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On Tuesday, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, senior minister and minister in charge of the Monetary Authority Singapore (MAS) said that there were no plans to regulate NFTs.

As reported by Fintech News, Tharman made this known in a written response to questions posed by the country’s parliament on the subject of NFTs.

According to Tharman, the regulatory body is taking a “tech-neutral” stance towards non-fungible tokens, even as crypto-collectibles become more popular in South East Asia. In January, as many as nine companies in Singapore were already involved in crypto collectible and metaverse-related ventures.

While regulators have warned about the risks of investing in NFTs, Tharman said it is not in MAS’ remit to police everything people choose to invest in.

The senior minister did, however, acknowledge that MAS’ position on NFTs could change. According to Tharman, concepts like fractional NFTs could require regulatory oversight from MAS.

“Should an NFT be structured to represent rights to a portfolio of listed shares, it will like other collective investment schemes be subject to prospectus requirements, licensing and business conduct requirements,” the senior minister stated.

MAS has begun enacting stricter regulatory requirements in Singapore. In January, the regulator published guidelines mandating companies to limit the scope of their crypto-related advertisements.

© 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

• In this weekly series, we dive into some of the most interesting data and developments across the Layer 1 blockchain landscape, from DeFi and bridges to network activity and funding
• In an era of attention scarcity, L1 teams are employing a variety of strategies in order to build sustainable network effects
• Pockets of growth can still be found within different ecosystems, fueled by product innovation
• This week, we take a look at BNB Smart Chain, Cronos, Solana, and Fantom

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Berlin-based venture capital firm Cherry Ventures, a seed-stage investor known for its early bets on mobility startups Auto1 and Cazoo, is set to trade in cars for crypto with a new $34 million fund. 

Other than one 2018 pre-seed round for NFT startup Unlock Protocol, the Cherry Crypto I fund will be the firm’s first major foray into the digital asset space, following the launch of its $340 million generalist fund. 

Patrick Mayr, an investor on the Cherry crypto team, says the fund is backed by both Limited Partners (LPs) familiar with Cherry that are looking for crypto exposure, and by new investors who are only investing into the crypto fund. 

While the team behind the fund — which includes former Aragon CTO Brett Sun in a research role and MakerDAO’s Luca Prosperi as an advisor — will invest globally, Mayr hopes it can capitalize on Cherry’s roots in Europe to dig into what he sees as an untapped market. 

“Crypto has a lot of its early roots in Europe,” he says, citing how Ethereum was launched in Berlin. “But it was only really in the last twelve months that you’ve seen an influx of European crypto founders — it’s like a waterfall of crypto entrepreneurs at the moment.” 

Tokens all the way 

The crypto founders targeted by Cherry will be funded primarily through token-based investments over equity. The fund has already quietly invested in staking platform Lido, lending protocol optimizer Morpho and NFT investment Decentralized Autonomous Organisation (DAO) BlackPool. 

When asked if the fund would plow money into non-fungible tokens (NFTs), Mayr said it is looking into the sector and has the infrastructure needed to invest. If Cherry Ventures were to start acquiring NFTs, it would join fellow European VC Blossom Capital, which recently confirmed that it had bought a digital collectible in an interview with The Block. 

One aspect of web3 that Mayr is looking to take an active role in is governance. Many if not most web3 decentralized protocols offer users the ability to purchase tokens that allow them to vote on proposals and thus influence the development of the project. 

“Everybody’s still figuring out how [governance] works”, says Mayr. “Web3 is still so nascent. I think that it’s definitely the role of an investor to help shape what governance of these protocols look like.” 

© 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 United Arab Emirates (UAE) is setting the stage for a push to attract crypto companies, as it looks to issue federal licenses for virtual asset providers (VASPs) by the end of Q1. 

A government official told Bloomberg that the company’s Securities & Commodities Authority (SCA) is in the final stages of amending legislation to let VASPs set up shop in the region. The Block contacted the SCA for comment and to clarify timings. 

The move follows a tie-up between crypto exchange Binance and the Dubai World Trade Centre at the end of last year to help it establish a crypto regulatory framework.

Binance said it would share its experience in collaborating with global regulators with the watchdog to spur on the development of “progressive” crypto regulations.

At the time, the Dubai Media Office announced that the Dubai World Trade Centre would become a crypto regulator in the UAE. The outfit will set up crypto regulations to deal with anti-money laundering standards and track cross-border transactions.

The latest news comes a little over a year after Dubai’s financial services regulator first said that it will develop a regulatory framework for the cryptocurrency sector. 

© 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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Quick take

• On-chain options markets continue to lag other DeFi verticals in adoption. The main challenges in decentralized options markets have been managing risk bootstrapping liquidity
• Current approaches range from on-chain peer-to-peer order matching to options-focused AMMs
• Primitive takes a novel approach of using custom spot pools whose LP shares are designed to replicate payoff structures for conventional options strategies

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A group of US senators introduced legislation Tuesday centered around El Salvador’s adoption of bitcoin as legal tender.

TheAccountability for Cryptocurrency in El Salvador (ACES) Act was introduced by Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and committee chairman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), as well as Bill Cassidy (R-La.).

The bill, if passed, would mandate the production of a State Department report on El Salvador’s bitcoin moves, as well as a “plan to mitigate potential risks to the U.S. financial system.”

The bill states:

“Not later than 90 days after the submittal of the report required by subsection 19 (a), the Secretary of State, in coordination with the heads of other relevant Federal departments and agencies, shall submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a plan to mitigate any potential risk to the United States financial system posed by the adoption of a cryptocurrency as legal tender in El Salvador; and any other country that uses the United 2 States dollar as legal tender.”

The State Department report would include several key pieces of information about El Salvador’s process to legally make bitcoin legal tender, as well as an examination of how that law affects its citizens and businesses. For example, the report would describe the process El Salvador followed to develop and enact its bitcoin law, the extent to which its citizens are using cryptocurrency, and the country’s technical ability to handle cybersecurity risks. It would also include contextual information, such as data on El Salvador’s unbanked population and remittance flows from the U.S.

The report would also investigate matters such as “El Salvador’s bilateral economic and commercial relationship with the United States and the potential for reduced use by El Salvador of the United States dollar,” its relationships with organizations like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank and any possibility of using cryptocurrency to circumvent U.S. sanctions.

“El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender raises significant concerns about the economic stability and financial integrity of a vulnerable U.S. trading partner in Central America,” Risch said in a press statement. “This new policy has the potential to weaken U.S. sanctions policy, empowering malign actors like China and organized criminal organizations. Our bipartisan legislation seeks greater clarity on El Salvador’s policy and requires the administration to mitigate potential risk to the U.S. financial system.”

El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, responded to the news with an English-language tweet.

OK boomers…

You have 0 jurisdiction on a sovereign and independent nation.

We are not your colony, your back yard or your front yard.

Stay out of our internal affairs.

Don’t try to control something you can’t control 😉
https://t.co/pkejw6dtYn

— Nayib Bukele 🇸🇻 (@nayibbukele) February 16, 2022

El Salvador declared bitcoin legal tender on September 7, 2021, alongside the U.S. dollar, following the passage of a law in the country’s national legislature earlier in the year.

The full text of the legislation can be found below:

Mcc 22059 by MichaelPatrickMcSweeney on Scribd

© 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.

Disney has hired tech executive Mike White to fill a new role coordinating the company’s metaverse efforts, according to a memo that CEO Bob Chapek sent to employees.

White has worked at Disney for around 11 years according to his LinkedIn, and will be responsible for connecting the company’s “physical and digital worlds,” Chapek wrote in the memo, obtained by Variety. Previously, he’s held the title of SVP of consumer experiences and will now be the SVP of next generation storytelling and consumer experiences.

The metaverse role will be added to his existing duties where he oversees teams developing digital experiences for brands like ABC, National Geographic, Marvel, and ESPN.

The metaverse as a concept has generated a lot of hype in recent months as companies scramble to figure out what it means for consumer engagement. The concept even came up in Disney’s earnings calls last week when Jason Bazinet from Citigroup asked if moving into the metaverse long-term was top of mind for the company.

“This is a very top-of-mind thing for us because we are continuing over time to augment our skills and the types of people that we attract into The Walt Disney Company to reflect the aggressive and ambitious technology agenda that we have,” said Chapek. “You probably noticed that one of my 3 pillars is innovation and specifically technological innovation because we realize that this is going to be an important part of telling story in that third dimension. So it is absolutely top of mind.”

© 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.

Mobile users of social media platform Twitter can now add Ethereum addresses to the list of options for would-be tippers.

The social media site announced the update on Wednesday. The move comes months after Twitter officially rolled out bitcoin tips via the Lightning network on mobile. 

Have you set up Tips on your profile yet so it’s easy for people to show their support?

Yes: Cool, we’ve added Paga, Barter by Flutterwave, Paytm, and the option to add your Ethereum address.

No: What are you waiting for? Here’s how: https://t.co/Id5TwTpnCF

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) February 16, 2022

The newest feature represents the deepening connection between the popular social media platform and cryptocurrency. Last month, Twitter granted users of its subscription service, Blue, the ability to verify non-fungible token (NFT) profile pictures. Yet as The Block further reported, that development notably raised questions about Twitter’s ultimate goals with respect to crypto.

© 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

• Fantom has grown to become the fifth-largest DeFi chain by TVL on the back of the hype about “ve (3,3).”
• Here’s what you need to know about Andre Cronje’s latest DeFi experiment and how it was bootstrapped.

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