Author: The Block

Stablecoin issuer Tether has helped users recover $87 million in USDT sent to wrong addresses since its launch in 2014, its CTO Paolo Ardoino told The Block. Just earlier this week, for instance, Tether recovered nearly $1.5 million in USDT on behalf of users, according to Ardoino. As The Block has reported previously, Tether has a recovery mechanism in place that allows it to blacklist addresses on the Ethereum and Tron blockchains, freeze funds in those addresses, and issue new USDT tokens to affected users. “Some users make mistakes when sending tokens to DeFi [decentralized finance] projects or trading platforms, which result in tokens…

Elad Roisman, a commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission, ended his term on Friday. As The Block reported at the time, Roisman announced his departure in December, immediately before the holidays. His statement upon leaving was as brief as his initial announcement, noting only “I will always be grateful for the time I have been able to work alongside my fellow Commissioners and the thousands of dedicated SEC staff, who not only believe in this mission, but unceasingly demonstrate their commitment to it through action.” Originally a Trump appointee, Roisman began his term in 2018. It was a term originally set to…

Wall Street heavyweight Citigroup is hiring a global head of digital asset risk management, signifying the latest move in a broader strategic push toward crypto services.  A post on LinkedIn said the role would be “accountable for all matters relating to the risk management of digital asset activities globally and across all Citi business lines.” The advert states that due to the “high-profile nature” and “regulatory focus” on digital assets, the successful candidate will have contact with the most senior leaders of business, risk and control functions. The remit will include evaluating “all digital assets (beyond bitcoin and ether)” before any asset…

Christian Faes, co-founder and executive chair of London-listed fintech firm LendInvest, has quietly set up a crypto mining operation into which he and a small group of investors have poured tens of millions of dollars. Faes told The Block that the business will be based in Texas, where the Australia-born entrepreneur hopes to build a mining facility powered by renewable energy sources. He already has machines up and running at colocation data centres in Pennsylvania and Tennessee, but declined to disclose the size of the operation in terms of energy output or crypto mined. The venture is being run out…

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is not a fan of Twitter’s new non-fungible token (NFT) integration. In a tweet posted on Friday morning, Musk slammed Twitter for spending engineering resources on integrating NFTs while not doing enough to curb spam activity on the social media site. “This is annoying,” he wrote. “Twitter is spending engineering resources on this bs while crypto scammers are throwing a spambot block party in every thread!?” Twitter recently began rolling out access to NFT profile pictures (PFPs) for its users. Some user accounts are already sporting hexagon-shaped avatars that display NFT images. Twitter now shows that the images are part…

Adidas Originals is working with Prada on an NFT collaboration that will feature user-generated content and creator-owned art. The project will bring together people across fashion, design, and crypto to create a large-scale digital artwork inspired by the physical Re-Nylon collection, according to a Thursday statement from the two companies. adidas Originals and Prada will invite their collective audiences to contribute anonymized photographs to the NFT project on the Polygon network, an Ethereum-compatible network. Digital artist Zach Lieberman will combine 3000 community-sourced minted NFT artworks and compile them as a single mass-patchwork NFT design. Contributors will maintain full ownership rights over their…

It’s been a busy few months in the metaverse for Cyber, a startup that builds virtual showrooms for non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Cyber has just unveiled new functionality that allows users to connect with each other using a portal with ‘doorways’ — each leading to a gallery curated by a different user. The firm had posted a teaser of the portal product on Twitter on January 10. Now, Cyber’s founder Rayan Boutaleb tells The Block that it quietly raised $6.7 million in November in a round led by Variant, the ‘ownership economy’ seed-stage investor that itself raised $110 million for its second fund in October.…

NFT profile pictures have begun to arrive on Twitter. Twitter Blue, the social media platform’s subscription service, rolled out the feature Thursday with a splashy introduction video and step-by-step explainer page According to today’s announcements, Twitter’s profile picture feature is being powered by the API of NFT marketplace OpenSea. Supported wallets are Coinbase Wallet, MetaMask, Rainbow, Argent, Trust and Ledger Live. “Setting up an NFT profile picture means people can associate your Twitter account with your connected wallet’s public crypto wallet address,” Twitter said on its explainer page. “This means your Twitter account will be associated with your current and historical…

The US Fed’s long-awaited report on central bank digital currencies dropped Thursday afternoon. Framed as a discussion paper, the Fed notes in its introduction release that it “examines the pros and cons of a potential U.S. central bank digital currency, or CBDC.” “It invites comment from the public and is the first step in a discussion of whether and how a CBDC could improve the safe and effective domestic payments system. The paper does not favor any policy outcome,” the paper continues. The paper, long-awaited by policy-watchers and members of Congress, represents a significant foray into the Fed’s work in the…

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has shot down another spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund proposal, this time from First Trust and SkyBridge Capital. As previously reported, First Advisors and the Anthony Scaramucci-led SkyBridge Capital joined the fray in seeking approval for a spot bitcoin ETF in March 2021. Yet as was the case with VanEck’s bitcoin ETF rejection in November, the SEC, in its latest statement, honed in on fraud and manipulation prevention risks as well as investor protection. Indeed, this position has been the theme thus far across a series of rejections for the past crop of spot bitcoin ETF proposals. As…