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Quick Take

• This research piece gives an in-depth overview of Abracadabra Money and analyzes it against its peers, MakerDAO and Alchemix
• Abracadabra is a multi-chain decentralized bank that issues its native stablecoin, Magic Internet Money (MIM) via yield-bearing asset
• Danielle, the mastermind behind Abracadabra, is employing an aggressive expansion to various multi-chain and protocol integration
• Abracadabra currently earns higher revenue than MakerDAO and shares the income with its token holders

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Immunefi, a crypto startup that helps DeFi protocols launch bug bounty programs on its platform, has raised $5.5 million in a seed funding round.

Electric Capital and Blueprint Forest co-led the round, with Framework Ventures, IDEO Colab, The LAO, BR Capital, and North Island Ventures, also participating, among other investors.

This was an equity funding round and will help Immunefi scale its operations, founder and CEO Mitchell Amador told The Block.

“We will continue acquiring cutting-edge security tech and building the most elite emergency response team in the industry,” said Amador. “We are especially interested in building vulnerability prediction technology and hacker tooling that makes it easier and easier to find vulnerabilities.”

Founded last year, Immunefi is a vulnerability coordination platform that connects DeFi protocols with whitehat hackers. It competes with traditional platforms like HackerOne and Bugcrowd, but is focused on the needs of the DeFi sector, which is vulnerable to hacks and attacks.

According to The Block’s Data Dashboard, DeFi attackers have stolen over $400 million in funds to date. Amador said Immunefi has helped discover over 3,500 vulnerabilities to date, preventing over $2 billion worth of hacks.

Immunefi’s clients include Synthetix, Chainlink, SushiSwap, PancakeSwap, Compound, and more. The platform currently has over $47 million worth of bounties available, and to date, it has paid out over $7.5 million worth of bounties.

Earlier this month, Polygon, for example, paid out a record $2 million bounty via Immunefi to a whitehat hacker who discovered a critical vulnerability in the protocol that put approximately $850 million of capital at risk.

Speaking of its business model, Immunefi takes a 10% commission on top of any bounties paid out via the platform, said Amador.

To help scale its operations, Amador is also looking to expand its current team of 34 to over 100 people by the end of next year. The seed funding round comes after a “small” pre-seed round from “family and friends,” said Amador, adding that the firm expects to raise more funds as soon as it is ready to decentralize its operations.

Amador declined to comment when asked if Immunefi will launch its own token to meet its decentralization objectives.

© 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.

CoinList, a token listing platform and a crypto exchange, has raised $100 million in a Series A funding round. The round brings the firm’s valuation to $1.5 billion.

Accomplice VC and Agman Partners co-led the funding round, with Alphemy Capital, Taavet+Sten, Continue Capital, CMT Digital, DFG Capital Management, Fenbushi Capital, GoldenTree Asset Management, and Metaplanet, also participating.

As part of the deal, Agman founder and CEO Scott Silverman, has also joined CoinList’s board, CoinList CEO Graham Jenkin told The Block.

San Francisco-based CoinList, founded in 2017, provides crypto projects a platform to list their new tokens and raise funds from the public. The firm has facilitated token sales of notable projects such as Solana, Dapper Labs, and Filecoin. Last year, CoinList also launched a crypto exchange, CoinList Pro, with custody and staking services.

Jenkin said the crypto space has seen a dramatic increase in the quality and quantity of new projects launching their tokens in the last year, which has been “the major driver” of CoinList’s growth. To keep up with this growth and scale its engineering systems and operations, CoinList has raised new funds, he said.

There are currently 75 people working for CoinList, and Jenkin is looking to double the headcount in the next 12 months to scale the firm’s operations.

“We’ll continue to focus on helping crypto protocols rapidly innovate, build their communities, and drive adoption in the space through products like Governance and Karma,” he said. CoinList Governance helps drive token holders to vote for protocols, and CoinList Karma is a loyalty program that rewards community members for growing protocols, said Jenkin.

CoinList’s userbase is global, but it says it has seen more growth in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East over the past year. Jenkin said CoinList now has over 5 million registered users in total, including CoinList Pro users.

As for segment-wise performance, CoinList said its exchange has seen an increased monthly trading volume to $1 billion in 2021, and assets staked now total $2.6 billion, with over $130 million in staking rewards distributed so far. For its lending services, CoinList said it has facilitated over $370 million in loans this year.

The Series A round brings CoinList’s total funding to date to $120 million. The firm isn’t looking to raise more funds for at least the next 18 months, said Jenkin, adding that CoinList is profitable and may not raise funds again.

© 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.

Austria-headquartered Iris Energy has become the latest energy company-turned Bitcoin mining firm seeking to list in the U.S via an initial public offering (IPO).

The firm filed an F-1 form to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday with a placeholder goal of raising $100 million and plans to list on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker IREN.

The IPO prospectus comes two months after the firm initially submitted a confidential filing for a direct listing in August but it appears to have revised the plan since then.

Earlier this month, Pennsylvania-based Stronghold Digital — similarly an energy company-turned Bitcoin mining firm — raised $127 million in an IPO with the final pricing exceeding the initial target range. 

Iris Energy said it had an operating hash rate of about 0.7 exahashes per second as of October 1, accounting for about 0.4% of Bitcoin’s total network hash rate. This is powered up by the 30-megawatts facility it acquired in British Columbia in early 2020.

No bitcoin holdings

But different from other publicly listed Bitcoin mining firms in North America, Iris Energy does not hoard its bitcoin, instead liquidating its newly mined coins on a daily basis. 

“We have been mining Bitcoin since 2019. We liquidate all the Bitcoin we have mined and therefore do not have any Bitcoin held on our balance sheet as of September 30, 2021,” the firm said in the prospectus.

Iris Energy said it plans to use the net proceeds from the IPO to increase its working capital and expand its hardware and mining facilities.

Apart from its first site in Canada, it is pursuing additional facilities in British Columbia, Texas and Asia in its bid to have enough capacity to host the mining hardware it has already ordered.

“As of September 30, 2021, we have entered into binding hardware purchase contracts with Bitmain … to acquire the latest-generation miners, Antminer S19j and Antminer S19j Pro, with an aggregate nameplate hashrate capacity of 14.5 EH/s and deliveries commencing in October 2021 and ending in September 2023, which is expected to increase our operating and contracted nameplate hashrate capacity to 15.2 EH/s,” the firm added.

That means the firm needs to have an operating power capacity of about 530 megawatts by September 2023 for its entire planned mining fleet. 

© 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.

Rachel Mayer
VP of Product
Circle

Corporate treasurers and institutional fund managers face a unique challenge. On one hand, they’ve amassed large cash balances. On the other hand, persistent low interest rates give them very few options for generating meaningful returns on that cash, with 10-year Treasuries¹ and Aaa-rated 10-year corporate bonds²  yielding less than half of their historical average as of October 1, 2021.

At the same time, institutional interest in crypto is growing. Total cryptocurrency market capitalization soared past $2 trillion as of August 2021, driven in part by companies and investment firms exploring the space. But many institutions still remain on the sidelines, either because they don’t know how to invest in crypto, or because they aren’t comfortable with the risks and volatility typically associated with Bitcoin and DeFi.

Circle Yield is designed to address all of that. It’s a new investment that’s built to help institutions allocate into crypto lending markets without the uncertainty and opacity. It’s a fixed-term investment issued within a clear regulatory framework, and it offers returns that are much higher than what’s available from banks and many fixed income markets, with terms from one month up to a year.*  It’s also fully secured and overcollateralized with Bitcoin, with all collateral held by a third-party custodian that serves more than 400 institutional clients. 
_____________________________________

¹https://ycharts.com/indicators/10_year_treasury_rate
²https://ycharts.com/indicators/moodys_seasoned_aaa_corporate_bond_yield

Circle Yield is built with USDC, a full-reserve dollar digital currency. USDC is fully backed by cash and equivalents and short-duration U.S. Treasuries, so that it is always redeemable 1:1 for U.S. dollars. Each month, Circle publishes attestation reports by Grant Thornton regarding the reserve balances backing USDC. Total USDC in circulation has grown past $32 billion as more companies and investors recognize the value of its stability and transparency.

Circle Yield is also drawing interest among crypto organizations, as blockchain foundations, NFT platforms and others seek to diversify their treasuries. Allocating into Circle Yield can help balance growth and security while keeping funds on the blockchain. Circle Yield’s fixed rates and clear regulatory framework can offer greater certainty compared to storing funds in native tokens or investing in DeFi.

Visit circle.com/yield today to book a meeting with an expert.

Offering subject to business approval, geographical availability**, and regulatory authorization, and there is no guarantee that the product will become available in a specific timeframe or to a specific customer or geography. Circle Yield offered by Circle International Bermuda Limited (“Circle Bermuda”).
Circle Account and money transmission services are provided by Circle Internet Financial, LLC or, for customers using Circle Account services located in the United Kingdom, Circle UK Trading Company Limited. Circle Internet Financial, LLC, NMLS # 1201441, is a licensed provider of money transmission services. Circle Payments, LLC, DFPI Money Transmitter License # 2549, is registered under the California Department of Financial Protection & Innovation. A full list of Circle’s licenses can be found here. 
Circle is not a bank; your Circle Account is not a bank account, and any funds are not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Securities Investor Protection Corporation or by any US or foreign government agency, insurance fund, person or entity. For investors in the United States, investments described in this communication are offered by Circle Bermuda to “accredited investors” only in accordance with Regulation D, Rule 506(c) of the Securities Action of 1933, as amended. While Circle Bermuda is regulated by the Bermuda Monetary Authority for digital asset business, Circle Bermuda is not engaged in banking and deposit taking activities and is not regulated for these purposes. You should carefully conduct your own investigations and analyses in connection with any participation in this product, including its objectives, risk factors, fees and expenses and the information set forth in these materials. All prospective participants in the products described herein are advised to consult with their legal, accounting and tax advisers regarding any potential participation. Please read the offering documents carefully before you invest. Additional information is available upon request. 

*Available rates are subject to change pending availability, approval and market conditions
** Not currently available in the following U.S. states: Alaska, Minnesota, New York and Hawaii.

© 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.

London-based regtech firm ComplyAdvantage is beefing up its cryptocurrency anti-money laundering (AML) capabilities by partnering with blockchain sleuthing company Elliptic.

ComplyAdvantage is already working with crypto firms like Paxos and Gemini, but mainly to assist on the fiat AML side of things, said ComplyAdvantage Vice President Rob Dickinson. White-labeling Elliptic’s blockchain tracking and wallet attestation provides Dickinson’s firm with deeper on-chain detection tools.

“What we already provide for some of the larger crypto exchanges is the behavioral side. So looking at when Entity A sends money to Entity B via Entity C,” Dickinson explained in an interview. “Elliptic then gives us the ability to say this entity, if you follow up or down the chain, is linked to a darkweb pool somewhere, or a less-than-reputable exchange elsewhere.”

Partnering with blockchain sleuthing firms is probably a smart move, particularly in light of Mastercard’s recent acquisition of Elliptic rival CipherTrace.

Read more: Mastercard to Acquire Crypto Tracing Firm CipherTrace

As regulatory scrutiny intensifies, and financial institutions like card providers and banks edge closer to crypto, on-chain analytics could be another must-have, a bit like providers of crypto custody.

“The larger banks’ tolerance to reputational risk is extremely low,” said Dickinson. “They want to be able to look down the chain and be aware if some particular wallets are involved in some scams.”

In an interview with Axios, Senator Rand Paul got optimistic about crypto’s role in the world’s financial system.

“The government currencies are so unreliable,” said Paul. “I’ve started to question now whether or not cryptocurrency could actually become the reserve currency of the world as more and more people lose confidence in government.”

The interviewer, Mike Allen, noted that this sort of attitude made Paul “a rock star among young people” during a 2016 presidential run. Paul’s campaign was notable for accepting Bitcoin donations at the time. 

A Republican from Kentucky, Paul’s ideology has long had a libertarian streak including extensive criticism of quantitative easing. He joins a growing list of senators expressing interest in crypto, though a true shift away from the dollar as the global reserve currency is a remote possibility for the time being.

Earlier this year, El Salvador became the first country to make Bitcoin legal tender, which entailed large purchases of Bitcoin on the national balance sheet. Though that experiment remains active, some have criticized the cryptocurrency industry’s willingness to praise the country’s president, Nayib Bukele, for this bitcoin focus despite his history of authoritarian actions.

© 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

• For years, the Latin American (LATAM) region has been billed as an area primed for high growth for digital assets
• In September, El Salvador legalized bitcoin as legal tender, becoming the first country to do so, and also the first country in the world to hold bitcoin on its balance sheet and hold it in its reserves.
• In total, The Block Research has identified a total of 112 companies an projects across 15 verticals that cater to the Latin American region

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

Crypto financial services firm BlockFi has teamed up with investment manager Neuberger Berman to create a business for crypto products including exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

“BlockFi | nb expects to launch crypto asset management products, including ETFs and other traditional structures, that will give investors cost-effective and convenient access to the performance of crypto assets in their brokerage accounts,” the two companies said Monday.

BlockFi | nb is located in Jersey City, N.J., a BlockFi spokesperson confirmed, noting that a “small” group of people is working for the company and that it “receives support and services from its parent entities.” Expansion plans are on the horizon, the spokesperson said, without sharing further details about how many and what type of new positions would be available.

The new legal entity is launching as crypto ETFs continue to gain popularity. BlockFi is just one of the issuers hoping to list its own in the U.S., following the launch of the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) on Oct. 19. That fund, the first exchange-traded product based on crypto futures to list on a U.S. exchange, saw nearly $1 billion in volumes on its first day.

Shortly after, Valkyrie launched a bitcoin futures ETF that did nearly $80 million in volume on its launch day.

BlockFi filed a form N-1A with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Oct. 8 to offer the BlockFi Bitcoin Strategy ETF, an actively managed fund that would mostly invest in bitcoin futures contracts registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) without direct exposure to the cryptocurrency. The fund would be approved 75 days after that date, so long as the regulator doesn’t take any action to block the product before that time.

“Digital assets are increasingly taking their place as mainstream investments and we intend for BlockFi | nb to play a key role in that effort,” Peter Sterling, managing director at Neuberger Berman, said in a press release.

© 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.

Facebook will begin breaking out results for Facebook Reality Labs (FRL), its augmented/virtual reality division, starting in the fourth quarter, the company announced in its third quarter earnings release.

• ”As we have discussed, we are dedicating significant resources toward our augmented and virtual reality products and services, which are an important part of our work to develop the next generation of online social experiences,” the company said. “The new segment disclosures will provide additional information on the performance of FRL and the investments we are making.”
• CEO Mark Zuckerberg has discussed plans to reposition Facebook as a metaverse company, and there have been recent reports the company plans to rebrand and potentially even rename itself accordingly.
• Starting in the fourth quarter, Facebook said it will have a new reporting structure with two reportable segments: Family of Apps (FoA), which includes Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and other services; and Facebook Reality Labs (FRL), which includes augmented and virtual reality related consumer hardware software and content.
• Overall for the third quarter, Facebook reported adjusted earnings per share of $3.22 versus the $3.19 expected by analysts, according to FactSet, and revenue of $29.01 billion, versus $29.49 billion expected. Shares of Facebook were rising 3.3% to $339.48 in after-hours trading on Monday following the release of the report.

Read more: A Crypto Guide to the Metaverse

UPDATE (Oct. 25, 20:56 UTC): Added information about overall results in fourth bullet point.