Trainwrecks aren't exactly rare in the gaming industry, but it's rare that they're this spectacular. After a suspiciously-polished trailer, The Day Before quickly became one of Steam's most wishlisted games.
22.11.2023 - 16:57 / tech.hindustantimes.com
Binance boss Changpeng Zhao has become the most powerful cryptocurrency figure to fall in a two-year period chaotic even by the standards of the notoriously volatile industry.
Zhao stepped down as CEO of Binance -- the largest crypto exchange in the world -- after he and the company pleaded guilty on Tuesday to sweeping US money laundering violations and agreed to fines of more than $4 billion.
Here are three of the highest-profile crypto executives who have fallen foul of the law since last year:
- Changpeng 'CZ' Zhao -
Born in China in 1977, Zhao moved with his family to Canada in the 1980s and later got a degree in computer science from McGill University, according to his profile in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
He founded Binance in 2017 in Shanghai, and led the company's explosive growth into the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange.
An outspoken celebrity in the crypto world with 8.7 million followers on X, Zhao became the richest known figure in the nascent industry. His net worth peaked at around $65 billion in 2022, according to a Forbes index.
With the prestige and wealth came increased scrutiny of Binance's operations, as prominent crypto firms around the world began to buckle under a wave of criminal investigations.
The United States accused Zhao and Binance of multiple violations, including knowingly allowing transactions to militant groups such as the Islamic State and in barred jurisdictions such as North Korea and Iran.
On Tuesday, they pleaded guilty. The firm has agreed to total penalties of nearly $4.4 billion, while he will pay $50 million, according to court documents.
Zhao resigned as CEO of Binance and while he will reportedly retain his shares in the company, he has been banned from any involvement in its business. He is expected to face sentencing later.
Forbes listed his net worth as $10.2 billion as of Wednesday.
- Sam Bankman-Fried -
If Zhao was the richest and most powerful person in crypto, Sam Bankman-Fried was easily the most famous.
Born to Stanford University professors, Bankman-Fried graduated from MIT with a degree in physics.
In 2019, he founded FTX, which skyrocketed to become the world's second-largest crypto exchange.
Along the way, Bankman-Fried built up his image as the unofficial ambassador for the cryptocurrency industry, with high-profile appearances in the media and even the US Congress.
At one point in 2022, he had a net worth of $24 billion, according to Forbes.
But he had been walking a dangerous path -- his team used customers' money for everything from buying posh real estate to covering risky moves by affiliate Alameda Research.
It all came crashing down when these moves were revealed in the media in November 2022. Within hours, rival CZ Zhao said Binance would
Trainwrecks aren't exactly rare in the gaming industry, but it's rare that they're this spectacular. After a suspiciously-polished trailer, The Day Before quickly became one of Steam's most wishlisted games.
It wasn't long ago that Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney had to announce a significant reduction in the company's workforce, firing 16% of the employees (around 830 in total). The news caught everyone by surprise, as the company's pockets had been filled by loads of revenue generated by Fortnite as well as the increasingly successful Unreal Engine licensing program.
Starting from tomorrow through January 5, 2024, we’re celebrating the holiday season with a month full of activities for our PlayStation community. As part of the PlayStation Plus Season of Play, PlayStation Plus members can redeem free avatars for PS5 and PS4 consoles, join eSports tournaments, earn points on PlayStation Stars and enter a competition for your chance to win amazing prizes. Activities for those who are not PlayStation Plus members are available as well.
Black Clover M: Rise Of The Wizard King has gained quite some traction since it dropped, evident with its 5 Million Downloads in just 10 days. Launched officially on Android and iOS on November 30, gamers worldwide have been hooked on its fishy gameplay.
Hurry up and get your holiday viewing out of the way this year because the presents are arriving early. On Dec. 22, Mubi, the highly curated, cinema-forward streaming service, is unleashing a collection of films celebrating the high-impact fight films of Shaw Brothers Studio. Founded in 1958, the Chinese studio became synonymous with martial arts movies, with classics ranging from straight wushu fight dramas to more fantastical wuxia odysseys.
Another weekend means another batch of streaming recommendations, and there's plenty of variety to choose from this week. Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, and Mahershala Ali star in new Netflix thriller Leave the World Behind, while Todd Haynes' May December, which is already generating Oscar buzz for actor Charles Melton, has made its way to the UK via Sky Cinema. If you're in the mood for something a little more festive and lighthearted, try animated movie Merry Little Batman or Christmas rom-com Your Christmas or Mine 2, both on Prime Video.
Twitch will officially be closing down services in South Korea at the beginning of next year due to high operating costs.
English Wikipedia raked in more than 84 billion views this year, according to numbers released Tuesday by the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit behind the free, publicly edited online encyclopedia. And the most popular article was about ChatGPT (yes, the AI chatbot that's seemingly everywhere today).
Canada's Phoenix Labs is laying off yet more staff.
One of the world's footballing greats, Cristiano Ronaldo, has been named in a class action lawsuit in the US for his promotion of the crypto exchange Binance. Binance was in the news most recently after the CEO stepped down and both he and the company pleaded guilty to money laundering charges in the US and accepted a whopping $4.3 billion fine.
Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang, who runs the semiconductor industry's most valuable company, said the US is as much as 20 years away from breaking its dependence on overseas chipmaking.
Here's a question few of us will ever have to answer. Would you rather have $23 billion living in the United Arab Emirates with no US extradition treaty, or sacrifice a chunk of your wealth and perhaps spend 18 months behind bars to resolve all your issues with the US Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission?