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Bitcoin mining stocks tracked by The Block were mostly lower on Thursday, with five gaining and the other 13 declining.

Bitcoin rose 0.1% to $23,467 by market close.

Here is a look at how the individual miners performed 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.

Move2earn challenger Sweat Economy is set to open up its crypto services, including the Sweat Wallet application and its native token, $SWEAT, to people in the U.S. market, 

Move2earn was a novel concept pioneered by companies such as Stepn. The idea is that people can earn tokens via tracking their steps or exercise. In some cases, with this model, the coin’s price rising has been dependent on new adopters, with unsustainable price spikes leading to consumers losing money. 

SWEAT’s price peaked in September last year, shortly after launch, and cratered after, according to TradingView data.

The non-crypto version of Sweatcoin has been available to the U.S. market since 2016; however, users have so far not been able to access its blockchain components due to regulation, according to a company release. Sweatcoin was the most downloaded health and fitness app globally in 2022, the company said. 

Sweat’s announcement comes at a time of increasingly difficult regulatory pressure on crypto in the U.S. as NFTs and stablecoins alike have come under the microscope. 

“We’ve been keeping an eye on regulatory developments and speaking to our legal advisors, and feel this year is the right time to bring SWEAT to the U.S.,” Sweat Economy co-founder Oleg Fomenko told The Block in a message.

U.S. finally breaks a $Sweat

The move was announced at the ETH Denver conference, and will roll out officially on Sept. 12, a year since its global launch. 

Existing U.S. Sweatcoin app users will receive their allocations of the crypto token, $SWEAT, in proportion to their current Sweatcoin holdings, and can start earning more tokens for their steps.

“Since last year, we have been inundated by requests from our U.S. users, who have been desperate to …  literally … walk into crypto,” said Fomenko. “Although we wish we could have made this announcement last year – better late than never! It’s wonderful to announce the good news to our millions of U.S.-based users now.”

$SWEAT tokens for the U.S. launch will not come from additional token emissions but from existing token allocations, meaning, in theory, it will avoid inflation.

© 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.

With less than a week until Grayscale presents oral arguments against the Securities and Exchange Commission, the discount price of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) traded at at a low of 45.9% relative to net asset value on Thursday, according to data from The Block. The GBTC discount hit an all-time low on Dec. 13, when it reached 48.8% relative to NAV.

GBTC trades at a discount to the NAV of the fund,  since holding shares in the fund doesn’t grant the holder access to its underlying assets. Until early 2021, shares in the fund traded at a premium before flipping to a discount. As a result, the market price of GBTC shares is more than 47% lower than the value of the bitcoin in the fund or its NAV.

The fund will appear in the District of Colombia Court of Appeals this Tuesday March 7, contesting the Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision from June 2022 to deny the conversion of GBTC into an exchange-traded fund. 

The SEC cited Grayscale’s failure to address concerns about market manipulation and investor protections in its initial ruling.

But a number of other concerns also have put pressure on the fund. Grayscale’s sister company, Genesis, filed for bankruptcy protection in January after taking a financial hit following the collapse of crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and exchange FTX last year.

While Genesis and its parent company Digital Currency Group reached an initial agreement for a restructuring plan last month, uncertainty remains regarding how this might affect Grayscale.

The firm also faces other legal troubles. In December, Fir Tree Capital revealed plans to sue Grayscale over concerns of potential mismanagement and conflicts of interest. 

Asset manager Osprey Funds, a competitor to Grayscale, also sued the fund in January, arguing that Grayscale’s advertisements were misleading regarding the likelihood that GBTC would be converted into an ETF.

Osprey accused the fund of “unfair and deceptive acts and unfair competition.”

© 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 chair of a recently created House Financial Services panel focused on digital assets said the panel plans to work with the House Agriculture Committee on a regulatory framework on cryptocurrency.  

“We’re going to do our best to work in tandem with House Ag on this process because I think that is effective,” said Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., on Thursday at a Milken Institute Future of Digital Assets Symposium.  

The House Agriculture Committee has jurisdiction over the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and one of the largest regulators of crypto, bitcoin. Committee Chair Glenn “G.T.” Thompson, R-Pa., introduced a bill to allow crypto exchanges to register with the CFTC last year. 

Hill was picked to chair the subcommittee on Financial Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion earlier this year. 

Hil also said on Thursday “our goal” is to create a regulatory framework for crypto. A first step could be a focus on stablecoins, Hill said, though he expressed some hesitancy. 

“My instinct might say if we pick up where we left off, on stablecoins first, but I’m not sure I can do that,” Hill said. “Part of that is where is this administration on constructive work with Congress on a framework?” 

In the last Congress, now House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., along with former Chair Maxine Waters, D-Calif., worked behind the scenes to figure out a deal on how to regulate stablecoins. Draft legislation included creating a federal framework around stablecoins and temporarily banning the types of payment coins that are not backed by outside assets. But McHenry blamed the Treasury Department for holding up the talks. 

The new subcommittee will cover “providing clear rules of the road among federal regulators for the digital asset ecosystem” and “developing policies that promote financial technology to reach underserved communities.” 

Hill along with Rep. Bill Foster, D-Ill., also introduced the Central Bank Digital Currency Study Act in 2021, which would have required the Federal Reserve and a handful of federal agencies to conduct a study on the impact of introducing a central bank digital currency. 

© 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.

Three U.S. senators want more information from Binance and it’s U.S. subsidiary after raising questions about the parallels that might exist around the commingling that occurred between the failed FTX exchange and its sister trading firm Alameda Research.

The “assertion that Binance.US is fully independent is eerily similar to claims Sam Bankman-Fried made regarding the distinction between FTX US and FTX – claims that appear to be false,” Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Chris van Hollen, D-Md., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan. wrote in a letter sent to Binance on Wednesday, demanding more information on Binance and Binance.US operations.

The letter cites multiple reports, including a Reuters report that Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao authorized the withdrawal of $400 million from a Binance.US account with Silvergate Bank to transfer to an investment fund he runs, raising questions about whether Binance.US is actually an independent entity.

The senators, all members of the Senate Banking Committee that oversees the U.S. financial sector and financial regulators, want “complete copies of all Binance and Binance subsidiary balance sheets from 2017 to the present,” as well as “an estimate of the number and percentage of U.S.-based Binance users during every fiscal quarter between 2017 and the present.”

 Deadline given

They also want “complete copies of all written policies and/or procedures regarding the relationship between Binance and Binance.US,” any communication to investors made about that relationship, and more information on Binance and Binance.US regulatory compliance, including anti-money laundering legal compliance.

“Has Mr. Zhao, at any time, directed or suggested to Binance and/or Binance.US employees that the company should eliminate or limit know-your-customer checks or otherwise weaken its anti-money laundering compliance program?”

The three senators also noted reports that “suggest that Mr. Zhao approved a 2018 plan to create a company, then called the ‘Tai Chi entity,’ that would ‘distract regulators with feigned interest in compliance…’” and are seeking information on that plan.

The senators requested a response by March 16.

© 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.

NFT marketplace Magic Eden is set for a month of free gaming NFT mints, with 13 projects preparing to launch on the platform.

The event, called “Mint Madness,” will showcase collections across Polygon, Etherum and Solana beginning on Friday, according to a company release, with Planet Mojo NFTs launching on Polygon that day. Meta Star Strikers NFTs will follow shortly after. 

The platform will also track which users are trading from those collections listed on the secondary marketplace on a leaderboard. The top 10 traders by volume, applicable only to Polygon collections, will be entered into a prize pool of 20,000 MATIC, with the first place finisher receiving a prize of 4,500 MATIC. 

“We’ve observed that many games entering web3 do not necessarily need to use NFTs as a monetization tool; however, NFTs are a really important user engagement tool for them to share their vision and work with a highly captive and invested audience,” Magic Eden’s Chief Gaming Officer Chris Akhavan said in a statement.

Despite the fact that Magic Eden started off as a Solana-only marketplace, just one of the 13 collections will debut on the blockchain. Nine are set to launch on Polygon and three on Ethereum. 

Shrapnel, a popular AAA FPS title, will be the lone project to feature a cross-chain mint through Magic Eden, launching on Polygon on March 15 and Ethereum on March 22. 

The full list of games available during “Mint Madness” includes Planet Mojo, Meta Star Strikers, Alaska Gold Rush, Shrapnel, Petobots, Blast Royale, Rogue Nation, Tearing Spaces, and Freckle Trivia on Polygon, Realm Hunter, Legendary: Heroes Unchained, and Shrapnel on Ethereum, and Papu Superstars on Solana. Additional mints are under consideration.  

© 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.

Silvergate plummeted after saying it may be “less than well-capitalized” in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Wednesday. The news sent other crypto-related stocks lower.

Silvergate shares were trading at $6.92, down 48% by 9:45 a.m. EST, according to TradingView data. Coinbase said it is no longer accepting or initiating payments to or from the crypto-friendly bank. 

SI chart by TradingView

Silvergate told the Securities and Exchange Commission it may be “less than well-capitalized” and said it was “reevaluating its business.” Shares plummeted after the close, trading around $9 in post-market trading.

KBW analysts led by Michael Perito downgraded the stock to market perform from outperform on Tuesday, citing “increasingly limited visibility.” JPMorgan and Canaccord Genuity also downgraded the bank this week. 

Silvergate remains one of the most shorted stocks on Wall Street, according to NYSE data via MarketWatch. Around 71% of outstanding shares were sold short as of Feb. 15.

Coinbase shares were down by 8% to trade below $60, while shares in Signature Bank slipped 5% to about $106. Signature’s Signet could be considered an alternative to Silvergate’s SEN network. 

© 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 have introduced a new software feature known as “EntryPoint” that enables crypto wallet accounts to operate as smart contracts. The primary goal of this release is to improve the user experience of wallets by facilitating complex tasks such as automated payments and adding recovery methods, which are currently unavailable.

Following a thorough security audit conducted by security firm OpenZeppelin, EntryPoint was launched on Wednesday and is now accessible on blockchain networks, including Ethereum, Polygon, Optimism, Arbitrum, BNB Chain, Avalanche and Gnosis Chain.

With the help of EntryPoint, wallet apps will be able to achieve what’s called “account abstraction,” a mechanism that will let wallets handle complex tasks automatically without requiring users to interact with the Ethereum blockchain.

EntryPoint has been released in accordance with the ERC-4337 standard, incorporating the ability to add features to wallet apps such as automatic payments and two-factor authentication recovery options.

It is an optional feature to be offered to users by crypto wallet providers rather than a protocol-level change in Ethereum, as noted by Lukas Schor, co-founder of Safe, a top multi-signature wallet provider.

“Developers can now start building with an ‘official’ version of the EntryPoint contract,” Schor told The Block, adding that prior versions of the EntryPoint contract had already existed but were not fully audited for security. This has now been finalized with the help of OpenZeppelin.

“The big immediate impact this will have on the ecosystem is to give wallet infrastructure providers more options for providing smart wallet features like account recovery, native multi-sigs, and covering gas fees for users,” Michael Lewellen, head of solutions architecture at OpenZeppelin, told The Block.

Lewellen added that while the account abstraction contract would not eliminate the need to learn complex seed phrases, it would enable the addition of alternative recovery methods with Ethereum-based wallet accounts.

© 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.

Decentralized music platform Audius named Shamal Ranasinghe as chief business officer.

In the newly created position, Ranasinghe will oversee the company’s relationship with the music industry, take a lead role on innovation and develop reporting, analytics and other tools to help make artists, labels and rightsholders successful.

Ranasinghe, who has been an advisor to the company for several years, was previously an executive at Sirius XM/Pandora where he oversaw product development for artists, labels, rightsholders, managers and live music partners.  

“Shamal built some very sophisticated tools at Pandora that enable artists to leverage the platform to build their fan bases in very powerful ways,” said Roneil Rumburg, co-founder and CEO of Audius.    

The platform is among those seeking to provide exclusive experiences to users through the use of blockchain-empowered tokens and connections. Sports teams, including Premier League football clubs, have tapped into fan fever with digital assets providing access and experiences only to token-holders.  

Audius allows artists to generate immutable records for their creative works, and also offer premium features for curated engagement that can be unlocked with the native platform token $AUDIO. The platform is owned and operated by users, with voting weight directly correlated to $AUDIO staked for value-added services.

Audius said it currently has seven million unique monthly users. 

© 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.

Coinbase is telling its Prime customers to use Signature Bank instead of Silvergate amid news the latter may be in financial trouble. 

“Coinbase Prime has elected to make changes to our USD banking partners. We are facilitating fiat withdrawals and deposits using Signature Bank, effective immediately,” the firm said in a message to customers.

The news comes after Silvergate told the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday that it may be “less than well-capitalized” and said it was “reevaluating its business” in a filing with the agency. Shares hit an all-time low in pre-market trading. 

“In light of recent developments & out of an abundance of caution, Coinbase is no longer accepting or initiating payments to or from Silvergate & will be facilitating institutional client cash transactions with our other banking partners,” the company said in an email to The Block.

“Coinbase has de minimis corporate exposure to Silvergate,” a spokesperson added.

Silvergate, a large bank for fintech and crypto, said it would not be able to file its annual financial report on time. It noted that it expected to “record further losses related to the other-than-temporary impairment on the securities portfolio.”

© 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.