Author: The Block

Spanish regulators are pushing to control the way cryptocurrencies are marketed, with new restrictions on influencers’ promotions. The Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV), the government agency responsible for the financial regulation of the securities markets in Spain, issued a release on Monday defining the new rules. Posts promoting crypto-assets must now include the following disclaimer: “Investments in crypto-assets are not regulated. They may not be appropriate for retail investors and the full amount invested may be lost.” So-called influencers or outlets with more than 100,000 followers in the region will now have to notify the CNMV on the content of…

Crypto exchange Binance announced Monday that it has burned over 1.68 million BNB tokens in its 18th burn. The burned tokens are worth nearly $800 million at current prices, but the actual dollar amount of the burn isn’t known as Binance recently implemented a new system for its BNB burns. Until last month, Binance had been burning BNB tokens on a quarterly basis based on revenues it generated during a period. But the exchange recently implemented a new procedure, called BNB Auto-Burn, which burns tokens daily based on the price of BNB and the number of blocks produced during a quarter. The BNB Auto-Burn…

Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic announced Monday that it is developing a new data product focused on institutional crypto traders. To that end, Elliptic has set up a new “market intelligence unit,” headed by its co-founder James Smith. The unit, Elliptic’s second business line after its primary blockchain analytics offering, will offer on-chain data to crypto traders. “Elliptic is taking its best in class on-chain identity data to provide insights to crypto traders seeking alpha,” Smith told The Block. “Crafted over seven years, our broad asset coverage can provide a unified view on crypto activity such as exchange flows, clustered active…

Crocs, the popular shoe company, is looking to get into NFTs, according to a trademark application filed on January 11. The application, first reported by CoinDesk, is marked for “Downloadable computer software for creating, managing, storing, accessing, sending, receiving, exchanging, validating and selling digital assets, digital collectibles, digital tokens and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).” The filing is for “intent-to-use” basis, indicating that the brand plans to use it in commerce. This news follows a larger trend of fashion retailers, and shoe brands, getting into NFTs. In December, Nike bought NFT collectibles startup RTFKT and Adidas netted some $23 million in sales after its first NFT drop, The Block…

One of Russia’s most notorious ransomware gangs was hit by a major raid. Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, announced on January 14 a series of raids on 25 addresses associated with 14 REvil members in locations around Moscow, St. Petersburg and Lipetsk.  The ad did not specify how many of the associated hackers were arrested, but news outlet RIA Novosti released a video depicting several of the arrests. In those raids, the FSB said it confiscated 426 million rubles ($5.5 million) in cash and cryptocurrency, as well as $600,000 in USD and 500,000 euros. They also seized an unspecified number of…

The total supply of the USDC stablecoin on the Ethereum blockchain has surpassed that of rival Tether’s (USDT) for the first time. The current total supply of USDC on Ethereum stands at 39.92 billion, whereas USDT’s total supply on the blockchain stands at 39.82 billion, according to Etherscan. USDC’s supply beating USDT’s on Ethereum is significant since the blockchain remains a major contributor of growth for both stablecoins. USDC and USDT are available on several blockchains, including Solana and Algorand. DeFi and other factors driving growth One of the main reasons for USDC’s recent growth has been its increased usage in the…

A crypto-focused startup accelerator is becoming a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) focused on web3 projects and initiatives.  DeFi Alliance announced the transition on Thursday, rebranding to “AllianceDAO” with the backing of several hundred builders from across the crypto and tech spaces. “We will be building the infrastructure for an ecosystem that encourages the best Web3 founders to receive accelerator services and then remain as mentors to later founders,” said Dane Lund, Head of DAO Architect at DeFi Alliance in an email to The Block. “We also aim to attract other DAO Contributors (builders, subject matter experts, and service providers) to join to provide support for Web3 founders.”…

Electric carmaker Tesla is testing a previously teased Dogecoin (DOGE) payment option, according to its website’s source code. The DOGE payment option was added for testing around three days ago, a software engineer who goes by “Tree of Alpha” on Twitter told The Block. The engineer analyzed Tesla’s source code in the backend and said that the company is “definitely” testing that option. “Most of the code is already present in the latest Javascript files Tesla uses for processing payments, but the part about Dogecoin is forced to return null no matter what happens, thus never showing (basically a way to test…

Crypto investment firm CoinFund has onboarded a former leader in the U.S. regulation space to its advisory board. Per a January 13 announcement shared with The Block, former Commodity Futures Trading Commission chair J. Christopher Giancarlo will join CoinFund as a strategic advisor. “It’s pretty high-level strategy,” Giancarlo tells The Block, explaining that he hopes he “can help them peer into the future a bit.” In particular, Giancarlo emphasized his work with brokerage firm GFI Group, and especially its 2005 initial public offering, as critical to his understanding of how to shepherd firms through investment rounds. Of the current market…

Seashell, a startup building an investment app to offer high yields, has raised $6 million in a seed funding round. Khosla Ventures and Kindred Ventures co-led the round, with Coinbase Ventures, Solana Ventures, and the Avalanche Foundation (through its Blizzard Fund) also participating. Individual investors, including billionaire Mark Cuban, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, former CFTC chairman Christopher Giancarlo, entrepreneur Elad Gil, Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon, and Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal also backed the round. Seashell has emerged from stealth with its seed funding announcement. With fresh capital in hand, the firm plans to launch its investment app in the first half…