De Beers To Close Lightbox, Its Lab-Grown Diamond Jewelry Brand

By: bitcoin ethereum news|2025/05/09 22:15:03

A photograph inside the Lightbox manufacturing facility when it opened in 2020 De Beers Group said Thursday that it plans to close Lightbox, its lab-grown diamond jewelry brand, saying that the closure reinforces its “commitment to natural diamonds in the jewelry sector.” As part of the closure process, De Beers said it is in talks to sell certain assets, including inventory, with potential buyers. The Lightbox lab-grown diamond manufacturing facility in Gresham, Ore., which opened in 2020, will be used solely to produce lab-gown diamonds for industrial applications, a business De Beers has been in for more than 70 years. “De Beers Group will work closely with employees, retail partners, suppliers and other stakeholders to ensure a smooth process over the coming months. Customers will continue to receive support for existing purchases, including warranties and after-sales services, during the closure process,” De Beers said in a statement. A Decline in Rough Diamond Sales While the formal announcement may have seemed sudden, De Beers said a year ago it was planning to close the lab-grown jewelry brand. It comes at a time when De Beers rough diamond business has been in decline for the past couple years. In the first quarter of 2025, revenue was reportedly down 44% year-on-year with rough diamond sales down 11%. It also comes at a time when De Beers’ parent company, Anglo American, announced a year ago it was divesting from De Beers. Anglo American has been in the process of looking for potential buyers for De Beers. Botswana’s government reportedly said recently that serious buyers are showing interest. Botswana and De Beers are partners in mining in the country. It is De Beers largest mining operation. Lightbox was established in 2018 to disrupt the lab-grown diamond industry, making the argument that lab-grown diamonds are a distinct product from mined diamonds, “with different attributes and different value.” A 90% Drop in Wholesale Lab-Grown Diamond Prices Lightbox was launched with transparent pricing of $800 per carat. Since then, De Beers said that lab-grown diamond prices for jewelry have fallen 90% at wholesale “tracking closer to a cost-plus model as they have diverged from natural diamond prices,” De Beers said. Al Cook, CEO of De Beers Group said it is closing Lightbox because of this price decline. A year ago Lightbox announced that it was cutting its diamond prices to $500 per carat. “The persistently declining value of lab-grown diamonds in jewelry underscores the growing differentiation between these factory-made products and natural diamonds,” Cook said in the statement. “Lightbox has helped to highlight the fundamental differences in value between these two categories. Global competition continues to intensify with more low-cost lab-grown diamond production from China. In the U.S., supermarkets are driving down lab-grown diamond jewelry prices. Overall, we expect both the cost and price of lab-grown diamonds to fall further in the jewelry sector.” De Beers also said the closure is aligned with a strategy it presented a year ago to streamline its business to focus on high-return activities. “As we move towards becoming a standalone company, we continue to optimize our business, reduce costs and build a focused De Beers that is positioned for profitable growth,” Cook said. Lab-Grown Diamond Facility to Produce Diamonds for Manufacturing The manufacturing facility in Oregon will be used solely to produce diamonds for industrial applications by Element Six, a De Beers Group’s subsidiary. The company previously produced lab grown diamonds for Lightbox and has produced lab-grown diamonds for industrial purposes for more than 70 years. De Beers said the company is well-positioned to seize the growing potential for synthetic diamond applications across a range of new technologies and applications. In addition to Oregon, Element Six has manufacturing facilities in the U.K., Ireland, Germany and South Africa. “The planned closure of Lightbox reflects our commitment to natural diamonds,” Cook said. “We are also excited at the growing commercial potential for synthetic diamonds in the technology and industrial space.” De Beers did not give a date on when the Lightbox business will close. Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonydemarco/2025/05/09/de-beers-to-close-lightbox-its-lab-grown-diamond-jewelry-brand/

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Mixin has launched USTD-margined perpetual contracts, bringing derivative trading into the chat scene.

The privacy-focused crypto wallet Mixin announced today the launch of its U-based perpetual contract (a derivative priced in USDT). Unlike traditional exchanges, Mixin has taken a new approach by "liberating" derivative trading from isolated matching engines and embedding it into the instant messaging environment.

Users can directly open positions within the app with leverage of up to 200x, while sharing positions, discussing strategies, and copy trading within private communities. Trading, social interaction, and asset management are integrated into the same interface.

Simplified Trading Experience: No KYC Required, Opening a Position in Five Steps

Based on its non-custodial architecture, Mixin has eliminated friction from the traditional onboarding process, allowing users to participate in perpetual contract trading without identity verification.

The trading process has been streamlined into five steps:

· Choose the trading asset

· Select long or short

· Input position size and leverage

· Confirm order details

· Confirm and open the position

The interface provides real-time visualization of price, position, and profit and loss (PnL), allowing users to complete trades without switching between multiple modules.

Social-Native Trading: Strategy and Execution Completed in the Same Context

Mixin has directly integrated social features into the derivative trading environment. Users can create private trading communities and interact around real-time positions:

· End-to-end encrypted private groups supporting up to 1024 members

· End-to-end encrypted voice communication

· One-click position sharing

· One-click trade copying

On the execution side, Mixin aggregates liquidity from multiple sources and accesses decentralized protocol and external market liquidity through a unified trading interface.

By combining social interaction with trade execution, Mixin enables users to collaborate, share, and execute trading strategies instantly within the same environment.

Referral Mechanism: Non-institutional users can receive up to 60% fee split

Mixin has also introduced a referral incentive system based on trading behavior:

· Users can join with an invite code

· Up to 60% of trading fees as referral rewards

· Incentive mechanism designed for long-term, sustainable earnings

This model aims to drive user-driven network expansion and organic growth.

Self-Custody Architecture and Built-in Privacy Mechanism

Mixin's derivative transactions are built on top of its existing self-custody wallet infrastructure, with core features including:

· Separation of transaction account and asset storage

· User full control over assets

· Platform does not custody user funds

· Built-in privacy mechanisms to reduce data exposure

The system aims to strike a balance between transaction efficiency, asset security, and privacy protection.

A New Path for On-Chain Derivatives

Against the background of perpetual contracts becoming a mainstream trading tool, Mixin is exploring a different development direction by lowering barriers, enhancing social and privacy attributes.

The platform does not only view transactions as execution actions but positions them as a networked activity: transactions have social attributes, strategies can be shared, and relationships between individuals also become part of the financial system.

Regulatory Background

Mixin's design is based on a user-initiated, user-controlled model. The platform neither custodies assets nor executes transactions on behalf of users.

This model aligns with a statement issued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 13, 2026, titled "Staff Statement on Whether Partial User Interface Used in Preparing Cryptocurrency Securities Transactions May Require Broker-Dealer Registration."

The statement indicates that, under the premise where transactions are entirely initiated and controlled by users, non-custodial service providers that offer neutral interfaces may not need to register as broker-dealers or exchanges.

About Mixin

Mixin is a decentralized, self-custodial privacy wallet designed to provide secure and efficient digital asset management services.

Its core capabilities include:

· Aggregation: integrating multi-chain assets and routing between different transaction paths to simplify user operations

· High liquidity access: connecting to various liquidity sources, including decentralized protocols and external markets

· Decentralization: achieving full user control over assets without relying on custodial intermediaries

· Privacy protection: safeguarding assets and data through MPC, CryptoNote, and end-to-end encrypted communication

Mixin has been in operation for over 8 years, supporting over 40 blockchains and more than 10,000 assets, with a global user base exceeding 10 million and an on-chain self-custodied asset scale of over $1 billion.

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