FreeCryptoCurrency.Me

Quick Take

• Rapid Insights provide a deeper analysis of the current crypto landscape in a timely fashion
• On October 17th, Aptos Labs announced the successful launch of the Aptos mainnet that had been conducted several days earlier on October 12th
• Following consecutive announcements from major exchanges for the spot market listing of the Aptos network’s native APT token, considerable attention became directed toward the absence of information on APT token economics
• In this piece we take a detailed look at the latest updates to APT token supply and emission

Disclaimer: This is a market commentary research piece and includes opinionated views from our research team. Nothing contained in this piece constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer by The Block Research

This research piece is available exclusively to
members of The Block Research.
You can continue reading
this Research content on The Block Research.

Silvergate Capital’s shares fell after the company released its third-quarter earnings statement Tuesday and reported earnings per share (EPS) below analyst estimates. 

Silvergate shares were down about 20% Tuesday afternoon after the company discussed its results during a conference call. Silvergate reported EPS of $1.28 in its third-quarter earnings presentation, compared with analysts’ consensus estimate of $1.41 via S&P Capital IQ.

The La Jolla, Calif.-based crypto bank reported net income of $43.3 million, up from $38.6 million in the previous quarter and $23.5 million in the same three-month period of 2021. Net income available to common shareholders in the third quarter came in at a record $40.6 million. 

Transfers via Silvergate’s real-time settlement network totaled $112.6 billion in the third quarter, which represents a 41% decrease compared with the previous three-month period and a 30% decline from the third quarter of 2021.

“While volumes on the Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN) decreased this quarter compared to the overall industry, we remain confident in the power of our platform and the opportunities for expansion within the network,” Silvergate CEO Alan Lane said in a statement. “We continued to see demand for our SEN Leverage product and growth in our new customer pipeline, a testament to the strength of our platform against a challenging backdrop in the broader digital asset industry.”

Silvergate reported a 35% decline in transfers on its payment network in the first quarter compared with the previous three-month period. Activity picked up again in the second quarter, with transfers increasing 34% quarter over quarter.

© 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.

Money laundering, fraud, and banking crime were charges brought against individuals connected to fugitive OneCoin founder Ruja Ignatova in the multibillion-dollar fraud case focused on the Ponzi scheme.

A Munich-based lawyer who allegedly transferred €20 million ($19.7 million) on Ignatova’s behalf to the Cayman Islands towards the purchase of two London apartments and a husband and wife that allegedly handled €320 million ($315.4 million) OneCoin customer payments over a year had their day in German court to face the charges. Bloomberg first reported the news.

Ignatova, who remains at large, perpetrated the scam in an effort to defraud her customers by falsely claiming OneCoin was a cryptocurrency, the value of which users could determine via market mechanisms, said prosecutors.

At one time, customers were led to believe that 50,000 OneCoins were minted per minute, according to the indictment. However, prosecutors declared as false the increasing value of OneCoin and simulated by software.

An expert analysis estimated that investor harm from OneCoin’s operations may have exceeded $4 billion.

Other jurisdictions are also seeking charges amid an ongoing, global OneCoin investigation. In August, U.S. authorities opted to move ahead with the extradition of Ignatov associate Christopher Hamilton, who is accused of laundering $105 million.

© 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.

Quick Take

• Rapid Insights provide a deeper analysis of the current crypto landscape in a timely fashion.
• Chiru Labs has launched an open-source token standard that bridges the physical and digital worlds.
• Coined Physical Backed Token (PBT), the standard integrates a cryptographic chip that allows for a more persistent physical-digital product link.
• This initiative could reinvigorate its decaying business model that has taken a hit from vanishing royalty revenues.
• Disclaimer: This is a market commentary research piece and includes opinionated views from our research team. Nothing contained in this piece constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer by The Block Research

This research piece is available exclusively to
members of The Block Research.
You can continue reading
this Research content on The Block Research.

Stardust, a platform that provides development tools for crypto-powered game makers, raised $30 million in a funding round led by Framework Ventures.

Acrew Capital, Blockchain Capital and Distributed Global also took part in the Series A round, Bloomberg first reported. No valuation was given. 

Stardust’s self-professed goal is to become the de-facto infrastructure layer on which blockchain-based games are built. The platform offers a suite of tools that it says removes the difficult building process associated with blockchain development for crypto gaming applications.

Stardust raised $5 million in a seed round in 2021.

“I think web3 gaming will result both in the creation of new and interesting assets as well as exciting, consumer-friendly apps that will definitely be more appealing in terms of onboarding new, less-native crypto users,” Framework co-founder Vance Spencer told The Block.

Venture backers seem to agree. The crypto gaming and NFT space has been the largest investment sector across all venture funding for the past two quarters, according to The Block Research.

© 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.

Avalanche subnets can now let validators stake and earn rewards with the subnet’s own native token, due to the implementation of the Banff upgrade today.

The upgrade provides subnet creators with more customization and control over their ecosystems. Subnets are application-specific blockchains within the wider Avalanche ecosystem. Each subnet can have its own purpose, its own set of validators and its own level of security. Subnet validators must also validate the main Avalanche blockchain. 

The key difference following Banff is that subnet validators — for participating subnets — won’t necessarily need to stake AVAX tokens to earn rewards. They will only need to stake the subnet’s native token. 

This change won’t immediately apply to all subnets. In order for a subnet to operate in this way, the subnet creator has to change it into an elastic subnet — a one-time transformation that forces the creator to relinquish the ability to modify the subnet in the future.

The Banff upgrade is a hard fork. Validators will need to upgrade to the latest version or face being marked as offline and see diminishing rewards.

The upgrade also gives subnet creators the ability to remove validators from a subnet before their staking period ends.

© 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.

A stablecoin bill is not passing any time soon, Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., said during a financial conference on Tuesday.

The bill is “not happening this Congress,” said Himes, who sits on the House Financial Services Committee. The lawmaker made the remarks during CoinDesk’s Investing in Digital Enterprises and Assets Summit.

“It’s probably not happening in early 2023,” Himes said, later noting:

“Four years ago if you said Bitcoin, crypto and DeFi in the halls of Congress, nobody would have known what you were talking about. The progress that has been made in Congress is pretty remarkable.”

Lawmakers on Himes’ committee have been working behind the scenes for months to draft a stablecoin bill. The Biden administration has also taken a closer look at stablecoins in recent months, as demonstrated through a series of digital asset reports it has released over the last two months. 

© 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.

Quick Take

• Founded in 2018, TaxBit provides crypto tax and accounting solutions for retail and institutional clients (greater focus on providing up-to-date institutional products for public and private sector clients)
• TaxBit announced its $100 million Series A round in March 2021 and its $130 million Series B round (at a $1.33 billion valuation) in August 2021
• TaxBit and other service providers are waiting for additional clarification on the scope of the new crypto provisions (i.e., November 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) – anticipating stricter regulations in the future, TaxBit has been strategically positioning itself to meet the reporting needs of large international companies active in the crypto space, both in the U.S. and abroad
• TaxBit is continuing to invest and build its Corporate Accounting Solution (CAS) and its government-focused business alongside international expansion

This research piece is available exclusively to
members of The Block Research.
You can continue reading
this Research content on The Block Research.

Quick Take

• The Block Research analyzed a total of 546 blockchain-related investment deals in Q3’22 to identify which crypto funds have been the most active
• The top 10 investors have remained relatively unchanged, with FTX Ventures, Hashkey Capital, and KuCoin Ventures replacing Shima Capital, Dragonfly Capital, and a16z.
• Most active investors have collectively scaled down investment (-29% since Q2; -45% since Q1) which is in line with the rest of the venture capital market
• NFTs/Gaming and DeFi categories remain the most popular, although Infrastructure and Web3 share has increased

This research piece is available exclusively to
members of The Block Research.
You can continue reading
this Research content on The Block Research.

The European Commission announced that the European Union’s member states must prepare to halt crypto mining “in case there is a need for load shedding in the electricity systems”, according to an action plan on digitalizing the EU’s energy system released on Tuesday.

With the war in Ukraine adding stress to energy supplies in Europe, the commission wants countries to prepare to lower the electricity consumption of crypto miners, with the possibility that mining operations could be ordered to completely halt in areas where electrical grids are forced to load shed. 

In the longer term, the commission also wants EU members to look into ending current tax breaks and subsidies for proof-of-work miners. 

The European Commission also announced its proposal to introduce a rating system for cryptocurrencies according to environmental impact within the European Union. The taxonomy system is part of the EU’s green deal; an effort by policy leaders to meet high-bar climate goals. In the plan issued today, EU leaders pointed to The Merge of Ethereum moving from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake as an example of the changes it hopes to see in blockchain ecosystem energy consumption. The commission says will collaborate internationally with different standardization bodies to develop the energy-efficiency label.

If approved, the scheme is set to roll out in 2025.

The rating scheme came together as a compromise on proof-of-work consensus mechanism between policymakers during debate over the Markets in Crypto-Assets legislation in March. 

© 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.