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The benchmark is derived from daily transaction fees and staking rewards generated by Ethereum, bringing pricing tools that institutional investors expect into digital assets.

The Moonbirds Monaverse on 3D world-building platform Mona will let NFT holders participate in virtual community experiences.

Journey’s Cathy Hackl shared how the Web 3 ecosystem can empower AI during CoinDesk’s Consensus 2023 conference in Austin.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler made an investor-education video arguing a systemic lack of compliance in the digital assets sector.

The Bahamas recently overhauled its crypto regulations and says its “open for business” for legitimate digital assets companies.

Robinhood Connect will start rolling out to partners in coming months.

Traders seem to appreciate Meta’s prioritization of its core business lines during the first quarter of 2023.

The stock surged 14.6% a day after the company reported revenue and earnings that both handily beat analyst expectations. Forecasts for the current quarter were also higher than estimates, prompting a bevy of increased price targets. 

During Meta’s Q1 earnings call Thursday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke extensively about the focus on platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Zuckerberg notably spoke less about the metaverse — Meta’s virtual reality gambit on which it has spent billions of dollars — and more about artificial intelligence. 

Still, Zuckerberg sought to counter the idea that Meta is backing away from the metaverse in spite of a $4 billion Q1 loss in its metaverse division. 

“A narrative has developed that we’re somehow moving away from focusing on the metaverse vision. I just want to say upfront that is not accurate,” he said. 

Yet actions like a move away from digital collectibles and non-fungible tokens, disclosed in a Twitter thread in March by head of commerce and financial technologies Stephanie Kasriel, signaled a priority shift to core businesses amid a broad belt-tightening phase. Meta laid off 10,000 employees in March, months after a move of a similar scale in November. 

As The Block’s RT Watson noted Wednesday, Meta has yet to release a version of Horizon Worlds, its flagship metaverse play, for desktop or mobile. 

Meta’s revenue guidance for the second quarter “was better than expected as headwinds ease,” TD Cowen analysts led by John Blackledge wrote in a note published today. The investment bank raised its outlook for Meta.

TD Cowen’s price target was revised to $220 from $195. UBS has set a price target of $232.50 for Meta shares, the 12-month outlook is even higher at $280. 

UBS maintains that investment in the metaverse is a downward risk for Meta, saying heavy investment into Reality Labs metaverse division comes “with an uncertain outcome and lack of a product/market fit today.”

JPMorgan was more positive about the firm’s metaverse operations. Analysts wrote that meta is building muscle for long-term financial discipline while creating room for critical AI and metaverse investments. The investment bank’s price target for December was revised to $305 from $270. 

“Greater efficiency will enable Meta to invest in the 2 major tech waves of AI and the metaverse,” Doug Anmuth and Katy Ansel wrote.

Becoming Meta

Facebook rebranded to Meta in October 2021, while crypto prices were at all-time highs. The metaverse was closely tied to this, with a number of blockchain teams developing virtual reality capabilities. 

Mark Zuckerberg wrote at the time the metaverse would “open up more opportunity no matter where you live” and that as a user, one could “spend more time on what matters to you, cut down time in traffic, and reduce your carbon footprint.”

The firm’s stock price slipped over the coming months. During that time, the global economy grappled with increasing inflation as the world exited Covid-related restrictions. 

In early 2022 the U.S. Federal Reserve announced its intention to fight rising inflation by increasing interest rates. Tech stocks began to tank, and Meta was no exception — as Zuckerberg noted, the economic environment impacted digital advertising.

Compounding the turbulent rate environment was the firm’s exorbitant spending on its new direction. The firm’s metaverse-related losses approached $14 billion in 2022. Zuckerberg took responsibility for Meta’s underperformance and job 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 regulatory environment for crypto in the U.S. is leading some companies to swim offshore. But that doesn’t make them fish in Gary Gensler’s eyes.

The Securities and Exchange Commission chair doubled down on his message that crypto markets suffer from a lack regulatory compliance, not regulatory clarity, in a new pet-themed video on Twitter.

The regulatory boss likened crypto’s compliance conundrum to calling a dog a goldfish in order to skirt leash laws.

“In many places around the country, we’re required to use a leash when you walk your dog. But let’s just say you get stopped because you’re walking Rover unleashed. What do you think would happen if you told the police officer that, Rover is actually a goldfish?” Gensler said. “You’d still get a citation. And that’s because the law cares about what something actually is, not what you call it.”

“It doesn’t matter if you call yourself onshore or offshore. If you make securities available to American investors, you must comply with American laws,” Gensler continued. “The law is clear.”

The Gensler video comes amid a tussle between the crypto industry and the SEC regarding the regulation of cryptocurrencies. Among the most vocal is Coinbase, which recently sued the agency.

Coinbase takes on the SEC

Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the U.S., obtained a license to operate in Bermuda days before filing the lawsuit against the SEC. The company asked the SEC for a new digital asset rule last year, and is suing for an answer. 

“If you’re a securities exchange, clearinghouse, broker, or dealer, you must come into compliance, register with us, and deal with conflicts of interest and disclose important information,” Gensler said, without naming any specific company. 

The SEC has taken a more aggressive posture toward crypto in recent months. The agency recently gave Coinbase official notice that it was the target of an investigation, for example, and sued Bittrex for allegedly operating an unregistered securities exchange. 

Gensler seemed to nod to the Bittrex lawsuit, noting that the agency recently accused a crypto platform of advising issuers to scrub language from their webpages “to pretend that their tokens weren’t investment contracts” and avoid SEC scrutiny. 

“You could say, in other words, they tried to say that their dogs were goldfish,” Gensler 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.

Bit4You learnt of CoinLoan’s insolvency on April 24 and that it no longer has the necessary registration as a digital asset custodian.

A mysterious bitcoiner used the OP_RETURN field to call out wallets controlled by FSB and GRU.