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Central bankers acknowledge that the nature of money evolves with technology, shifting definitions of money with it. But they’re not ready to let innovation occur organically as technology emerges. They want to maintain control, says Noelle Acheson.

The floor price of the Yuga Labs NFT collection fell to 27.4 ETH, or about $53,000 on Sunday evening before rebounding slightly.

Nasdaq refiled a 19b-4 form for the iShares Bitcoin Trust, a spot bitcoin ETF with BlackRock at the helm. The move followed similar filings last week from the Cboe exchange.

The exchange said it reached an agreement with crypto exchange Coinbase to enter into a surveillance-sharing agreement, with an expectation that a “definitive agreement” will be done ahead of trading, according to the filing.

“The Spot BTC SSA is expected to be a bilateral surveillance-sharing agreement between Nasdaq and Coinbase that is intended to supplement the Exchange’s market surveillance program,” the filing reads.

The move came after The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission told both Nasdaq and Cboe that recent filings from BlackRock, Fidelity and others for spot bitcoin ETF funds were not “clear and comprehensive.”

Cboe then quickly updated its filings for the separate spot bitcoin ETF proposals, including one proposed by Fidelity. The exchange included language that it expected to enter into surveillance sharing agreements with Coinbase.

The race to a spot bitcoin ETF

Nasdaq’s proposal for the BlackRock fund was first filed last month.

The SEC has not yet approved a spot bitcoin ETF. Proposals could face headway from the agency as it has repeatedly cited concerns of fraud and market manipulation when assessing past applications.

© 2023 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 infrastructure as a category has usurped NFT and gaming as the most popular destination for venture capital seeking out deals in the blockchain space, according to data from The Block Research. 

The NFT/Gaming sector had been the most popular destination for VC deals in web3 since June of 2021, but that 23-month winning streak came to an end last month.

Ongoing bear market conditions are prompting investors to focus on foundational companies and projects, The Block Research notes in a forthcoming funding report.

“Infrastructure interest has maintained resilience despite funding for the overall sector decreasing from its heights,” The Block research director John Dantoni said. “By the number of deals, its level of interest has been as high — and in some cases greater than peak bull market where funding was at its highest.”

Prominent deals in June include Mythical Game’s $37 million Series C1 raise, and the $10 million seed round raise for the Cosmos blockchain Neutron led by Binance Labs and CoinFund.

© 2023 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.

Credit Suisse has partnered with the Swiss Football Association to launch an Ethereum-based NFT collection to support women’s football in Switzerland.

The NFT collection consists of 756 digital art portraits of Swiss women’s national team players and will be on sale from July 11 to August 31, according to information on Credit Suisse’s website. The NFTs will be sold exclusively via Credit Suisse’s CSX app.

“When we designed the offering, we consciously attempted to make it easy for the user to engage in the evolving NFT world,” Daniel Gorrera, head of digital assets Switzerland at Credit Suisse, said in a statement shared with The Block. “This project also paves the way for the innovative use of digital assets in new types of financing and servicing models. Within this space, Credit Suisse is well positioned for issuing parties that are looking for regulated partners.”

The news marks Credit Suisse’s entrance into the NFT space. Earlier this year, Credit Suisse led a $65 million Series B funding round for Swiss digital asset infrastructure company Taurus — one month before the Swiss bank was forcibly sold to rival UBS Group for $3.2 billion by Swiss authorities amid collapse fears in March. Taurus is also the technological partner of Credit Suisse’s NFT marketplace in its CSX app.

Specifically, Credit Suisse leverages Taurus-Capital for the issuance and lifecycle management of the Swiss Football Association NFTs and Taurus-Protect for the secure storage of the NFTs. Through Taurus’s infrastructure, the NFTs have been deployed on the Ethereum blockchain network, according to the statement.

Credit Suisse leveraging Ethereum for the NFT offering 

The 756 NFTs are divided into three parts that include “unique” (1 NFT per player), “rare” (5 different NFTs per player) and “limited” (30 different NFTs per player). That way, the unique NFT collection will have a total of 11 NFTs, the rare collection will have a total of 55 NFTs and the limited collection will have a total of 690 NFTs. The unique collection is listed at a price of 10,000 Swiss francs (around $11,165) each, the rare collection at 3,500 Swiss francs apiece, and the limited collection at 150 Swiss francs each.

The physical works of art were created by Swiss artist Daniela Filippelli. Credit Suisse then minted the NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain. Users looking to purchase the NFTs won’t need an external wallet or cryptocurrencies. Payment will be exclusively accepted in Swiss francs via a direct account debit and the NFTs will be stored in the CSX app.

Depending on the package, additional benefits such as physical artwork, signed jerseys, or exclusive meet-and-greet sessions with the players are also included in the NFT sale.

“Every purchase supports the promotion of women’s football, with the entire net proceeds going to the national team players and selected projects to promote talented young female footballers,” Credit Suisse said in a separate statement.

© 2023 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.

Shares in Coinbase, chosen as the market for the surveillance-sharing agreements in ETF applications, rose above $80 at around 11:30 ET on Monday.

Bitcoin’s price pushed past $31,000 on Monday after a volatile week of trading marked by news about filings for spot ETF funds and speculation about whether or not the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission would approve them. 

The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization rose 1.6% to $31,011 at 12:00 p.m. in New York, according to CoinGecko. That’s just short of the level that would take it past the highest point seen in more than a year. 

While jitters on Friday in the wake of a report that the SEC didn’t find several initial ETF filings complete enough sent bitcoin diving, the Cboe exchange quickly refiled forms late that evening. Despite fears about further headline risk, momentum toward $40,000 should be “quite easy to reach,” Ivo Georgiev, CEO of Ambire Wallet, told The Block.

Nexo co-founder Antoni Trenchev, meanwhile, thinks that $32,000 is the next resistance level, after which bitcoin could surge further. He pointed out that July is usually a good month for the digital asset.

“It’s easy to forget that bitcoin started the year battered and bruised after the collapse of FTX and yet here we are at the start of July sitting on a gain of 80% plus,” he said.

Bitcoin still faces ongoing concerns about inflation

However, he conceded that uncertain macroeconomic and inflationary conditions, coupled with a seemingly hawkish Fed, could create short-term resistance.

“If the SEC doesn’t get round to approving one of these spot Bitcoin ETFs, that would no doubt cause more than a ripple in the crypto pond,” he added.

Trenchev contrasted the performance of bitcoin with the majority of the altcoin market, stating that “bitcoin has surpassed its April high whereas the altcoin market is 20% below its April levels and 70% below the 2021 highs.”

He said altcoins are still facing questions as to whether or not they qualify as securities for regulatory purposes, an issue that should last at least through the end of the year. 

“Bitcoin doesn’t have to worry about such matters,” he said. “It’s resilience and clout set it apart as it embarks on the new month and quarter.”

© 2023 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.

Coinbase was trading up more than 12% midday EDT, buoyed by headlines that the crypto exchange is partnering with Fidelity and other issuers on their proposed spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds. 

The gains added to a broader rally that’s pushed the stock up more than 138% since the beginning of the year. Monday’s gains outpaced the broader crypto market, with bitcoin trading up just 1.37% at the time of writing.

Coinbase made headlines June 30 when asset management giant Fidelity resubmitted its filing for a spot bitcoin ETF. The firm said that Coinbase would work with it to help monitor manipulation in the spot market. 

Equities trading giant Cboe refiled Fidelity’s application after the SEC raised concerns that its original filing was not sufficient because it did not reveal the exchange with which it had a market surveillance agreement. 

Cboe also refiled listing applications for VanEck, WisdomTree and Invesco, naming Coinbase in the filings. 

© 2023 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 networks Optimism, Aptos and ApeCoin are set for significant token unlocks this month, releasing more than a combined $100 million worth of tokens into circulating supply.

ApeCoin, the governance token of the ApeCoin DAO, connected to the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT community, is seeing the largest unlock, according to Token Unlocks. ApeCoin will release 15.6 million APE tokens on July 17 — 4.23% of its circulating supply, worth $34.3 million. The majority ($16.2 million) of the unlocks will go to the project’s treasury, with $9.2 million going to developer Yuga Labs and $4.9 million to its founder.

ApeCoin released the same amount in June. Following the unlocks, the price of APE fell around 5% from $2.10 to $1.98 before recovering to $2.21, according to CoinGecko data.

Layer 1 blockchain Aptos releases 4.5 million tokens on July 12, equivalent to 2.17% of its circulating supply — worth $33.9 million. Around $24 million will go to the community and $10 million to the Aptos Foundation.

Aptos also released 4.54 million tokens in June. This saw the APT token fall 4.5% before climbing. APT is currently up around 20% since June’s unlock at $7.50.

Finally, Ethereum Layer 2 Optimism, which recently changed its name to OP Mainnet, is releasing 24.2 million OP tokens on July 30. Representing 3.75% of the circulating supply, the unlock is worth $32.4 million. Approximately $17 million will go to core contributors and $15 million to investors.

The OP token is trading up around 10% at $1.35 since Optimism last released the same amount of tokens on June 30. The circulating supply for OP more than doubled at the end of May, seeing the token’s price fall around 25% before recovering most of its losses.

© 2023 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 east European country is working on legislation to make it harder for fraudsters to get their hands on the proceeds of crime.