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Bitcoin mining companies tracked by The Block had mixed results in the markets on Thursday.

The coin was trading at around $21,600 during market close, according to data from TradingView.

Argo Blockchain fell by 2.28% on Nasdaq after announcing on Wednesday that it had cut down its hash rate guidance for the end of the year from 5.5 to 3.2 EH/s.

Marathon’s fell by 6.53% and Core Scientific’s fell by 6.20%, while BIT Mining’s rose by 9.95%.

Here’s how crypto mining companies performed on Thursday, August 25:

© 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.

Coinbase is set to go live with its second derivatives product next week.

“Coinbase Derivatives Exchange will be launching a Nano Ether futures contract (ET) on August 29th as we continue to build an accessible futures market for the retail trader,” the firm said in a blog post published Thursday.

Likes its nano bitcoin (BTC) futures, each contract will represent a fraction of an ETH token — in this case, 1/10th of a unit. The product “will be accessible for trading via several leading third-party retail brokers and clearing firms upon its launch,” Coinbase said.

Coinbase kicked off its derivatives market push earlier this year with the acquisition of FairX, a derivatives market regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. As previously reported, Coinbase is looking to make significant inroads into the US crypto derivatives market. Its broader market ambitions are subject to approval from US authorities, a state of affairs Coinbase pointed to in its Thursday blog post. 

“Coinbase Financial Markets is awaiting approval for its license to operate a futures commission merchant (“FCM”) to offer futures directly to our clients as we take another step in creating an accessible and regulated US crypto derivatives market,” the firm said.

© 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.

Quick Take

• Digital asset infrastructure provider Bakkt Holdings announced earnings August 11, 2022 
• Shares traded up +3.5% to $3.27 at August 11 market close and currently trade at $2.79 as of August 25 close
• Reported $13.6mm Quarterly Net Revenue, a +9% QoQ and +60% YoY growth respectively
• Both Number of  Transacting Accounts and Digital Asset Conversion Volume increased 10% YoY and 60% YoY respectively
• Disclaimer: This is a market commentary research piece and includes opinionated views from our research team. Nothing contained in this piece constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer by The Block Research

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CoinSwitch Kuber, a crypto exchange based in India backed by notable VCs like Andreessen Horowitz and Tiger Global, was the target of governmental searches on Thursday, according to two reports.

CoinDesk and Bloomberg reported the searches, citing sources, as being conducted by India’s Enforcement Directorate. Bloomberg said that CoinSwitch is suspected of running afoul of India’s foreign exchange laws. 

CoinSwitch did not immediately return a request for comment.

“We receive queries from various government agencies. Our approach has always been that of transparency. Crypto is an early stage industry with a lot of potential and we continuously engage with all stakeholders,” a representative for the firm told Bloomberg. 

CoinSwitch has raised roughly $300 million to date, and backers include Andreessen Horowitz, Paradigm, Coinbase Ventures and Tiger Global, per Crunchbase. 

As previously reported, authorities in India are conducting investigations of the country’s crypto exchange ecosystem. Earlier this month, the Economic Times reported that “at least ten” exchanges were subject to money laundering-related investigations by the Enforcement Directorate. 

© 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.

Financial crimes using cryptocurrencies are on the rise in South Korea.

About 75% of violations of the country’s Foreign Exchange Transactions Act so far this year involved crypto, according to a report on Wednesday, accounting for about 1.5 trillion won ($1.1 billion).  

Many of the crimes involved individuals circumventing banks in making overseas transactions using cryptocurrencies. Seoul Daily News referred to the practice of illegally transacting funds between South Korea and overseas as “hwanchigi.”  

Hwanchigi has also been linked to an arbitrage play exploited by some traders, known as the “kimchi premium.” This is the gap in cryptocurrency prices on Korean exchanges versus exchanges globally. It typically affects bitcoin.

As seen above, bitcoin is trading at $21,766 on Korean exchange Upbit, while its current price on Coinbase is $21,632 – the premium typically tightens in bear markets. In April 2021, the premium was a whopping 14%, as bitcoin hit $66,000 on Korean exchanges versus $57,000 on Coinbase. 

“There are blind spots in the digital asset-related laws not yet properly prepared, but the crime scale is getting bigger, so close supervision of financial and investigative authorities is required,” Rep. Min Byung-deok told Seoul Daily News. 

South Korean traders can only profit from the premium by buying bitcoin abroad and reselling it on exchanges in South Korea – leading to violations of the Foreign Exchange Transaction Act. Furthermore, Korean crypto exchanges don’t accept foreign clients due to local regulations, making it hard for overseas traders to arbitrage the premium.

The Block Research analyzed the kimchi premium in 2021, as it rose above 10%.

© 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.

SBI Holdings, a Japanese securities and banking giant, has ended its mining operations in Russia and cut ties with the sanctioned Russian bitcoin miner BitRiver.  

SBI Holdings had previously kept its connection to BitRiver private. It is now the second firm to cut ties with BitRiver, CoinDesk reported. Compass Mining, based in Texas, was the first.  

SBI Holdings “withdrew” from mining business with Russia, the company said in its August 15 earnings report. CoinDesk later revealed that this meant ending a private relationship with BitRiver, a Russian bitcoin miner that was sanctioned by the United States in April of this year.  

The Japanese bank’s crypto arm, SBI Crypto, had hosted bitcoin mining operations at BitRiver’s sites, CoinDesk reported. But with U.S. sanctions against the Russian miners, SBI is attempting to sell off its mining equipment in BitRiver’s Russian sites 

The US sanctioned BitRiver in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. BitRiver is one of the largest crypto mining firms in Russia, with ties to the Russian Oligarch Oleg Deripaska, 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.

Rap giants Eminem and Snoop Dogg will perform their metaverse-styled song “From The D 2 The LBC” at MTV’s VMAs this month.

“Global rap icons Eminem and Snoop Dogg will transform the “VMAs” stage for a first of its kind performance of “From the D 2 The LBC” inside the world of the Otherside metaverse in partnership with Yuga Labs. This is the first metaverse inspired performance to ever grace an award show,” Eminem’s press arm said in a statement.

A music video of the song, which featured renditions of Bored Apes, was released in late June. The collaboration scored a nod for Best Hip Hop at this year’s award show, which takes place on August 28.

© 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.

This research piece is available exclusively to
members of The Block Research.
You can continue reading
this Research content on The Block Research.

A federal judge has signed court orders allowing crypto lender Voyager to pay up to $1.9 million to specific employees for remaining with the firm and sealing their identities as well.

The so-called “key employee retention plan” or KERP allows Voyager to make payments to certain non-insider employees it sees as crucial to its operations and potential to re-emerge from bankruptcy successfully. Voyager argued those employees’ compensation has changed in recent months as their equity depreciated.

“The departure of the Debtors’ key employees during these chapter 11 cases would destroy value, harm the Debtors’ restructuring process, and adversely affect the Debtors’ ability to operate in the ordinary course upon emergence,” said Voyager in its request for the funds.

Those cash rewards would cap at $1.9 million to 38 non-insiders performing essential accounting, cash and digital asset management, IT infrastructure, legal, and other critical functions. However, at a hearing yesterday, counsel told Judge Michael Wiles the amount would be closer to $1.6 million for more than 30 employees, as some have left the company. The names of those receiving the payout will also be sealed per a companion order. 

During that hearing, Voyager counsel confirmed no senior management positions counted among the employees receiving the retention money. 

Voyager entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in early July after halting activity on its platform. Since then, it has been winding its way through the process and recently received approval to return $270 million in cash deposits to customers. 

© 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 venture capital firm Hashed has appointed a former South Korean vice finance minister to head the company’s new research institute. 

Hashed Open Research will connect blockchain experts and the Korean government, promoting dialogue through seminars and research activities, the company said in a release, and new hire Kim Yong-beom confirmed on his Facebook account this week.

The South Korean company is adding the institute amid plans to raise funds in the first half of next year and a more than $3 billion loss from its Terra investments, CEO Simon Seojoon Kim said recently. The firm had bought 30 million luna tokens in the blockchain project’s early days, which were worth as much as $3.6 billion when the price peaked in April.

In December, Hashed said it was under investigation by the National Tax Service (NTS). There have been no public updates on the case since then. 

Kim was one of the vice ministers of economy and finance from Aug. 2019 to March 2021, where he promoted the maintenance and taxation of cryptocurrency exchanges. Before that, he served as the vice chairperson of South Korea top financial regulator Financial Services Commission (FSC), where he played a role in the regulator’s policy issued in 2017 that banned anonymous trading on domestic crypto exchanges. The regulation also banned foreigners and minors were also banned from trading through crypto accounts. 

“I thought that my experience could be helpful for the vision and global expansion strategy of the young blockchain investor group,” Kim said. 

© 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.