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Cameron Winklevoss left his spot on Gemini Europe’s board of directors, AltFi reports, citing a Companies House filing. The investor, billionaire and co-founder of crypto exchange Gemini officially stopped being the director of its European branch on October 12. A spokesperson from the company confirmed the news to AltFi via email.

Cameron Winklevoss and his twin brother, Tyler Winklevoss, remain President and CEO at Gemini. The pair established the crypto exchange in 2014.

Gemini’s latest Europe-related news follows last week’s expansion into Ireland. The exchange became the first virtual assets service provider on October 11. 

Looking further at company movements, Gillian Lynch stepped up as the new lead for Gemini’s European branch on October 14 after the former head, Blair Halliday, shifted over to the Kraken crypto exchange. 

© 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 100 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Ledn Co-Founder & CSO Mauricio Di Bartolomeo.

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.

After a tumultuous first half of the year, the crypto lending market is maturing, according to Ledn Co-Founder and CSO Mauricio Di Bartolomeo.

In this episode of The Scoop, Bartolomeo shares his insider perspective on the state of crypto lending, including what types of lending he reckons involves the least amount of risk.

The liquidity crisis following the collapse of Three Arrows Capital earlier this year has the surviving lenders thinking more seriously about risk management, according to Bartolomeo.

“Right now there is a huge focus on risk management — everybody is tightening up their covenants, everybody is trying to ensure that this doesn’t happen again — and I think that has brought the space to a more balanced equilibrium,” he said.

Out of the various sources of demand for crypto loans, Bartolomeo stated that delta-neutral market makers provide some of the best opportunities, given such market making strategies do not rely on the market moving in a particular direction.

“The entities that performed the best typically were these high-quality market makers that take non-directional positions… that is the type of activity that we think is best suited to minimize risk,” Bartolomeo said.

One sign of increasing market maker activity, Bartolomeo explained, is the tightening of average spread on exchanges:

“Today, what you are seeing is that the average spread in most exchanges is getting tighter and tighter and tighter and tighter, and I think this is an expression of how many market makers are now coming in to narrow those gaps,” he added.

During this episode, Chaparro and Bartolomeo also discuss:

• Why Ledn never worked with 3AC
• How Bartolomeo got into crypto by mining BTC in Venezuela
• Borrowing against bitcoin versus real estate

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 ApeCoin DAO is considering whether to push back the launch of NFT and ApeCoin (APE) staking in order to allow for a bug bounty program. 

The bounty program would allocate 1 million APE ($4.5 million) to potential bounties and last 2-4 weeks, according to the proposal by ApeCoin DAO Special Council Member Maaria Bajwa on the project’s governance forum. “ApeCoin staking is going live soon, and though the contract has already been through at least one audit, it is prudent for the DAO to implement a bounty program prior to going live,” said the proposal. “Few weeks delay is a small price for safety,” Bajwa added on Twitter.

ApeCoin staking is one of the biggest upcoming launches for the BAYC community. Holders of Bored Apes and Mutant Apes will be able to stake their NFTs and large amounts of ApeCoin in order to receive staking rewards. Over the next three years, 175 million ApeCoin ($794.5 million) will be distributed to stakers.

The core idea with the proposal is that a bug bounty program would provide more reassurance to ApeCoin holders that the staking implementation will go smoothly — particularly in light of recent smart contract exploits. 

On the governance forum, many voices were in agreement with the idea but asked why it hadn’t been baked in from the start/ “Great idea! Where the heck was this idea MONTHS ago though? Yet another thing to throw at staking to delay it … smh,” said one forum member. “I echo this statement. Why are we just now drafting this idea this late in the game? I am really not in favor of delaying staking any further,” added another.

The whole staking process has already been delayed multiple times. Currently, staking is tentatively scheduled to go live on October 31. If the proposal gets passed, that could push the launch back to early December.

© 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.

Coinbase is hiring the chief operating officer from the fintech platform Solarisbank. Daniel Seifert, Coinbase’s new addition, will serve as the Europe regional managing director, Bloomberg reports.

The role is geared towards achieving international expansion, Nana Murugesan, vice president of international and business development, told Bloomberg. Coinbase successfully registered in the Netherlands in September, and in Italy in July. Murugesan further shared with Bloomberg that the crypto exchange has eyes on France and Spain for regulatory approval next year.

Seifert will take on the post after nearing three years in his COO role at Berlin-based Solarisbank. Previously, he was head of operations and customer support at Swiss investment bank UBS Partner, and an associate partner at consultancy McKinsey & Company, his LinkedIn profile shows.

Coinbase set up a base in Europe in 2018 when it established its Ireland headquarters. In 2019, it gained an Irish e-money license, which gave it passported access to the European Union and the European Economic Area.

© 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.

Nasdaq has threatened to delist bitcoin miner Digihost for trading below $1 for 30 consecutive days, the latest mining company to slip into the danger zone for companies that hope to keep their spots on major U.S. stock exchanges. 

“The Company’s business operations are not affected by the receipt of the Notification Letter and the Company fully intends to resolve the deficiency and regain compliance with the Nasdaq Listing Rules,” Digihost said in a document filed Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The miner has 180 days to regain compliance with Nasdaq listing rules by trading for $1 or more for a period of at least 10 consecutive days. However, it may be eligible for an additional 180 compliance period, the filing said.

Thanks to multiple factors contributing to a downturn in the bitcoin mining industry, Digihost is only the latest company to see its stock listing put in jeopardy.

Two other public miners — Mawson Infrastructure Group and BIT Mining — also need better stock performance to keep their listings on Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), respectively.  

In the past week alone three other bitcoin mining stocks fell under the $1 threshold, while a handful of others are trading only slightly above that. Stock prices for companies tracked by The Block fell significantly over the past week of trading. That could put more in danger of delisting, if the stock price doesn’t recover to over $1 per share. 

Bitcoin mining stocks tend to follow the coin’s price, which has plunged 70% since the all-time high of around $67,550 in November of last year and about 50% in the last six months. This decline, combined with rising power costs, has squeezed profits for bitcoin miners, which have also had to contend with mining difficulty jumping 13.55% last week to an all-time high.

Leadership for the Australia-based Mawson Infrastructure Group projected confidence in maintaining the company’s place on Nasdaq. 

“Per the 8-K, if we trade above $1 for 10 days the issue is cured, or we can simply do a reverse split to cure, so we’re not worried about that,” Nick Hughes-Jones, chief commercial officer at the company, told The Block last month.

The company sold one of its facilities in Georgia to rival CleanSpark, stating that it would focus on its Pennsylvania and Texas sites, where it sees “the opportunity for compelling returns on capital,” said Mawson CEO James Manning.

BIT Mining also sought to reassure investors in August that its stock would recover. 

“Despite the tumultuous market conditions, rest assured that the current stock price will have no impact on our company’s normal business operations and our ability to create value for our investors in the future,” said BIT Mining Chairman Bo Yu said in a statement at the time.

© 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 and ether edged lower this week after whipsawing on Thursday following the latest inflation figures out of the U.S.

Bitcoin was trading at $19,135 today, down 1.33% over the past week, while ether shed 2.15% in the same period to trade at $1,284, according to data via Coinbase. 

Meanwhile, altcoins suffered heavier losses throughout the week, with ADA trading down more than 13% at $0.36 and SOL losing 7.89% to trade at $29.95.

U.S. inflation comes in hot

U.S. inflation data came in hotter-than-expected on Thursday as core inflation hit a 40-year high. 

Inflation was up 0.4% month-on-month from August and the year-on-year reading was 8.2%, according to the latest CPI data. Meanwhile, core inflation came in at 6.6% year-on-year — the biggest increase since 1982. 

Thursday’s data suggests the Fed won’t curb its interest rate hikes anytime soon, with the market now pricing in a 97% chance of a 75 basis points increase at the next meeting in November, according to the CME’s FedWatch tool.

While fear continues to mount, markets don’t seem to be predicting a 100 basis point raise from the Fed just yet, Youwei Yang, chief economist at Bit Mining told The Block.

“We probably won’t see anything like a disorderly dump of stocks, but rather some highly leveraged portfolios decreasing their risk exposures to avoid more extreme volatility. The market overall has been gradually dropping year to date, despite a few small rallies, and many contrarians have already called this the bottom,” Yang said.

source: bls.gov/cpi/

A 75 basis point rate hike would bring the target Fed Funds rate to 3.75-4%, from its current position of 3-3.25%, as seen above and according to data via the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Federal Reserve. 

The target rate is expected to climb well above 4% by the end of the year. JPMorgan’s Marko Kolanovic said on Monday that the Fed policy rates may approach 5% next 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.

Embattled crypto lender Celsius has incurred more than $3 million in legal fees as it moves through Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. 

Between July 13 and July 31, law firm Kirkland and Ellis charged the crypto lender almost $2.6 million in fees as it represented Celsius in Chapter 11 proceedings, according to a document filed on Friday. Another legal representative, Akin Gump, charged almost $750,000 for its services between July 13 and August 31, according to a similar filing. So far, Celsius has incurred legal fees totaling more than $3 million. 

The Block contacted Celsius for comment but had not heard back by the time of publication. 

After pausing withdrawals and transfers in June amid turbulent market conditions, Celsius filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July. Since then, it’s been working its way through a restructuring process and examining ways to pay creditors.

Later reports have revealed considerable financial difficulties with $2.8 billion in crypto liabilities and Kirkland & Ellis projecting that Celsius will be almost $40 million in the red by the close of October.

In September, the company was accused of using a Ponzi-like scheme by the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation, and this month it disclosed the names and trading history of its platform’s users in the latest legal filing. Such events have resulted in Celsius losing much of its senior leadership, with its CEO and co-founder stepping down from the company. 

© 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 hacker of TempleDAO, a protocol that claims it provides sustainable income via staking, has moved stolen funds via crypto mixer Tornado Cash, according to data from Etherscan. 

Earlier this month, one of the staking vaults of TempleDAO was exploited, resulting in 1,830 ETH, or about $2.3 million, being stolen by a hacker. 

First cited by blockchain data firm Peckshield, a roughly equivalent amount of ETH has been transferred from an address identified as that of the TempleDAO hacker to a Tornado Cash router. This began with a deposit of 0.1 ETH that occurred within hours today. 

Tornado Cash is a crypto-mixing service that allows users to obscure the details of transactions. In August, the mixer and the 44  Ethereum and USDC wallets associated with it were sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury, citing its association with high-profile hacks such as the Ronin and Harmony breaches. In particular, it identified these hacks as benefiting North Korea’s Lazarus Group and accused the mixer of laundering more than $455 million for it. 

This latest development in the TempleDAO hack follows a big month of hacks in the cryptocurrency sector. An Oct. 12 report by The Block cited Chainalysis data that showed October is already in the lead for the most crypto funds stolen in a month.

The data cited 11 hacks totaling $718 million occurring this month so far, topping a year that is expected to eclipse the $3 billion stolen in 2021. These include the recent $100 million hack of Binance’s BNB cross-chain bridge and Monday’s $114 million exploit of Mango Markets. 

© 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.

After last week’s annual Devcon in Colombia, it’s well and truly crypto conference season. Next week is no different, with the Digital Asset Summit taking place in London on Monday and Tuesday. 

At the same time, the crypto industry will be carefully watching the fallout from the latest chapter in the Mango Markets drama. Plus, we’ll keep an eye out for hacks, with October already being the worst month in a big year of crypto exploits. 

Watch for news from the Digital Asset Summit

The coming week will see institutional players in finance and digital assets converge in London for the Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit. The conference is scheduled for Oct. 17-18 and will take place at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in the UK’s capital city. 

This event will feature panels and talks from the likes of Aave founder Stani Kulechov, Kaiko CEO Ambre Soubiran and Coinshares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti. Representatives from traditional finance firms including HSBC, BNP Paribas, Morgan Stanley and the London Stock Exchange Group will also speak. 

More Mango Markets drama?

Yesterday, Avraham Eisenberg, the man behind the $114 million exploit on Mango Markets, confirmed his part in orchestrating the attack. It left the protocol insolvent with users’ positions in danger of being liquidated. Following a Mango community vote, Eisenberg will be allowed to keep $47 million of the $114 million that he procured. This is a substantially larger amount than the usual bounties claimed by hackers in exchange for the exploited platforms not pursuing criminal charges. 

While Eisenberg views his actions as “legal”, calling the exploit “a highly profitable trading strategy” rather than a hack, it remains to be seen whether law enforcement officials will view his deal with the protocol as legally binding. 

Hacktober continues 

The Mango Markets hack tops what has so far been a huge month for hacks in the cryptocurrency space, and we are only two weeks in. An Oct. 12 report by The Block cited Chainalysis data that showed October is already in the lead for the most crypto funds stolen in a month. The data cited 11 hacks totaling $718 million, so far topping a year that is expected to eclipse the $3 billion stolen in 2021.  

Along with the Mango Markets exploit, others include the recent $100 million hack of Binance’s BNB cross-chain bridge. Are there more to come?

© 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.

Société Générale, France’s third-biggest bank by market cap, quietly obtained regulatory approval to operate as a digital asset service provider in the country last month. Founded in 1864 and with assets totaling more than €2.2 billion as of 2020, it is France’s third-biggest bank and the sixth-largest player in Europe in terms of its balance sheets. 

As of last month, through its fully integrated blockchain-focused subsidiary, Societe Generale Forge, the banking giant can now custody, sell and trade digital assets. This is thanks to a digital asset service provider (DASP) ruling from the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), the French financial market regulator. 

The Block reached out to a Société Générale representative for comment on Friday but had not heard back by the time of publication. 

Currently, in France, many venture capitalists struggle to find regulated custodial solutions for digital assets. This means that French crypto funds such as the €100 million Ledger Cathay Capital fund were set up as unregulated special purpose vehicles. This latest ruling from the AMF means that French venture capital firms looking to custody their token investments may be able to use the services of one of its most well-known banking players.

This follows previous moves by the bank into the digital asset space. Last month, the bank announced that its securities services would offer new custodial services for asset management companies wishing to develop funds based on cryptocurrencies. In June, crypto custody company Metaco announced it would partner with Société Générale’s Forge to expand its digital asset capabilities. 

France loves crypto? 

Overseas crypto companies are also continuing to look at France as a key hub for blockchain technologies in Europe. Last week, cryptocurrency platform Crypto.com announced a €150 million ($145 million) investment in France to support its operations in the country, including the establishment of a regional base in Paris.

Along with Crypto.com, other overseas crypto exchanges including Luno and Binance have procured licenses in France as the country seeks to establish itself as a hub for blockchain technology. 

Binance also announced a €100 million ($97 million) investment in the country in April, calling France “uniquely positioned to be the leader of this industry in Europe.” 

© 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.