FreeCryptoCurrency.Me

The Avalanche developers have upgraded AvalancheGo — the software implementation of the blockchain in the Go programming language — to “Banff 5.”

The upgrade is critical for the Avalanche network as it introduces a communication protocol for Avalanche-based blockchains (called subnets) known as Avalanche Warp Messaging. The feature will allow subnets to share data and crypto assets with each other in an effort to make the Avalanche blockchain ecosystem more useful for developers.

Avalanche’s subnet interoperability

Before the upgrade, Avalanche already allowed developers to write custom blockchains or subnets for different use cases in the Go and Rust programming languages. However these subnets couldn’t communicate with each other until now without the use of complex bridge systems, meaning they largely remained isolated from one another. This is where Banff 5 comes in with Avalanche Warp Messaging to enable what’s described as “seamless native communication” between subnets to transfer assets or data across different subnets.

The upgrade eliminates the need for individual subnet projects to deploy and manage their own bridges. The mechanism also holds the potential to open the door for new use cases such as cross-chain staking of tokens, the Avalanche team said.

“Avalanche Warp Messaging (AWM) is the catalyst that will spark a Cambrian explosion of Avalanche subnet development,” said Patrick O’Grady, head of engineering at Ava Labs. “With this release, you can launch your own Go- or Rust-based blockchain and reward any node that stakes your own token for validating it, all while natively interoperating with an ecosystem of other builders doing the same thing.”

The subnet messaging employs the use of an advanced cryptographic tool called “BLS multi signatures” to verify messages and data across chains. To make use of the protocol, the security validators of any subnet can generate a BLS signature which attests the request to send assets or data over to another subnet. The very same message can be verified by any other subnets in the Avalanche ecosystem to initiate the native transfer of data or assets. Ava Labs said it made the first native subnet-to-subnet message on Thursday.

© 2022 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 Argentine Football Association (AFA) is partnering with metaverse startup Upland as one of its first entries into web3 fan engagement. 

The deal includes digital collectibles and a virtual gathering space for AFA’s fanbase.

“The Argentine Professional League has long awaited opportunities to take advantage of emerging technologies to enhance our League’s fan experience,” AFA President Claudio Fabian Tapia in a statement. “This agreement allows us to partner with the best creators of technology and new digital products and thus generate a new source of income for all participating clubs.”

Upland is a game that involves buying and selling virtual land tied to real-world places, with over 3 million accounts registered. The startup behind the game raised $18 million in a Nov. 2021 round led by Animoca Brands that valued it at $300 million at the time.

The fan token tied to Argentina’s team had surged throughout the World Cup but crashed soon after Argentina’s victory, as The Block previously reported.

© 2022 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.

Bullish has ended a SPAC deal that would have brought the block.one-founded crypto exchange onto the New York Stock Exchange.

Cayman Islands-registered Bullish and Far Peak, the acquisition vehicle led by former NYSE leader Tom Farley, put out a joint announcement on the end of the partnership, which they’d originally publicized in July 2021. Far Peak will be shutting down as an entity between now and March 7. 

“Our quest to become a public company is taking longer than expected, but we respect the SEC’s ongoing work,” Bullish CEO Brendan Blumer said in a statement. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission has been increasingly skeptical of both crypto firms seeking public listing and SPAC deals, a streamlined means of public listing that boomed in 2020 and 2021 but have fizzled in the past year.

Circle, a major stablecoin operator, announced the end of its SPAC ambitions earlier this month. 

© 2022 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 Qatargate bribery scandal roiling Brussels has derailed the European Parliament’s push for legislation on NFTs.

The Parliament’s report on NFTs was withdrawn following the arrest and criminal charge of former vice president of the European Parliament, Eva Kaili, for allegedly accepting bribes from Qatari officials, according to the office of Dan Nica, an MEP who redistributed the rest of Kaili’s files as she was suspended from her political group. 

Before her arrest, Kaili, a member of the Parliament’s Socialists and Democrats group, was preparing to lead a report outlining bespoke policy for NFTs. The initiative was meant to address a policy gap, as NFTs were ultimately largely left out of the comprehensive Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation. It would have incentivized the European Commission to follow through with a legislative proposal.

Kaili was one of the Parliament’s leading voices on crypto and considered an ally of the industry. She is now accused of accepting Qatari bribes to illegally influence Parliament in one of the biggest corruption scandals in the institution’s recent history. She is currently awaiting results from the judge following a Belgian federal court hearing about whether she will remain imprisoned until her trial. 

Qatargate unfolds

The Greek politician was one of four people charged after police confiscated a stash of €600,000 ($635,000) in cash on Dec. 9. Alongside her are her partner Francesco Giorgi, a policy advisor in the EP, and his former boss Pier Antonio Panzeri, who are connected through work in an NGO called Fight Impunity. Charges against Kaili include corruption, money laundering and taking part in criminal organization.

Kaili admitted she asked her father to hide a suitcase full of cash before she was arrested, Politico reported on Tuesday, citing her lawyer, who alleges her innocence.

Kaili has had a long track record in tech since her election to the EP in 2014, having helped shape its first files on blockchain in 2016. She was the most educated MEP when it came to digital finance, a person close to the matter told The Block, wondering who will now be able to deliver on the agenda. 

More recently, she was a draftsperson on the decentralized ledger technology pilot project, which will launch in March. She was also active in discussions on other files under the EU’s 2020 Digital Finance Package, which includes most notably the MiCA regulation as well as a cybersecurity act implicating fintech firms.

Finding a new ally

Kaili would host discussions bringing crypto industry representatives into the Parliament and regularly made appearances speaking at crypto-centered conferences supporting innovation in the sector. For the EU crypto policy bubble, some sources say her absence will be felt.

On the other hand, Kaili’s departure from Parliament might not leave a big impact, a policy lead at a crypto exchange told The Block. There are other MEPs who will become more active, especially from the parliamentary groups which led negotiations on MiCA. However, the industry will need to find a new pro-innovation ally in the Socialists and Democrats group, they said.

Players in the sector are cautious about speaking out to avoid turning the story into another crypto scandal. The industry is in a precarious position following a series of collapses of big firms in the space. Most recently, the fallout of crypto exchange FTX in November led to the criminal indictment of founder Sam Bankman-Fried. The ongoing saga is a siren for regulators who are calling to address the matter of crypto regulation more urgently.

Still an MEP

European policymakers decided that Kaili would be removed from her vice president responsibilities in a near-unanimous vote on Dec. 13. The S&D group and her affiliated Greek national party Pasok suspended her membership shortly after her arrest on Dec. 9.

Kaili remains a so-called non-attached member of Parliament, as she is no longer affiliated with a political group. As an elected official, she cannot be removed from office before the end of the five-year mandate in 2024.

According to existing procedures, non-attached members are provided with a secretariat to assist with administrative work, an EP spokesperson confirmed. It is up to national authorities to decide to terminate the mandate, unless an MEP resigns.

Update: story updated to clarify contents of the Digital Finance Package.

© 2022 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.

Crypto exchange Kraken has publicly launched Kraken Pro, a suite of advanced trading tools and a new interface that unifies access to spot trading, margin trading, staking and portfolio management.

As the name implies, Kraken Pro is geared toward advanced traders. It “leverages the latest technology to reduce latency and handle peak demand,” a press release claims, and supports more than 21o coins or tokens.

The new UI aims to put particular focus on trade execution, advanced order management and analysis tools to make advanced trading and portfolio management more efficient. Its modular design also allows for personal customization.

Kraken claims it will continue integrating new features into Kraken Pro post-launch, while “clients are welcome to request additional features.”

Kraken’s new product offering comes weeks after the crypto exchange laid off 1,100 employees “in order to adapt to current market conditions.”

© 2022 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.

Crypto prices remain mostly unchanged as Coinbase shares traded lower in pre-market hours. 

Bitcoin was trading around $16,776 at 9 a.m. EST, down about 0.2% over the past day, according to TradingView data. The 24-hour trading volume was down 19%, dropping to around $14.2 million, according to CoinMarketCap.

BTCUSD chart by TradingView

Ether continued to track bitcoin, which was flat over the past day. Binance’s BNB dropped 1.9%, and Ripple’s XRP added 0.4%.

Dogecoin bucked the lull in crypto markets, tacking on 4% over the past day. The dog-themed memecoin had been selling off over the past few days, and the change in fortune might single selling fatigue. 

DOGEUSD chart by TradingView

Crypto stocks

U.S. stock futures fell, with the S&P 500 dropping 0.5% and the Nasdaq 100 dipping 0.7%.

Coinbase fell in pre-market trading, down about 1.4% by 8:50 a.m., according to Nasdaq data. Shares of Block, MicroStrategy, and Silvergate were muted in pre-market trading.

© 2022 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.

Global credit network Hidden Road’s UK entity has been granted registration as a digital asset firm by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The institutional-focused Hidden Road is currently the only prime broker holding both an investment firm license and digital asset firm registration from the FCA, according to a press release — providing it with the opportunity to offer spot and derivatives products for both foreign exchange and digital assets.

“Our institutional client base has long sought like-minded partners who embrace regulatory infrastructure, and this latest approval further demonstrates our commitment to positively shaping the digital asset markets,” said Michael Higgins, global head of business development for Hidden Road.

Higgins also gave a nod to the UK’s financial regulatory body, stating that the company is “pleased that our UK digital asset operations will be overseen by a regulator as respected as the FCA, and we look forward to partnering with the authority to bring greater stability and institutional adoption to the asset class.”

There are currently 41 firms registered as digital asset firms by the FCA, which has proven to be highly selective of the applications it processes and approves.

© 2022 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.

As Congress weighs the FTX collapse, Democrats appear split on how much more the Securities and Exchange Commission and its chair, Gary Gensler, could have done to stave off what the agency now calls “massive, years-long fraud.”

The scandal has exposed an already growing intra-Democratic split over the agency’s approach to digital assets. While progressives and crypto-skeptic Democrats continue to back Gensler in his stance that almost all crypto firms operate outside of existing law, some Democrats have begun to publicly question the agency’s priorities.

The split could complicate legislation on digital assets, as well as increase pressure on Gensler, who already faces scrutiny on a broad array of issues from Republicans, who will hold a majority in the House of Representatives in the next Congress.

The critics

 “SEC Chairman Gensler has repeatedly claimed that most cryptocurrencies are covered by existing securities laws. Despite that, the SEC has not proposed a single rule to create guardrails for digital assets,” said Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., during last week’s House Financial Services Committee hearing on FTX. “They failed to do their job, and they failed to protect consumers.”

Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., also criticized Gensler to reporters after the hearing.

“Mr. Gensler’s been in office for two years and he has not enacted a single rule that would bring greater transparency or accountability to the crypto sector,” Torres said. “I’ve heard him express skepticism, but he’s not paid to be a commentator on crypto; he’s paid to be a regulator on crypto.”  

Torres, who accepted approximately $14,500 in campaign donations from Sam Bankman-Fried and his brother in this election cycle, wrote a letter criticizing the agency’s approach on Dec. 6 in which he also asked for the Government Accountability Office to review of the SEC’s approach to digital assets.

“There should be an independent review of whether the SEC did thoroughly investigate FTX,” continued Torres. “It may be the case that the SEC did everything it could, so there’s nothing to fear from an independent review, the GAO is apolitical and it would certainly benefit us as legislators as we craft policies in relation to crypto.”

The Bronx Democrat added that he planned to return his FTX-tied donations.  

The defenders

Another young Outer-Borough Democrat expressed more confidence in the SEC.

“I believe that the jurisdiction does belong with the SEC,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., told the press after last week’s hearing. “And I believe that this shift or push to the CFTC should really be explored and examined, particularly in context with Bankman-Fried’s activities.”  

Ocasio-Cortez is one of the most visible progressives in Congress. Her comments alluded to a push to give more power over crypto exchanges to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, most conspicuously in an FTX-backed bill drafted in the Senate Agriculture Committee.  

Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, also emphasized that he was working hand-in-glove with Gensler on matters relating to digital assets.

“I’ve been working some with [CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam], but especially with the SEC’s Gensler,” said Brown.

The other side of the aisle 

Republicans want to hear from Gensler on the topic, among other policy criticisms they’ve levied at the SEC chair.

“I would love to have seen Gary Gensler here. I think that needs to be another component of this discussion both on FTX and what any future regulation will look like. What the involvement was or wasn’t,” said Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., who will likely chair the House subcommittee most directly involved in SEC policy.

Financial Services Committee Republicans also plan to introduce their own legislation establishing definitions that will determine what digital asset does, or does not, fall under the SEC’s regulatory realm.

“We’re going to have to step in and legislate on what is a commodity and what is a security,” Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., the incoming committee chair for next Congress, told The Block.  

© 2022 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.

When now-defunct crypto exchange FTX acquired the portfolio tracking platform Blockfolio in 2020, it used its own exchange token, FTT, to fund the takeover, according to Bloomberg.

Roughly 94% of the $84 million deal was paid in FTT tokens — which FTX created — Bloomberg reported, citing financial statements it obtained. 

The financial details of FTX’s purchase of Blockfolio were previously unclear, though it was widely reported at the time that the exchange paid with a combination of cash, crypto and equity.

The news follows a late complaint yesterday from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission which claims FTT is a security. It specifically noted that FTX used proceeds from the FTT token sale to fund its business efforts.

FTX co-founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is currently in FBI custody following a barrage of charges. Additionally, FTX co-founder Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of sister trading firm Alameda Research, have both pleaded guilty to criminal charges.

Disclaimer: Beginning in 2021, Michael McCaffrey, the former CEO and majority owner of The Block, took a series of loans from founder and former FTX and Alameda CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. McCaffrey resigned from the company in December 2022 after failing to disclose those transactions.

© 2022 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 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission labelled FTX’s exchange token, FTT, as a security — putting other exchange tokens in the spotlight.

“If demand for trading on the FTX platform increased, demand for the FTT token could increase, such that any price increase in FTT would benefit holders of FTT equally and in direct proportion to their FTT holdings,” the SEC wrote in a complaint filed Wednesday against FTX co-founder Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of sister trading firm Alameda Research.

The U.S. securities regulator added: “The large allocation of tokens to FTX incentivized the FTX management team to take steps to attract more users onto the trading platform and, therefore, increase demand for, and increase the trading price of, the FTT token.”

The complaint specifically noted that FTX used proceeds from the FTT token sale to fund its business efforts. It also emphasized that the exchange token was an “investment” in its language. “The FTT materials made clear that FTX’s core management team’s efforts would drive the growth and ultimate success of FTX,” the complaint states.

Rival tokens

The SEC’s stance throws a shadow over similar tokens issued by rival crypto exchanges. The regulator takes particular issue with FTX’s buyback-and-burn practice — something other centralized exchanges, such as Binance and OKX, do with their exchange tokens, akin to stock buybacks in traditional markets.

Even so, the prices for exchange tokens haven’t reacted negatively to the news. The largest, Binance’s BNB, has been trading flat over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. OKX’s OKB, on the other hand, is up nearly 2%. Crypto.com’s cronos is up less than 1%, and Huobi’s HT is up 1.5%. The price of KuCoin’s KCS remains flat. 

Disclaimer: Beginning in 2021, Michael McCaffrey, the former CEO and majority owner of The Block, took a series of loans from founder and former FTX and Alameda CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. McCaffrey resigned from the company in December 2022 after failing to disclose those transactions.

© 2022 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.