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Three U.S. senators have again asked Fidelity Investments to reconsider a decision to allow retirement plan participants to invest in bitcoin, saying the industry has become increasingly “volatile, tumultuous and chaotic.”

Sens. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. and Tina Smith, D-Minn., sent the Nov. 21 letter to Fidelity Investments CEO Abigail Johnson after first raising the issue in July. Durbin is the number-two Democrat in the Senate as Majority Whip, while Smith and Warren are on the Banking Committee. 

“Fidelity Investments has opted to expand beyond traditional finance and delve into the highly unstable and increasingly risky digital asset market,” the senators wrote. “The recent implosion of FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange, has made it abundantly clear the digital asset industry has serious problems. The industry is full of charismatic wunderkinds, opportunistic fraudsters and self-proclaimed investment advisers promoting financial products with little to no transparency.”

Fidelity said in April that it was readying a plan that would allow 401(k) plan holders to allocate up to 20% of their retirement savings into bitcoin. In the July letter, the senators argued that the cap signaled that it was aware of the dangers of investing in the cryptocurrency. 

Fidelity has been prioritizing growth of digital assets services across the company. Its Fidelity Digital Assets subsidiary recently added ether trading for institutional customers and is planning to launch a new retail trading platform called Fidelity Crypto.

© 2022 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.

Genesis is having a hard time raising cash for its lending unit, and it is warning potential investors it could possibly file for bankruptcy if it is unable to do so, Bloomberg reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

The firms has faced a liquidity crunch since FTX’s bankruptcy filing earlier this month and has been trying to raise at least $1 billion, including from Binance, Bloomberg said. 

Bloomberg cited a statement from Geneis that said it has no plans to file for bankruptcy “imminently,” and that it’s working to resolve the current situation.

© 2022 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.

Most bitcoin mining stocks tracked by The Block traded lower on Monday, some by double digits.

Bitcoin was trading at around $15,800 by market close, according to data from TradingView.

BTCUSD Chart by TradingView

Iris Energy fell 17.99% after the company said that it unplugged a large majority of its miners in response to a default notice on about $107.8 million in loans.

Marathon’s shares fell by 17.14%, followed by Bitfarms (-15.38% on Nasdaq) and TeraWulf (-13.36%).

Here’s how crypto mining companies performed on Tuesday, Nov. 21:

© 2022 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.

Bitcoin mining difficulty has increased by 0.51% after the latest adjustment, according to an update posted Sunday evening on BTC.com.

The network’s hash rate has fallen 3.8% since Nov. 6, the date of the last update to mining difficulty, according to data compiled by The Block Research.

Mining difficulty refers to the complexity of the computational process used in mining, and it adjusts about every two weeks (or every 2,016 blocks) in sync with the network’s hash rate.

The gain in difficulty, along with a slight decrease in an update earlier in the month, represented a slowdown after it rose by 3.4% and 13.6% in the two previous updates in October.

Some of the biggest Bitcoin mining companies have been struggling to stay solvent, with Core Scientific announcing that it would miss payments at the end of October. Argo Blockchain. meanwhile, is selling 3,843 mining machines for cash.

© 2022 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.

Shares of crypto exchange Coinbase hit an all-time low Monday, as fallout from FTX’s demise has continued to rattle the industry.

The exchange was down roughly 8% at the time of publication, with its stock priced under $42.

Confidence in centralized exchanges dwindled following FTX’s quick unraveling, and billions of dollars started pouring out of exchanges.

Coinbase chart by TradingView

Binance’s token, BNB, was down 4.13% according to TradingView, while Gemini’s (GUSD) was down 1.86%.

Meanwhile, bitcoin’s price slipped below $16,000 (1.78% down) once again, and ether fell around 3.25%.

BTCUSD Chart by TradingView

Coinbase said in its third-quarter earnings report that expenses fell to $1.1 billion from $1.8 billion in the previous three months and that while trading volumes were lower, subscription and services revenue showed encouraging signs.

© 2022 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 Senate Agriculture Committee has scheduled a hearing on the recent high-profile collapse of crypto exchange FTX. 

Titled “Why Congress Needs to Act: Lessons Learned from the FTX Collapse,” the hearing will take place on December 1 and feature testimony from Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Rostin Behnam.

The committee’s leaders, Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and John Boozman, R-Ark., have worked on legislation that would build a CFTC-centered regulatory regime around digital commodities, primarily bitcoin. Behnam actively supported the bill, testifying before the committee in September on the subject, while Stabenow and Boozman both pledged to move forward with legislation. The bill drew criticism from members of the decentralized finance community, and had a prominent industry champion in former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. 

Last week the House Financial Services Committee was first to announce a hearing on the high-profile exchange’s implosion, which sent reverberations across the industry. The Senate Banking Committee is also weighing a potential hearing on the topic. 

© 2022 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 s0-called “FTX Drainer,” the individual or entity behind suspicious withdrawals from embattled crypto exchange FTX, has transferred approximately $200 million worth of ether (ETH) to 12 different crypto wallets.

The moves came shortly after the entity transferred $72 million to Bitcoin from Ethereum this morning and followed similar actions that began on Sunday when it exchanged 50,000 ether for renBTC.

The ETH transfers began around 11 a.m. EST. In the span of six minutes, the wallet made 12 transactions, each sending 15,000 ether to different crypto wallet addresses. None of the 12 new wallet addresses have yet done anything with the funds.

The previously mentioned transfers of ether for renBTC have put negative sell pressure on ether, with the price on Sunday dropping almost 5%. Avi Feldman, head of digital asset trading at GoldenTree Asset Management, tweeted the movement could signify that “he is getting ready to sell.”

The “FTX drainer” wallet has slowly dropped in the rankings of top ether holders. It originally was in the top 30, but fell to 36th place after the selling this morning. The identity of the wallet holder is unknown. 

© 2022 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.

In the wake of FTX’s meltdown, one of the crypto market’s most popular financial products continues to feel the pressure.

Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust — a product that offers bitcoin exposure through a fund structure — was trading at its lowest level below net asset value, according to data from Coinglass that show GBTC was trading at a 45.2% discount to NAV. 

Uncertainty looms over Grayscale’s parent company, Digital Currency Group, which also owns troubled crypto lending firm Genesis Capital that is said to be seeking to line up a $1 billion “emergency loan” after the firm told clients it would suspend redemptions, according to Reuters. 

Grayscale said on Friday that it would not show proof of the bitcoin reserves that underpin its GBTC product, noting “security concerns.” Still, executives at Coinbase, which holds custody of Grayscale’s reserves, said on Nov. 18 that “the assets underlying all of Grayscale’s digital asset products at Coinbase Custody … are secure.”

As pointed out by Bernstein, if Genesis is unable to raise emergency funds to shore up its liquidity profile, creditors wouldn’t have a claim on Grayscale’s assets. 

“GBTC’s trust structure protects its holders and remains ring-fenced from failures within DCG or DCG group entities,” Bernstein analysts Gautam Chhugani and Manas Agrawal wrote.

© 2022 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.

Powerhouse Hollywood talent agency WME is once again showing its faith in web3’s future potential by adding contemporary artist Ilse Valfré to its roster, The Block learned exclusively.

Valfré, who has 897,000 Instagram followers, was recently selected to participate in the social media company’s trial program which allows creators to showcase, mint and sell non-fungible tokens on the platform. Her compositions often feature “eccentric female characters” drawn with a blend of retro and contemporary sensibilities.

Despite a dramatic drop in cryptocurrency prices and NFT sales volumes —by dollar value— in recent months, the talent agency, which represents stars like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Charlize Theron and Alicia Keys, has clearly demonstrated its interest in representing top web3 creators.

WME’s portfolio of web3 artists and collections includes Bright Moments, Non-fungible Heroes and Boss Beauties. It also recently signed CryptoKitties and Dapper Labs cofounder Mack Flavelle, as previously reported by The Block.

“Cyber Gal” by Ilse Valfré

Meta-owned Instagram’s announcement earlier this month that it will host a digital collectible (NFT) marketplace could end up becoming a major milestone in bringing the world of crypto-asset ownership to a larger consumer base.

The social media giant’s move has coincided with efforts by Twitter and Reddit to also bring NFTs to mainstream consumers. The trial program, which will initially utilize the Polygon blockchain, kicks off with a small set of U.S.-based creators, including Valfré. Instagram also said it will not charge fees on NFT sales until 2024.

Growing up in the small border town of Playas De Tijuana, located near the Mexican-U.S. border below San Diego, Valfré is no stranger to NFTs. She dropped a 600-piece collection of hand-drawn character types in April called Valfrélandia.

Valfré also has an expansive commercial operation that includes the sale of stationary, home decor and apparel which feature her art.

© 2022 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.

Djed, Cardano’s first decentralized stablecoin, will go live on the main network in January.

Developers announced the move at the Cardano Summit event in Lausanne, Switzerland. Djed is a decentralized stablecoin soft-pegged to the U.S. dollar that will exist on Cardano’s Layer 1 blockchain.

Backed with crypto assets instead of fiat money, Djed has been developed by a firm called Coti in collaboration with Cardano lead developer Input Output. 

The stablecoin has been in development for more than two years. Once launched, Cardano users will be able to take ADA — the native cryptocurrency of the Cardano network — and use it as collateral to mint the stablecoin. 

The stablecoin is designed to be overcollateralized, meaning that it is backed by excess collateral in the form of cryptocurrency held in a reserve. This is a similar design used by dai, the most popular decentralized stablecoin in the Ethereum ecosystem. Each Djed will require more than 400% in collateral value to be minted. 

“Djed takes what’s great with crypto as collateral, meaning no fiat in the system, but also takes over-collaterization very seriously,” Coti CEO Shahaf Bar-Geffen told The Block. 

At its launch, Djed will be integrated into 40 apps in the Cardano ecosystem, Bar-Geffen said. The launch will also come with the introduction of DjedPay, a service that will let merchants and other crypto players accept Djed payments. 

© 2022 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.