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Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin USDC, launched a wallet-as-a-service platform for developers. 

The service allows developers to embed web3 wallets in their apps, while offering a user-friendly design. The wallets can be used with any blockchain to give users easier access to NFTs, cryptocurrencies and other web3 digital assets. 

“If you are on the more technical side, you can self-serve into the platform and launch apps starting now,” Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said on Twitter.

Currently, users must self-custody their private keys, but forthcoming updates will allow for developers to have control over user private keys. The company’s wallet-as-a-service developer platform is currently in beta testing. 

Circle’s USDC maintains the second-largest stablecoin supply behind Tether, according to The Block’s Data Dashboard. 

© 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.

Taylor Swift may have actually had a partnership deal with the now defunct FTX crypto exchange, despite public messaging to the contrary. 

The popstar had agreed to a partnership with the company, but disgraced former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was counseled out of proceeding, CNBC reported on Thursday, citing a source familiar.

Adam Moskowitz, the lawyer handling a class action lawsuit against FTX promoters like Shaquille O’Neal and Tom Brady, told The Block earlier this year that Swift was one of the only celebrities to check if the exchange was selling unregistered securities. 

FTX filed for bankruptcy in November, and Bankman-Fried is now facing criminal charges over alleged fraud and money laundering. 

© 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.

Galaxy Digital Holdings CEO Michael Novogratz is planning to move people out of the U.S. amid regulatory uncertainty many critics say is pushing crypto business out of the country. He warned that other firms are following suit. 

“I think certainly in the short run, we’re going to look to move people out of the U.S. overseas. And lots of companies are,” Novogratz said at the Piper Sandler Global Exchange & FinTech Conference last month, according to a transcript that was made available today.

Crypto companies including Gemini have made headwinds abroad, with the exchange announcing last month that it plans to build out its Singapore office by hiring more than 100 employees over the next year. This comes as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has brought charges against big names in crypto including Coinbase and Binance, with many crypto advocates saying increased regulatory clarity is needed. 

“In the medium run to long run, the U.S. has to be part of the system,” Novogratz said. “We’re too big a part of the global economy. And for crypto to really fulfill its destiny, but — we’ve got to get the U.S. engaged. And so I am, by no means going to flip the middle finger at the regulator. We are trying to engage with politicians and regulators every single day to get to a good place.”

Novogratz doesn’t seem optimistic about pending legislation

Novogratz was also asked about a draft bill that is trying to provide a pathway for when a token can go from being treated as a security to a commodity, which has lower disclosure requirements. Senior House Republicans, including House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry, proposed the bill in June. 

“It’s not going to pass, but at least there’s a placeholder down,” Novogratz said. 

McHenry has said his committee is planning to vote on that legislation as soon as next week. 

© 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.

The New York Federal Reserve and several large U.S. banks including Wells Fargo and Citi reported success with an experiment that used distributed ledger technology for domestic and international payments between different financial institutions.

The payments system, referred to as a “regulated liability network,” succeeded in the five areas tested of programmability, privacy, interoperability with other wholesale payments systems, availability at all times of day and week, and speed in settlement.

The proof-of-concept program tested both domestic and international payments between major financial institutions, including the New York Fed and non-bank financial companies.

“In particular, the prospect of a global, instant U.S. dollar payment system that could benefit cross-border settlements merits further serious study,” Tony Mclaughlin, a Citi executive tasked with emerging payments and business development, said in the statement from the group about the test. “It is important for the regulated financial sector to strongly consider the latest technologies to help ensure that the global, digital economy can flourish in a responsible manner.”

Large financial participants

Participants included Citi, BNY Mellon, HSBC, PNC Bank, TD Bank, Truist, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, Mastercard, the New York Federal Reserve, and the international payments messaging system Swift.

“RLN represents a journey – rather than a destination,” Mastercard head of crypto and blockchain Raj Dhamodharan said in a statement. “Working across the ecosystem to address a common problem, we have an opportunity to improve financial settlements at scale for the benefit of the wider payments ecosystem.”

The project used a private distributed ledger using only U.S. dollars. No outside digital assets, including stablecoins, were used in the proof-of-concept program.

The group stressed that the wholesale central bank digital currency used in the experiment does not mean that the Federal Reserve has decided to adopt a central bank digital currency, only that the experiment used a CBDC intended for payment between financial institutions as a proof-of-concept for using the technology between central banks and commercial banks for the large, bank-to-bank payments that frequently occur between them. The project also used retail bank digital deposit tokens.

Though no decision has yet been made as far as next steps, other areas that distributed ledger could include securities like stocks and bonds.

© 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.

Artificial intelligence may kill traditional trading, but your advantage may not last long, says Jeff Wilser.

Traders now see a 94% chance of the Fed raising rates by 25 basis points later this month.

The number of attacks in crypto and DeFi increased during Q2, compared to the same period last year, yet the total amount of funds stolen was smaller.

That’s according to a new report compiled by web3-focused bug bounty platform Immunefi, which assessed the volume of crypto funds lost by the community due to hacks and scams in the quarter.

While Immunefi said the total number of attacks spiked 65.3% year-over-year from 49 to 81 incidents in Q2, and 11% quarter-over-quarter, total losses decreased by 60.4% compared to the same period in 2022.

Total losses for the quarter amounted to around $265.5 million, contributing to over $702 million in losses year-to-date. Some 49.7% of the losses can be attributed to the hack on the non-custodial Atomic Wallet in June — linked to the North Korean state-backed Lazarus Group — and an exit scam at now-defunct blockchain financial platform Fintoch in May, losing $100 million and $31.6 million, respectively.

Hacks accounted for the majority of losses in Q2, making up 83.1%, while frauds, scams and rug pulls represented 16.9% of the losses. However, of the overall funds lost, losses from hacks were down 66.4% and frauds, scams and rug pulls were up 225.4% compared to Q2 2022.

“We have witnessed a considerable increase in rug pulls, both in terms of stolen funds and the number of incidents,” Immunefi CEO Mitchell Amador said in the report. “As bad actors continue to expand their malicious activities and employ increasingly sophisticated scams, users must thoroughly assess projects.” 

Most targeted chains

BNB Chain and Ethereum were the most targeted chains in Q2. BNB Chain experienced 36 incidents, representing 44.4% of losses, while Ethereum witnessed 26, representing 32.1%. 

Notably, Arbitrum, which had no incidents in Q2 2022, experienced a significant rise in targeted attacks, with 10 major incidents in Q2 this year. Arbitrum is now the third most targeted blockchain for two consecutive quarters, with 18 incidents year-to-date. Polygon and zkSync had two incidents each.

DeFi platforms remained the primary target for exploits in Q2, accounting for 86.1% of the total losses ($228.5 million). Centralized crypto platforms, represented 13.9% of the losses ($37 million). 

In total, $10.5 million has been recovered in stolen funds from eight incidents. However, this represents only 3.9% of the total losses in Q2, highlighting the challenges in reclaiming stolen crypto assets.

Not as bad as 2022

2023 has some way to go to eclipse the record number of crypto attacks set in 2022, when there was $3 billion in total funds lost, including Ronin Network, FTX and Wormhole exploits.

Immunefi claims to have paid out more than $80 million in bounties and saved over $25 billion in user funds across protocols like Chainlink, The Graph, Synthetix and MakerDAO. The highest bounty facilitated by Immunefi was a $10 million award for a vulnerability discovered in Wormhole’s cross-chain messaging protocol. 

In March, Immunefi identified Ethereum as white hat hackers’ blockchain of choice, followed by Solana, Avalanche, Cosmos and Tezos. 

© 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.

The latest price moves in bitcoin (BTC) and crypto markets in context for July 6, 2023. First Mover is CoinDesk’s daily newsletter that contextualizes the latest actions in the crypto markets.

The world’s biggest crypto exchange said it would quit the Netherlands in June after failing to secure regulatory approval.