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Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic announced Monday that it is developing a new data product focused on institutional crypto traders.

To that end, Elliptic has set up a new “market intelligence unit,” headed by its co-founder James Smith. The unit, Elliptic’s second business line after its primary blockchain analytics offering, will offer on-chain data to crypto traders.

“Elliptic is taking its best in class on-chain identity data to provide insights to crypto traders seeking alpha,” Smith told The Block. “Crafted over seven years, our broad asset coverage can provide a unified view on crypto activity such as exchange flows, clustered active and new users in both real-time and over historic time-horizons.”

Elliptic says its dataset includes over 20 billion data points and covers 148 crypto assets, representing 98% of the global trading volume. On-chain data insights will help crypto traders gain a competitive advantage, according to Elliptic.

The firm is working with investment banking research teams, crypto trading desks, and hedge funds to develop the product, said Smith, adding that the product will be launched publicly later this year.

Elliptic is currently in a proof-of-concept stage for the product with several undisclosed crypto research and trading desks.

The new product announcement comes a few months after Elliptic raised $60 million in a Series C funding round by Evolution Equity Partners, with participation from SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Digital Currency Group, Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, SBI Group, and others. 

© 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 exchange Binance announced Monday that it has burned over 1.68 million BNB tokens in its 18th burn. The burned tokens are worth nearly $800 million at current prices, but the actual dollar amount of the burn isn’t known as Binance recently implemented a new system for its BNB burns.

Until last month, Binance had been burning BNB tokens on a quarterly basis based on revenues it generated during a period. But the exchange recently implemented a new procedure, called BNB Auto-Burn, which burns tokens daily based on the price of BNB and the number of blocks produced during a quarter. The BNB Auto-Burn system takes into consideration the following formula:

B is the amount of BNB to burn. N is the total number of blocks produced on the Binance Smart Chain during the calendar quarter. P is an average price of BNB against the US dollar. K is a constant value as a price anchor, initially set at 1000.

Binance started burning BNB in 2017 after launching the token. At the time, it committed to burning a total of 100 million BNB, i.e., 50% of its total supply. To date, Binance has burned nearly 35 million BNB tokens, according to The Block’s Data Dashboard. 

© 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.

Quick Take

• The steadfast and still-growing crypto mining ecosystem can be broken down into many verticals, but most important are its mining pools, manufacturers, and lenders.
• A few requirements must be met when becoming a Bitcoin or PoW miner, such as obtaining hardware (GPU or ASIC), mining software, a wallet, and a mining pool if they do not plan to solo mine.
• The mining ecosystem was previously centered in China but due to recent regulatory crackdowns in 2021, the space saw a substantial departure of key players such as mining data centers, manufacturers, and operators from China over to countries like Kazakhstan, the United States, and Canada.
• The mining power required to mine Bitcoin can be derived from renewable energy supplies like wind, solar, and hydroelectric.
• The Block has identified 110 crypto-mining companies across 11 verticals.

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this Genesis research on The Block.

Binance has teamed up with Gulf Innova Company — a wholly-owned subsidiary of Thailand billionaire Sarath Ratanavadi’s Gulf Energy Development Public Company — to set up a crypto exchange in the country.

Gulf Energy announced the news in a letter to the Stock Exchange of Thailand on Monday, saying that it foresees “rapid growth” in Thailand’s digital infrastructure and that Binance’s partnership will help develop that infrastructure.

Gulf Energy established Gulf Innova last month to enter the digital infrastructure industry. At the time, the company said it will jointly invest with partners and combine the expertise of each party to build a digital platform in the future.

As for its partnership with Binance, Gulf Energy said it will bring its expertise in setting up a business in the country with a network of local corporates, and Binance will bring its exchange technology.

A Binance spokesperson told The Block that the partnership is “the first step” to exploring opportunities in Thailand. “Our goal is to work with government, regulators, and innovative companies to develop the crypto and blockchain ecosystem in Thailand,” said the spokesperson.

Binance has taken several steps in recent months to globalize its operations. Last month, the company received in-principle approval from the Central Bank of Bahrain to be a crypto-asset service provider in the country. It also recently signed a deal with the Dubai World Trade Centre Authority to help it establish a crypto regulatory framework. 

© 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.

Spanish regulators are pushing to control the way cryptocurrencies are marketed, with new restrictions on influencers’ promotions.

The Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV), the government agency responsible for the financial regulation of the securities markets in Spain, issued a release on Monday defining the new rules.

Posts promoting crypto-assets must now include the following disclaimer: “Investments in crypto-assets are not regulated. They may not be appropriate for retail investors and the full amount invested may be lost.”

So-called influencers or outlets with more than 100,000 followers in the region will now have to notify the CNMV on the content of promotions related to crypto with at least 10 days notice.

Fines for non-compliance are capped at €300,000 and could be doled out to crypto companies, PR firms and individual influencers. The new rules will come into force in February. 

While this is seemingly a first for the EU, several other nations have moved to control how crypto firms advertise their services in recent months. The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority is in the process of creating new guidelines for the industry, having said their regulation is a “red alert” priority.

On Monday, Singapore also moved to rein in ads, advising that service providers should only market their wares on their own websites, apps or social media, and in doing so should not trivialize the risks of investing in digital assets. 

© 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.

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

• Blockchain ecosystems are now emerging faster than ever with the help of EVM, bridges, and incentives
• Growing L1 networks continue to face unexpected scaling challenges as they attempt to meet user demand
• This week, we take a look at Fantom, Solana, Harmony, and NEAR

This research piece is available to
members of The Block Genesis.
You can continue reading
this Genesis research on The Block.

Singapore has cracked down on crypto marketing in a bid to curb a frenzy of retail trading in risky digital assets. 

In guidelines issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore on Monday, the regulator said “the public should not be encouraged to engage in the trading of [digital payment tokens (DPT)].”

The body advised that service providers should only market their wares on their own websites, apps or social media, and in doing so should not trivialize the risks of investing in digital assets. 

ATMs which deal in digital currencies will also be banned. “Such convenient access may mislead the public to trade in DPTs on impulse, without considering the risks of trading in DPTs,” the announcement said. 

A range of businesses including banks, payment providers and exchanges will be affected by the new guidelines. 

The move marks the latest attempt to regulate the sector in Singapore, following the introduction of licences for crypto firms. Nikkei Asia reported in December that more than 100 companies out of around 170 that had applied for licenses had either been turned down or withdrawn their applications altogether. 

In September, the regulator also ordered Binance to halt activities, leading to the exchange winding down its Singapore-only trading platform.

© 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.com Capital has named former TechCrunch journalist Jon Russell as its newest partner, according to an announcement.

The $200 million venture capital fund, launched by Crypto.com in March 2021, writes cheques for up to $10 million for early stage web3 startups — and invests in both tokens and equity.

It has so far backed the likes of crypto security firm Ledger, avatar-maker Genies, and DeBank, the decentralized wallet.

Russell is a veteran tech journalist who spent five years at TechCrunch covering the Asian market before joining media startup The Ken. He will work under Crypto.com co-founder Bobby Bao, who leads the wallet firm’s venture arm.

“I’ve had offers to move into crypto full-time before but Crypto.com is the most ambitious company in web3,” said Russell in a statement. “The Crypto.com Capital fund brings a very unique advantage to help the world’s best web3 founders and startups to realise their potential and I can’t wait to play my part.”

While the move from journalism to venture capital is unusual, it is not without precedent. Notably, Welsh billionaire Michael Moritz spent his early career as a journalist before joining Sequoia Capital.

© 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.

Block, the payments-focused company formerly known as Square, is officially throwing its hat into the bitcoin mining game.

Dorsey initially teased such a move last fall, highlighting a possible bid “based on custom silicon and open source for individuals and businesses worldwide.” Now, statements from Block executives as well as recent job postings offer more specifics on what that venture will look like. 

In a tweet thread, the company’s general manager for hardware, Tom Templeton, doubled down on the decentralization focus. 

“We want to make mining more distributed and efficient in every way, from buying, to set up, to maintenance, to mining. We’re interested because mining goes far beyond creating new bitcoin. We see it as a long-term need for a future that is fully decentralized and permissionless,” he wrote.

Days before Dorsey’s pledge, Block posted a job ad for a “custom digital design lead” focused on working “closely with other digital designers and mixed signal designers to develop the next generation of mining ASIC.”

Indeed, Templeton highlighted the hiring happening within the hardware team, stating that “[a] few of the open roles are Electrical Engineers, Analog Designers, and Layout Engineers.”

Dorsey also this week unveiled a new litigation fund aimed at providing resources to bitcoin developers who face lawsuits over their work. As might be expected, funds will be devoted to assisting in a lawsuit initiated by a firm tied to Craig Wright, who has claimed to be the inventor of bitcoin. 

© 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.

JPMorgan said last week that it plans to significantly scale its technology investment and spending initiatives in 2022.

The revelations came during a fourth-quarter earnings call on January 14, during which JPM executives including chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon staked out the importance of such spending, including on talent acquisition and what he called “change the bank” spend. JPMorgan will boost the roughly $12 billion it spent on technology last year by as much as 20%. 

According to the FT, tech-focused spending will hit $12 billion in 2022. As for what’s fueling the spending push, Dimon appeared to cite competition, including challengers from the fintech space. 

“It’s a lot of competition, and we intend to win,” Dimon said, according to an earnings call transcript. “And sometimes you guys spend a few bucks.”

The Block reported last summer that JPMorgan was moving aggressively to staff up its in-house blockchain unit, Onyx. In December, it was reported that JPMorgan was working with German industrial giant Siemens on a payments initiative. 

Meanwhile, fintechs continue to attract billions of dollars in venture investments, including more than $11 billion in December alone. The bulk of that investment spending was directed toward the payments sector. 

© 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.