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Data on Coinbase showed Ethereum was priced at $1,519.03 ETH to the US dollar at 12:20 pm New York time today, having fallen 11.53% in the past 24 hours.

ETH is well below its all-time high of $4,891.70. In the last week it has fallen by 14.04%.

ETH accounts for 13% of the crypto market and is the second-biggest cryptocurrency in popularity behind Bitcoin.

The circulating supply was 121.1 million ETH.

© 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 Helium Network is introducing a model expansion to meet demand to support an unlimited number of wireless protocols, each with its own incentive model and governance, it said today in a news release.

Helium has been building a crypto-powered decentralized wireless network that provides bandwidth and collects data from internet of things devices, The Block reported earlier this year. Owners of network hotspots receive Helium tokens (HNT), with the amount increasing the more the hotspot is used.

Today, it said that beginning with 5G, the Helium Network will have a new token called MOBILE to reward hotspot owners for providing 5G coverage. As other networks join, each network protocol will have its own token and governance. Each new token will be backed by HNT.

Today’s expansion was made possible by a majority vote of 96.9% from the community on a proposal aimed at unlocking more utility and propelling it to be a “Network of Networks.”

“The Network of Networks is the next big chapter for Helium, and will help unlock the full potential of its utility,” said Amir Haleem, founder and CEO of Nova Labs, formerly known as Helium Systems.

© 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 Huobi Global today launched Ivy Blocks, a DeFi and web3 blockchain ecosystem investment arm.

Ivy Blocks will invest in promising blockchain projects to help unlock their growth potential, Huobi said in a news release.

“Many promising projects tend to encounter liquidity constraints and a lack of go-to-market support, which present significant barriers to growth,” Huobi CFO Lily Zhang said. “Our focus on providing such projects with liquidity investments and incubation services will no doubt contribute toward creating a better, more inclusive DeFi and web3 blockchain ecosystem.”

Ivy Blocks will take advantage of crypto opportunities in global markets, Huboi said, with its “multi-billion dollar warchest.” A spokesperson for Huobi confirmed the new investment arm has more than $1 billion in crypto assets under management to deploy, CoinTelegraph reported.

One of the first projects to be supported by Ivy Blocks is Capricorn Finance, an AMM-based decentralized exchange built on Cube.

© 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

• At the start of this year, exchange LCX was hacked for about $8 million in crypto. 
• A judge ruled that law firm Holland & Knight could airdrop a wallet believed to be controlled by the hacker with an NFT containing pertinent legal documents as a form of service.

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The European Union is closing in on an agreement to regulate the cryptocurrency sector that would establish common rules across the 27 member countries, people familiar revealed, according to a Bloomberg report on Friday. 

France, the current EU chair, and the European Parliament are optimistic about resolving a Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulatory agreement before the end of this month, the people told Bloomberg, which added that negotiators may meet on June 14 and June 30.

An agreement on MiCA would put the EU at the cutting edge of crypto regulation by creating unified rules across a $17 trillion economy, Bloomberg said. Investor protection issues and financial stability have become high priorities following last month’s collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin. 

Member states and the parliament are still discussing how to limit the use of stablecoins as payments, particularly for transactions not denominated in euros, the people said, asking Bloomberg that they not to be identified amid the disclosure of confidential information. 

The parliament is pushing for consideration of the environmental impact of bitcoin mining, the people told Bloomberg.

© 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.

Farfetch, an online luxury fashion marketplace, said it will begin accepting cryptocurrency payments later this year, following Gucci and other upmarket companies that have embraced crypto to expand their businesses.

Farfetch will initially accept seven cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Binance Coin (BNB), among others, it said in a post on its website.

This follows the successful launch of cryptocurrency payments at Farfetch-owned London retailer Browns.

José Neves, founder and CEO of Farfetch, said the use of crypto at Browns “was a crucial step to test and learn. … With this move, we look forward to empowering our incredible boutique and brand partners to embrace cryptocurrency.”

Farfetch operates an online marketplace similar to Amazon.com, with products from about 1,400 luxury brands, the Wall Street Journal 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.

Volatility in the sector has not deterred more traditional hedge funds from investing in crypto, and more specialist crypto funds are being created as digital assets gain acceptance, according to PwC’s 4^th Annual Global Crypto Hedge Fund Report 2022, released earlier this week.

John Garvey, global financial services leader at PwC United States, said in a related news release: “The recent collapse of Terra vividly demonstrated the potential risks in digital assets. There will continue to be volatility, but the market is maturing and with that is coming not only many more crypto-focused hedge funds and higher AuM, but also more traditional funds entering the crypto space.”

Of traditional hedge funds surveyed, 38% are investing in digital assets, up from 21% a year earlier. The number of specialist crypto hedge funds is estimated at more than 300 globally, with their pace of creation accelerating during the past two years.

Most traditional hedge funds are still just dipping their toes, according to the report, as 57% have less than 1% of total assets under management (AuM) in digital assets. Still, for 20% of these funds, digital assets represent between 5% and 50% of AuM. Furthermore, two-thirds of funds currently investing in digital assets intend to deploy more capital into them by the end of this year.

Assets under management

For specialist crypto hedge funds surveyed, the average AuM more than doubled to about $59 million from $23 million the previous year. From 2020 to 2021, the percentage of crypto hedge funds with AuM exceeding $20 million increased to 59% from 46%.

Crypto hedge funds continue to achieve strong growth in spite of crypto’s volatility. PwC’s report said the median crypto fund returned +63.4% in 2021. Still, this was significantly off the +127.55% median return of 2020. 

Most crypto hedge funds traded Bitcoin (BTC) at 86%; followed by Ethereum (ETH) at 81%; Solana (SOL) at 56%; Polkadot (DOT) at 53%; Terra (LUNA) at 49% and Avalanche (AVAX) at 47%.

While more traditional hedge funds are investing in crypto, some remain hesitant.

Still, the number of traditional hedge fund managers not investing in digital assets is shrinking, down to 62% of respondents from 79% a year earlier.

Regulatory uncertainty seems to be the key issue for hedge funds, whether or not they are currently invested in digital assets. Lack of regulatory and tax clarity was cited as a top challenge by 89% of hedge fund managers who currently invest in digital assets. For managers not currently investing in crypto, regulatory uncertainty was ranked as a main obstacle by 83%.

The PwC report shared results of survey-based research conducted in the first quarter of 2022, produced together with the Alternative Investment Management Association and Elwood Asset Management (now part of CoinShares).

© 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.

Coinhouse, a digital assets service provider based in France, raised 40 million euro ($42.5 million) in a funding round joined by True Global Ventures 4 Plus Fund among others, according to a news release on Thursday.

Other participants were bank ODDO BHF, investment funds Tioga Capital, XAnge Siparex Innovation, Raise Ventures, CF Partners, ConsenSys and Expon Capital as well as several French business leaders.

The fundraising is aimed at accelerating development of Coinhouse’s service offerings to individuals and businesses in Europe.

Coinhouse has quadrupled its workforce in less than two years and is positioning itself as a support platform allowing individuals and companies to invest in about 50 different crypto assets as well as in crypto savings management products.

Nicolas Louvet, co-founder and CEO of Coinhouse, said: “The future of financial services, payments and web3 will go through the development of cryptos and therefore inevitably through that of players such as Coinhouse who make them accessible and usable by everyone.”

As a digital asset service provider registered in France and Luxembourg, Coinhouse has supported more than 20 French and international companies in acquiring and holding metaverse land, as well as converting crypto payments into euros in the sale of digital objects or NFTs.

© 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.

Abra, a digital asset financial services company, on Friday introduced the first credit card on the American Express network that will transact in US dollars and offer crypto rewards back on purchases.

Crypto rewards will be tradable in more than 100 different cryptocurrencies supported by Abra, with no annual or foreign transaction fees, the company said in a news release.

The Abra Crypto Card will also offer benefits from the American Express Network, including offers for shopping, travel, dining and entertainment among others.

Bill Barhydt, founder and CEO of Abra, said: “Our partnership with American Express will now make it even easier to access and earn crypto. … This is the future of payments.”

The Abra Crypto Card is expected to be available in late 2022.

© 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.

At market close on Friday, bitcoin miner stocks were mostly down on the day.

Bitfarms (US) lost the most, down 8.09% at the close while Bit Digital also fell significantly at the end of the week dropping 7.19%

Here’s how crypto mining companies performed on Friday, June 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.