Lawyers for the disgraced exchange executive filed pre-trial motions in early May to dismiss most of the charges on technicalities or procedural issues.
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Author: Sam Reynolds
The liquidate wave from the narrative of lower inflation has now run its course and the market needs a new driver and theme to lift prices higher, one observer said.
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Author: Omkar Godbole
Volumes surged from just over $1 million at the start of May to $18 million on Tuesday, data from Minswap shows.
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Author: Shaurya Malwa
The initial vesting period for early investors and contributors ends today and will nearly double the circulating supply of the tokens.
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Author: Shaurya Malwa
ALSO: The Commitment of Traders report shows that asset managers have increased their open long positions in bitcoin after falling in the two prior weeks.
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Author: Sam Reynolds, Glenn Williams
The amount of transaction fee revenue collected by bitcoin miners soared in May, hitting its highest level in over two years.
According to The Block’s Data Dashboard, the share of mining revenue from transaction fees is at 14.3% as of May 29.
That’s a more than 11% increase over April and the highest since April 2021, as shown in the chart below.
Why the sudden jump? The growth of Ordinals, a method of creating on-chain artworks tied to satoshis, which are the smallest unit of account on the bitcoin network.
As previously reported by The Block, bitcoin has emerged as the second-most voluminous network for NFTs for the past few weeks, after Ethereum, according to weekly trade data.
Transaction traffic on bitcoin hit a new all-time monthly high in May, reaching 14.9 million as of May 29. Overall monthly mining revenue is at its highest level since last May, nearing $840 million as of today.
© 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.
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Author: Michael McSweeney
Crypto exchange Gemini and financial services firm Genesis have filed motions to dismiss a lawsuit filed earlier this year by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The SEC sued the two companies in January, arguing that the Earn program constituted an unregistered offer and sale of securities under U.S. law.
In a Friday court filing, Genesis argued Earn involved the creation of loans, not securities, contending that the SEC “has not plausibly alleged facts that would transmogrify these loans into either investment contracts or security notes.” Similarly, Gemini said in its filing that “the SEC seeks to turn the Earn program into something it was not: the sale of unregistered securities.”
The moves to dismiss are unsurprising, and both firms previously pledged to fight the lawsuit. Back in January, Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss tweeted that “We look forward to defending ourselves against this manufactured parking ticket.”
The lawsuit represented another leg in the SEC’s continued crackdown on the crypto space. SEC Chair Gary Gensler raised red flags about crypto-tied lending in the agency’s press release announcing the enforcement action against Genesis and Gemini.
“Today’s charges build on previous actions to make clear to the marketplace and the investing public that crypto lending platforms and other intermediaries need to comply with our time-tested securities laws,” Gensler said in a press release at the time of the lawsuit’s filing.
© 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.
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Author: Michael McSweeney
A technical analysis indicator called Bollinger bandwidth suggests dogecoin’s unusual calm could soon end with a pronounced move in either direction.
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Author: Omkar Godbole
Michael Egorov, CEO of DeFi protocol Curve Finance, and his wife Anna have reportedly purchased two luxurious villas worth AUD 59 million (around $40 million) in Melbourne, Australia.
Their latest purchase, worth AUD 41 million (around $27 million), is a historic Victorian mansion called Avon Court that was built in the 1870s, the Australian Financial Review reported last week.
Avon Court reportedly sits on 4,300 square metres (or 46,285 square feet) and comes with nine bedrooms, two pools, manicured gardens, gym, sauna, maid’s quarters, 4000-bottle wine cellar, 10-car garage and two rooftop terraces with city views. It also comes with seven kitchens, including an 18-seat teppanyaki kitchen.
The Egorov couple bought the mansion from its previous owners, the Du family, and Du had purchased Avon Court in 2014 for AUD 19.8 million from the AutoBarn co-founder, the late Garry Dumbrell, according to the AFR report.
Avon Court is the duo’s second luxurious purchase, followed by neighboring property Verona in March last year. Verona is a two-storey, five-bedroom Italianate villa that sits on 1,412 square meters (around 15,200 square feet) and the Russian-born couple purchased it for AUD 18.25 million ($13 million). Avon Court is in the name of Anna, per the AFR report.
Launched in 2020, Curve Finance is the second largest DeFi project on Ethereum, with a total value locked of around $4 billion, according to The Block’s Data Dashboard.
Australia’s luxury real estate market has become an attractive destination for buyers from the crypto industry. Last year, Stake.com co-founder Edward Craven reportedly purchased an AUD 80 million mansion in Melbourne. Also last year, StepN co-founder “Jerry” Jian Huang’s wife, Lin Li, is said to have purchased an AUD 15 million property in Sydney.
© 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.
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Author: Yogita Khatri
Episode 51 of Season 5 of The Scoop was recorded with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Zero Hash President & COO Cyril Mathew.
Listen below, and subscribe to The Scoop on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Please send feedback and revision requests to podcast@theblock.co.
Cyril Mathew is the President and COO of Zero Hash, a B2B digital-asset-as-a-service provide that closed a $105 million Series D raise — that included Bain Capital and Point72 Ventures among others — in January of 2022.
In this episode, Mathew shares his personal story of helping convince Stripe’s leadership into supporting crypto and explains why he recently decided to join Zero Hash.
According to Mathews, he discovered Zero Hash while working at Stripe and was impressed by the company’s infrastructure and regulatory licenses. “Especially in a post-FTX world where the scrutiny is only going to be more, I think Zero Hash really has something here,” Mathew said.
Stripe recently partnered with Zero Hash to launch a fiat-to-crypto onramp solution that simplifies the payment experience for both developers and end-users.
During this episode, Chaparro and Mathew also discuss:
- Will crypto cannibalize fintech payment providers?
- How bitcoin and stablecoins are revolutionizing remittances
- Why regulatory uncertainty is keeping institutional investors sidelined
This episode is brought to you by our sponsor CleanSpark.
About CleanSpark
CleanSpark (NASDAQ: CLSK) is America’s Bitcoin Miner™. Visit cleanspark.com/theblock to learn more about the CleanSpark way.
© 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.
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Author: Davis Quinton and Frank Chaparro
