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Blend, the name of NFT marketplace Blur’s new lending platform, allows traders to lease NFTs to bolster liquidity. However, concerns have been raised about its impact on broader NFT markets.

Coinbase (COIN) shares are up sharply after the company’s first quarter results topped analyst estimates on both revenue and loss per share.

The recent ambiguous messaging from the Federal Open Market Committee’s meeting, which left markets struggling to interpret signals from the FOMC statement and Chair Jerome Powell’s comments, is typical of the abstruse signals that can be found in central bank policy-setting. But new tools, such as blockchain’s cryptographic verification systems, could guide policymakers’ decisions.

A new way of issuing tokens on Bitcoin is growing fast. So why did their creator warn that they “will be worthless”?

The Chinese tech giant is releasing a metaverse launchpad. Plus, Sports Illustrated announces an NFT ticketing platform.

If you want to know what’s coming next in this industry, you need to listen to people still on the sidelines, says Leah Callon-Butler.

The computer scientist who claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto is challenging a $143 million dispute over bitcoin ownership.

State of New York Attorney General Letitia James escalated her office’s crackdown on the crypto industry on Friday with proposed legislation that would force companies to refund customers who are victims of fraud.

“My office is introducing nation-leading legislation to tighten regulations on the cryptocurrency industry,” James said on Twitter. “For too long, fraud in the cryptocurrency industry has caused investors to lose hundreds of billions, with low-income investors and people of color suffering the most.”

The new bill would be the latest effort by James’ office to increase its oversight of crypto firms. She sued crypto exchanges CoinEx and KuCoin earlier this year, along with former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky, and the attorney general also put out a call for crypto whistleblowers last summer.

The state already has one of the toughest regulatory regimes for crypto companies in the U.S. with its BitLicense that’s overseen by New York’s Department of Financial Services, or NYDFS.

“We’re proposing commonsense measures to protect investors and end the fraud and dysfunction that have become the hallmarks of cryptocurrency,” James said. “Banks and other financial services are regulated. The cryptocurrency industry must be too.”

The attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

New York crypto bill would stop firms from borrowing or lending investor assets

The bill would require crypto companies to refund customers who are victims of fraud the way banks do. It would also give the attorney general’s office power to enforce tighter regulations for the industry and “force” independent and public auditing of crypto companies. 

The legislation would also address conflicts of interest and and bolster investor protection. It would “prevent people who create crypto assets from also owning crypto platforms” and stop crypto firms from borrowing or lending investor assets.

Investors would also receive risk and conflict of interest information about crypto companies, James said.

“My office has taken action to stop cryptocurrency companies from operating illegally,” she said. “Our bill will continue New York’s legacy as a top financial leader to protect investors and our economy.”

© 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.

Paxful co-founder Ray Youssef has big plans to reopen peer-to-peer trading after his company collapsed earlier this year. And it won’t be in the U.S.

His new initiative, called Civ Kit, is a “blueprint for developers and entrepreneurs to build their own censorship-resistant and permissionless global marketplace.”

It’s what Youssef calls an “unstoppable marketplace” that will allow anyone, anywhere, to trade using the Lightning Network and Nostr, a protocol that enables decentralized social media.

“We want everyone to be trading with everyone. We want someone in Venezuela trading with someone in Russia,” Youssef said on a recent podcast with The Block’s Frank Chaparro. “No barriers, no permission required.

The endeavor comes on the heels of the implosion of Paxful, which he founded in 2015 with Artur Shaback, who is now suing Youssef. In the face of legal uncertainty in the U.S. — though nothing imminent — Paxful had decided in November to dissolve the company — a “nice, tidy dissolving,” Youssef said.

“We spent all the money on compliance to make sure that any frozen funds were released back to the users and then there wouldn’t be any creditors,” Youssef said. Shaback, however, “decided to sue me because he wouldn’t get his nine-figure payday if the company dissolved. So it was purely out of greed.”

Shaback didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Know your peer

Instead of “Know-Your-Customer,” Civ Kit will use “know-your-peer (KYP) oracles.”

“KYC is horrible,” Youssef said. “People want to know who they’re trading with, especially for big transactions. And that’s where we replace KYC with Swipe Your Peer … We can start attaching reputation to accounts based on the nature of people’s trading activity.”

Youssef said while there are several such marketplaces in the works, “the difference is that Civ Kit is built by someone, designed by someone that’s already done it out in the real world and seen every possible problem in a case.”

© 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.

Pepe, a crypto token styled on the Pepe the Frog cartoon meme, climbed past $1 billion in market cap for the first time as traders pushed it into the top 50 most valuable coins. 

One pepe is currently worth $0.00000279, according to data provider CoinGecko. The token has risen 67% over the past 24 hours and surged more than 10-fold over the past week, making pepe the 45th largest by market value.  

Memecoins — which take a recognisable internet meme and add an element of financial speculation — have a long history in crypto, even if they have zero utility. Naive investors can be drawn into their parabolic gains, which have a habit of crashing suddenly and leaving those who bought near the top nursing huge losses. 

Two dog-themed tokens — dogecoin and shiba inu — have become fixtures in the ranks of the most valuable crypto projects since the pandemic-fueled market action of 2020 and 2021. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has often tweeted his appreciation for dogecoin, often with his tongue at least partly in his cheek, and research firms such as Chainalysis have bowed to pressure to cover it. 

“This is the purest representation of crypto’s speculative prowess,” said Steven Zheng, research director at The Block Research. 

The gains in pepe came as Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, announced it would list the token for the first time. Binance clients will be able to trade pepe from Saturday.  

“Please note that the token has no utility and it is created by an anonymous team,” Binance warned in its announcement. 

Pepe volume overtakes dogecoin

For now, at least, pepe appears to have taken the crown as crypto’s favorite memecoin. Earlier this week, trading volume for pepe exceeded that for both dogecoin and shiba inu. 

In fact, those trading the token on Uniswap have burned more than $10 million in Ethereum transaction fees — where a portion of the fee is destroyed instead of going to miners — over the last three weeks. This has boosted the amount of ether getting burned on the network, which is now up to around $60 million per week.

Despite the huge paper gains, those looking to cash in by selling might struggle with a lack of liquidity. A Nansen report this week highlighted one pepe early adopter selling $2.2 million of the token but only receiving $650,000 in ether “due to massive slippage.” 

Despite the skepticism, Markus Thielen, head of research at Matrixport, highlighted that renewed interest in memecoins could have wider importance for crypto markets.

“Under the surface, we are starting to see increased activity that the more speculative parts of the crypto industry are awakening after almost a year in hibernation,” Thielen wrote in a report.

© 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.