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The tweet spurred speculation that the notable venture capital firm could launch its own Optimism-based layer 2 blockchain. A16Z Crypto’s CTO tweeted: “not an L2.”

A new proposal would see Lido accept its $1.2 million in ARB tokens and reward them to liquidity providers in wrapped staked ether pools.

Merit Circle announced a new development from its decentralized autonomous organization: Beam, a gaming-focused blockchain that aims to become the home for various web3 games.

The metaverse-focused DAO claims Beam is a sovereign network powered by Avalanche — a popular layer-one blockchain and Ethereum rival — aimed directly at gamers and game developers.

The latter will reportedly be able to deploy on-chain games with ease. “Everything from smart contracts to gas-optimized transactions, asset management, oracles for web2 games and marketplaces can be provided on Beam, letting developers focus on their games,” an announcement post on Medium states.

Merit Circle claims Beam boasts “a strong network of more than 60 partnered games, dozens of contributors, developers, tools and investors.”

Avalanche and crypto gaming

Merrit Circle highlighted that Avalanche was chosen because its subnets, sovereign networks that define their own rules regarding their memberships and token economics, boast low fees and quick settlements — essential aspects that make them attractive for web3 gaming.

For example, in March of last year, DeFi Kingdoms — arguably the most-notable crypto-native game to date — launched its Crystalvale realm on Avalanche subnet DFK Chain. (It also launched another realm, Serendale, on Klaytn.)

Avalanche is also known for hosting the once-noteworthy crypto game Crabada — a play-and-earn idle game in which players control hermit crabs and battle over oceanic kingdoms. The game’s volume and transactions garnered a lot of attention and peaked late last spring before falling off.

Crypto gaming is still waiting for its killer app

Despite some relative successes in the crypto-native gaming space, the industry has still failed to find its killer app — an indispensable game or application.

Titles coming to Beam, such as Trial Xtreme, Walker World, Hash Rush, Sphere and Edenhorde Eclipse, will look to garner attention and staying power — but it remains to be seen how large of a player base they can attract.

These games are currently not live on Beam.

© 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.

On Monday, the decentralized Ethereum-based staking protocol deployed Atlas granted users access to their staking rewards and lowered the barrier of entry to create an Ethereum validator.

Crypto firms are using the major questions doctrine as a way to fend off regulators, Jason Gottlieb, a partner at Morrison Cohen LLP, said.

The queue stood at 14 days late last week, but it’s lengthened as more exit requests piled in from validators on the blockchain. Also, staked ether deposits outpace withdrawals for the first time since last week’s Shanghai upgrade.

Donald Trump, fresh from his indictment by a New York grand jury, just dropped a second series of his NFT collection. 

The first digital trading cards were released in December and sold out in a matter of hours. The collection then spiked more than 500% following news that the former president was indicted by a New York grand jury last month. The floor price, the cost of the cheapest NFT in the collection, rose to about 0.58 ether, or $1,000, at the time. 

Trump announced the new series on his social media platform, Truth Social. Like the first set, it features stylized images of Trump as a rock star, the King of hearts on a playing card and even George Washington crossing the Delaware River. 

“I am pleased to inform you that, due to the great success of my previously launched DIGITAL TRADING CARDS, we are doing it again,” Trump wrote, sharing a link to the news collection and urging followers to “Have fun!”

Trump, Series one

Made up of 45,000 NFT trading cards, it sold out within hours — racking up about 648 ether, or $785,000, in trading volume in the first 24 hours, according to OpenSea data. 

The initial mint price was also set at $99. Buying anything from the collection automatically entered the owner into a sweepstake. Prizes included a group cocktail party at Mar-A-Lago, a dinner in Miami or a golfing trip with the former president, or even a group Zoom call. 

The collection was launched on Polygon, one of the most attractive networks for NFTs. Starbucks launched another NFT collection on Polygon 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.

Canadian payments firm Nuvei announced yesterday actor and celebrity entrepreneur Ryan Reynolds had invested in the financial technology company, which provides services for gaming and crypto companies.

Today, short-seller Spruce Point Capital Management suggested another one of Nuvei’s high-profile relationships could cause its shares to plummet by as much as 50% over the long term. The firm highlighted Nuvei’s ties to FTX as a creditor of the defunct and disgraced cryptocurrency trading platform at the heart of the digital assets market’s recent troubles.

“Nuvei obscured the extent of its digital and crypto exposure, had an FTX partnership and reportedly also an FTX equity interest,” Spruce Point said in its report, which asserted that the Montreal-based fintech’s share could face “up to 35% to 50% long-term downside risk.”

Shares of Nuvei are down nearly 2% in U.S. trading, according to Investing.com.

Spruce Point, which holds a short position in Nuvei, first issued its original report on the company in December 2021, highlighting what it said were concerns about management biographies and questionable acquisitions. 

In its more recent expose, the short-seller called out Reynolds, asking how much money the actor invested and whether it involved his own money or an “in-kind grant.” The firm also tweeted at Reynolds, seemingly urging him to abandon his newly-announced tie-up with Nuvei.

FTX ties questioned

FTX is currently undergoing a bankruptcy proceeding on top of a prolonged period of heightened scrutiny. As each process has unfolded several companies and individuals have been caught up in the wreckage.

Spruce Point appears to also view Nuvei’s hiring of FTX’s former global head of payments, Adam Cole Jacobs, with pronounced skepticism.

“Based on our investigation, we find that he advised multiple defunct companies with ties to known stock promoters with a list of unsavory allegations,” the report said.

Nuvei partnered with FTX in 2021 to enable instant payment solutions. The company did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

© 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.

Earlier this month, the floor price on the original Trump Trading Card collection pumped after the news of his indictment, but the new Series 2 release has sent the first collection’s price downward.