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Nume Crypto, a new crypto payments processing startup, has raised $2 million in a pre-seed funding round.

Sequoia Capital India led the round, with participation from Beenext and Whiteboard Capital. Several angel investors, including Polygon co-founder Jaynti Kanani, former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, Google engineering lead Arun Samudrala, and BlockTower Capital general partner Sanat Rao also participated in the round.

Nume Crypto is founded by two Indian sisters — Madhumitha and Niveda Harishankar — who aim to boost the use of crypto for payments.

Currently, several technical barriers stand in the way of crypto adoption for payments, according to the Harishankars. These include high blockchain transaction costs and low transaction capacity.

“The market for crypto payments hasn’t been cracked yet,” Niveda told The Block. “Nume’s core offering is a payment protocol which has no lower bound on the cost of transactions. This enables disruptively low-cost crypto transactions for consumers and merchants. We believe this could be a turning point and enabler for mass adoption of crypto payments.”

For both retail and business

Nume Crypto is building its payments processor for both retail and business clients, dubbed NumePay and NumePay Business, respectively.

NumePay is a non-custodial wallet that will allow retail customers to deposit their crypto and start shopping with businesses integrated with NumePay checkout. “We are currently in talks with enterprises of varying sizes and domains,” said Niveda.

NumePay Business, on the other hand, enables businesses to start offering crypto payment options to their customers at 1% per transaction.

Nume Crypto says it has built its own new Layer 2 scaling network called Nume Protocol that will support crypto payments at “near zero-cost.” Initially, it will support ether (ETH) and ERC-20 tokens for payments.

Building experience

The Harishankar sisters have prior experience in engineering and building products. Madhumitha holds a PhD in incentive design in wireless networks (focusing on streaming crypto micropayments for data use) from Carnegie Mellon University and was previously a software engineer at Barclays and Amazon Web Services. 

Niveda, on the other hand, was a user experience designer at Amazon across the Marketplace, Alexa and Kindle teams. She led the design for the world’s first multi-voice assistant integration between Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Cortana, and built a new reading experience from 0 to 1 in Kindle, for which she holds a patent. 

The two sisters are also part of the first cohort of Sequoia Spark, a year-long fellowship program combining capital and mentorship that 15 women-led startups in India and Southeast Asia were chosen for.

With fresh equity capital in hand, Nume Crypto plans to launch its payments platform in the fourth quarter of this year. There are currently seven people working on Nume, which was founded last November. Nume is based in the US, but the Harishankar sisters split their time between Bangalore, India and New Jersey, the US. 

© 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.

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) holding bitcoin and ether saw steep drop-offs in Canadian and Brazilian markets, in line with the wider fallout seen in crypto and equities markets. 

Bitcoin’s price fell to lows not seen since December 2020 on Monday, dropping over 10% in a day and trading at around $23,400 at the time of writing.

That trend led crypto-affiliated stocks to see significant fallout. In the US, regulators have yet to approve spot-based crypto ETFs to trade on a regulated exchange, but neighbors to the north and south have, and those products saw significant fallout today. 

The Purpose Bitcoin ETF (BTCC), the Evolve Bitcoin ETF (EBIT) and the CI Galaxy Bitcoin ETF (BTCX.B), all bitcoin-based exchange-traded funds listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, fell about 17% at open, according to data from TradingView. 

Canada began green-lighting bitcoin ETFs in February 2021 when it gave the Purpose Bitcoin ETF its blessing to list on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Others, like Evolve and Galaxy, soon followed and saw some success as financial products not available in the US markets. 

But these products fell sharply today as crypto and equities saw considerable turbulence. Evolve’s EBIT fell 19.25% today, dropping from 13.87 CAD to 11.39 at open. At close EBIT had fallen further to 11.20 CAD. 

CI and Galaxy’s BTCX.B fell further, down 19.64% at close after a precipitous drop from 5.55 CAD to 4.55 CAD at open. At close it was changing hands at 4.46 CAD. 

BTCC saw a similar drop, down 20.62% at close, trading down at 4.62 CAD. At open, it fell from 5.82 CAD to 4.77 CAD. 

Brazil approved its first bitcoin ETF soon after Canada, in March of 2021. That product, the QR Asset Management’s QBTC11 trades on Brazil’s main stock exchange, the B3. It saw similar fallout, dropping 17% at open from 9.20 BRL to 7.63 BRL. So far in the trading day, it’s made up some ground to 7.8 BRL at time of publication. 

Ethereum-based products on TSX saw the worst of it, cratering nearly about 25% at open. Purpose, Evolve and CI and Galaxy all began listing Ether-based funds shortly after the Ontario Securities Commission allowed bitcoin ETFs to trade. 

Purpose’s ETHH fell from 7.23 CAD to 5.28 CAD at open, ultimately changing hands at 5.28 CAD at close, a nearly 27% drop.

Evolve’s ETHR similarly fell more than 25.5% by closing, with a steep drop at open from 7.58 CAD to 5.66 CAD, trading at 5.64 CAD at close.

CI and Galaxy’s ETHX.B fell about 25.8% over the course of the day, opening with a drop from 7.75 CAD to 5.73 CAD, and traded at 5.75 CAD at close.  

© 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.

US stock indices ended Monday’s trading session in the red following a turbulent day of trading.

The macroeconomic environment continues to set the tone for markets — US inflation hit a 41-year high of 8.6% — and the Monday trade was notably volatile. The S&P 500 closed down 3.88% while the Nasdaq composite lost 4.68% and the Dow Jones finished down 4.10%. 

Cryptocurrency markets were similarly choppy as bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) tested multi-year lows and the floor price — the cost of the cheapest available piece in a collection — of various blue-chip NFT projects also slid amid the market weakness. 

Crypto-related stocks, those with exposure to cryptocurrencies on their balance sheet or with business models closely linked to blockchain technology, suffered twofold. Coinbase (COIN), MicroStrategy (MSTR), Block (SQ) and Tesla (TSLA) all ended the day down — with the last three seeing their bitcoin holdings dip deeper into the red. 

Tesla closed the day down 7.10%, Coinbase lost 11.41% and Jack Dorsey’s Block (formerly Square) lost 12.68%. 

However, the biggest loser on The Block’s list was perma-bull Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy, which saw its stock fall 25.18%. The company currently owns 129,218 BTC across two corporate entities, at an unrealized loss of about 18%.

Based on the current economic headwinds, the tone for the week seems perhaps unlikely to change as the US Federal Reserve is set to make its latest decision on interest rates public this week.

As for Wall Street predictions, JP Morgan is expecting an increase of 75 basis points, although the Fed has previously said that it would avoid hikes above 50 basis points.

© 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 turmoil surrounding crypto lender Celsius has generated headlines and controversy over the past day — but that even isn’t top of mind for the market’s biggest traders, executives at several trading firms say.

Crypto prices fell sharply Monday in the aftermath of Celsius’s announcement. As The Block reported, Celsius — which had as much as $11 billion in user assets as of May — froze withdrawals and paused transfers between accounts, citing “extreme market conditions.”

Still, the broader macro-economic backdrop is likely what is in the driver’s seat of the crypto market — not Celsius.

“Our clients are far more worried about macro than Celsius,” said Aya Kantorovich of FalconX, a firm that offers institutional financial services. “Market is just very frothy and the macro environment is terrible.” 

As Bloomberg reported Monday, the market has entered a “sell everything but the dollar period” during which traders are fleeing to safety, spurred by fears that the US Federal Reserve could hike rates more aggressively to combat inflation than originally anticipated.

Specifically, banks like Barclays and Jefferies have raised their forecasts to 75 basis points. Other Wall Street analysts have speculated a full 100 basis-point hike. Such an outcome could have negative implications for risk assets like crypto.

Source: Ychart 

Source: CoinGecko

Inflation, which some market participants thought would be transitory at the end of last year and into 2022, has proven to be sticky. US Labor Department recently said that the consumer price index increased 8.6% last month versus May 2021, the hottest read since the early 1980s. 

As Goldman Sachs pointed out in a recent research note: “Surprisingly strong CPI data reaffirm our view that the Fed’s battle with inflation has put a ceiling on equity valuations.”

The bank added:

“Despite the 18% YTD S&P 500 decline, equity valuations remain far from depress. The median S&P 500 constituent’s P/E ratio of 18x ranks in the 87th percentile since 1976.”

It’s this environment that traders are navigating, meaning the Celsius situation is part of a bigger picture.

One trader at a hedge fund told The Block that “[crypto] markets would have been down today regardless of Celsius [because] of macro.”

“Celsius certainly doesn’t help,” they added.

When reached by The Block, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), a pension fund company and Celsius investor, highlighted the difficult investment environment

The firm said that “in an environment of generalized market declines (stock markets and bonds—for the first time in 50 years), investors are reducing their risk in all asset classes.”

CDPQ went on to say: “In this context, Celsius has been impacted by very difficult markets in recent weeks, more specifically, the strong volume of withdrawals by 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.

Floor prices for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have not been spared amid a broader crypto market downturn.

Some of the most popular NFT projects have had their floor prices fall as much as 30% in the last week as Bitcoin, Ether and other cryptocurrencies plunge.

Six months ago, it seemed as though 2022’s crypto market turbulence was sparing NFT collections. But as falling floor prices show, that insulation only goes so far. This week’s price action builds on an extended period of market volatility against a tough macro backdrop, fueled in part by record-high inflation. Crypto markets, too, were rattled last month by the collapse of the Terra blockchain ecosystem and the UST stablecoin.

The Sunday move by crypto lending platform Celsius to halt withdrawals triggered a fresh round of chaos in the market, with the price of bitcoin falling as low as $22,600 on Coinbase on Monday.

The top six NFT projects by all-time volume on OpenSea are CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Azuki, Doodles and Cool Cats.

Here’s how they fared in the past three days — from June 10 to June 13, 2022 — according to data from CoinGecko:

• CryptoPunks — decreased 18%, from $84,800 to $69,500.
• Bored Ape Yacht Club — decreased 30%, from $164,200 to $115,200. Less than two months ago, on April 29, the Bored Ape floor price had reached its all-time high at over $430,000.
• Mutant Ape Yacht Club — decreased 29%, from $33,600 to $23,900.
• Azuki — decreased 31%, from $18,900 to $13,000.
• Doodles — decreased 33%, from $21,400 to $14,200.
• Cool Cats — decreased 31%, from $7,000 to $4,800.

Since 84.7% percent of NFTs are on Ethereum — including the six mentioned above — their floor prices are tied to Ether’s performance.

The price of ETH has continued its steady decline from its all-time high of $4,270 on November 11, 2021.

ETH has fallen roughly 33% in the past week and is currently trading at $1,244 on Coinbase as of press time.

© 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.

On Monday, two-year and 10-year US Treasury yields briefly inverted for the first time since early April. The 10-year rates also reached their highest point since 2011.

The yield curve between these two rates is monitored closely by traders. When short-term interest rates exceed long-term rates, that is considered by many to be a key indicator of a recession. 

The spike occurred after data released on Friday showed higher-than-expected inflation rates and triggered concerns about an aggressive rate hiking strategy by the Federal Reserve.

The Fed will conclude a highly anticipated meeting on Wednesday, where it is expected to announce a 50-basis-point rate hike.  Some traders are now predicting an increase of 75-basis-points.

Rates have already been raised twice this year, including a 50-basis-point increase in May meant to combat rising inflation.

With extreme turbulence in crypto and US equities markets, traders are increasingly concerned about a coming economic downturn, with some wary about the onset of a recession.

© 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.

Bitcoin mining companies had a rough day in the markets on Monday, with most falling by double digits.

At market open, many of those stocks were already falling sharply — perhaps unsurprisingly given that the price of bitcoin fell below $23,000 at one point, as well as the general turmoil in crypto markets. As of publication time, bitcoin was priced at around $23,390.

BIT Mining notably went down by -36.60%. Digihost Technology, Greenidge Generation and TeraWulf also saw significant losses — respectively, -20.61%, -18.92% and -17.28%.

Here’s how crypto mining companies performed on Monday, June 13:

© 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.

A Chinese designer of computing chips founded by former executives of bitcoin mining firm Canaan is seeking to go public in the United States.

Nano Labs filed papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday for an Initial Public Offer on Nasdaq. The company wants to raise a total of $50 million, according to the South China Morning Post.

Co-founders Kong Jianping and Sun Qifeng were formerly co-chairman and non-executive director of Canaan, respectively, but were removed by the Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer in 2020 amid reports of internal disputes. The two own 32.8% and 22.3% of the Nano Labs, respectively.

“It is my intention that Nano Labs will be committed to developing the power of the Metaverse and walking among the key players to help the world explore and cognize the Metaverse,” Jianping said in the SEC filing. “I am earnestly confident that the Metaverse will open a new era for humankind.”

Nano Labs produces integrated circuits  — more specifically, high throughput computing (HTC) chips. “Our mission is to provide ubiquitous computing power to the Metaverse computing network with our fabless logic-memory integrated circuits,” the company stated.

Fabless refers to chip designers that outsource the fabrication process to third-party companies. Per Nano Labs, the global fabless integrated circuit design market jumped from $101.5 billion in 2017 to $169.0 billion in 2021 in terms of sales revenue.

According to the South China Morning Post, only two other Chinese-based companies have been listed in New York this year, as regulatory risks in China and the US have prevented other Chinese issuers from fundraising overseas.

Although Nano Labs produces parts used for mining Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, the company indicated that increased regulation from the government, which last year cracked down on mining, limited its ability to operate in China.  

The company also said that was exposed in China to “legal and operational risks,” for instance ones associated with regulatory approvals of offshore offerings and anti-monopoly regulatory actions, among others.

“These China-related risks could result in a material change in our operations and/or the value of our securities, or could significantly limit or completely hinder our ability to offer or continue to offer securities,” the filing 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.

Crypto lending platform Celsius’s withdrawal freeze has affected a bitcoin interest product offered by German fintech firm Nuri, according to a Monday announcement.

Nuri, formerly known as Bitwala, debuted the product in May 2021, offering up to 3% interest on bitcoin holdings. Nuri partners with Celsius to offer the accounts to its users.

But the issues at Celsius mean that Nuri can’t provide withdrawals, and the firm has also paused new investments in the product as well.

“For the Nuri Bitcoin Interest Account this means that interest is still accumulated and paid out when these measures are lifted. Until there are further updates, we have also decided to temporarily pause the investing functionality for our Bitcoin Interest Account,” the firm said in a message on its website.

Nuri added that “[w]hile withdrawals and investments for the Bitcoin Interest Account are temporarily paused, all our other banking and investing features are still active and ready to be explored.”

Like numerous other startups contending with a difficult business environment, Nuri recently moved to shrink its staff, laying off 20% of employees at the end of May. Crypto lender company BlockFi announced a roughly 20% headcount reduction on Monday, joining the ranks of other major crypto firms that have undertaken similar moves.

Nuri has raised €42.3 million in funding to date, per Crunchbase. 

© 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.

European crypto investment vehicles opened the week in the red on Monday after a tumultuous day of trading.

Cryptocurrency markets were rattled on Monday following a Sunday announcement from crypto lending platform Celsius, which revealed it was halting withdrawals. Celsius, which had about $12 billion in assets under management at the beginning of May, cited “extreme market conditions.”

This, in conjunction with a difficult macroeconomic climate at present — inflation in the US is at a 41-year high of 8.6% — pushed cryptocurrency prices down across the market. Bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) are both testing multi-year lows on Monday.

European ETNs and ETPs suffered as a result of the volatility, with VanEck’s Solana ETN losing up to 28.36% while its Tron ETN lost almost 20% during Monday’s session.

21Shares Cardano and Polkadot ETPs held firmer, losing just 0.33% and 0.82% respectively on a tumultuous day for markets in Europe, which saw the Europe Stoxx 600 close down 2.26%.

Here’s how some of the major European crypto investment vehicles performed on Monday, June 13:

© 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.