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The cryptocurrency market witnessed significant turbulence shortly after U.S. President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential election.
Within a 30-minute window, nearly $67 million in leveraged long positions were liquidated according to CoinGlass data. This sudden market movement occurred between 5:30 PM and 6:00 PM UTC on July 21, triggered by a sharp 2.3% drop in Bitcoin’s (BTC) price, which fell from $67,713 to $65,880 according to CoinMarketCap data.
However, the market quickly rebounded, with Bitcoin reaching a 24-hour high of $68,480. This rapid recovery led to losses for traders with leveraged short positions, totaling approximately $34 million.
Market perspectives
Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, told Cointelegraph that Biden’s withdrawal might have initially been perceived as increasing Donald Trump’s chances of victory. He said:
Biden was not credible to beat Trump so an alternative candidate could have limited Trump’s chances. […] But there is no credible alternative… hence BTC pump.
Any news about Trump’s odds of winning the election is seen as positive for the cryptocurrency industry by many. The reason is largely that he positioned himself as the pro-crypto candidate and has recently gone as far as to say that he wants all Bitcoin going forward to be mined in the United States.
Over a broader 12-hour period on July 21, the cryptocurrency market saw total liquidations of $134.5 million, with $81.1 million in long positions and $53.4 million in short positions being wiped out. This marks the highest liquidation volume in a 12-hour span since July 8.
The liquidations primarily affected Bitcoin ($43.8 million), Ethereum (ETH) ($31.1 million), and Solana (SOL) ($8.6 million). Major cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and OKX bore the brunt of these liquidations, handling $64.5 million and $44 million respectively.
As the political landscape shifts, Vice President Kamala Harris is now considered the likely Democratic nominee for the upcoming presidential election. As of press time, Bitcoin is trading at $67,055, showing a 0.17% decrease over the past 24 hours.
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Netflix has over 80 games in development and plans to release a new game every month into Netflix Stories, their games and interactive fiction hub.
In their Q2 earnings call Q&A, Netflix CEO Gregory K. Peters, and Co-CEO Theodore A. Sarandos both discussed the media company’s gaming plans with enthusiasm.
Peters acknowledged the huge size of the games industry while noting that in the grand scheme of things, gaming is a relatively small part of Netflix’s business at present, saying “The investment level in games relative to our overall content spend is also quite small.” He went on to say that the challenge now is scaling.
He also noted that one of the biggest areas of success for Netflix’s gaming ventures is when games can tie into successful Netflix shows, particularly with narrative games. “And one of those things that really is working is connecting our members with games based on specific Netflix IP that they love,” said Peters, “And this is an area that we’ve been able to move in quickly in a particular space, which is interactive narrative games.”
Peters then talked about games expected to be released into Netflix Stories shortly, calling out “amazing IP” that they expect to resonate with viewers such as Emily in Paris and Selling Sunset. “And we have lots more, including very different types of games yet to come in the quarters and years ahead,” concluded Peters.
Gaming and Netflix shows – a match made in heaven?
Sarandos then went on to talk about the exciting opportunities that arise from marrying the content and gaming verticals. “So every once in a while, we get something like Squid Game: The Challenge following Squid Game, the scripted series.”
He continued, “I think our opportunity here to serve super fandom with games is really fun and remarkable. I think the idea of being able to take a show and give the superfan a place to be in between seasons and even beyond that, to be able to use the game platform to introduce new characters and new storylines or new plot twist events, now you could do those kinds of things and then they can then materialize in the next season or in the sequel to the film.”
As well as self-developed games for Netflix Stories that tie into existing IPs, Netflix is also partnering with other companies to add third-party games to its platform. These include the much-anticipated Tales of the Shire, which Netflix will carry the mobile version of, and indie games like Arranger and The Case of the Golden Idol, amongst many others.
Featured image credit: Netflix
The post Netflix seizes the potential in gaming with over 80 in development appeared first on ReadWrite.

241 game developers at Bethesda Game Studios (BGS) have unionized with the Communications Workers of America (CWA).
This includes artists, engineers, programmers, and designers. Microsoft, the parent company of Bethesda Games Studios, has recognized the union.
According to the CWA press release on the topic, this marks the first Wall-to-wall union at a Microsoft games studio, meaning all eligible job titles are being represented by one union, rather than just one job class/title. This sets it apart from previous unionization efforts in Microsoft-owned studios, which were centered around QA workers.
A post on X from OneBGS_USA said that members are “ecstatic,” and they hope to “advocate for the betterment of every developer at BGS, setting the new standard for our industry.”

We, a majority of developers at Bethesda Game Studios Dallas, Rockville, and Austin, are ecstatic to announce the formation of our union with @CWAUnion. Together as #OneBGSUSA, we advocate for the betterment of every developer at BGS, setting the new standard for our industry.
— OneBGS_USA (@OneBGS_USA) July 19, 2024

The union’s statement continued, “As a democratic organization, we seek to empower the collective wishes of our studios’ workers; having a safe, sustainable, and equitable work environment for all. Having a proper seat at the discussion table allows us to turn those wishes into reality.
“Joining in solidarity with our fellow members at @ZeniMaxWorkers, @OneBGS_MTL, and all of @CWAUnion, we push for increased job security, compensation transparency, and flexibility to continue creating the games we love.”
This has been met with happiness and excitement across the video games industry and labor unions generally. Johnny Brown, the President of CWA Local 2108 (the chapter of the CWA Bethesda’s Maryland members will be part of) described it as a “groundbreaking achievement, and said, “Workers are taking a step forward to negotiating better working conditions, helping to raise standards across the industry.”
Unions are coming to the video game industry
The video game industry is increasingly turning to organization in the face of existential threats like artificial intelligence. Zenimax union members have previously said that an agreement was reached that “AI would not be used to replace a person’s job.” There have also been unionization efforts in the UK and the IWGB Game Workers Union has spoken out about anti-worker practices at Rockstar as development for Grand Theft Auto 6 reaches a fever pitch.
Video game journalist for Bloomberg, Jason Schrier, said about the Bethesda union, “We’ll likely see many more announcements like this in the coming months and years. Labor in the video game industry has reached a tipping point.”
Featured image credit: Bethesda Game Studios
The post Over 200 Bethesda Game Studios staff have formed a union appeared first on ReadWrite.

Time is ticking m’hearties and the Cursed Sails Pirates of the Caribbean event is well and truly underway in Fortnite. Now if you are the kind of player who likes to max out their rewards from these types of shenanigans you will definitely want to add both available skins for Captain Jack Sparrow to your locker.
Getting one is far easier than getting the other – as long as you are not broke – so let’s have a poke around and see exactly what you need to do to pick them both up before the end of the event at the start of next month.
How to get both Captain Jack Sparrow skins

So, on offer during Cursed Salls are both the regular Captain Jack and the Cursed Jack Sparrow skins. The Cursed Jack Sparrow skin is the skeleton version with the ragged clothes as opposed to the Johnny Depp and his boyish good looks variety (well, back when the film came out anyway – he’s a little more old in the tooth these days of course).
Getting the original Jack Sparrow skin is as simple as getting your wallet out and purchasing the Cursed Sails pass. Doing so will instantly unlock Jack for you and you can be on your way around the island.
The Cursed Jack Sparrow skin, well that is a different kettle of fish that is going to take a fair amount of Fortnite grind on your behalf over the next week or so.
You will need to check out our Cursed Sails Quests page and make sure you complete the quests which will come thick and fast every couple of days in order to accrue Cursed Gold. You are going to need 11,000 in Cursed Gold to be able to get the skin, and you do need to be on the Premium Reward Track in the first place as it is unlockable there, not on the freebie one.
Once you manage to get Cursed Jack it will also unlock his skin for Lego Fortnite as well.
The post Fortnite Cursed Sails: How to get both Jack Sparrow skins appeared first on ReadWrite.