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The founders of a short-lived NFT marketplace for “fantasy startup investing” raised $1.5 million in funding for Job Protocol, a new decentralized recruitment network. 

Buoyed by the highs of 2021’s bull market, Jacob Claerhout and Boris Gordts launched Visionrare in October last year. The platform aimed to allow users to buy fake shares — represented by NFTs — of real-life startups such as OpenSea, Deel and Multis. 

Visionrare didn’t last long, shutting down within 24 hours of its open beta going live, amid questions over whether the platform was offering securities. During this period, the Europe-based founders said they received a call from U.S. regulators, which helped them understand some of the regulatory and legal hurdles the pair would need to clear if they pursued the project further. 

“Upon launching, we learned that the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) highly frowned upon what we were doing,” Claerhout said in an interview with The Block. “We realized it’s going to be as costly and time-consuming to get the regulatory approvals to be able to launch this as a game than it would be to launch a real startup equity tokenization platform.”  

The two founders see the ordeal as a learning experience that proved they could work together under pressure, noting that it’s part of the role of a founder to try new things and move on if they don’t stick.

Everybody makes mistakes

But not every founder stages failed experiments so publicly. Even Bloomberg’s Matt Levine weighed in on the startup’s troubles in his column Money Stuff. 

After refunding all their users and ultimately canning plans to make Visionrare free-to-play, the two launched Job Protocol in April. And thanks to a pre-seed round led by Tioga Capital, Job Protocol is valued at $7.5 million, said the founders. The eleven-month-old Portal Ventures and Syndicate One, an angel network, also participated in the funding round.

Job Protocol allows companies to list bounties for filling open roles, ranging from web3 full stack engineer at Multis, to VP of Technology at BNB Chain Labs. Bounties are paid in USDC to anybody that refers a successful candidate, with the largest available on the website currently listed at $25,000. The full bounty is only sent after the candidate stays in their role for more than 90 days. 

Much like their previous project, it’s ambitious in that it aims to do away with the need for in-house recruiters — a classic ‘cut out the middleman’ approach. 

Unperturbed by the crypto downturn, Claerhout said that he sees an opportunity in the recent layoffs sweeping crypto, with smaller companies without in-house recruiters still increasing hiring. So far, Job Protocol has helped fill 15 roles at companies such as AllianceDAO, Footium and Superfluid.

With the funding, the company itself plans to hire engineers and operational managers to build systems that reward recruiters and companies for introducing Job Protocol to others. It’s also seeking to integrate with either a Layer 2 solution on Ethereum or the Cosmos ecosystem. 

© 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.

Crypto exchange Bitmex is set to launch trading of its native BMEX token on Nov. 11 after first announcing it last year.

Bitmex said on Tuesday that the token will be used to reward customers, as the company aims to regain market share in the derivatives space. Rewards will be offered in the form of trading fee discounts, withdrawal fee waivers, improved staking rewards and access to new products and services, said Bitmex.

The exchange first announced the BMEX token in December last year and started airdropping to users in February. Bitmex today said it has airdropped “millions of BMEX to over 80,000 traders” since February. In June, the company delayed the listing of its token, citing “market conditions.” But now is the right time to launch, according to Bitmex’s chief marketing officer Benjamin Usinger, who said in a statement that the exchange “would like to contribute to growth in liquidity and revitalize the crypto markets.”

Bitmex will list the BMEX/USDT pair on its recently launched spot exchange on Friday, and also launch two new perpetual swaps — BMEXUSDT and BMEXUSD — on its derivatives platform.

The token listing comes with Bitmex, once a top crypto derivatives exchange, struggling to regain its standing in the market after a number of legal battles in the last few years. Bitmex once claimed around 35% of the open interest across bitcoin futures, according to data from The Block Research. Now it only holds around 2% of market share, with other players eating its lunch.

It remains to be seen whether the token listing will help Bitmex return to its former glory. The exchange recently lost its CEO Alexander Hoptner and cut 30% of its staff as part of a plan to refocus on the crypto derivatives market.

© 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.

FTT, the token created by crypto exchange FTX, dropped sharply the past hour.

The token’s price fell 19%, from roughly $22 to below $18 shortly after 10:00 p.m. ET, according to data tracked by CoinGecko.

The news comes amid a high profile standoff between FTX and Binance, two of the crypto sector’s biggest exchanges. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said in a tweet on Nov. 6 that the exchange would begin selling off its FTT holdings following “recent revelations” — seemingly in reference to an earlier report from CoinDesk that revealed details of Alameda Research’s balance sheet. Alameda is a crypto trading firm, which is owned by FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried. 

After Zhao’s tweets, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried tried to calm the market. He said yesterday that the exchange is “fine,” and called for FTX and Binance to work together for the good of the industry. Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison had offered to buy Binance’s FTT holdings at $22 per token.

In a note published Nov. 7, market maker B2C2 said the price of Solana and FTT may become the most important data points for monitoring the trajectory of the crypto market this week. Traders in the market are concerned that a drop in the price of FTT could have a knock-off effect on Alameda, which holds billions of dollars worth of the token on its balance sheet. 

Such a decline could impact the exchange to which it is tied, FTX. Already, the firm has struggled with withdrawals. FTX said in a recent tweet, however, that the withdrawals queue “is decreasing and getting back to more reasonable levels; nodes and banks catching up.”

FTX was contacted for comment but did not respond by 10:40 p.m. ET. 

© 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 company Riot Blockchain fell short in the third quarter, missing analyst targets for revenue.

Riot posted a net loss of $36.6 million, or 24 cents a share, compared to $15.3 million, or 16 cents a share, from a year earlier, the company said. Revenue dipped 28% to $46.3 million, missing what Bloomberg said was a $54.2 million analyst expectation.

Despite the decreasing revenue, Riot is still in relatively strong shape compared to other mining firms. Iris Energy faces default claims, Core Scientific warned it might have trouble paying its debts and Argo said it was in a similar position. Over the past year, most bitcoin mining company stocks tracked by The Block fell as bitcoin traded down, lately falling to around $20,600.

BTCUSD chart by TradingView.

Riot saw gains from third quarter power curtailment credits received by selling energy back to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, earning the company $13.1 million, likely helped by curtailed energy use during the state’s heatwave this summer.

In after hours trading, Riot shares fell around 1.5% to $5.75, according to Yahoo Finance. Over the last year, Riot shares have plummeted from a high of $44.19, a nearly 86% decline.

© 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 price of Solana (SOL) fell 9% amid a spat between the founders of Binance and FTX crypto exchanges, Changpeng Zhao and Sam Bankman-Fried.

SolUSD chart by TradingView.

Aggregate open interest across SOL, of which $3.37 billion appear on the balance sheet of Alameda, also fell just over 13% over the last four hours, data from Coinglass show.

The token’s prominence on the Alameda balance sheet came to light in a CoinDesk report which touched off the apparent spat between CZ and Bankman-Fried that started over the weekend and spilled into today. The report exposed a number of large positions the company holds in illiquid assets, notably FTT, a token created by FTX, and the Solana tokens. Alameda is also owned by Bankman-Fried.

The report caused concerns over the trading firm’s capacity to cover its debt positions, and any ensuing systemic instability, likely further exacerbated by the revelation from Zhao that Binance would exit its FTX-based positions. 

Trading firm B2C2 noted earlier that the prices of SOL and FTT tokens may more immediately steer crypto markets even more than the coming Consumer Price Index print, as the renowned founders duked it out over social media.

Despite trader reactions to the row between founders, trading on FTX relatively stabilized amid Monday’s market activity.

© 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.

Crypto-focused bank Silvergate promoted a new president and chief risk officer just a few weeks after it posted earnings that missed estimates. 

The firm—which banks for a wide-range of crypto trading firms and brokers—said that it promoted Ben Reynolds to the role of president and appointed Kate Fraher as its chief risk officer. Fraher previously served as chief operating officer at the La Jolla, Calif.-based firm, while Reynolds was chief strategy officer. Reynolds and Fraher will continue to report to CEO Alan Lane. 

It’s not clear whether Reynolds and Fraher are replacing executives who have left. Silvergate did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reynolds previously held roles at KPMG and HSBC, while Fraher—who joined Silvergate in 2006—has over 20 years of experience in banking. 

Silvergate posted third quarter earnings in October that came in under Wall Street’s estimates, noting that it will likely not launch its own stablecoin before the end of the year. Silvergate has long identified profits tied to stablecoins as a big opportunity for the firm, which purchased assets and technology from Diem, the project incubated by Facebook’s (now Meta) once lauded crypto project Diem. Diem shut down in January. 

Silvergate closed at $49.50 per share, a far cry from its all-time high above $230 at the end of last year. 

© 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 down to start the week, while bitcoin was trading at around $20,806 by market close, according to data from TradingView.

BTCUSD chart by TradingView

Elsewhere, Iris Energy said two of its miners received a notice of default on more than $100 million in debt. The mining operator said that the lender alleges they have failed to enter into “good faith” debt restructuring negotiations, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Last week the firm warned of the possible default notice, noting the miners generate $2 million bitcoin a month — $5 million short of the monthly payment. 

Here’s how crypto mining companies performed on Monday, Nov. 7:

© 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.

BlockFi is bringing back its popular high yield crypto savings account almost nine months after the SEC fined the fintech, thanks to a loophole. And this time it will only target America’s wealthiest investors. 

The firm said only U.S. accredited investor clients – about 13% of households – would be able to earn interest through BlockFi Yield, which offers rates on 15 different cryptocurrencies. The firm described the yields as “competitive.”

BlockFi is offering the product through an exemption “from the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933.”

The move comes after BlockFi said that it would register Yield—formerly known as the BlockFi Interest Account—with the SEC, which in February slapped the fintech with a $100 million fine. Prior to the SEC’s penalty, BlockFi made headlines for various state-wide investigations into whether its offering was tantamount to a security.

BlockFi was among the several lending firms hobbled by the crypto credit crisis that sent rivals including Celsius and Voyager into bankruptcy. Both firms also offered interest account-like products. While BlockFi was able to navigate the credit crunch without closing access to withdrawals, it did enter into an acquisition agreement with crypto exchange operator FTX for capital support. 

BlockFi co-founder Flori Marquez told The Block the firm has “has always prioritized protecting client funds.”

“While the events of the summer were a true test of our risk protocols, we are confident in our prudent and proactive risk management framework as we lead the industry forward,” she said. “We are committed to education and transparency and have proactively taken steps to strengthen our risk position by increasing our risk management disclosures and educational content.”

© 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 price of Solana and FTT might end up being the most important data points for the trajectory of the crypto market this week, according to B2C2. 

In a note published Monday, the market maker joined a chorus of firms raising questions in the wake of the clash between Binance’s Changpeng “CZ” Zhao and FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried. 

“The market is now asking the question of whether the value of the FTT collateral is really high enough for the loans it is backing, and if not, what would become of Alameda and FTX,” B2C2 noted, referring to CoinDesk’s reporting that the balance sheet of Alameda comprised of “a $2.16 billion pile of FTT collateral.” Other assets on the balance sheet include more than $3.37 billion of Solana, according to CoinDesk. 

In B2C2’s view, the price of FTT and Solana might have a more meaningful impact on the direction of the crypto market to the down side than a bearish Consumer Price Index (CPI) print. A higher CPI print than expected could trigger a broader sell off in asset prices. 

Here’s B2C2 (emphasis is our own):

“And despite the wider markets obvious focus on CPI as the week’s most important data point, given the public spat between the founders of the world’s two biggest crypto exchanges, it might just turn out that the most important numbers for crypto this week are the prices of two mid cap coins: FTT and SOL. Weakness below current levels, around $22 and $31 respectively, could signal a risk that crypto is facing another washout to the downside.“

Alameda’s exposure to FTT — juxtaposed with CZ’s announcement that he would offload Binance’s position in the crypto — spooked traders on Sunday, with many telling The Block they moved funds off FTX as a way to de-risk in the event of a further drawdown on FTT. 

Bankman-Fried insisted his crypto exchange was “fine” after rival Binance’s announcement. 

“A competitor is trying to go after us with false rumors,” Bankman-Fried tweeted. “FTX is fine. Assets are fine. FTX has enough to cover all client holdings. We don’t invest client assets (even in treasuries). We have been processing all withdrawals, and will continue to be.”

© 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.

Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said he’s surprised by reactions to the weekend announcement that his firm would start selling off holdings of FTX’s FTT token.

“Little did I know it was going to be ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back,” he wrote on Twitter. “The fact that it sparked such levels of  ‘discussions’ was surprising.”

With tensions between Binance and FTX simmering, CZ said he’s focused on “building, not fighting.”

“Funny memes, media & some people tried to color this as a `fight,'” he wrote. “Sorry to disappoint.”

FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has said his exchange is “fine,” with a competitor “trying to go after us with false rumors.”

The price of FTX’s native token FTT showed some signs of resilience, trading in the green earlier Monday before declining .7% to $22.11 at 4:20 pm EST, according to TradingView.

© 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.