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A huge tax on BTC miners didn’t make it into a deal to resolve the battle, and a separate provision might actually (unintentionally) help them.

The bet made at Consensus 2018 hinged on how far Ethereum adoption would get by now. Crypto analysts say the blockchain appears to have met a key threshold, or at least got very close.

The stablecoin issuer announced earlier this week it is investing in a sustainable bitcoin mining facility in Uruguay.

Digital art connoisseurs will soon get a chance to purchase the blue-chip, non-fungible tokens from the “Grails” collection that once belonged to the now-defunct crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital.

Sotheby’s will auction off 37 “Grails” NFTs next month, with the auction house calling the event the “largest ever live auction of digital art.” It expects sales to exceed $5 million dollars.

The NFTs up for auction have become the subject of additional intrigue thanks to their previous owner, the once major crypto venture capital investor and trading shop that collapsed in a spectacular fashion last year. The NFTs were seized as part of the bankruptcy process that began in July.  

Sotheby’s said the sale will feature NFTs created by well-known generative artists including Dmitri Cherniak, Tyler Hobbs and Larva Labs.

“This unparalleled collection celebrates the prominent artists who helped bring NFTs and digital art to the cultural mainstream through their innovative and conceptual approaches to the creation of digitally native art,” Sotheby’s said in a statement.

The June 15 auction follows a sale of seven “Grails” works earlier this month. Sotheby’s auctioned off the smaller batch of NFTs, which included Tyler Hobbs’ Fidenza #725, for a total of $2.5 million.

“The Grails collection has long been renowned throughout the digital art world,” said Michael Bouhanna, Sotheby’s head of digital art and NFTs.

© 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 firm will “focus on talent densite” ahead of the next bull market, a spokersperson told CoinDesk.

The European Banking Authority wants to extend money laundering guidance to crypto firms and banks that trade with them

The crypto market doldrums have resulted in one of the most inactive months in digital asset trading in years. 

Monthly cryptocurrency exchange volumes are on track to hit their lowest monthly level since October 2020, with spot volumes across major trading venues just under $424 billion in May. That’s a far cry from May 2022 and May 2021, which saw monthly volumes of $1.4 trillion and $4.25 trillion, respectively, according to The Block’s data dashboard.

The torpid trading activity in digital assets has been well-documented, with the trend underpinned by a retreat of large trading firms from the market as well as a shift to decentralized trading venues. 

Volatility is another factor, institutional trading venue LMAX said in a newsletter on Wednesday, noting that its own volumes had “cooled off.”

“Volatility has been trending lower in correction mode after peaking out at a yearly high in March,” the exchange said. “We’re looking at average daily ranges in bitcoin and ether of $818 and $57 respectively.”

© 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.

Binance has laid off a portion of its workforce as the crypto exchange behemoth’s market share continues to shrink.

Responding to Wu Blockchain’s tweet about Binance’s layoffs, a spokesperson of the exchange told The Block, “We periodically review how we can best allocate our talent to the right teams with the right resources. And sometimes, this inevitably leads to letting go of some employees who might not be performing well or who might not be the right cultural fit.”

“This is not a case of rightsizing, but rather, reevaluating whether we have the right talent and expertise in critical roles, and therefore we will still be seeking to fill hundreds of open roles. This will include looking at certain products and business units to ensure our resources are allocated properly to reflect the evolving demands of users and regulators,” they added.

Binance’s total headcount before the move was around 8,000. The exchange declined to comment on the size of the cuts.

The layoffs come two months after Binance reportedly said in March that it is “not planning any layoffs” and is instead trying to fill another 500 roles by the end of June. Binance still has over 300 open positions on its website.

In January, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said the company was planning to increase the number of staff by between 15% and 30% in 2023. “We will continue to build and hopefully we will ramp up again before the next bull market,” he said at the time.

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, has witnessed a declining market share over the past few months, as The Block reported recently. Binance’s sliding market share has coincided with a decline in overall trading volumes. Recent U.S. regulatory action against Binance and Zhao in March might also be a contributing factor to the lower market share.

Binance, however, remains bullish on the future. “Delivering for our users remains our number one priority, as always, and long-term, we’re excited about the growth we’re seeing in our organization — new user registration remains strong and we’re very bullish about the pipeline of innovation across the Binance ecosystem,” the company spokesperson said.

© 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 Goose” by the generative artist was purchased by 3AC co-founders Su Zhu and Kyle Davies in August 2021 for about $5.8 million.

Crypto Twitter rallied around a purported cancer patient who was trying to sell NFTs yesterday in an act of community goodwill, but it was left jaded after they turned out to be a scammer who disappeared with the funds.

It started when an account called Phoenix posted that they were a cancer patient and trying to make NFTs with pixel art. The tweet was picked up and shared rapidly among many crypto influencers who encouraged people to buy the NFTs and support the artist. 

Yet it was quickly discovered by some Twitter users including web3 artist Arcanic that the account was simply reselling work from other artists such as as Snooow. Arcanic also highlighted that the same account had been used to run similar tactics, such as claiming their wife had cancer and were trying to get out of debt. 

The Twitter account was deleted once the scam was widely discovered, but not before the NFT project had raised around 63.5 ether ($119,000). The funds were transferred to other wallets, according to crypto sleuth ZachXBT. He claimed they may have been sent to crypto exchange OKX.

“We as a community came together to support someone with a heart-wrenching story. For half a day it felt good and genuine again,” said a crypto individual known as BenJammin who initially shared the NFT project. 

“I’m tired of this shit, I joined this Web3 space because of the quest for knowledge, community and vibes. Now it’s a cesspool of scammers,” they added.

Arcanic also weighed in, saying that the ordeal had been “a gut-punch to everyone trying to do some good in space so riddled with drama and grifters. But I think that despite this, we shouldn’t get rid of our empathy either.”

© 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.