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Web3 data warehousing platform Space and Time is partnering with publicly listed South Korean gaming firm Wemade.

Founded in 2000, Wemade is a games developer known for the title “The Legend of Mir 2,” which  was a popular roleplaying game in China. The company has since pivoted towards metaverse and blockchain technologies. It services more than 20 play-to-earn games, the company said in a release.

The strategic partnership will enable Wemade to use Space and Time’s suite of developer tools to power its gaming services. The data warehouse aims to combine on-chain and off-chain data in a single trustless environment that will enable companies to do enterprise-scale analytics and make fast transactions. 

Optimizing on-chain gaming

 Space and Time’s CEO Nate Holiday told The Block in a recent interview that it planned to home in on web3 gaming and DeFi protocols. Many blockchain gaming companies want to bring transactional and analytics data into a single warehouse to find out what in-game events lead to online transactions, he added.

Space and Time will help Wemade facilitate more complex earning payouts for its games, run tamperproof analytics against game activity and reduce on-chain storage costs through its data warehouse, the company said in the release.

“We believe that blockchain is the future of gaming, offering gamers greater ownership and control over their digital assets,” said Shane Kim, the CEO of Wemix, Wemade’s blockchain developer subsidiary. “As the blockchain transformation of traditional games continues to grow, the partnership with Space and Time will help strengthen our blockchain infrastructure capabilities and contribute to our commitment to building an inter-game economy.”

Wemix has its own token called wemix coin, which is currently trading around $1.80, and has recently announced plans to launch an Ethereum Layer 2 protocol, using zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) technology.

Microsoft has recently backed both Wemade and Space and Time. Wemade secured $46 million from investors in November of last year, while Space and Time received $20 million in a strategic funding round in September 2022.

© 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.

Bitcoin soared to its highest point since June before gains were mostly wiped out, trading at $24,595 at 5:55 p.m EDT, up 1.4% on the day, according to data from TradingView.

Ether was up about 0.8% to about $1,700.

BTCUSD chart by TradingView

On March 22, the U.S. Federal Reserve will announce its rate decision, with the potential to swing markets significantly.

Nomura analysts expect the Fed to cut rates 25 basis points due to “looming financial stability risk,” while Grayscale analysts wrote that “it seems unlikely that the Fed will continue an aggressive rate-raising regime.”

Altcoins followed a similar trajectory as the larger coins, ending the day close to neutral territory. Binance’s BNB was down 0.2% at around 6 p.m EDT, while Cardano’s ADA increased 1.1%, and Polygon’s MATIC declined 0.9%. 

Crypto stocks 

Crypto stocks traded up on the day as U.S. inflation data came in line with expectations. 

Coinbase shares gained 5.8% to trade above $62, by 6 p.m. EDT, according to TradingView data. MicroStrategy added 2.8% as it climbed to above $220. Jack Dorsey’s Block traded up about 6% to above $73. 

© 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.

Swaps volume on web3 wallet provider Metamask hit an all-time high over the weekend as the fall of top crypto-friendly banks Silvergate and Signature sent shockwaves through the sector.

A big part of that was linked to the uncertainty over exactly how those bank closures would play out, Metamask group manager Dan Finlay says on an upcoming episode of The Scoop podcast with Frank Chaparro.

“It’s a lot of just speculative panic. People aren’t sure what they can trust. And everybody seems to want something stable,” he said. People were “making some pretty big moves in response to this situation.”

USDC issuer Circle had announced Friday that it had $3.3 billion in reserves stuck Silicon Valley Bank, which was shuttered by state regulators the same day. On Sunday, regulators said that any deposits would be made whole.

“People were betting, they were freaking out that some of their stablecoins were going to drop. DAI even dropped because most of its backing is on USDC now,” Finlay said.

Metamask made around $1.5 million in swap fees as volume spiked, Finlay said.

“People are onboarding, people are fleeing to crypto in many situations,” he said. “We see that every time there’s one of these systemic shocks, people kind of look at it again and they’re like ‘hey, wait, that’s holding up.'”

So while there might be a systemic risk, it might also be “extremely good” for crypto. “It’s kind of a weird mixed blessing,” Finlay 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.

Anchorage Digital, the only federally chartered crypto bank in the U.S., said Tuesday that it would cut about 20% of its staff amid regulatory uncertainty in the U.S., macroeconomic challenges and crypto market volatility. 

“The strategic adjustments we are undertaking have been developed over the course of a several months-long review process,” the company said in a statement, adding it had laid off 75 employees. While it said that its business was growing, it pointed to the “macroeconomic, market, and regulatory dynamics” that are “creating headwinds for our business and the crypto industry.”

The announcement came just days after regulators took control of crypto friendly Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank amid runs on deposits and questions about their solvency. While both of those institutions were chartered and regulated by state agencies, Anchorage Digital operates under the oversight of the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

“Our clients should experience no disruption in service,” the company said. “We remain optimistic about the digital economy and our place within it.”

Anchorage Digital raised $350 million in a 2021 Series D funding round that was led by KKR at a valuation of $3 billion. Other investors included Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, PayPal Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Alameda Research, Apollo credit funds,  Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, GoldenTree Asset Management, Wellington Management and private equity firm Thoma Bravo.

© 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.

Circle’s stablecoin continues to struggle to win back confidence, and the biggest redemption on record just occurred as $723.5 million was sent to a null address and burnt, according to data via Arkham. 

More than $6.2 billion USDC has been redeemed since Friday, with around $1.66 billion minted — bringing net redemptions to a little over $4.5 billion.

Fears over the reserves backing USDC becoming stuck in failed U.S. regional banks initially spurred redemptions on Thursday and Friday before they were halted over the weekend.

U.S. federal bank regulators then guaranteed the full return of Silicon Valley and Signature Bank customer deposits, and Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said operations would resume on Monday. They did, as did a steady stream of redemptions. 

“Despite Circle turning on redemptions and providing assurance that redemptions will be met with reserves, it seems like USDC holders are still nervous about the current environment,” said Steven Zhang, director of research at The Block Research. 

“Given Circle holds its cash reserves with many other banks, if those banks experience a bank run like the one we saw with Silicon Valley Bank, it could lead to USDC de-pegging again,” Zhang said, adding it “might not be worth the risk relative to the limited rewards currently in crypto.”

© 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.

Bitcoin soared to its highest point since June before gains were mostly wiped out.

Bitcoin briefly broke $26,500 shortly after the release of U.S. inflation data for February, which met consensus estimates. By 4:10 p.m. EST, it was trading around $25,085, having surrendered most of its post-CPI gains. 

“Markets are moving sharply higher on improved sentiment despite seemingly little fundamental change,” GSR analysts noted in a market update earlier in the day. Yet, despite the lack of a fundamental change, bitcoin trended across social media as some commentators began to whisper one of Crypto Twitter’s favorite phrases — “we’re so back.”

The joy was short-lived as bitcoin came started declining amid reports that a U.S. drone collided with a Russian fighter jet over the Black Sea.  

Beyond rising geopolitical tensions, the Fed’s next interest rate decision on March 22 is also sure to drive markets. Fed funds futures pricing suggests a 25-basis point increase is the most likely outcome, and some commentators suggest it could be a 25-basis point cut. 

A “somewhat worrying trend is that core service excluding housing (aka ‘supercore’) continued to move up month-on-month,” said Liz Young, head of investment strategy at SoFi, adding that this is a key indicator for the Fed.

© 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.

Bitcoin mining stocks tracked by The Block were higher on Tuesday, with 15 gaining and the other four declining.

Bitcoin rose 3.3% to $25,152 by market close.

© 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.

A New York regulator rebuffed criticism from former congressman Barney Frank and said its decision to take over Signature Bank was not related to the bank’s work with digital asset businesses.  

“The decision to take possession of the bank and hand it over to the FDIC was based on the current status of the bank and its ability to do business in a safe and sound manner on Monday,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

The NYDFS spokesperson said it worked with executives at Signature Bank to evaluate its financial position, the ability to meet withdrawal requests and whether it could continue normal operations on Monday. The bank did not provide “reliable and consistent data, creating a significant crisis of confidence in the bank’s leadership,” according to the spokesperson.  

Barney Frank, a member of the Signature Bank board and an architect of the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory law, told The Block on Monday that he thought regulators had closed the bank because “they wanted to show that banks shouldn’t be involved in crypto.” 

‘Wide range of activities’

NYDFS characterized Signature as a bank with much more significant operations than just its digital asset business, which was a fraction of the bank’s overall activity. 

“Signature was a traditional commercial bank with a wide range of activities and customers, including small businesses like food vendors at Hunt’s Point, residential mortgage banking, commercial real estate, to name a few,” the spokesperson said.  

The NYDFS took control of Signature Bank on Sunday after it experienced a withdrawal frenzy similar to the one that occurred with the tech-friendly Silicon Valley Bank two days before. SVB was the second-largest bank failure by asset total in the U.S.

Last week, Silvergate Bank, which counted FTX and other digital asset firms among its clients, said it would wind down operations “in light of recent industry and regulatory developments,” fueling concerns that appear to have contributed the run on Silicon Valley.   

NYDFS Superintendent Adrienne Harris canceled her scheduled appearance at the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas on Tuesday. 

© 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.

New banks will compete for business from crypto companies following the demise of Silvergate and Signature bank, former FTX.US president Brett Harrison said.

“Previously those banks couldn’t really compete with the top two or three — Silvergate and Signature being among them — because they had such a large percentage of the market share,” Harrison said on an episode of The Scoop podcast coming out on Wednesday.

Crypto companies have been left scrambling to find new banking partners after those two firms stopped serving the industry. Some are turning to institutions like Mercury, Brex and Customers Bank, and others looking at non-U.S. based players like Sygnum and Seba Bank, The Block reported.

Harrison also believes that the recent developments will further help the push into derivatives.

“It’s already been the case for a long time that the primary source of volume in crypto is in the derivatives, not in the underlying spot,” Harrison said.

New venture

While building out his new venture, Architect, which closed a $5 million funding round in January and expects to get its first product out in a month, Harrison said finding a bank hasn’t been hard because he had an existing relationship with a “systemically important bank.”

“Lots of people were seriously affected over the weekend. I mean, many people had near-heart attacks wondering if they were going to make payroll this week,” he said.

Harrison pointed out how crypto futures on CME reached new highs in January, and that’s primarily “a result of people losing faith in spot exchanges,” he said.

Going forward, he sees the potential development of new exchanges that would lessen the requirement for instantaneous bank rails by having delayed settlements similar to what happens in the equities world.

© 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.

Ethereum developers are gearing up for the launch of the highly-anticipated Shanghai-Capella, or Shapella, upgrade on the Goerli test network later today in a final dress rehearsal before the mainnet launch scheduled for April.

The upgrade will be triggered at epoch 162304 on Goerli, estimated to take place around 6:25 pm EST, developers said in a blog post from the Ethereum Foundation. After testing the upgrade on Goerli, they plan to deploy it on the mainnet next month if the test goes smoothly.

The main feature of the upgrade, Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 4895, aims to enable validator staking withdrawals on the main network. The feature was turned off during Ethereum’s switch to a proof-of-stake consensus in September 2022 to ensure a safe transition. 

Goerli will be the third and final testnet used by developers to test the Shapella upgrade. Prior to Goerli, the developers carried out multiple phases of public testing for it on the Sepolia and Zhejiang public testnets since February. 

Besides the withdrawals, developers have also planned three additional improvements aimed at optimizing gas costs for certain activities with the Shapella upgrade.

© 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.