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Before building Clos3t, a startup creating a crypto wallet for fashion, Amandine Degotte spent over half a decade working at brands such as Chanel and Dior, focusing on client engagement and digital strategy. Something she learned in that time was how fragmented the consumer journey can be.

“We developed a lot of apps, but also algorithm with AI to make sure we can deliver personalized recommendations to clients,” said Degotte, co-founder and CEO of Clos3t, in an interview with The Block. “And I was super surprised, because all the brands that are developing their own client journey, are basing it only on the data that they pull.”

For example, if a client were to shop at Chanel, the company would ask what the occasion was, what kind of sleeves and length and colors they prefer, and other questions to create a profile. Then, it would hyper-personalize the client’s shopping experience with this data. But this same information wouldn’t then transfer to Louis Vuitton or Prada or any other store the client visits.

Brands that focus on a personalized service often forget that consumers aren’t just shopping at their store alone, said Degotte. But a single place does not yet exist where all their preferences are stored to create a seamless shopping journey between multiple stores.

That’s when Degotte decided to use web3 technology to link up luxury brands.

Clos3t is a wallet for digital clothes and fashion. It can store proof of attendance protocols (POAPs), proof of authenticity, and other non-fungible tokens (NFTs). This sets it apart from other crypto wallets such as MetaMask, which is non-industry specific and requires some previous crypto know-how, said Degotte. Clos3t allows crypto natives with wallets to link with their tech. The company is also developing an app for onboarding those who are new to the space.

“When I got into web3 a few months ago, I really wanted to develop a super consumer-centric application that will really leverage the preferences of the client, not only based on one brand, but everything that he likes related to fashion,” said Degotte.

In April, she began building the business with Setareh Lotfi, the company’s CTO and co-founder, and Virginie Le Bervet, COO and co-founder. Lotfi previously worked in product at Google, focusing on the company’s Global Fibre Impact Explorer, which combines Google Cloud’s tech capabilities with WWF’s conservation expertise to help fashion companies make sustainable decisions. Le Bervet previously worked in consulting at PwC and EY.

Degotte’s company recently raised $300,000 from Fabric Ventures and Frst, with the option to increase the funding to $800,000. It plans to raise more before the platform officially launches in the coming 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.

Data connectivity company Plaid has added crypto exchanges Binance.US and Gemini, as well as crypto services from Robinhood and SoFi, to its network, the company announced in a blog post on Thursday.

Customers will be able to share their crypto account information, including asset types, balances and transactions, with other services they use to help with financial planning, tax advisory services and net worth calculations. It will also add Blockchain.com and BitGo to its network later this year.

Plaid asserts that it has seen a surging demand for crypto data portability as people seek to share crypto data alongside traditional holdings. The company, which specializes in connecting financial information across different apps and services, started offering KYC and identity verification services for crypto companies following its purchase of identity verification platform Cognito in January 2022. 

However, users will not have access to the full suite of services Plaid usually provides. Speaking with Tech Crunch, the company’s head of identity Alain Meier said that support for crypto accounts is read-only, meaning developers will not be able to move money on behalf of users. 

Plaid may struggle to court more privacy-focused crypto users. At the start of this year, it paid out $58 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought by customers with bank accounts linked to its client apps. The suit accused it of collecting “more financial data than was needed from users,” and although it settled, the company denied any wrongdoing.

© 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.

UnCaged Studios, the developer of the Solana-based game MonkeyLeague, has raised $24 million in a Series A funding round as it plans expansion.

The round was led by Griffin Gaming Partners, with Maverick Ventures Israel, Drive by DraftKings, Vgames and 6th Man Ventures participating, Israel-based UnCaged Studios announced in a statement on Thursday.

As part of the deal, Nick Tuosto, managing director of Griffin Gaming Partners, has joined UnCaged’s board of directors, Tal Friedman, co-founder of UnCaged, told The Block.

Friedman co-founded UnCaged last year with his brother Raz. They both previously worked for Israel-based publicly listed gaming company Playtika.

UnCaged Studios began raising for the round in April and closed it last month, Friedman said, adding that it is an equity round. Late last year, the firm raised $4.4 million in a token sale by selling MonkeyLeague’s MBS token.

MonkeyLeague is a play-to-earn soccer game on Solana. It has more than 4,000 non-fungible token (NFT) holders and over 330,000 followers on social media, said Friedman. 

With fresh capital in hand, UnCaged plans to continue the development of MonkeyLeague and release more games, said Friedman. The firm also offers a gaming technology platform called Game OS, which helps developers integrate web3 aspects to their games, such as NFTs and token custody.

Friedman said UnCaged will serve web2 gaming companies looking to make the jump to web3 through its Game OS platform.

There are currently 38 people working for UnCaged and the firm is “actively hiring” across functions to help meet its expansion plans, said Friedman.

© 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.

BNB Chain announced the launch of a dApp hub for the ecosystem on Thursday with built in anti-scam tools to protect users.

The network, which was originally founded by exchange giant Binance, said DappBay’s Red Alarm feature would allow users to assess project risk by entering the contract address and seeing flags for logical flaws and fraud risks.

“The Red Alarm feature helps users in staying one step ahead of scammers; the system warns in real time of potential risks associated with the projects, allowing the community to make informed investment decisions,” Gwendolyn Regina, investment director at BNB Chain, said in a statement.

Developers will be able to list their own dApps on the platform and track projects through metrics such as fastest user growth and best performing tokens. It will also analyze and compile lists of promising upcoming projects in advance of their launch.

BNB Chain, formerly known as Binance Smart Chain, rebranded in February this year. The move was interpreted as crypto exchange Binance trying to distance itself from the 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.

Twitter, the social network of choice for crypto traders, appeared to be unavailable to some users on Thursday. 

Reporters for The Block were unable to refresh their Twitter feeds from several locations in the US and Europe, with users presented with the message “Something went wrong. Try reloading.” Reporters in India, however, said the service seemed normal. 

A spokesperson for Twitter didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

This is a breaking 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.

Derivatives trading protocol ZKX announced on Thursday that it has raised $4.5 million in seed funding from investors including StarkWare, Alameda Research and Huobi.

Amber Group and Crypto.com also joined the round, according to a release. So did individual investors such as Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon, and Ashwin Ramachandran, general partner at DragonFly Capital.

Founded in 2021, ZKX is a derivatives protocol built on StarkNet and powered by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). The protocol aims to provide an improved trading experience through gamification and its unique governance structure. 

The latest round of funding will be used to further develop ZKX’s main offerings, including its open-source protocol, DAO funding and the growth of its ecosystem. 

Eduard Jubany, one of its founders, said the company is determined to build an exchange that breaks down the barriers to using decentralized finance (DeFi). He went on to say, “we’re doing that by building a protocol that enables trading derivatives of assets on StarkNet. Our goal is to expand the reach of ZKX across emerging markets, combining sound technology with a friendly user experience, and an ecosystem that enables users to have fair representation within a DAO.”

StarkNet is part of StarkWare, a company which develops scaling solutions for Ethereum using a technology called Starks.  StarkWare recently announced the launch of a token that will launch later this year. The firm is based in Israel and has raised over $262 million, with its most recent Series D round raising $100 million at a valuation of $8 billion. 

© 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.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis collected thousands of dollars in campaign donations from the crypto industry over the last three months, according to the Wyoming Republican’s latest campaign finance report. 

Donors included executives from venture capital firms Multicoin Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, along with a pair of former Meta employees who recently launched the blockchain startup Aptos.

Lummis is a key figure in Washington’s crypto regulatory battle.

Most notably, the first-term lawmaker released a highly anticipated crypto bill with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) last month. The wide-ranging piece of legislation would determine which crypto activities fall under regulation by the Securities Exchange Commission versus the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, among other issues.

Lummis reported raising $119,000 over the last three months and had $243,000 in her campaign coffers at the end of June. Lummis will not face reelection until 2026. The latest quarterly fundraising reports are due to the Federal Election Commission on Friday, and span April 1-June 30. Lummis filed her report on Wednesday afternoon.

Notable names on Lummis’ filing included Multicoin Capital Managing Partner Kyle Samani, who has given Lummis $5,800 this cycle, along with Multicoin Capital Partner John Robert Reed and General Counsel Gregory Xethalis. Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Ben Horowitz and General Partner Chris Dixon have each given $5,800, as have Kraken Chief Legal Officer Marco Santori and crypto-focused Matcha Design Labs CEO Avani Miriyala.

The senator also accepted contributions from Delta Blockchain Fund investor Kavita Gupta, Hivemapper CEO Ariel Seidman and Pantera Capital Co-CIO Joseph Krug, among others. Amy Oldenburg, the head of emerging markets for Morgan Stanley Investment Management, gave $1,500, according to the report. 

Additional Lummis donors hailed from Chainlink Labs and FreedomFi. Alex Allaire of the Block Chain Defense Initiative gave Lummis $1,000, while Lee Bratcher of the Texas Blockchain Council gave $750. The crypto-focused HODLpac gave $330.

© 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.

India’s crypto industry lobby group, the Blockchain and Crypto Assets Council (BACC), has abruptly announced it’s shutting up shop after five years representing the sector’s interests. 

In a meeting earlier today, the Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) — BACC’s parent organization — said it’s dissolving BACC to focus on non-crypto sectors, Sathvik Vishwanath, co-founder and CEO of Indian crypto exchange Unocoin, a BACC member, told The Block.

The decision comes as the global crypto market witnesses a significant downturn, with bitcoin’s price dropping below $20,000 from a peak of more than $60,000 in November. In addition, India’s crypto industry has witnessed several headwinds in recent months, including new taxes and crashing trading volumes.

Vishwanath said IAMAI called the meeting for BACC members to inform them of its decision and not discuss it. “It was not like a meeting for discussion. They had made up their mind already,” he said. “So it was only the one-way communication.”

BACC was formed with the vision of doing public advocacy for the crypto industry and also had a self-regulatory function. All major Indian crypto exchanges are members, including unicorns CoinDCX and CoinSwitch. Some international companies — such as Binance and Chainalysis — are also involved, according to the IAMAI website. In October, BACC appointed Ashish Singhal, founder and CEO of CoinSwitch, and Sumit Gupta, co-founder and CEO of CoinDCX, as its co-chairs.

CoinSwitch, CoinDCX and the IAMAI did not respond to The Block’s requests for comment by press time.

‘A good thing’

The impact of BACC’s dissolution on India’s crypto sector isn’t immediately clear. But one crypto exchange executive, who declined to be named,  described it as “a good thing” for the industry as the exchanges already led all major initiatives, raised funds and reached out to policymakers.

Exchanges can now themselves come together and make an association, said the source. Vishwanath said the industry is indeed planning to create its own body.

In 2018, the IAMAI represented the Indian crypto industry against the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) after the central bank barred regulated financial institutions from dealing with crypto firms. Then in 2020, the IAMAI won the battle as India’s Supreme Court struck down RBI’s banking ban against crypto.

When asked who will represent such legal cases in the future, the source said crypto exchanges now have money and policy chiefs to take care of such issues. Indeed, the two largest crypto exchanges in India, CoinDCX and CoinSwitch, have raised millions of dollars in funding recently and appointed policy and compliance heads. 

© 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 Celo blockchain is facing downtime after the production of new blocks on the network stopped all of a sudden. The network came to a halt at block #14,035,19 at 06:20 p.m. ET on Wednesday. Meanwhile, all of the various applications on the chain remain unusable.

According to its official block explorer, Celo’s proof-of-stake network could not validate new transactions for over nine hours until block production was restored for a few minutes at 3:39 a.m. ET on Thursday. However, the chain froze again at block #14,035,044.

Celo’s most recent update stated that the network’s validators had been working on a fix to bring the network online. The team has not yet provided a reason for the outage.

“Validators are working to identify and resolve the issue. All funds are safe. Updates will be provided as soon as possible,” the team wrote on Twitter.

Even though this was first network downtime for Celo, the core team has previously grappled with technical issues related to its bridge. In November 2021, Optics — Celo’s bridge with Ethereum and Polygon — suffered from a critical security bug, requiring an emergency upgrade.

Celo is an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible blockchain that raised $25 million from venture firms, including Horowitz and Polychain Capital in April 2019. As of today, Celo hosts Ethereum-based decentralized exchanges like Uniswap and Sushiswap. It is also home to its native apps like Valora, Mento, Moola Market, UbeSwap, and Mobius Money. 

© 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 investment platform Bitpanda has launched four new themed crypto indices as it powers ahead with product launches amid an employee cull. 

According to a statement on Thursday, these indices allow users to invest in preset crypto portfolios, giving access to coins and tokens related to the themes of decentralized finance (DeFi), the metaverse, smart contracts and infrastructure. The indices are automatically rebalanced, based on changes in the market. 

“With the Bitpanda Crypto Indexes we offered our customers the opportunity to get exposure to the crypto market and start investing in crypto. Now, it’s time for the obvious next steps,” co-founder and CEO Eric Demuth said in the statement. “These four new Crypto Indices give people the chance to invest in areas they are passionate about. There’s no hassle, no need to constantly research new crypto projects, just a simple way for everyone to diversify their portfolios.” 

The company did not respond to a request for further comment on the launch. 

The product launch follows similar offerings such as the company’s crypto index products which auto-invest in the top five, 10 or 25 top cryptocurrencies based on market size. The Block also reported that the fintech firm also previously launched an exchange-traded note (ETN) tracking the price of bitcoin last year. 

The company has also recently drastically downsized amid a downturn in the crypto market which has seen the price of bitcoin drop below $20,000. Last month, the company cut staff numbers from about 1,000 to 730. Earlier this month, The Block reported that Bitpanda’s chief product officer, Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad, told staff there would be no mass layoffs, three weeks before axing a third of its workforce. 

© 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.