Author: The Block

Justin Roiland, co-creator of the Rick and Morty animated series, is collaborating with two researchers from crypto investment firm Paradigm on a new mechanism for non-fungible token (NFT) sales. According to Paradigm’s Dave White, the new concept would allow a project to more seamlessly sell large quantities of NFTs over a long period of time at stable prices, depending on demand in the market. “When NFTs are being sold too quickly relative to the target rate, we want to be able to adjust prices quickly,” according to a white paper. “The higher the sales rate compared to the target rate, the…

Earlier this week, some OpenSea users were shocked to find that their precious NFTs had been sold for next to nothing. And many, understandably, were devastated. “I just lost an ape guys…. I’m crying…. How did this just happen????” tweeted an OpenSea user who goes by TBALLER on Monday, adding 15 crying emojis. TBALLER saw their Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT get sold for around $1,800 on OpenSea — 99% below the floor price — due to a user interface (UI) issue on the NFT marketplace. The buyer who poached the NFT then resold it immediately for nearly $200,000, making a profit of $198,000 within…

BCB Group has announced a $60 million Series A investment co-led by Foundation Capital in what it claims is the largest Series A investment for a UK blockchain startup to date. The London-based startup provides business accounts, payment services, and foreign exchange custody services for crypto clients such as Bitstamp, Coinbase, and Kraken.  Alongside another undisclosed co-lead investor, Circle, Backed VC, and existing backer North Island Ventures also participated in the round. In addition to forging new US and Singapore partnerships, the startup will use the extra capital to build out its yield product. It will also target high net…

The leading Republican on the House Financial Services Committee has written to the committee chair to call for more crypto legislation.  In a January 24 letter to Maxine Waters (D-CA), Patrick McHenry (R-NC) wrote of rules for crypto: “We should not cede these important issues to regulators such as SEC or CFTC, or to the judicial branch, to determine. This Committee should do its work to appropriately categorize these assets and determine the rules that will govern their use.” McHenry went on to write: “While both Chairmen Benham and Gensler have been extremely vocal, neither the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) nor…

Twitter is hiring a senior product manager for crypto, according to a tweet by the company’s crypto engineering lead Tess Rinearson.  The position is described as a member of a new team at Twitter that explores “decentralized technologies, including blockchains, cryptocurrencies, and web3.” There’s a particular focus on creators, “especially creator monetization. In this capacity, we’ll be looking closely at NFTs and NFT tooling, membership tokens, DAOS, and more!” the post says. Twitter has been making big moves recently in moving into Web3. Yesterday, Twitter Blue, a paid subscription service offered by Twitter, began offering NFT profile pictures for users. Rinearson did not respond to a…

The hatred on NFTs continues. Since Twitter brought out hexagon-shaped profile pictures for anyone who wants to prove that they own the NFT they have displayed as their profile picture, it has fueled the fire of those disgruntled with the non-fungible tokens. It’s an ongoing battle, with gamers and some tech-enthusiasts on one side mocking the “funge” of NFTs and crypto enthusiasts maintaining their belief in the technology on the other. But now a developer, who goes by mcclure on GitHub, has made a way for those who dislike NFTs to actively segment themselves away from NFT believers. The tool is a Google Chrome…

Uniswap founder Hayden Adams tweeted Sunday that JPMorgan Chase has closed his bank accounts without notice or explanation. “I know many individuals and companies who have been similarly targeted simply for working in the crypto industry,” wrote Adams. “Thanks for making it a personal.” Adams’ bank accounts were closed last week. The move comes a few months after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reportedly started investigating Uniswap Labs, the main developer of the world’s largest decentralized exchange protocol Uniswap. In September, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing “people familiar with the matter,” that the SEC enforcement attorneys are investigating Uniswap Labs…

Jim Greco, like many traders who have had to deal with the Solana network’s outage over the last few days, is annoyed. “How can anyone possibly trust the Solana network with real capital after a meltdown like today?” Greco, a market structure guru and former executive at KCG, said in a tweet on Friday night. As the price of cryptocurrencies across the board slid during Friday’s trading session, traders large and small found themselves unable to execute transactions on Solana’s blockchain — a protocol that has been touted by proponents for its scalability and fast transaction speeds. Transactions per second…

Opposition forces in Russia are not pleased with a recent proposal to ban cryptocurrency mining and trading in the country.  In two separate (and lengthy) Telegram posts from January 20 and 22, Leonid Volkov and Pavel Durov denounced the Central Bank of Russia’s proposal. Durov will be familiar to The Block’s readers as the co-founder (alongside his brother Nikolai) of encrypted messaging app Telegram, whose ill-fated venture into launching its own cryptocurrency was shut down by US authorities. Volkov is the right-hand man of leading Russian oppositionist Aleksei Navalny, currently in jail for his political activities. During Navalny’s incarceration, Volkov has largely served as the…

“Being a public company seems like a total blast.” Barry Silbert, chief executive of crypto power-house DCG, was of course sarcastic in his January 21 tweet; it’s been a brutal period for publicly traded companies in the digital asset market amid the ongoing rout in liquid tokens. Shares in Robinhood, the popular brokerage app company, are down 29.61% since the start of 2021. Since soaring to all-time highs above $80 soon after its public market debut, it has declined by more than 80%. Meanwhile, Coinbase’s stock is down 23.5% since the beginning of the year and ended Friday’s trade down $13.38. …