Crypto exchange FTX goes bankrupt, CEO resigns

Investors fear far-reaching consequences for the crypto market. Also: Twitter pauses subscription, Disney plans layoffs and cannabis startup Cantourage shines at IPO.

Good morning! Even during the weekend, work in the digital scene continued in many places.

The top topics:

Less than a week was enough to launch the crypto exchange FTX drive into bankruptcy. This shows once again how volatile the entire crypto market is and what a high risk tolerance investors need. The latter fear that the FTX bankruptcy will have a negative impact on other companies in the industry and that the value of cryptocurrencies could also continue to fall. The Biggest Currencies Bitcoin and Ether already had to accept discounts last week. Tech entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried’s platform filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States on Friday. Bankman-Fried has also resigned from his CEO post. The company’s business is now run by John Ray, a lawyer who was also responsible for the liquidation of the energy company Enron in 2001.

Shortly before bankruptcy was a deal with the largest crypto exchange Binance failed. Reports emerged over the weekend that FTX appears to be missing at least $1 billion in investor assets. In addition to this, the insolvent crypto exchange also seems to have been hit by a hacker attack. However, reports that Bankman-Fried fled to Argentina have been denied. He is said to be in the Bahamas where FTX headquarters is located. [Mehr bei CNBC, Reuters, The Guardian, Handelsblatt, Wall Street Journal und CNBC]

on Founder Scene: The Berlin car sharing startup Miles has the VW-Daughter Weshare accepted. Our torque columnist Don Dahlmann analyzed what this means for the market. He is certain that this is not good news for customers, because they can no longer expect lower prices. [Mehr bei Gründerszene]

And here are the other headlines of the night and the past few days:

Twitter has to temporarily pause its Twitter Blue subscription service, which allows users to get a blue tick for verified subscribers for $8 a month. Many users abused the new subscription to impersonate brands/companies or celebrities. Some large corporations, under whose names false reports were spread, then crashed on the stock exchange. Among them were the US pharmaceutical company Eli Lillythe US defense company Lockheed Martin and the British oil company BP. [Mehr bei CNBC]

Disney announced a hiring freeze and layoffs after last week’s disappointing quarterly figures. Above all, the investments in the streaming services of the media group threw back the company. The division lost $1.47 billion in the last quarter, more than double the year-earlier loss. Also Meta has announced further savings: The Facebook mother wants to shut down by-products in the hardware sector. This includes the portal smart displays as well as work on smart watches. The US group had already reported last week that it was separating 11,000 employees – around three percent of the workforce. [Mehr bei CNBC und Handelsblatt]

Cantourage, a cannabis startup from Berlin, had a very successful IPO on Friday. Shares climbed 165 percent on the first day of trading. In the evening the rate was 17.20 euros. Cantourage offers several medicinal cannabis products and operates a cannabis clinic in the UK. With the fresh money, the company wants to expand its business in view of the upcoming legalization of cannabis in Germany and other EU countries. [Mehr bei Handelsblatt]

Softbank has in the last quarter after the sale of Ali Babashares made more than $21 billion in earnings. The move away from the Chinese e-commerce group is now making the Japanese tech investor increasingly dependent on its Vision Fund, which recently posted a loss of $7.2 billion. Shares in the group fell more than nine percent on Monday – also because the company did not announce a widely expected share buyback. [Mehr bei Bloomberg und Wall Street Journal]

Tesla shares the design of its EV charging connector with the competition. The US electric car maker wants to get network operators and automakers to adopt Tesla technology and make it the new standard in North America. Tesla’s compact design and performance are considered superior to the CCS (Combined Charging System) connectors used by most electric vehicles in North America. [Mehr bei Techcrunch]

Our reading tip on Gründerszene: Computer locked, security in front of the door: This is how the mass layoffs went Planetly away. Three Planetly employees share how and why the US parent company Onetrust around 200 people could have quit. And how to proceed. [Mehr bei Gründerszene+]

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Have a good start into the week!

Your Gründerszene editors