Author: The Block
The round was led by hedge fund Coatue and brings Dune Analytics’ valuation to $1 billion, confirming The Block’s reporting from last month. Existing investors, including Multicoin Capital and Dragonfly Capital, also participated in the round. Dune has big plans in place with fresh capital in hand. It looks to build a community of up to 1 million analysts, support more blockchains, build an API, and massively expand its team, the firm’s co-founder and CEO Fredrik Haga told The Block. Founded in 2018, Dune lets users create data charts and dashboards on metrics such as DEX and NFT trading volumes. The platform…
Crypto exchange FTX is set to acquire Japan’s Liquid Group and its operating subsidiaries, one of which runs a licensed crypto exchange in the country. Liquid Group announced the news on Wednesday, saying that FTX is acquiring Quoine Corporation and Quoine Pte. in Singapore. Quoine was one of the first crypto exchanges registered by Japan’s financial regulator in 2017 and operates under the Liquid brand. The terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed, but Liquid was valued at more than $1 billion in its first investment round in 2019. The deal is expected to close next month, subject to customary closing conditions.…
“Welcome to being in an industry that has arrived,” Darren Soto tells The Block, chuckling about Congress’s pace. Soto (D-FL), a congressman representing the suburbs of Orlando, is specifically talking about crypto mining. It’s an issue that has been ascendant in public awareness as miners have flooded into the US over the past year. Its political dimension has become especially conspicuous in the aftermath of a hearing before the Oversight Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee earlier in January. Soto, a member of the full Energy Committee and a co-chair of the Blockchain Caucus, rushed from votes to join the…
Popular music festival Coachella has partnered with crypto exchange FTX US to launch an NFT collection, according to a tweet from the festival’s official Twitter account. The NFTs, a limited number of which will drop this Friday, will be on the Solana blockchain. To be eligible for the initial drop users must have an FTX account. Proceeds from items sold will go to three charities including GiveDirectly, Lideres Campesinos, and Find Food Bank, with a royalty supporting the creators involved. The NFTs, called Coachella Collectibles, will give consumers the opportunity to unlock festival passes, art prints, photo books, digital collectibles, unique real-life…
NFT collector Larry Lawliet lost seven expensive Bored Apes and a set of other NFTs to a suspected social engineering attack on Monday. The perpetrator appeared to trick Lawliet into signing fake transactions that granted them access to the his NFTs. They then used this access to transfer the NFTs to their own wallet. Lawliet took to Twitter saying that 13 of his NFTs had been stolen by the attacker including seven Bored Apes, five Mutant Apes, and one Doodle. In total, Lawliet’s loss stands at $2.7 million based on the floor price of the NFTs stolen from his wallet. How it…
ConsenSys, the company known for its MetaMask and Infura products, is set to take over wallet manager MyCrypto. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Whilst the two brands will initially stay separate, the move will see MyCrypto merge with MetaMask over time, with emphasis on the latter brand in the long run. “The MyCrypto wallet is going to continue to exist and serve its current audience,” says Dan Finlay founder of MetaMask, “But we’re going to be putting a lot of our shared energy into the Metamask brand, because that’s the product that has more users today.” For Finlay,…
Amber Group, a digital asset platform, has announced the acquisition of DeCurret Inc., a Japanese-licensed crypto exchange, the company announced on Tuesday. The acquisition is under Amber Group’s WhaleFin Japan subsidiary. According to the announcement, the acquisition marks Amber Group’s maiden foray into the Japanese digital asset market. The company says its plans leverage on DeCurret’s regulatory standing in the country to “unlock Japan’s crypto market potential.” With over $5 billion in assets under management (AUM), the company also stated that it plans to “catalyze” the adoption of crypto assets in Japan beyond the gains recorded in 2021. DeCurret is…
MicroStrategy has continued its bitcoin-buying spree. The Nasdaq-listed enterprise software company announced Tuesday that it has bought an additional 660 bitcoins for around $25 million in cash. The purchase was made between December 30 and January 31 at an average price of around $37,865 per bitcoin, inclusive of fees and expenses. The company now holds a total of 125,051 bitcoins (worth nearly $5 billion at current prices). MicroStrategy’s bitcoin bet appears to be paying so far as it acquired these bitcoins at an aggregate purchase price of $3.78 billion and an average purchase price of approximately $30,200 per bitcoin. That’s a…
The Federal Reserve released a new research report on stablecoins today, noting the risks and potential of the emerging digital assets. In the report, researchers Gordon Liao and John Caramichael examine the current stablecoin ecosystem and the impact of stablecoins on credit intermediation and the central bank balance sheet. The paper identifies potential threats to the stability of US Federal Reserve monetary policy and examine ways they could be mitigated. Safe haven assets The report found that dollar-pegged stablecoins have exhibited “safe asset qualities,” compared to other crypto assets. Their price occasionally rises above their peg during market distress events, which leads…
Just days after the House of Representatives examines stablecoin regulation, the Senate will take its own look at the issue. The Senate Banking Committee has slated a February 15 hearing entitled “Examining the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets Report on Stablecoins,” according to the body’s February hearing schedule. This is one week after the House Financial Services Committee holds its own hearing, “Digital Assets and the Future of Finance: The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets’ Report on Stablecoins.” The witness list for the House hearing includes the CEOs of a number of prominent crypto firms, including Jeremy Allaire of Circle, Sam…