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Kim Milosevich, who until December served as Coinbase’s vice president of communications, is rejoining Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) as chief marketing officer for crypto.

Milosevich announced the move in a Thursday Twitter thread, writing that she will “be working with [general partner Chris Dixon] and team to help build out the future of web3.” 

The hiring news signals a return to a16z for Milosevich, who, per her LinkedIn, played a role in launching a16z’s crypto investing efforts during her stint as marketing partner between 2013 and 2020.

Fast forward to now, with a16z investing in crypto startups across a wide range of industry verticals and, as reported Thursday, plotting to raise $4.5 billion for a pair of new crypto funds. a16z is far from alone in an ongoing period of heightened VC activity across crypto. Former a16z partner Katie Haun is said to be raising close to $900 million for a new fund, for example. 

“I’m excited to go back ‘home’ to my a16z crypto friends and believers and continue to dedicate myself to the advancement of web3,” Milosevich wrote Thursday. “I’ll be back in the saddle in February!”

© 2021 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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• Crypto heavyweight GSR is set to join a tiny cabal of algorithmic traders operating on NFT marketplaces like OpenSea.

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Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, made good on a previous pledge by receiving via automatic conversion his first paycheck in the form of cryptocurrency.

According to a Thursday morning statement from the mayor’s office, Adams’ paycheck was converted into BTC and ETH. 

“New York is the center of the world, and we want it to be the center of cryptocurrency and other financial innovations,” Adams said in a statement. “Being on the forefront of such innovation will help us create jobs, improve our economy, and continue to be a magnet for talent from all over the globe.”

Per the mayor’s office, the paycheck was converted via Coinbase. 

Adams pledged to make the city more crypto-friendly during his campaign for mayor, though as recently explored by The Block’s Aislinn Keely, there are limits to what the NYC mayor can do in terms of specific complaints about state-level regulatory factors in play. Still, industry members told The Block that a visibly pro-crypto mayor will prove beneficial in the long-run. 

© 2021 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 Securities and Exchange Commission has shot down another spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund proposal, this time from First Trust and SkyBridge Capital.

As previously reported, First Advisors and the Anthony Scaramucci-led SkyBridge Capital joined the fray in seeking approval for a spot bitcoin ETF in March 2021. 

Yet as was the case with VanEck’s bitcoin ETF rejection in November, the SEC, in its latest statement, honed in on fraud and manipulation prevention risks as well as investor protection. 

Indeed, this position has been the theme thus far across a series of rejections for the past crop of spot bitcoin ETF proposals. As explored in a 2021 wrap-up of the bitcoin ETF race, The Block’s Aislinn Keely noted that the conversation around such products broadened in past months. As well, the SEC allowed the entry of bitcoin futures-tied ETFs for the first time. 

© 2021 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.

Fireblocks, an institutional crypto custody platform, has added support for Solana’s native token SOL.

The move means more than 800 institutional clients of Fireblocks will now be able to send, receive, custody, or stake SOL with the firm.

“Support for the native Solana token has been much anticipated by Fireblocks customers. Within the first weekend of announcing support for SOL, we saw close to 25% of all Solana volume taking place on the Fireblocks platform,” said Fireblocks CEO Michael Shaulov.

Fireblocks is also looking to support Solana-based tokens before the end of the first quarter of this year. That would help Fireblocks’ clients to access decentralized finance (DeFi) as the firm provides access to decentralized exchanges and protocols.

Fireblocks currently supports over 1000 tokens and 30 blockchains. When asked why it took time to add support for Solana, Shaulov told The Block that the firm was developing support for Solana in “most secure and scalable way.”

“We also ensured the infrastructure was designed to support new capabilities for SPL [Solana Program Library or Solana-based] tokens and DeFi,” said Shaulov.

© 2021 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.

Serena Williams is joining Sorare as an advisor to its board of directors, according to a statement from the company.

Sorare is a community-owned fantasy sports game leveraging NFTs. Williams will provide guidance to the board of directors on topics including women’s sports, and diversity and inclusion on Web3. Williams will also help Sorare develop relationships with athletes around the world, according to Thursday’s announcement.

“Serena Williams is among the most important figures in sports and culture, who has redefined the modern athlete and entrepreneur, including her unprecedented early stage investing successes,” said Nicolas Julia, CEO at Sorare, in a statement. “The strategic counsel that Serena will bring in building one of the most iconic sports entertainment brands is invaluable. I’m thrilled to have her join the team. Together, we’ll forge new ways for fans to engage with their favorite athletes.”

Sorare acts as a discovery platform, wherein players discover new teams and players that they had not previously engaged with, presenting an opportunity for underrepresented athletes and sports to reach new audiences. Since its founding in 2018, the company said it has reached more than 1 million users around the world with 230 partnering sports organizations. In December 2021, the game had 260,000 monthly active users across 180 countries.

Based in Paris, Sorare is backed by Benchmark, Accel Partners, Softbank, and footballers Gerard Piqué, Antoine Griezmann and Rio Ferdinand. In September 2021, the company raised $680 million led by Softbank, as The Block previously covered. A month later, The Block reported that the UK Gambling Commission had cautioned consumers that the platform isn’t licensed by the gambling regulator, but the company said it had been assured by lawyers that it does not offer any forms of regulated gambling.

In 2022, the company plans to expand into women’s sports and new sports categories. “Sorare and Williams aim to build the future of sports entertainment on Web3 allowing everyone to own a piece of the games they love,” the firm said.

© 2021 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, Facebook’s parent company, is reportedly drawing up plans to allow users to create and display NFTs on their profiles along with a prototype feature for minting tokens in the pipeline.

The Financial Times reported the news on Thursday, citing “several people familiar with the matter.” The report comes after Meta recently said that its upcoming metaverse product will support NFTs. Last month, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri also said that the company is looking at ways to bring NFTs to a wider audience via its app.

According to the FT report, teams at both Facebook and Instagram are looking at NFT integration, with Meta currently discussing the possible launch of an NFT marketplace. Meta’s digital currency wallet Novi is also said to be a key component in its push into NFTs. However, the companies’ plans are reportedly at an early stage and could change. 

Meta’s move into the NFT space comes at a time when cash is flooding into the space. According to The Block’s Data Dashboard, NFT marketplace monthly trading volume has already surpassed a record $4 billion this month. 

Meta rival Twitter is also exploring supporting NFTs, while Reddit has launched its own NFT collection.

© 2021 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 Bank of Russia has advocated for a complete crypto ban as part of a report issued by the country’s central bank on Thursday. The report titled “Cryptocurrencies: trends, risks, measures” argued that the speculative nature of cryptocurrency investments poses significant threats to the financial stability of Russian citizens.

As part of the blanket crypto ban, Russia’s central bank also stated that commercial banks and other financial institutions should be prevented from facilitating cryptocurrency transfers. According to the report, such a move will eliminate any avenues for crypto-to-fiat transactions.

Apart from banning crypto trading and investments, Russia’s central bank also called for a prohibition on cryptocurrency mining, citing energy consumption concerns. In terms of global hash rate distribution, Russia is the third-largest bitcoin mining location behind the US and Kazakhstan, according to data from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI).

In November 2021, some lawmakers in the country were pushing for a parliamentary committee to address Russia’s growing bitcoin mining industry.

Thursday’s report is not the first anti-crypto posture from the Bank of Russia. In December, the central bank called proposed a ban on cryptocurrency investments while stating that it did not see any room for crypto in the country.

Crypto is legal in Russia following a decision by the government in 2020 but virtual currencies are not allowed as payment means in the country.

© 2021 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 staking infrastructure firm Stader Labs has raised $12.5 million in a new funding round.

The round was led by Three Arrows Capital, with participation from Accel, Blockchain.com, Accomplice, GoldenTree Asset Management, Amber, Figment, and others.

Angel investors, including FalconX co-founder Prabhakar Reddy and Anchor Protocol general manager Matt Cantieri, also backed the round.

This is Stader Labs’ second fundraise after its $4 million seed round in February. The new round, like its previous round, is also realized via a simple agreement for future tokens (SAFT) sale, Stader’s co-founder and CEO Amitej Gajjala told The Block.

The fresh funding will help Stader add support for more blockchains and their native tokens, said Gajjala. Stader’s staking platform went live in November and currently supports Terra’s LUNA token, which has seen around $500 million worth of LUNA deposits within a few months.

Gajjala said Stader is preparing to add support for Solana, Hedera, and Fantom in the next two to three months and Ethereum and Polygon in the second quarter of this year. The platform is also considering supporting NEAR and Polkadot blockchains.

The new round brings Stader Labs’ total funding to date to $16.4 million and its valuation to $450 million.

Stader is set to launch its own SD token in March, said Gajjala, adding that the firm then may raise more funds in a public token sale.

© 2021 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.