the announcement, and that probably had more to do with favorable interest-rate news than anything specific to the crypto world. Comparing AVAX’s price movement with Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether’s (ETH) over the seven-day period of Jan. 10–17, Cointelegraph found that AVAX was +34%, but BTC and ETH weren’t that far behind at +24% and +19%, respectively. 

An unusual tripartite structure

Launched in September 2020, the Avalanche blockchain has some unique elements. It actually consists of three individual blockchains: The X-Chain used exclusively to send and receive funds, the P-Chain for staking and validator activities, and the C-Chain for smart contracts and DeFi applications.

“Avalanche blockchains even use different consensus mechanisms based on their use cases,” notes CoinMarketCap. It’s not like BTC or ETH where all nodes validate all transactions. This division of labor arguably boosts transaction speed.

In fact, Avalanche claims to be the fastest smart contracts platform in the industry as measured by time-to-finality. It also has the most validators securing its activity of any proof-of-stake protocol, according to Ava Labs.

Others, too, acknowledge its strengths. “Avalanche offers near-instant finality and penny-per-transaction costs,” commented Sigel. “Ethereum settles much more slowly at a higher cost.” Ease of use could also differentiate Avalanche from other chains moving forward, given that AWS may make it easier to launch an Avalanche subnet, he added.

Working with governments

Ava Labs seems keener on supporting government entities than some other chain developers. In November 2021, it announced a “strategic alliance” with Deloitte to build a blockchain-enabled “disaster recovery platform” to enable state and local governments to more easily demonstrate their eligibility for federal emergency funding.

Government is still an “under the radar” area for blockchain applications, said Ava Labs senior vice president Nick Mussallem at the webinar, while noting Ava Labs’ “partnership” with Deloitte to work with communities and government agencies like FEMA on blockchain applications that reduce administrative costs:

“It [the blockchain] helps accelerate recovery by organizing the documentation that’s needed to demonstrate eligibility [for funding]. It simplifies the retention by storing and linking all the related documentation securely on Avalanche.”

‘Subnets serving as appchains’

The blockchain world is changing and Amazon is looking to get on board. At least that’s the signal Ava Labs was sending last week. 

“AWS recognizes how blockchains are evolving, with subnets serving as appchains, and wants to be one of the hosting providers for the many subnets that people are about to launch,” said Sirer.

Recent: App-specific blockchains remain a promising solution for scalability

Maybe Ava Labs went a tad too far in claiming a “partnership” with Amazon — which is like the moon claiming a partnership with the sun. But Ava Labs should be applauded for looking beyond use cases aimed exclusively at crypto natives while drawing on AWS’s flexibility, scale and authority to enable developers to build subnets for use by everyday businesses and government agencies, among others.

If blockchain technology is ever to achieve mainstream status, after all, it will be built subnet by subnet — including use cases as mundane as document retention and the like.

3 reasons why Avalanche (AVAX) price can double by March 2023

The latest AVAX price rally comes on the heels of Avalanche’s partnership with Amazon Web Services as the cryptocurrency market rebounds.

Avalanche (AVAX) has opened 2023 with a bang, rising nearly 55% in the first two weeks. And now, a mix of technical and fundamental indicators hints that the token will keep rallying into March.

AVAX price breakout underway

The AVAX/USD pair appears to have been forming a falling wedge pattern since May 2022 and has now entered the breakout stage of this pattern.

A falling wedge forms when the price trends lower inside a range defined by two converging, descending trendlines. The pattern resolves as the price breaks out of its range to the upside. As a rule of technical analysis, the price can rise as high as the distance between its upper and lower trendlines.

AVAX/USD daily price chart featuring falling wedge setup. Source: TradingView

Applying the theory on AVAX’s falling wedge pattern brings the token’s breakout target at around $34, a 115% increase from current price levels.

Avalanche’s Amazon partnership

AVAX’s bullish setup appears as Ava Labs — the developer of the Avalanche network — becomes an official blockchain solution provider to Amazon Web Services (AWS).

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Notably, the firm will implement new features that make it easier for developers to run an Avalanche node through the AWS Marketplace. Additionally, developers can create Avalanche subnets with a few clicks.

The partnership will increase Avalanche’s utility among enterprises and governments in a perfect scenario which, in turn, could boost demand for AVAX tokens. These prospects have helped the Avalanche token rise nearly 30% in a 24-hour adjusted timeframe.

Macro boosts bullish scenario

AVAX’s bullish falling wedge setup emerges amid improving macroeconomic fundamentals for riskier assets, which may benefit the crypto market in the coming months.

According to a Bloomberg survey, economists are positioned for a drop in the United States Consumer Price Index (CPI). Ideally, declining inflation may prompt the Federal Reserve to stop its interest rate hikes, which leaves investors with excess cash to invest in riskier markets.

The next CPI report will come out on Jan. 12. JPMorgan & Chase sees a 20% probability of the S&P 500 index rising by 3–3.5% if the December inflation figure comes in at 6.4%. The index could rise 1.5–2% if the inflation reading comes inside the 6.4–6.5% range, a scenario with a 65% possibility.

JPMorgan’s game plan on CPI day. Source: Bloomberg

Thus, AVAX/USD could rise alongside the U.S. benchmark index on a lowered inflation reading, with a rally continuing at least until the Fed’s meeting on Jan. 31. 

Downside risks remain

Meanwhile, AVAX shows signs of indecision near $15.75, a strong resistance level supported during the June to November 2022 session.

Related: Bitcoin price targets include new $14K dip as Fed’s Powell avoids inflation

If the price fails to close above the said resistance line decisively, the likelihood of a correction toward its next support line near $10.50 increases. The same level was instrumental as support in June to July 2021 session, as shown below.

AVAX/USD three-day price chart. Source: TradingView

In other words, AVAX risks a 35% drop from its current price levels, a move that could invalidate the falling wedge setup altogether.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Amazon’s new series ‘NFTMe’ explores NFT culture and disruption worldwide

The show features artists, collectors, and industry professionals across the world.

The capacity to digitally authenticate almost everything, and the possibility of monetizing in ways nobody could even imagine before. These are some of the ways that Amazon’s new documentary series NFTMe introduces nonfungible tokens (NFTs).

The show features artists, collectors, and industry professionals across the world sharing their experiences with NFTs and how the merger between art and technology has positively affected their daily lives.

In six 30-minute episodes, NFTMe introduces 50 pioneers in the NFT space from four continents, including American singer Susaye Greene of The Supremes; Queen Diambi Kabatusuila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Refik Anadol, a digital artist for SpaceX and NASA; Peter Rafelson, a music producer for Madonna; and Cheryl Douglas of Portion, who launched NFT collections for the Black-Eyed Peas.

The first episode explores the NFT community and the journey of different people through digital culture, with leading influencers breaking down NFTs and blockchain technology, and the Congo’s Queen Diambi describing how her tribes have a Web3 mindset. The second episode digs into how Refik Anadol is creating art with NASA and how Eminem’s request from 20 years ago led to an NFT journey.

Related: Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) for beginners

The following episodes explore how brands are connecting with NFTs to explore new audiences and generations, the social impact of digital transformation, tokenization in the music industry, metaverse disruption and NFTs’ role in recognizing and giving voice to artists. Among the highlights is CrossTower co-founder Kristin Boggiano breaking down regulation’s role in keeping the NFT’s market on track in episode five.

Documentary series NFTMe debuts on Amazon Prime, available in the United States and the United Kingdom at first.

Behind the documentary series are the film producer Tech Talk Media and award-winning director Jonny Caplan. The production started in 2019 and had to be adapted due to COVID-19 restrictions, “which included sending in A.I. robots equipped with LiDar sensors, enabling the director to remote move, direct, and communicate,” Tech Talk said in the official announcement, adding that:

“NFTMe intends to be the MTV of NFTs, providing the default go-to for information on NFTs in a clear, understandable, and effective way, enabling viewers to absorb the plethora of terminology, diversity, and opportunity in the Web3 realm, whilst experiencing the culture, the mood, the style, and the energy.”

NFTMe is streaming on Amazon Prime, initially in the United States and the United Kingdom. The series will roll out worldwide to more broadcasters in 2023, according to Tech Talk. 

Bahamian attorneys pursue access to FTX data of international customers

The Bahamian attorneys filed an emergency motion with a Delaware bankruptcy judge requesting access to FTX’s customer database to aid their ongoing investigations.

Authorities across the globe are fighting against time to bring justice to the millions of people impacted by the financial frauds committed by FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. As part of the ongoing investigations, attorneys representing the Securities Commission of the Bahamas seek access to FTX’s database with international customer information.

The Bahamian attorneys filed an emergency motion with a Delaware bankruptcy judge requesting access to FTX’s customer database to aid their ongoing investigations. The motion highlighted previous failed attempts to access the defunct crypto exchange’s database. As a result, the lawyers claimed that FTX employees and counsel prevented authorities from getting critical financial information.

The database in question is reportedly stored on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud Portal databases, which include personal information such as wallet addresses, customer balances, deposit and withdrawal records, trades and accounting data. According to the lawyers, the U.S. bankruptcy proceedings will “suffer no harm or hardship if this relief is granted.”

While AWS was used to store customer information, FTX used Google services as an analytics platform for data of users residing outside of the United States. According to the filing sourced by CNBC:

“While the Joint Provisional Liquidators are happy to engage in dialogue with the U.S. Debtors, their refusal to promptly restore access has frustrated the ability of the Joint Provisional Liquidators to carry out their duties under Bahamian law and placed FTX Digital’s assets at risk of dissipation.”

The latest domino effect of FTX fraud was felt by media outlet The Block, which had failed to disclose funding from Alameda Research. The Block CEO Mike McCaffrey stepped down from his position after failing to disclose $27 million loans from FTX’s sister firm Alameda Research.

Related: CZ and SBF duke it out on Twitter over failed FTX/Binance deal

On Dec. 7, the new management team of FTX reportedly hired a team of financial forensic investigators to track down the missing customer funds exceeding $450 million in cryptocurrencies.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the forensics firm is tasked with conducting “asset-tracing” to identify and recover the missing digital assets and will complement the restructuring work being undertaken by FTX.