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It was business before pleasure as Meta debuted its highly anticipated virtual-reality headset.

While bolstering social connections might be the thesis of the Facebook parent’s ultimate mission statement — and the reason it says its investing billions of dollars into building out the metaverse — the company appears to be targeting businesses more so than everyday consumers with its pricey new VR headset. 

Available for pre-order as of Tuesday, the Meta Quest Pro VR device will cost $1,499, the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced at the company’s annual Connect conference. The often derided CEO changed his Facebook profile picture to one with him wearing the new headset. 

After spending the early portion of the presentation reveling in the “social shift” occurring within Meta’s version of the metaverse – Zuckerberg and his team saying the top apps on the Quest store are social ones – the pre-recorded video’s focus turned towards aligning with and appealing to enterprise clients potentially less concerned with a hetier price tag. The new headsets costs more than three times the Meta Quest 2 which can be purchased for as little as $399.

Source: Meta presentation screenshot

“This is a high-end device designed for work and people who want the best experience we can build today,” said Zuckerberg. “We’ve built Quest Pro to be the best device we can make for getting things done.”

Meta announced strategic partnerships with Microsoft, Accenture and Zoom.

The new headset, apparently primed for taking remote work to the next level, comes with features like a “workplace” charging dock and controllers that can also be used as markers for writing on virtual whiteboards. Other technological advancements, like facial tracking, will enable users to power avatars capable of more closely mirroring their emotions and expressions when communicating in virtual spaces.

Meta partnering with software giant Microsoft was likely the biggest announcement.

“We knew early on that we wanted this to be a good device for getting work done,” added Zuckerberg. “Working with Microsoft is a big part of making that happen.”

Source: Meta presentation screenshot

Microsoft will in part make it possible for workers to access both Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 while using their Meta headset, allowing users to meet up with coworkers or work solo in a virtual space.

“At Microsoft we’re incredibly excited about the metaverse and how digital and physical worlds are coming together and transforming everything [including] the way we do work,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said during the presentation.

Meta also revealed it had partnered with global consulting firm Accenture which will aid in orchestrating large-scale virtual events. Accenture CEO Julie Sweet, who mentioned her firm has been working with Microsoft on virtual work solutions since 2019, says Accenture has “deployed” 60,000 Meta Quest 2 headsets.

Ahead of Connect, IDC senior analyst Tom Mainelli said if Meta could strike “partnerships with other big tech companies” it would represent a positive step forward after a year that has seen the company’s market capitalization drop by more than $600 billion; Zuckerberg’s personal fortune simultaneously plummeting.

Meta did not say how many people are currently using its headsets to access its flagship social network Horizon Worlds. In February, the company said virtual social network had hit 300,000 users.

As of June of this year, Meta had sold nearly 15 million units of its Meta Quest 2 VR headset, making it the best-selling device of its kind, according to IDC research analyst Francisco Jeronimo.

Meta’s metaverse division, Reality Labs, posted losses of nearly $3 billion in the second quarter of this year.

The company’s metaverse executive Vishal Shah, who appeared in today’s presentation alongside Zuckerberg, recently lamented that Meta employee engagement with Horizon Worlds has so far appeared apathetic while complaints from “creators, users, [and] playtesters” suggests the platform was neither “usable” or “well crafted,” according to a leaked memo published by The Verge.

© 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

• Venture funding decreased roughly 35% Q/Q to approximately $6.2 billion. Funding in dollar amount has now declined for two consecutive quarters
• Later-Stage deals were down roughly 92% Q/Q from 13 to just one last quarter and Mid-Stage deals fell approximately 63% from 30 deals in Q2 to just 11 last quarter
• The amount of M&A transactions for NFTs/Gaming has increased for three consecutive quarters, and more than half (51%) of its total M&A deals have occurred during this period

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Gemini has expanded its operations to Ireland, where it is now providing both individuals and institutions with crypto exchange and custody services.

Users may now use both Gemini’s website and mobile application for account creation and cryptocurrency purchases — in EUR or GBP — according to a press release. They may also fund their accounts via debit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay or SEPA transfer. The exchange’s high-performance trading platform, ActiveTrader, is also available.

Additionally, Irish institutions, corporations and the like now have access to “custody, clearing, trade execution, price discovery and portfolio construction services, all in one place.”

Gemini’s European expansion

The move represents a concerted push from Gemini — traditionally thought of as a regulatory-focused North American exchange — into Europe.

The company describes it as “the latest step in the company’s European growth strategy,” which is “built on an approach of proactive and positive engagement with regulators and policymakers.”

Not a surprise for some EU users

The news from Gemini may not come as a surprise to some users in the European Union.

Last Thursday, the crypto exchange sent out emails to some users explaining that it recently received authorization as an Electronic Money Institution and registration as a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) by the Central Bank of Ireland. Notably, Gemini is the first company to receive a VASP registration in Ireland, according to the aforementioned press release.

Last week’s emails also detailed exactly when certain users would have their service provider changed to Irish entities Gemini Payments Limited and Gemini Digital Assets Limited — along with new terms of service and new deposit instructions for transferring EUR and GBP.

© 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.

TempleDAO, a protocol that claims it provides sustainable income via staking, suffered a malicious exploit this morning on one of its staking vaults for 1,830 ETH, roughly $2.3 million at the time, according to data from Etherscan.

A TempleDAO contributor said in the project’s Discord channel that its CORE vaults, which hold over $100 million in stablecoins, are unaffected and “the exploiter can do no further harm.”

“Remediations will be made for all affected users,” the contributor wrote.

Data from Etherscan shows a withdrawal from the project’s STAX staking vault took place at roughly 9:11 a.m. EST on Oct. 11. The withdrawal was “precisely 1,418,303 TEMPLE and 1,362,438 FRAX”, according to an announcement made in the TempleDAO Discord.

The TEMPLE tokens were sold for the stablecoin FRAX. The address involved has been linked to a Binance account, which provided the initial funds to the exploiting wallet address. It received 1.1 ETH about an hour and a half before the exploit occurred.

Smart contract and cross-chain bridge vulnerabilities have been a source of significant concern in light of multiple code exploits over the past year. A hacker recently stole $2 million from the WANplatform cross-chain bridge.

The TempleDAO hack is related to a non-bridge related smart contract exploit, blockchain security firm Paladin tweeted.

This exploit was due to “several malpractices” in one of the staking functions, which allowed users to migrate staked tokens from an older contract. The exploiter called this specific function with a fake address, giving them access to withdraw all the funds from the vault to themselves instead of the new contract.

The exploit is “one of the most trivial exploits at scale in awhile,” Paladin wrote. The exploited contract was deployed over 100 days ago, and the vulnerability has been present since its deployment.

The TempleDAO token briefly dropped 20% after the staking vault theft. This market drop occurred when the exploiter swapped TEMPLE for FRAX, which was the most liquid pool (lowest slippage), according to Dexscreener.

© 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 market maker and liquidity provider GSR has laid off less than 10% of staff during the third quarter of this year. 

The reduction in headcount comes as part of structural changes to position the business for long-term growth, a GSR spokesperson told The Block. 

In July of last year, the firm was on track to expand its headcount to more than 200 people from just 25 the year before, said Rich Rosenblum, co-founder of GSR, on The Scoop podcast. 

“After a period of rapid expansion, our focus is on improving overall efficiency and continued development of our technology and trading capabilities,” said a GSR spokesperson. 

Founded by former Goldman Sachs executives in 2013, GSR is one of the oldest market makers in crypto. It offers services from market making to over-the-counter trading and risk management services. The firm has also been exploring NFT market-making. 

Crypto industry headwinds

The layoffs come at a time when the crypto industry is in a state of flux. Many top executives from leading crypto firms such as FTX, NYDIG, OpenSea and Genesis have stepped down from their positions.

Layoffs have also taken place across the industry at firms like Gemini, Crypto.com and Coinbase. 

Crypto trading firms have also struggled since the onset of the bear market.  

Genesis experienced a major reshuffle in its leadership following its high-profile losses from the defunct crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC). The trading firm lent $2.36 billion to 3AC and its parent company, Digital Currency Group (DCG), stepped in to take on the firm’s liabilities and made a $1.2 billion claim against 3AC.   

Investment firm Galaxy Digital’s co-head of trading Robert Bogucki left the company to join Brevan Howard’s crypto arm BH Digital. 

Galaxy Digital also had exposure to 3AC and is listed as a creditor to the hedge fund. The investment firm posted a loss of $554 million in its recent quarterly earnings report and recently terminated a high-profile acquisition of crypto custodian BitGo. 

© 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.

“We’re gonna have to adapt, there’s no doubt about it. This is not a very in-the-box moment,” says Rostin Behnam, who chairs the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Behnam was speaking at DC Fintech Week, during which he addressed the CFTC’s recent blitz to get more regulatory authority in crypto.

Of this push, Behnam explained: “What I’ve advocated for and what I’ve asked Congress for is very clearly spot authority over commodity tokens.”

He further reiterated his belief that ether as well as bitcoin are commodities. In a recent report the Financial Stability Oversight Council, a supercommittee of U.S. financial regulators, recommended Congress pass legislation to allow more direct regulation of cryptocurrencies defined as commodities.

The CFTC currently only has jurisdiction over derivatives and futures markets, rather than power over the immediate spot markets that contain a majority of the investment into bitcoin and ether. 

Alongside this push, the CFTC has been touting its enforcement activity in crypto. One particularly visible recent example was the CFTC’s case against Ooki DAO, which many in the crypto industry took as an attack on the idea of decentralization. 

Behnam disagreed, describing Ooki DAO as “an extreme, where it’s so egregious and so obvious, that we would be essentially, objectively, failing to do our jobs if we did not bring this case.” 

He continued to caution the crypto industry: “I would say to anyone out there who is participating or creating or innovating, don’t expect this to be a free pass.” 

© 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 industry players are optimistic that lawmakers could pass a new stablecoin law next year, they said during a financial conference in Washington, D.C.

“I think it is the best shot the U.S. has right now to compete in digital dollar currency,” Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said.

The legislation is under discussion by the House Financial Services Committee. The bill would allow for private stablecoin issuers to register through financial regulators, provided they meet certain standards. The legislation would also require the Federal Reserve to report to Congress on the possibility of a central bank digital currency. 

The legislation “does a very good job of establishing what this new form of digital currency money is,” Allaire said. 

Allaire made his remarks at a fintech conference hosted by Georgetown Law School, alongside Crypto Council for Innovation CEO Sheila Warren and Bank of International Settlements Economic Adviser and Head of Research Hyun Song Shin. 

Warren, a major industry advocate, expressed optimism that the bill, which has stalled in committee, could “really solidify” in the next year. 

The Financial Stability Oversight Council, a committee of senior regulators chaired by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, released a report last week encouraging lawmakers to pass new stablecoin regulations. The move could give the legislation new momentum.

Shin believes there is a role for stablecoins in the financial ecosystem, but said they could look like banking products from a regulatory perspective. 

“If it looks like a bank deposit, if it actually works like a bank deposit, then it should be regulated like a bank deposit,” Shin said.

Banks are at different stages of internal discussion around stablecoins, Shin added. The BIS is not “here to foist some kind of agenda,” Shin said, but will “point out what’s feasible.”

“Banks are at different stages of internal discussion, different stages in the domestic debate,” Shin said. “I think there is a role for stablecoins in this 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.

Ethereum wallet service Rabby has reported an exploit in its smart contract for its Rabby Swap feature.

The full extent of the exploit remains unknown. However, users have reported the draining of funds from wallets. Rabby recommended that users revoke all existing approvals on all chains using the wallet provider’s settings, according to a thread on Twitter.

“If you have used it, please revoke all existing approvals on all chains for Rabby Swap. For those who haven’t used Swap, your wallet is safe and unaffected. We are actively working to solve it and we will keep you updated,” the project’s team said.

The exploit occurred less than a month after Rabby Swap, a token exchange feature designed to optimize liquidity from numerous sources, went live on Sept. 14. Blockchain security firm PeckShield had previously conducted an audit of the Rabby Router smart contract that enables the swap feature.

Rabby Wallet did not immediately respond to The Block’s request for comment. 

This is a developing story.

© 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.

Yuga Labs, creators of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, is facing a probe by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission into whether sales of some of its offerings violate federal law, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The regulator is looking into whether certain assets could be treated more like stocks and therefore should follow the same rules, according to the report. It is also looking at the distribution of APEcoin, the token linked to the collection. 

Yuga Labs, a heavyweight of the NFT world, controls collections such as Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks and Meebits. 

“It’s well-known that policymakers and regulators have sought to learn more about the novel world of web3. We hope to partner with the rest of the industry and regulators to define and shape the burgeoning ecosystem,” Yuga Labs told Bloomberg in a statement. “As a leader in the space, Yuga is committed to fully cooperating with any inquiries along the way.”

The price of APEcoin had declined by 7.5% as of press time following Bloomberg’s report.

This is a developing story and will be updated. 

© 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.

OpenSea has added support for Avalanche, bringing the total number of supported blockchains on OpenSea to seven.

Users can now display, list and trade their Avalanche-based NFTs on OpenSea, the platform tweeted. New collections to join the marketplace include Chikn, TapTapKaboom, The Stoics, Castle Crush and Open Blox, with more collections expected to be onboarded soon. 

OpenSea will also work with Avalanche-based NFT platforms like NFTrade, Joepegs and Kalao. 

The addition of Avalanche comes a few weeks after OpenSea announced support for the scaling networks Arbitrum and Optimism, as well as automatically indexing Solana NFTs. 

OpenSea has also expanded beyond blockchains and profile-picture projects, such as with its tie-up with Warner Music Group for music drops. 

While one of the top NFT marketplaces by volume, OpenSea has recently been losing ground to rival X2Y2, The Block’s data shows. 

© 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.