The details of how much Premier League clubs paid in agents' fees for the 2022/23 season have been made public, following a decision by the authorities to increase transparency. The data includes all intermediary and agents' fees paid during the last two transfer windows through the FA's clearing account. The figures reveal that despite being the 11th highest for agents' fees, Newcastle United still paid a significant amount of PS10,784,029. However, this quantity is less than the PS11,349,953 paid out in the season ending 2020/21. It is also noteworthy that several clubs paid higher than NUFC, such as Man City who spent an unprecedented PS51m, followed by Chelsea at PS43m, and Manchester United at PS24m.
Newcastle United filed its financial results for the 2021/22 financial year, and the figures revealed a PS70.7m loss after tax for Newcastle United Limited due to investment in the playing squad during the January 2022 transfer window. However, the numbers showed a sharp recovery in revenues to PS180m from PS140.2m the previous year, implying that crowds' return to St. James' Park contributed to enhanced matchday revenues. Additionally, commercial and media rights revenues increased as the team's league standing improved. The new ownership group has now injected additional capital into the club to improve the business's financial position further. Newcastle United CEO, Darren Eales, has stated that the success of the club financially goes hand in hand with the team's performances on the pitch, and the club is looking to the future with confidence.
Dogecoin investors are accusing Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO and the second richest man in the world, of defrauding people using Dogecoin for a "pump-and-dump" scheme. The investors claim that Dogecoin qualifies as a security, which Musk denies. He has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, which is seeking $258 billion in damages, arguing that his tweets about Dogecoin were harmless and did not defraud anyone. Musk's lawyers dismissed the lawsuit as a "fanciful work of fiction," and argued that it is lawful to tweet words of support for a legitimate cryptocurrency that continues to hold a market cap of nearly $10 billion. They added that the investors failed to provide proof of how Musk intended to deceive anyone or what risks he was hiding.
Musk has faced several lawsuits over his tweets, but last month, a San Francisco jury found him not liable for a tweet saying that he had arranged funds to privatize Tesla. Musk is known for his love of Dogecoin, one of the most popular meme-cryptocurrencies other than Shiba Inu. He was accused of jacking up the price of Dogecoin by nearly 36,000% over two years and then letting it fall rapidly. However, his lawyers deny any fraudulent activities and urge the court to dismiss the case.
During Major League Baseball's opening day, Washington Nationals Park in Washington D.C. was still promoting Terra—the crypto ecosystem that collapsed in May 2022, sending the wider industry into a tailspin. The Nationals signed a five-year deal worth $40 million with Terra in February 2022. An exclusive Terra Club opened behind home plate as a luxury field-level space for fans willing to pay $290 or more per ticket. Terra's UST stablecoin lost its U.S. dollar peg last May and cratered in value, investors losing tens of billions of dollars in the rapid implosion, which in turn tanked crypto prices across the market. Terra's branded seats still appeared behind home plate over a year after the collapse, and Terra also still has a large sign along the outfield wall, as clearly seen in an official MLB highlights video taken on opening day.
Even shortly after Terra's collapse in 2022, the Nationals continued promoting Terra—including sharing a "Crypto 101" video presented by Terra posted on the team's official Twitter account on May 10th, 2022. Decrypt reached out to the Washington Nationals for comment but did not receive an immediate response. Terra's founder Do Kwon was arrested in Montenegro earlier this month after months on the run from authorities.
Dogecoin ( DOGE ) experienced a surge of more than 30% in a few minutes after Elon Musk's Twitter replaced the blue bird with the meme coin's Shiba Inu dog logo. The price of DOGE soared to 11 cents from 8 cents before the change. In the past, Musk has shown himself to be a fan of the cryptocurrency, even suggesting that it may offer better payments functionality than bitcoin. There is a report that Twitter was designing a system for payments through its platform with Musk acknowledging that he wanted the ability to add cryptocurrencies. The meme coin's price experienced an upswing following the story's publication. Around an hour after the logo change, Musk tweeted a cartoon image as his first public comment. Dogecoin's price last exceeded 10 cents in December, according to CoinDesk data. Despite its bullish price action in 2021, Dogelon Mars (ELON) currently stands 87% down from its all-time high. Although the coin has lost most of its gains since it surged at the start of 2023, it remains one of the most popular memecoins with a market cap of $180 million.
