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A hub for decentralized apps (dApps) on Polkadot has netted $2.4 million from investors, with Binance Labs leading the round.

Plasm Network will use the funding to develop its Ethereum bridge, on-chain governance and Network Portal, the team behind the project has said.

Plasm is a smart contract platform that supports transaction scaling through the use of second-layer technology, i.e. a system that sits atop the base-layer blockchain. Thus far, the project has been the first to deploy a smart contract on Polkadot’s Rococo testnet. Polkadot went live last May, as previously reported, coming after several years of development.

Plasm closed its Series A with support from HashKey, LongHash, Digital Finance Group and PAKA Ventures among its investor base as well. 

Binance Labs’ investment comes from its Polkadot-specific fund, which has up to $10 million to allocate to projects related to the proof-of-stake network.

“The first parachain connected to the Rococo-V1 Parachains Testnet is one of the most promising parachain candidates for Polkadot mainnet,” said Wei Zhou, Head of Binance Labs. “By investing and supporting Plasm, we are demonstrating our commitment to supporting the growth and development of Polkadot ecosystem.”

As The Block’s John Dantoni explored in a recent research piece, the project ecosystem for Polkadot has grown since its inception. That deep-dive mapped out more than 120 projects centered around Polkadot, including Plasm.

© 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.

CME’s ether (ETH) futures product saw 388 contracts traded on its opening day, according to Tim McCourt, CME’s Managing Director and Global Head of Equity Products.

That’s about 19,400 ETH, or $33 million. “The response to Ether has been overwhelming,” said McCourt. 

Monday marked the first full trading day of CME’s ether (ETH) futures product, with initial trading having begun at 6:00 PM ET on Sunday.

The derivatives exchange first announced plans to launch ETH futures in mid-December. The contracts — each representing 50 ETH — are cash-settled and based on the CME CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate — the platform’s price discovery mechanism for ETH. There’s a minimum block trade of five contracts.

McCourt disclosed the first day’s metrics on a forthcoming episode of The Scoop. He detailed the road to launch and how ETH futures fit into CME’s broader product roadmap.

The ETH product joins CME’s bitcoin futures product, a popular offering for those looking for exposure. Open interest hit nearly $1.5 billion in December.

The bitcoin futures product saw nearly 1,000 contracts traded on day one, according to McCourt. Adjusting for market cap and other metrics between the two cryptos, McCourt said he’s very encouraged by the launch numbers.

McCourt said there’s already pressure for an additional offering, but did not disclose plans for what that might be. He said he’s interested in seeing what requests rise to the top of the pile in the wake of the ETH futures launch.

© 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 price of bitcoin has passed another all-time high milestone, surpassing $45,000 for the first time.

The cryptocurrency is currently trading hands at roughly $45,376 — an increase of more than 15 percent in the past 24-hours, per data from the exchange.

The development comes hours after U.S. automaker Tesla, led by entrepreneur Elon Musk, announced that it had invested $1.5 billion in bitcoin. The firm joins a small but growing list of publicly traded firms that have allocated some of their balance sheets to 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.

The past twelve months have been good for publicly traded companies working in the digital asset space, according to data collected by The Block.

As shown in the chart below, industry notables such as Galaxy Digital and Silvergate have seen their stock prices swell since early 2020, with those two firms seeing appreciations of 1,105% and 672%, respectively. 

But it’s Voyager Digital — a brokerage firm listed in Canada — that has seen its stock rise more than 6,000% since February 2020. Less than a year ago, VYGVF traded for roughly $0.23. Now, according to stock market data, the firm’s stock is priced at about $15 as of press time. Voyager’s standing market capitalization is about $1.96 billion, per data from Yahoo! Finance.

Though the precise factors for a stock’s rise always vary, it’s possible that these particular securities have attracted attention because they serve as kinds of proxy-investments in the crypto space. Rather than invest directly in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, investors can gain exposure to the industry by way of business stocks. Some commentators have highlighted MicroStrategy — which has bought hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bitcoin as part of its treasury management policy — as an example of this phenomenon.

And in what might be the latest example, U.S. automaker Tesla announced on Monday that it bought $1.5 billion in bitcoin in January. The price of TSLA is currently up 1% on the day’s trade after this morning’s news. 

© 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.

Binance has dropped its defamation lawsuit against Forbes, according to a court filing dated Feb. 4.

Binance sued Forbes Media and two of its writers in November of last year. The suit was in response to a story by Michael del Castillo and Jason Brett that claimed Binance “conceived of an elaborate corporate structure designed to intentionally deceive regulators.” Binance called the story “false, misleading and highly defamatory,” and alleged the story caused losses totaling in the millions.

Binance demanded a retraction or correction, but Forbes stood by the story, even as it faced a Binance legal team that included Charles Harder. Harder has previously represented Hulk Hogan in the Gawker Media case, Harvey Weinstein and the Trumps.

Now, Binance has voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit, although the filing doesn’t indicate why it moved to dismiss. A judge has already approved the request.

© 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.