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Venture capital firms Accel and Quona Capital have led an $18 million round into Singapore-based crypto investment app Pillow. 

Elevation Capital and Jump Capital also took part in the round according to an announcement by founder Arindam Roy on LinkedIn. 

Pillow is a consumer-focused DeFi app available on iOS and Android that aims to give users returns on ETH and stablecoins USDC and USDT, with returns up to 6% and 10.42% respectively. It does this by funneling user funds into DeFi protocols, which it claims its research team actively look at to ensure user safety. 

“The last year has been incredibly humbling for us. We’ve had the privilege of serving users in over 60 countries and learning about how people interact with digital assets worldwide,” said Roy in the post. “We now move to the next phase of our journey, one where millions of users worldwide are able to meaningfully interact with digital assets without barriers of geography, education, or infrastructure.” 

According to a Techcrunch report, the company has more than 75,000 users in over 60 countries with a focus on emerging markets such as Africa and Southeast Asia. 

The news comes as consumer-focused crypto apps continue to gain interest from investors. Last month, former Revolut employees raised $3.5 million from Index Ventures to build crypto investment app Solvo. Previously, non-custodial wallet company Unstoppable Finance raised a €12.5 million ($12.15 million) round led by Lightspeed Ventures. 

© 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.

Cryptocurrencies were down across the board on Thursday as markets await U.S. inflation data. 

Bitcoin was trading at $19,017 today — down 0.87% over the past day — while ether traded down just over 1.5% at $1,276.

Altcoins experienced more-significant losses. ADA shed 5.14% over the past 24 hours, SOL lost 5.3% and Ripple’s XRP plunged 6.75%, in the same period, according to data via TradingView.

Equity futures rose on Thursday ahead of the U.S. inflation data — slated for release at 08:30 am ET — and S&P 500 futures rose 0.51%. Meanwhile, Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.29%.

A Bloomberg poll estimates year-on-year inflation will come in at 8.1% for September, while month-on-month inflation will register at 0.2%. Core estimates, which exclude food items and fuel, are expected to see a 6.5% year-on-year increase and a 0.4% month-on-month rise. Anything above this would potentially put a nail in the proverbial coffin and seal a 75 basis point interest rate hike from the Fed at the start of next month, according to Forex.com’s Global Head of Market Research Matt Weller.

“Both the crypto market and traditional risk assets remain highly correlated with monetary policy expectations, and with any prospect of a Fed pivot still at least a couple months out, the risks for bitcoin, ether and the rest of the crypto space are to the downside ahead of the US CPI print,” Weller concluded. 

Elsewhere, Goldman Sachs remains steadfast on its prediction that the Fed will hike by 75 basis points in November, 50 basis points in December, and 25 basis points in February — to reach a terminal forecast of 4.5% to 4.75%.

Finally, BTC’s correlation to equities had been showing signs of waning over the past two weeks. However, the decline plateaued ahead of today’s crucial data release. 

© 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.

Konami Digital Entertainment is looking to expand into the web3 and metaverse space via new hires, according to a press release published on the Japanese entertainment conglomerate’s official website.

The company — which is most famous outside of Japan as a video game developer and publisher — is currently recruiting “a wide range of talent for “system construction” and “service development” to provide new experiences such as WEB3 and Metaverse.”

The available positions, specifically, are for system engineering, programing, project management and business development in Konami’s Infrastructure Development Division. Additionally, its Production and Operation Division is hiring for a producer, director, programmer, designer, planner and project manager. Finally, the company’s Production Support Division is hiring related to legal, intellectual property, finance and accounting.

Though NFTs in traditional gaming have become a contentious topic over the past year, Konami has evidently shaken off critics and is ready to push forward with adoption. The company explicitly makes clear that it plans to “launch a service where players can trade their in-game NFTs (digital items) through a unique distribution platform using blockchain.”

A footnote in the official press release notes that Konami is “developing a unique digital item distribution platform that conforms to the ‘Guidelines for Blockchain Games’ set forth by the Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association, Japan Online Game Association, and the Mobile Content Forum.”

Konami previously tested the proverbial NFT waters in January, when it sold a collection of NFTs via OpenSea — earning more than $160,000, at the time. Some video game-focused media outlets, such as Kotaku, lambasted the effort, in line with many other video game industry pundits and critics.

© 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.

Move-to-earn fitness app Stepn has denied reports that it has laid off staff.

Earlier this week, reports from South China Morning Post and Wu Blockchain suggested the company laid off over 100 contract workers including community moderators and ambassadors.

On Tuesday a spokesperson for the company told news outlet Decrypt that the claims were baseless and factually inaccurate.

“The reality is that STEPN has parted ways with volunteer MODs who have not been active in the last few weeks and months. Regarding our staff, STEPN is actively hiring for several different roles within the company,” they said.

Stepn’s popularity has soared since its launch. On its one year anniversary in September, the Solana app revealed users had logged over 67 million miles (108,017,738 kilometres) through the app since it launched. It also reported 4.72 million registered users. Since its rise, there have been questions about the company’s token model and potential for sustained revenue generation. 

In an open letter to the community on Oct. 11, the company hinted that changes are coming.

“STEPN was our first project; DOOAR followed soon after. Now it’s time to expand the Find Satoshi Lab family. That’s why we’re heads down building. Over the next few weeks, we will be shifting gears as we evolve our vision,” the company said.

Among the changes, the company is also moving its headquarters. Initially based in South Australia, the company announced it would move to Hong Kong’s Cyberport, even as other crypto companies escape a difficult regulatory environment in the city.

The Block has approached Stepn for comment.

© 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.

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Neel Somani, a former Terra developer, raised $15 million for his Solana-based cross-chain modular rollup startup, Eclipse, becoming one of the few to come out of the sunken TerraUSD stablecoin ecosystem with funding. 

Somani formerly worked on Terranova, an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) project designed to connect the TerraUSD stablecoin ecosystem to Ethereum. However, when the project capsized following the collapse of TerraUSD, the developer moved forward and launched the Eclipse project.

Although association with Terra — the downfall of which wiped out approximately $60 billion — may have proved an obstacle, Somani didn’t let that stop him. The ecosystem had strong developers, and he wanted to foster something similar, Somani told The Block in an interview.

Over the following summer, in a three-week pre-seed round, Eclipse raised $6 million from investors, like Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko and Polygon. The raise was followed by a $9 million seed round led by firms Tribe Capital and Tabiya, Blockworks first reported.

Somani sought to apply lessons he learned from his former work, such as avoiding a single point of failure. “If the blockchain I was building on failed, then I was completely exposed to that and there was really no way to mitigate that risk,” Somani said, adding, “Roll up as a service starts to make a lot of sense because as a roll up, you don’t have to worry about security with our solution. You don’t even have to worry about reliability because you can always change the L1.”

Formerly a Citadel quantitative analyst, Somani’s crypto engineering work began as a part-time endeavor, and he said he avoided publicity. Working on TerraNova, Somani simultaneously came up with the idea to take the Solana virtual machine, and “make it its own chain in some way, shape, or form.” When the Terra project crashed, Somani picked up where he left off, taking advantage of previous connections and his proximity to Chicago-based Solana headquarters, and founded Eclipse.

Early next year Eclipse will open source its first protocol release, according to Somani.

While Somani can count his success in investor capital, other noteworthy individuals from the Terra ecosystem are facing investigation, or evading arrest.

Authorities in South Korea recently arrested the former head of TerraForm Labs, the company in charge of Terra network development, a warrant that was later tossed out by a judge.

South Korean authorities also reportedly sought a red notice from Interpol against Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon, and later ordered the founder to surrender his passport.

© 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 miner Hive Blockchain said that profitability from GPU mining has plunged since shifting to altcoins after The Merge.

“Historically, Hive’s Ethereum GPU mining was generating 3x to 4x more revenue per MW (megawatt) of capacity than ASIC Bitcoin mining,” the company said in a statement Wednesday.

After The Merge, as hashrate flowed from Ethereum into other coins, its revenues from GPU mining went from $120,000-$150,000 to $20,000-$30,000 per day, the company said. 

However, since The Merge, poof-of-work mineable coins have “experienced significant volatility,” trending upwards and currently producing over $30,000 per day in revenue, the company said.

That same energy capacity deployed on ASICs mining bitcoin could produce around $41,000 at current difficulty levels, Hive also said.

The company has ASIC machines ready to make the switch if it decides to do so but it is currently assessing the revenues it could make “once the ecosystem stabilizes and if it proves economically attractive.”

Still, GPU mining is a relatively small portion of Hive’s business (using 25 of the company’s total 130 megawatts of power capacity), with the rest being bitcoin mining. The Ethereum mining business set the company up for success with bitcoin mining, as it now shifts focus to the latter, it said.

“Hive has successfully used its Ethereum operations to fund and help build out our company’s global Bitcoin mining operations. Our plans are to continue expanding our sustainable green energy Bitcoin mining and seek out new growth opportunities throughout this bear cycle,” said executive chairman Frank Holmes. “The company has sold substantively all of its Ethereum.”

As of Sept. 30, the Hive had a balance of 3,350 BTC and 356 ETH  — down from 5,100 ETH at the end of August.

The company’s GPU hashrate shifted to other mineable coins, setting up payouts in Bitcoin, as opposed to holding those coins. It produced an additional 15.8 BTC this way following The Merge.

Hive’s total BTC equivalent produced from GPU mining fell 44% month-over-month — from 228.4 BTC strictly from Ethereum mining in August to 111.7 BTC from Ethereum and 15.8 BTC from other coins in September.

“As a testament to Hive’s industry-leading hashing uptime, and resilience to navigate new opportunities in proof-of-work mining, we have emerged with continued revenue earning payouts in Bitcoin from all of our GPU fleet thanks to our global technical team,” said Hive President and COO  Aydin Kilic.

Days before The Merge, Hive said that it was testing other GPU minable coins as it strategized how to optimize the 6.5 TH/s of Ethereum mining capacity it had (16% of its total energy capacity).

“If it is clear that BTC mining earns substantially more $/KWHR (dollars per kilowatt-hour) we would pursue expanding the BTC fleet,” the company then told The Block.

Hive’s bitcoin mining operational capacity was 2.28 EH/s by September 30. IT plans to reach 2.7 EH/s by the end of this month and add an additional 1 EH/s in the next three to four 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.

A group of web3 companies has launched an alliance focused on raising awareness about the need for data privacy following U.S. sanctions on coin mixer Tornado Cash, as well as a legal defense fund to support its mission. 

Web3 companies including p0xeidon labs, Nym Technologies, Secret Network from SCRT Labs, Orchid, Railgun, Status and Oasis Foundation’s Oasis Network are participating in the alliance.

“The Universal Privacy Alliance [UPA] aims to protect privacy regardless of the blockchain or technology stack,” the group said in a statement. “It provides the foundation for privacy at the native level, thereby providing the security and democracy emerging technologies need to thrive.”

The alliance also unveiled the UPA Legal Defense Fund, which it says will support its main goal of “defending the right to experiment, build, and use full-stack privacy technologies.” 

“This move comes amidst a rising tide of censorship, suppression, and even criminalization of privacy technologies,” the UPA said in its statement.

Organizers behind the Universal Privacy Alliance unveiled the new group at an Oct. 11 side event during the Ethereum Foundation’s Devcon conference in Bogota, Colombia. The launch, which took place at the ZK House hackerspace, featured remarks via video conference from former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

© 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 series of hacks has put October in the lead for the most crypto funds stolen in a month, according to new data from Chainalysis.

This year is on pace to be the biggest for hacks so far, and now October is leading the charge for the top month, the blockchain analytics firm said. Chainalysis reports 11 different hacks totaling $718 million have occurred just this month.

Last year, hackers stole more than $3 billion across 125 breaches, according to Chainalysis. This year is expected to eclipse that. Cross-chain bridges continue to be a significant pain point, accounting for 82% of losses this month and well over half for the year. Three breaches of cross-chain bridges have already occurred this month, including the recent $100 million hack of Binance’s BNB cross-chain bridge. 

Other high-profile exploits this month include the $100 million hack of the Solana-based Mango Markets. Those two hacks have made Binance and Solana the leading chains for hacking activity this month.

© 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 companies tracked by The Block fell in the stock market Wednesday, but a few still trended upward.

Bitcoin was trading at around $19,200 by market close, according to data from TradingView.

Mawson Infrastructure Group fell 15.13%, followed by Argo (-8.60%  on the London Stock Exchange) and SAI.TECH (-5.65%).

On the other side, Iris Energy’s stock rose 3.23%, followed by Bitfarms (3.13% on the Toronto Stock Exchange) and Bit Digital (2.86%).

Here’s how crypto mining companies performed on Wednesday, Oct. 12:

© 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.