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NFT tooling company Center raised $11 million in a seed funding round, the company announced on Thursday.

US-based VC firms Thrive and Founders Fund participated in the round.

Center was founded last year by Omar Bohsali, who has previously held positions at the likes of Coinbase and Paradigm. In a mission statement from March this year, Center said its aim is to make NFTs useful for individuals and developers. To that end, it is attempting to index and organize every NFT on every chain and says it has 120 million NFTs on its books so far.

“It’s sort of like indexing the web, but instead of web pages, we’re organizing all permissionless digital property rights,” the company said in a release shared exclusively with The Block.

The company’s seed round comes in the wake of an explosion of interest in NFTs, several NFT search engines cropped up over the past year.

In December, decentralised photo network Numbers Protocol launched its NFT search platform, although the link on its site to the search tool was not working at the time of writing. Last month, HUMBL also announced the launch of its cross-chain NFT search platform for web3.

The five-person team at Center is also working on NFT tools for developers, including an NFT rendering API and multi-chain interoperability aids.

© 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 outlook for crypto exchange Coinbase’s shares has never been worse among the investment banking researchers who cover the stock on Wall Street, according to data compiled by The Block Research. 

The average price target — the forecast price analysts have for $COIN — has hit an all-time low of $108 per share as of July 26, down from a high of $435 per share in April 2021. 

The lack of confidence among analysts in Coinbase’s future prospects has tracked the slump in Coinbase’s share price, which has fallen by more than 80% since November. Meanwhile, the percentage of buy ratings among analysts has declined from 75% in May 2021 to just 58% as of the time of writing. 

Coinbase stock was trading at $58.83 — down more than 70% year-to-date. 

Coinbase — which makes the vast majority of its revenues from cryptocurrency trading fees — faces a number of headwinds in what has been described as a new “Crypto Winter.” Declining crypto prices and a retreat of retail market participants have translated into a drop in users for the exchange operator. 

In its most recent quarterly earnings report, the firm said that it “believe(s) these market conditions are not permanent” and remains focused on the long-term.

Analysts have not been mollified by Coinbase’s optimism, however, given tough market conditions that have only soured due to the fallout from the meltdown of hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and the bankruptcy proceedings of brokerage and financial services rivals including Voyager and Celsius. 

The firm also faces new regulatory headwinds, with Bloomberg reporting on Monday that the firm is in the midst of an ongoing probe by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The news follows allegations from the Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice that employees of the exchange traded cryptos on insider information. 

“For COIN, we believe this will be an overhang on the stock as the topic of securities designations for crypto assets will likely not have a near-term resolution (and may result in a legal battle),” analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods noted in a research report shared with The Block. 

The tumultuous period for Coinbase could open up the door to an activist investor stepping in, according to The Block Research’s Greg Lim. “In its current position, Coinbase reflects an attractive activist target for an investor or consortium to push management and the Board to focus on optimization of strategy and costs to align with public shareholder interests,” he said.

© 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 much talked-about but never resolved stablecoin bill still is not ready to see the light. With this Congress coming to a close and August recess beginning in days, the bill’s odds of becoming law suddenly became very slim.

Maxine Waters (Calif.) and Patrick McHenry (N.C.), respectively the lead Democrat and Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, have been hard at work on a bipartisan agreement on stablecoins. They have effectively conceded that time has run out in statements today at a committee markup. 

“We’re close. We’re not there yet, but we’re close,” McHenry said. Waters issued a written statement saying:

“Although the Ranking Member, Secretary Yellen and I have made considerable progress towards an agreement on the legislation, we are unfortunately not there yet, and will therefore continue our negotiations over the August recess. It’s critical that we continue moving the ball forward on this so we can have a regulatory framework that protects consumers, while allowing for responsible innovation.”

News broke last week that the pair were working on a deal that the US Treasury was brokering. Critically, it seemed the Treasury was willing to abandon its early push to limit stablecoin issuance to FDIC-insured financial institutions. 

“We want to make sure that this bill — this law — is technically proficient and a workable law. We don’t want a dead letter as soon as we pass this thing,” McHenry said, pointing to New York’s stablecoin regime as the most robust currently in effect. 

Midterm elections are coming in November, and Democrats look likely to lose the House of Representatives. If that happens, McHenry seems on track to take over leadership of the committee. Waters used the occasion of today’s statement to highlight a series of developments on cryptocurrency to come out of the House Financial Services Committee under her leadership, dating back to the creation of the Fintech Task Force and the subsequent hearings on Facebook’s Libra in 2019. 

© 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 mining stocks were up on Wednesday, some by double digits, as the coin’s value rose above $22,800 after the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 75 basis points.

Bitcoin was trading at roughly $22,700 around market close, according to TradingView.

Marathon’s stock was up by 21.86%, followed by Core Scientific’s (+18.34%), Riot’s (+15.14%) and HIVE Blockchain’s (+14.66% on Nasdaq).

Here’s how crypto mining companies performed on Wednesday, July 27:

© 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 reported losses of $2.8 billion for its metaverse-focused division, Reality Labs, as the firm missed on earnings and revenue for the second quarter.

The tech giant’s shares dropped as much as 5% in after-hours trading on Wednesday immediately after earnings, before paring losses — down just over 1.5% at the time of writing, according to Nasdaq data.

Its metaverse division, Reality Labs, reported earnings of $452 million for the quarter, down from $695 million in the first quarter. The division previously posted a $2.9 billion loss in the first quarter of 2022. 

Overall the company came in below expectations on Wednesday, with total revenue for the second quarter of 2022 coming in at $28.82 billion — below estimates of $28.9 billion for the quarter. Earnings per share came in at $2.46, below estimates of $2.54.

Meta faced further headwinds on Wednesday as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a suit against Facebook, alleging the firm is trying to monopolize the entire metaverse industry.

Zuckerberg recently told employees during a weekly Q&A that he believes the economy is headed for one of the “worst downturns that we’ve seen in recent history.” The long-time CEO added that some people at the company shouldn’t be there, before saying the firm was raising expectations to turn the heat up on its staff.

© 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 US antitrust regulator is suing Facebook to stop it from dominating the metaverse.

On July 27, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed suit to stop Facebook from acquiring Unlimited and its virtual reality fitness app, Supernatural. “The agency alleges that Meta and Zuckerberg are planning to expand Meta’s virtual reality empire with this attempt to illegally acquire a dedicated fitness app that proves the value of virtual reality to users,” the FTC said in a release.

“Meta would be one step closer to its ultimate goal of owning the entire ‘Metaverse,'” the FTC’s complaint said. 

The complaint details Facebook’s acquisition of virtual reality companies, going back to its purchase of Oculus back in 2014. It said:  

“As Meta fully recognizes, network effects on a digital platform can cause the platform to become more powerful — and its rivals weaker and less able to seriously compete — as it gains more users, content, and developers. The acquisition of new users, content, and developers each feed into one another, creating a self-reinforcing cycle that entrenches the company’s early lead.”

The acquisition is scheduled to take place at midnight on August 1. 

The FTC’s complaint appears to have redacted a number of adjectives positively describing the market position of Supernatural, Facebook, or any of its apps and acquisitions. 

The FTC has long taken issue with Facebook’s business practices, suing the firm for similar behavior in the app economy in 2020. That was well before Facebook changed its name to Meta and announced a pivot to focus its work in the metaverse. 

© 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 US Federal Reserve has raised the US federal funds rate to 2.5%, an increase of 75 basis points. 

Wednesday’s decision was largely expected, with the market pricing in a rise of 75 basis points ahead of time. The move is intended to fight inflation, which hit a 40-year high of 9.1% in June. Investors had placed a one-in-four chance of a 100 basis points prior to this; however, this was priced out earlier in the week. 

Today’s increase takes the Fed’s rates to the level that policymakers previously have said represents the neutral rate — the rate which supports maximum employment in the economy, while keeping inflation constant. 

The price of bitcoin jumped up 3.31% on the news, having traded close to $21,500 prior to the announcement. At the time of writing, bitcoin is trading hands at about $22,000 according to CoinGecko. 

Commentators consensus  

Wall Street firms were predicting an 89% chance of a 75 basis point increase, while most commentators shared similar views.

Barclays bank predicted this hike following June’s CPI report . The investment bank said at the time, with “inflation surpassing expectations on the heels of the strong June employment report, we now expect the FOMC to hike the target range for the funds rate by 75 basis points at its upcoming meeting on July 26-27.”  

The bank expects another aggressive rate hike in September, with the terminal rate hitting 3.25-3.5% by the end of the year.  

Michael Brown, head of market intelligence at London based FX firm Caxton, echoed this sentiment, telling The Block today that he expects a move above neutral in September. This would take policy into restrictive territory, Brown said.  

Brown noted that the impact on crypto is unlikely to be positive, given that in a rising rate environment, with equities struggling, it’s unlikely that crypto will be able to shrug off monetary policy developments. “As the cost of capital increases, leveraged positions, favored by crypto traders, become significantly less attractive,” he added.  

Speaking to The Block ahead of time, Sam Kazemian, founder of the algorithmic stablecoin Frax, shared a similar view. Kazemian said the expected hike will further depress volatile asset prices, leading to fewer stablecoins in liquidity pools or lending protocols. 

© 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

• Centralized exchanges and special forms have developed numerous gateways for their users to access
• Nearly all major exchanges offer some form of liquidity mining or staking rewards
• Specialist firms have experienced trouble due to DeFi and lending strategies facing heavy losses. In particular, BlockFi and Celsius are both restructuring to remain solvent.

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Harmony’s core team has proposed a hard fork to mint billions of new harmony (ONE) tokens. The proposal is part of the plan to reimburse victims of its bridge hack last month.

Harmony is a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain that presents itself as a faster and cheaper Ethereum alternative. ONE token is used as the native asset to pay for transaction fees on the network.

In June, a hacker stole $100 million worth of crypto assets locked on the Harmony-run Horizon bridge on Ethereum. Since then, victims have asked for a refund.

On Wednesday, the team suggested the community should fork the Harmony network and mint a fresh supply of tokens to initiate the reimbursement process. “This proposal will require a hard fork of the Harmony blockchain as it will increase the supply of ONE tokens,” the proposal stated.

Billion-dollar choices

The latest proposal gave community members two options to decide how much tokens to mint.

The first option is to mint 2.48 billion ONE tokens ($49.6 million), which the team claimed would be enough for 50% compensation to victims at the current market price of $0.02 per ONE token. 

The second choice is to mint 4.97 billion ONE tokens ($99 million) enough for full compensation to victims.

The team argued that it shouldn’t spent the treasury funds for hack reimbursement, saying that it wanted to protect those assets for growth and ecosystem plans. It said, “We decided against using the foundation treasury in the interest of the longevity and wellbeing of the project as reimbursing from the treasury would greatly hinder the foundation’s ability to support the growth of Harmony and its ecosystem.”

Judging by comments on the governance forum, it appears that the community is largely unhappy with the proposal, primarily due to the inflationary impact of the minting of new tokens. Many argued that this would be detrimental to its price.

“DO NOT MINT MORE! This will really screw those who are staking. Did we not learn about inflation? When you increase the supply, the price does not follow,” said one commentator.

Currently, ONE’s total supply is 13.1 billion tokens. This means that if the plan is approved, the team would inflate ONE’s supply anywhere between 19% to 38% over the next three years. After the proposed plan of action is executed, impacted wallets will have to claim their tokens every month over the three-year period. 

© 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.

Algorand has a new interim CEO as of Wednesday, following the departure of former CEO Steven Kokinos. 

Long-time employee W. Sean Ford — previously chief operating officer at the blockchain company — will succeed Kokinos, who will remain as a senior advisor until mid-2023. In his previous role Ford looked after product management, engineering, marketing and global community development.  

Algorand founder Silvio Micali said Kokinos had been “instrumental to the initial success of our business, and we appreciate his commitment to a seamless transition.” Micali went on to say that Ford was well positioned to partner with Kokinos in order to keep company operations running smoothly.  

The Algorand blockchain uses proof of stake and aims to tackle the ‘blockchain trilemma’ of security, scalability and decentralization.

The Algorand company is separate from the Algorand Foundation, which is set up to support the growth of the surrounding community. 

© 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.