FreeCryptoCurrency.Me

Audius, a decentralized music firm with Katy Perry, The Chainsmokers and other music giants as investors, has acquired the virtual music experience platform SoundStage. 

Audius intends to bolster its presence in the metaverse by providing virtual concerts through this acquisition. 

“For the first time, Audius artists will be able to offer an interactive live music experience to their fans, further cementing Audius as the best place for creators to aggregate and serve their fanbases,” Audius CEO and co-founder Roneil Rumburg told The Block. “Soundstage.fm is an exciting addition to the suite of tools Audius offers for artists to create new and different experiences for their fans.”

Audius raised over $5 million in funding from notable music industry giants such as Katy Perry, The Chainsmokers, Nas, Jason Derulo and Sony Music’s former CEO Martin Mandier in September of 2021, as The Block previously reported.

© 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.

Major League Baseball (MLB), an American professional baseball association composed of 30 teams, is looking to hire someone to spearhead digital gaming, NFT and metaverse licensing projects. 

The position includes executing strategic partnerships to expand the MLB’s digital portfolio in NFTs, metaverse, wearable technology and AR/VR offerings, according to a LinkedIn post, suggesting that the MLB will look to broaden its digital asset launches and metaverse presence in the future. 

The MLB has made some other splashes in web3 this year. In January, the League started selling NFTs via a partnership with Candy Digital, a digital collectibles company co-founded by major web3 executives Mike Novogratz, Gary Vaynerchuk and Michael Rubin. 

The MLB also teamed up with the NFT-based fantasy sports firm Sorare to sell collectable NFTs of MLB players, becoming Sorare’s official NFT baseball partner.

© 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 Moola Market hacker has returned the majority of funds that were stolen though an exploit.

On Tuesday, Moola Market, a lending protocol on the Celo blockchain, suffered an $8.4 million exploit. Hours later, the attacker returned 93.1% of the stolen funds ($7.8 million) to Moola’s wallet.

“Following today’s incident, 93.1% of the funds have been returned to the Moola governance multi-sig,” the team tweeted.

The attacker kept the remaining funds some 700,000 CELO tokens ($518,000) as a negotiated bounty reward that the team had previously offered.

How the Moola attack unfolded

The attacker took advantage of the low liquidity of MOO, the native token on Moola’s lending protocol on the Celo blockchain. They inflated the value of MOO on a decentralized exchange called Ubeswap and leveraged the tokens as collateral to drain user assets deposited into the protocol, according to Igor Igamberdiev, research director of data at The Block.

More specifically, the attacker started out with 243,000 CELO tokens ($182,000) held in their address on the Celo network. The next step was depositing 60,000 CELO tokens on Moola and borrowing 1.8 million MOO tokens. The attacker then used their remaining CELO tokens to rapidly inflate the price of MOO.

The perpetrator moved on to leverage the increased value of their MOO tokens as collateral to borrow other assets in a loop. By using just $182,000 in CELO, they were able to drain 8.8 million CELO ($6.5 million), 765,000 cEUR ($700,000), 1.8 million MOO ($600,000), and 644,000 cUSD ($600,000) from Moola Market, per on-chain transactions.

While the project has recovered most of its funds, the activity on the lending protocol remains paused for the time being. The lending service will be resumed only after community discussions on the next steps, the team noted. Moola Market raised $1.4 million in a seed round led by Polychain Capital and Flori Ventures in March 2021.

© 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.

Celsius’ former head of policy and regulatory affairs, Aaron Iovine, has landed a new job as executive director for digital assets regulatory policy at JPMorgan, according to a report by Bloomberg Law.

Iovine spent eight months at the bankrupt cryptocurrency lender from February to September this year. He previously held a similar position at regional lender Cross Bank River.

The Block contacted JPMorgan to confirm the move but had not heard back before press time. 

The role at the JPMorgan is a newly created one announced just weeks after JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon branded crypto tokens “decentralised Ponzis.” Celsius filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York in July and proceedings are ongoing.

While he may be moving on, Iovine seemingly has unfinished business with Celsius. A bankruptcy docket showing list of unsecured creditors with claims against the company includes Iovine’s name.

Celsius has incurred more than $3 million in legal fees throughout the proceedings. Between July 13 and July 31 alone, law firm Kirkland & Ellis charged the crypto lender almost $2.6 million in fees. Another legal representative, Akin Gump billed the company almost $750,000 for services between July 13 and August 31.

© 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.

Marie-Anne Barbat-Layani, a former banking lobbyist, received the green light from the two houses of the French parliament to lead the nation’s Financial Markets Authority (autorité des marchés financiers) on Wednesday. Her role will include overseeing the registration of crypto firms in France.

Barbat-Layani begins her non-renewable, five-year term after a vote of 20 in favor, one against in the Senate, and 35 to 27 in the National Assembly. She will replace Robert Ophèle, whose term came to a close at the end of July. 

Barbat-Layani has worked in both the public sector – including a post as a financial attaché in France’s permanent representation office for the European Union (EU) – and in the private sector, notably as the managing director of the French Banking Federation.

The French finance authority has previously expressed great interest in the EU’s comprehensive Markets in Crypto-Assets legislation for the regulation of cryptocurrencies and service providers, which will most likely roll out in 2024. 

The provisions under MiCA are “all the more necessary since the French system for registering service providers on digital assets is showing its limits,” the AMF said in a statement in May.

In the last month, France saw one of its major banks, Société Générale, obtain regulatory approval to operate as a digital asset service provider. Crypto exchanges Binance and Crypto.com also saw their registration approved this year.

While France is taking steps towards creating a fintech-friendly hub, Barbat-Layani also warned that crypto firms can also have their licenses taken away, as an integral feature of the system, CoinDesk reported.

Paris-based crypto service provider, Bykep, had its registration with the AMF withdrawn due to “failure” to comply with anti-money laundering provisions on September 27. However, their LinkedIn page highlights their registration with the AMF.

© 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 Aptos Foundation conducted a retroactive token airdrop overnight to reward early network participants.

The foundation allocated 20.1 million APT tokens as an airdrop late Tuesday ET, representing 2% of its initial total supply of 1 billion APT, according to an announcement on Twitter. These tokens had a value of $200 million to $260 million based on the token’s market price shortly after the airdrop opened.

A total 110,235 crypto addresses on Aptos were eligible to receive the airdrop across two categories. This first category included users that finished applying to the Aptos incentivized testnet and these users can claim 300 APT tokens. The second eligible category consists of users rewarded 150 APT tokens for minting an Aptos Zero NFT on the testnet.

Founded by former Meta employees, Aptos raised $150 million in July. Aptos’s proof-of-stake blockchain leverages the Move smart contract programming language, claiming to offer high performance. The network, secured by 102 block validators, had its genesis transaction take place on Oct. 12. Before the mainnet release, the network went through a vigorous incentivized test network program beginning in May, which consisted of three separate phases.

For the airdrop, the Aptos team did not implement any mechanism to remove airdrop hunters or sybil users  — people who interact with crypto projects solely in the hopes of claiming future airdrops. Such hunters do so by creating many wallet addresses that perform one transaction on these projects so as to qualify for any future retroactive airdrop from several accounts. These airdrop hunters often sell the tokens immediately upon receiving them, an action that can drive down the price of the coin. 

The airdrop came after Aptos announced details of the APT token distribution and provided clarity for the first time on how many tokens will be directed to each of the project’s stakeholders. In a summary version, the team said that the “initial total supply” of the Aptos token will be 1 billion tokens, to be distributed between investors, the Aptos Foundation, core contributors, and a community pool.

APT token traded down 40% after the token was listed on exchanges, dropping from $13.7 to $8.3 at the time of writing. Currently, Aptos has a fully diluted market capitalization of $8.3 billion.

© 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.

Japan’s cryptocurrency regulator plans to relax rules pertaining to the listing of coins and tokens. 

Currently, cryptocurrency exchanges that want to list coins or tokens must have them screened by the Japan Virtual and Crypto assets Exchange Association (JVCEA). Moreover, just over 50 crypto assets are allowed to be traded in Japan, per its regulatory rules. 

According to documents seen by Bloomberg, the JVCEA plans to allow exchanges to list tokens without going through this lengthy process. It also said that the relaxed rules could come into effect as early as December, with the documents already being distributed to member firms. 

Bloomberg spoke to Vice Chairman of the JVCEA Genki Oda who confirmed these documents. He also said that it could scrap pre-screenings for Japan’s new coins by March 2024, as well as for tokens issued through ICOs.

Once the JVCEA’s planned measure on relaxing token screening comes into place, exchanges should be able to list tokens within 30 days of reporting their listing plan and coin assessments, with this being shortened to within two weeks from April, continued Oda. 

The regulatory relaxation follows recent moves in the country’s cryptocurrency space. Last week, a web3 developer platform raised $15.5 million to expand to Japan, citing its regulatory clarity. Binance is also said to be seeking a license in the country, with rival firm FTX launching services for its Japanese customers in June. 

© 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.

Episode 101 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded at Converge22 with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Castle Island Ventures Founding Partner Nic Carter.

Listen below, and subscribe to The Scoop on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Email feedback and revision requests to podcast@theblockcrypto.com.

Back in July, controversy broke out amongst Bitcoiners when Nic Carter — a long-time bitcoin proponent and Founding Partner of Castle Island Ventures — announced that his firm invested in a Web3 authentication company.

Even though Castle Island recently launched a $250 million fund explicitly for Web3 investments, Carter’s announcement was met with staunch criticism from some members of the Bitcoin community.

In this episode of The Scoop, Nic Carter and host Frank Chaparro discuss some of the philosophical underpinnings of the crypto space, including the similarities between Bitcoin maximalism and religious dogma.

Although Carter himself is a vocal supporter of Bitcoin, he does not elevate it to anything beyond a monetary innovation — this, Carter says, is what separates him from the more zealous members of the community:

“The one part of the community I distance myself from is the part that confuses bitcoin with religious doctrine. I think religion is religion, money is money, and they’re pretty distinct, and they should stay distinct.

The day after the controversy broke out on Twitter, Carter addressed the situation in a Medium article titled, ‘Setting the record straight; or: a eulogy for Bitcoin maximalism.’

In it, he writes:

“I am not pessimistic on Bitcoin. I’m just interested in the world as it actually is, instead of the world of utopias and pleasant delusions.”

During this episode, Carter and Chaparro also discuss:

• What’s wrong with fiat-pegged stablecoins
• Why the measurement of crypto metrics can be misleading
• How regulation will impact the industry

This episode is brought to you by our sponsors Tron

About Tron
TRON is dedicated to accelerating the decentralization of the internet via blockchain technology and decentralized applications (dApps). Founded in September 2017 by H.E. Justin Sun, the TRON network has continued to deliver impressive achievements since MainNet launch in May 2018. July 2018 also marked the ecosystem integration of BitTorrent, a pioneer in decentralized web3 services boasting over 100 million monthly active users. The TRON network completed full decentralization in December 2021 and is now a community-governed DAO. | TRONDAO | Twitter | Discord |

© 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 Israeli Ministry of Finance’s Office of the Accountant General and Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) are preparing to test out using digital state bonds.

The two have established a joint team to pilot the clearing of the bonds on a new blockchain technology-backed platform for the trading of digital assets, according to a statement on Wednesday.

The test will look at how blockchain technology can streamline processes, reduce costs, shorten the duration of issuance and clearing of state bonds, improve transparency and mitigate risks.

Israeli startup and blockchain infrastructure company Fireblocks and multi-cloud service provider VMware will assist with the study. The latter’s blockchain technology was used in the Bank of Israel’s trial issuance of a digital shekel earlier this year.

TASE and the Ministry of Finance said they have been following the developments in the financial markets in recent years around distributed ledger technology, the tokenizing of different types of assets and the various tests run by financial institutions and central banks worldwide concerning the issuance of Central Bank Digital Currency, or CBDC.

“The current project kicks off the journey into this new world, allowing a first and important foothold that will serve as the foundation for the upgrading of other traditional mechanisms down the road,” TASE said in a statement.

© 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 bank holding company Silvergate Capital no longer plans to launch its long-awaited stablecoin before the year’s end, CEO Alan Lane said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Tuesday. 

La Jolla, Calif.-based Silvergate Capital, the parent of Silvergate Bank, announced it was working on its own payments-focused stablecoin in January after acquiring related intellectual property, infrastructure and tools from blockchain payment network developer Diem Group. Diem’s U.S. subsidiary first announced a partnership with Silvergate Capital in May 2021.

The delay is not due to technical issues, Lane said during the call, underscoring that the technology was ready when Silvergate acquired it from Diem. Instead, it appears to be related to preparing the stablecoin for regulatory compliance. 

“It’s working with the regulators and with policymakers, and just making sure that we’ve got this right,” Lane said. “We still feel very strongly that we are in the best position of any other bank out there to launch a regulatory-compliant, safe and sound, tokenized dollar on the blockchain.”  

Regulatory discussions focus on how the stablecoin market would grow significantly if payments were to become a prominent use case for these digital assets, Silvergate Bank’s Chief Strategy Officer Ben Reynolds said. That dialogue addresses questions about what stablecoin payments would look like at scale, what kind of risk-based approach would be needed, how funds would be invested and what kind of consumer protections would be sufficient. 

“What’s become clear to regulators and policymakers is that using the technology for payments is a massive opportunity at a massive scale that really dwarfs the $150 billion that’s available today,” he said.  

Interest in stablecoin regulation has ramped up over the past few months, especially since the Terra ecosystem and its algorithmic stablecoin collapsed in May. However, a timeline for any forthcoming legislation remains to be seen. While a congressional stablecoin bill is in the works, Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., said on Tuesday at a financial conference that it would be unlikely to pass anytime soon due to elections. 

Silvergate’s Lane did not provide an updated timeline for launching its stablecoin. He said the bank would work closely with regulators to make sure it doesn’t “hit any speed bumps along the way.”

Silvergate’s stock fell Tuesday after the company reported a third-quarter earnings per share (EPS) figure that missed analysts’ estimates. 

© 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.