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Eight more firms have signed on to a crypto market integrity pledge that hopes to promote the industry’s efforts at self-regulation.

The news comes from the Crypto Market Integrity Coalition, or CMIC, which features membership centered on a two-page pledge to support transparency and fight market manipulation. The most notable firms in the new cohort are crypto exchange Bittrex and crypto security firm BitGo. They join founding members like Coinbase, Circle and BitMex.

Launched in February, the CMIC has grown to 38 signatories. It is one of a growing number of initiatives focused on self-regulation among crypto market firms. Another notable player is the FTX-backed Association for Digital Asset Markets. 

To date, the CMIC has no public mechanism for determining violations of its core pledge by members. 

© 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

• Stablecoins are an integral part of the cryptocurrency space, with a combined market share of $150B.
• That said, most stablecoins are fraught with centralization risks or capital inefficiencies.
• Protocols such as UXD and Lemma have utilized funding rate arbitrage to create a truly decentralized stablecoin.
• However, such solutions encounter the challenges of unsustainability and/or shallow liquidity.
• This is where ideas of a DeFi-focused blockchain, such as that which Sei proposes, could be useful for such stablecoins.

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Coinbase (COIN) shares plunged by more than 9.3% as U.S. markets opened on Thursday after Wells Fargo issued a profitability warning.

The multinational financial services company claimed rising competition and macro pressures will hurt the publicly traded crypto exchange, dubbing COIN a sell, according to a CNBC report. 

Coinbase shares changed hands at $61.05 shortly after the opening bell, according to NASDAQ data (via TradingView). 

Wells Fargo set a $57 price target for Coinbase, with analyst Jeff Cantwell arguing that the challenging environment at present will put downward pressure on the exchange. Cantwell also noted the decline in retail pricing as a contributing factor to the downgrade. 

Coinbase has come under pressure throughout the summer, with Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest dumping COIN shares worth around $75 million at the time. While the price did rebound on the news of its partnership with BlackRock, its earnings appeared to underwhelm. The exchange noted that it expected to underperform in the third quarter. 

Competition from rival exchanges, such as Robinhood entering the self-custody wallet space this week and Binance.US cutting fees on certain spot pairs, has increased the pressure on the exchange as volumes on North American platforms continue to tick lower.

© 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.

Meta has added more digital asset functionality between two of its top social media platforms. 

“Today we’re announcing everyone on Facebook and Instagram in the US can now connect their wallets and share their digital collectibles,” Meta wrote in an updated blog post. “This includes the ability for people to cross-post digital collectibles that they own across both Facebook and Instagram. Additionally, everyone in the 100 countries where digital collectibles are available on Instagram can now access the feature,” 

Before today, users could only post their digital collectibles to Facebook, with the firm testing digital asset integrations on Instagram across 100 countries starting on Aug. 4, 2022. 

The Meta update today increases visibility and utility of digital assets like NFTs on its top platforms.

It also comes amid trouble in public markets. Meta’s stock sank a drastic 7% in July, and the firm’s metaverse division lost more than $2.8 billion in the second quarter of this year, 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.

Three congressional Republicans have introduced legislation that aims to broaden the type of investments that managers of 401(k)s and other defined contribution plans can make, including into digital assets.  

The Retirement Savings Modernization Act would also allow fiduciaries to recommend cryptocurrencies, or other traditional finance investments, like into hedge funds or private equity, without legal liability. 

The legislation has the backing of three Republicans: outgoing Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), and Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) in the House of Representatives. 

In statements upon the bill’s introduction, the three congressmen cited inflation and “fiscal uncertainty” as motivation for expanding retirement investment options. They also note that far more Americans rely on 401(k)s than traditional pensions for their retirements, but criticize limits on 401(k) investments as reducing overall returns compared to those traditional pensions.

“Our legislation will provide the millions of American savers invested in defined contribution plans with the option to enhance their retirement savings through access to the same wide range of alternative assets currently available to savers with defined benefit pension plans,” said Toomey in a release touting the bill.

The bill is broader than digital assets, but Toomey in particular has established an image as a leading crypto advocate on the Hill. But many in government — notably the Department of Labor, which regulates retirement plans — are skeptical to the inclusion of crypto in retirement plans. 

With midterms coming at the beginning of November, legislative action has largely stalled. Toomey is not running for re-election, and Meijer lost his primary election to Republican challenger John Gibbs, so he won’t be returning to the next congressional session. However, the bill’s authors may look to insert their bill into a broader end-of-year tax bill. 

© 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.

BlackRock just made another move into crypto, this time launching an ETF with exposure to blockchain and crypto companies for its European customers. 

The iShares Blockchain Technology UCITS ETF is designed to track the New York Stock Exchange FactSet Global Blockchain Technologies capped index, it said in a release. The index includes 35 companies from around the world and is listed on the Euronext under the ticker BLKC.

The index has 75% exposure to companies with primary business related to blockchain — including crypto miners and exchanges. It has a further 25% exposure to companies supporting the blockchain ecosystem, whether that be payments or semiconductor companies. 

“We believe digital assets and blockchain technologies are going to become increasingly relevant for our clients as use cases develop in scope, scale and complexity. The continued proliferation of blockchain technology underscores its potential across many industries,” Omar Moufti, product strategist for thematic and sector ETFs at BlackRock, said.

The exposure will give BlackRock clients the opportunity to engage with global companies leading the development of the blockchain ecosystem, he concluded. 

The investment manager also launched a private trust offering US-based institutional clients exposure to spot bitcoin in August and tapped Kraken’s CF Benchmarks for its index pricing product.

© 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 amendments drafted by members of the European Parliament for its position on the anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CTF) regulation have the potential to make big changes to Europe’s regulatory landscape, according to the draft report seen by The Block.

The “Travel” rule imposing identity verification provisions on the transfer of funds involving so-called unhosted wallets — which previously caused a stir in the industry — seems to have been removed.

However, new amendments expand the regulation’s scope to cover decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and their developers, and people trading NFTs. The metaverse is also targeted as potential grounds for money laundering, and crypto-asset service providers may also be obliged to follow AML rules when dealing with transactions over €1000.

The provisions are a result of merging suggested modifications from the Parliamentary groups into compromise amendments — which try to cover all the different views.

The amendments still have a number of hoops to jump through before being formally adopted. First, they need to pass through a vote to enter into the European Parliament report on AML regulation. Then, the final report needs to pass a vote in plenary with all of the Parliament’s committees. After that, the report will represent the Parliament in the inter-institutional debates on AML.

The final report on the Parliament’s position is projected for December, and technical meetings on the AML report are scheduled until then.

© 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 Ooki DAO has begun discussing within the community about how to respond to the recent lawsuit filed against the DAO by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

The CFTC’s lawsuit claims that Ooki DAO is an unincorporated association involved in unlawful activity, namely running an unlicensed exchange called bZx. The founders of the exchange recently settled with the regulator to the tune of $250,000. As part of the complaint against Ooki DAO, the CFTC says community members who participated in governance votes are liable for Ooki’s alleged wrongdoings.

DAO members are now discussing the appropriate response to the CFTC’s lawsuit. One of these responses involves allocating treasury funds towards legal counsel for DAO members.

The Ooki community is also mulling the idea of raising additional funds for a possible legal challenge of the CFTC’s complaint. One possible route proposed by the DAO member who initiated these discussions is to submit a grant proposal on Gitcoin to raise funds for the legal defense. The idea here is to elicit support from the broader DeFi and crypto community to support the Ooki DAO’s legal fight. “Insofar as all DAOs have a stake in the outcome, broad community support of Ooki DAO’s legal defense is critical,” the forum post stated.

NFTs have also been identified as another possible fundraising route for the DAOs legal defense. The community is discussing the possibility of releasing an NFT collection to raise funds for the endeavor.

These discussions could lead to a possible vote on the matter. Early reactions within the community have so far been supportive of the motions raised in the forum post.

The CFTC’s lawsuit against Ooki DAO did elicit strong reactions from a cross-section of the crypto space. Many lawyers and commentators expressed concerns about the CFTC’s approach and the possible negative implications for DAOs and decentralized governance in general.

© 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.

Aikon, a multi-chain onboarding platform, announced it has raised $10 million in a Series A round led by Morgan Creek Digital. 

Morgan Creek’s CEO Mark Yusko and ventures partner W. Scott Stornetta will also join the company’s board, said Aikon in a release.

Other investors in the round include Avalanche ecosystem fund Blizzard, Up2 Opportunity Fund and Yugen Partners. Follow-on investments were made by Mighty Capital, Alpha Edison and Think+ Ventures. 

The ORE network

Founded in 2017, Aikon aims to accelerate blockchain adoption with simple onboarding solutions for business and consumers. Aikon is built on the Open Rights Exchange (ORE) network and is powered by the ORE token. 

The ORE network is a blockchain built for decentralized identities, assets and rights. The whitepaper for the network was released in 2018. Aikon’s founder Marc Blinder is part of the network’s core team. 

Funds involved in the investment round have purchased ORE Tokens in order to take a stake in the ORE Network, according to the release. 

Accelerating offerings

“We started the project in 2017 during which time the ICO craze was also happening and have seen the ups and downs of this industry. But one thing remains constant – our resolve to build useful things,” Marc Blinder, Aikon CEO and founder said in a statement. “In the last five years, we have built infrastructure solutions designed to last for decades to come and we are thrilled to have the funding from industry leaders to continue our mission.” 

Aikon is adding compatibility for the Avalanche blockchain and is planning to release ORE Vault, a crypto and NFT multi-signature wallet for businesses, out of beta. 

“Their embedded wallet registry, coupled with the ORE Token, creates a practical path toward truly universal self-sovereign identity,” said Stornetta in a statement. “It is personally very gratifying to support a team that is realizing the universality of vision we originally had for blockchains.” 

The new funds will be used to accelerate Aikon’s offerings. The startup previously raised $2.6 million, according to data from Crunchbase. 

Percent of blockchain deals at Series A from 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.

Former Revolut employees have raised $3.5 million to build a crypto investment app — in a round led by Index Ventures — as the European fintech giant continues to see its alumni create crypto projects. 

CoinFund and FJ Labs also participated in the round, which closed in January and valued the startup at $17.5 million. Since then, founders Ayelen Denovitzer and Shailendra Sason — who met while working on Revolut’s crypto operations — have been busy building Solvo, which aims to simplify crypto investment tools. 

“It’s very hard for people with a lack of technical knowledge to start using these products that are actually better than traditional banking,” said Denovitzer in an interview with The Block. “To be frank, the consumer solutions that are out there are very focused on buying and selling tokens and don’t focus on other aspects of crypto that are super valuable.” 

One of these areas which Denovitzer believes has not yet been brought to mainstream attention is staking. Solvo’s Vault product allows users to earn a yield of up to 8% on coins, such as SOL and ADA, via staking. Its “Bundles” product allows users to invest in several tokens related to decentralized finance, the metaverse and gaming. 

Solvo’s waitlist — which currently has 5000 people — opened earlier this week. The app is set to launch on iOS in October.

The news follows in the footsteps of other startup raises in the web3 sector from former Revolut employees. Earlier this month, former Revolut chief revenue officer Alan Chang raised $78 million for his web3 energy startup, Tesseract. Revolut’s former head of crypto, Soups Ranjan, also recently raised $52 million in a round led by a16z for his fraud detection startup, Sardines — which serves customers such as FTX, Blockchain.com and Brave.

© 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.