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The European and Securities Markets Authority (ESMA) has shot a warning to the crypto industry after releasing its first set of MiCA proposals.

The new proposals for crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) cover conflict-of-interest rules and how crypto firms should handle customer complaints. Speaking about the proposals, chairwoman of the ESMA Verena Ross advised consumers there is cryptocurrencies are still risky.

“We are determined to ensure entities involved in crypto-asset related activities understand the EU is not a place for forum-shopping. We also want to remind consumers that, even with the implementation of MiCA, there will be no such thing as a safe crypto-asset,” Ross said in a statement.

Entitled, “Technical standards specifying certain requirements of MiCA regulation,” the proposal document is seeking the crypto industry’s input on the bloc’s MiCA regulatory framework. The consultation lasts until September 20. The agency is asking crypto companies for confidential information about their expected revenue.

The regulator referred to recent collapses in the crypto world that show “a misuse of clients’ funds and crypto-assets.” It also pointed to “media reports about hack attacks at CASPs, which have often resulted in the theft of significant amounts of client crypto-assets.”

MiCA takes effect in 2024 and gives wallet providers and exchanges the ability to operate across the 27-nation bloc with one license.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Polygon, the Ethereum scaling solution, has proposed a technical upgrade for its native MATIC token, as part of its Polygon 2.0 roadmap. Pending community approval, MATIC would be converted into Polygon (POL), a token capable of validating multiple chains within the Polygon ecosystem.

The proposed POL token is intended to operate across all Polygon protocols, including Proof of Stake (PoS), zkEVM and Supernets. The overarching aim of the upgrade is to ensure the scalability of the ecosystem without compromising security.

The feature of POL, if approved, would be its ability to validate transactions across different chains, introducing a new level of interoperability between the various protocols within the network, a spokesperson told The Block

The upgrade from MATIC to POL is planned to be straightforward. Token holders would be required to send their MATIC tokens to a specific smart contract, which would then return an equivalent number of POL tokens.

Four years to swap MATIC to POL

Polygon has proposed a lengthy grace period of at least four years for token holders to complete the upgrade process. This approach provides users with an extended timeframe to adjust to the new token.

The proposed upgrade is subject to endorsement from the Polygon community, underlining the platform’s commitment to a community-driven decision-making process. The migration to POL could begin within a few months, depending on the community consensus.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Dapper Labs laid off dozens more employees to make the business leaner, but its CEO stressed that both the company and Flow, its blockchain, are well capitalized.

Dapper Labs CEO Roham Gharegozlou tweeted Thursday that the company parted ways with 51 employees, including full-time staff members and C1 contractors.

The cuts comes after the NFT company let go 20% of its staff in February. In November 2022, the company also laid off 22% of its employees.

“This decision was incredibly difficult because of the amazing people affected but it is necessary and the right thing to do to ensure a lean and efficient Dapper Labs,” Gharegozlou wrote in an internal note that he also shared on Twitter.

Gharegozlou said Dapepr Labs and Flow, its NFT-focused blockchain, are “well capitalized to pursue our mission.”

“Flow is also funded with a separate pool of capital, so that team also has several years of cash runway with no need to sell tokens to fund short-term operations,” he added.

Toxic culture

Dapper Labs, known for its early NFT success with NBA Top Shot, previously boasted a valuation of $7.6 billion when it raised money in September 2021.

At its peak in February 2021, NBA Top Shot once generated sales revenues of $224 million, compared with just $1.93 million in revenues last month, according to CryptoSlam data. 

Gharegozlou’s decadent lifestyle and pursuit of celebrity partnerships has in the past called his priorities into question, according to several former employees, as The Block previously reported. The CEO’s “bullying” and “public shaming” of employees also stoked a toxic company culture, they said. 

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.