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Former executives from crypto exchange Binance have revealed a $100 million fund focused on blockchain investments.

The fund, named Old Fashion Research, was founded in late 2021 by former Binance VP of M&A Ling Zhang and Wayne Fu, previously Binance head of corporate development, according to a statement on Thursday. While at Binance, Zhang led the exchange’s acquisitions and investments into FTX, Multicoin Capital and CertiK among others. 

Although since its founding the fund has largely operated in stealth, it has already backed over 50 blockchain projects including trading platform Woo Network, move-to-earn NFT game Genopets and ZetaChain,  a smart contract platform built for omnichain interoperability. 

“We’re very excited to come out of stealth with our new fund and help build the next generation of Web 3.0 dApps,” said Zhang in the press release. “The OFR team has established solid knowledge and a wide range of experience across M&A, investment and incubation from our previous successful portfolio building at Binance.” 

The launch of the fund comes at a time when venture capital firms continue to raise vast sums for blockchain investments — despite weakness in crypto markets. On Wednesday, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) announced a $4.5 billion fund for crypto and blockchain startups. Earlier in the week, Standard Crypto also raised a $500 million fund to invest in both equity and crypto.

© 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 exchanges are throwing their weight behind Do Kwon’s audacious plan to raise Terra from the ashes of a devastating collapse earlier this month.

In the last 12 hours, Huobi, Bitfinex and Bitrue have all tweeted their intention to support new versions of Terra and its native token LUNA.

On his own Twitter, Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon retweeted posts from each exchange as evidence of support for Terra 2.0. He also retweeted a post from Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX — which has subsequently been deleted.

Binance said in a tweet on May 25 that it is working closely with the Terra team on its recovery plan, and is “aiming to provide impacted users on Binance with the best possible treatment.” But it has not yet officially committed to supporting the relaunch.

The Terra ecosystem was left in tatters after its algorithmic stablecoin UST imploded a few weeks ago, taking LUNA down with it. The collapse of Terra’s tokens wiped out some $40 billion in market value. Mike Novogratz, the billionaire CEO of crypto investment manager Galaxy Digital and a prominent LUNA backer, told shareholders in a recent letter that the events of recent weeks had “dented confidence in crypto and DeFi.”

Yet Kwon — who is known for his brash manner on social media — has wasted no time devising a plan to revive the ecosystem in the form of a new Terra blockchain and LUNA 2.0 tokens, which will be airdropped to those affected by the events of recent weeks. A governance vote on his proposal passed on May 25, with 65.5% of the vote in favor. Currently, the plan is to launch the new network on Friday.

FTX was contacted for comment on its Terra 2.0 stance but did not respond by 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.

Game developer Kongregate and Ethereum scaling startup Immutable announced a $40 million fund to develop blockchain-based games. 

Launched in 2006, Kongregate’s website Kongregate.com became a home for free-to-play independent web games. With this new fund, comprised of the IMX token pool, Kongregate.com will begin incorporating blockchain-based games later in 2022 and ultimately rebranding to a web3-oriented gaming site.

Kongregate.com’s blockchain-based rebrand also includes tools for blockchain-based game developers, such as through tokenomic consultations.

“With the relaunch of Kongregate.com for web3, we’re once again creating a destination unlike any other for developers and gamers to come together to discover, chat about and play games,” said Kongregate’s Chief Technology Officer Max Murphy in a statement. 

Kongregate partnered with Immutable in February of this year to implement non-fungible tokens (NFTs) into web games.

Kongregate platforms have more than 128,000 free games with over a billion gameplays, according to its website. Immutable is a startup founded in 2018 that had a $2.5 billion valuation as of March 7, 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.

Golf brand Callaway is forging a relationship with non-fungible token (NFT) group LinksDAO, and that includes an investment in its ongoing equity round, CoinDesk reports.

LinksDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization where owners of LinksDAO NFTs are given membership rights, is looking to own and operate its own golf course. Callaway, a giant in the golf equipment space, is taking notice. The two have closed a “major strategic partnership,” according to a tweet from LinksDAO.

That partnership includes an investment in LinksDAO’s ongoing equity round, according to CoinDesk. W

hile neither LinksDAO nor Callaway has confirmed the investment, Callaway told the outlet that the marketing partnership is the start of a relationship between the two entities. The LinksDAO account tweeted that the partnership “brings big member benefits across their portfolio of companies.”

For now, the marketing partnership will see Callaway become the official equipment provider for LinksDAO, extending discounts and deals on LinksDAO branded equipment for the DAO’s members.

LinksDAO will host a Twitter space this evening to provide more information about the relationship.

Mike Dudas, co-founder of LinksDAO, is the co-founder and former CEO of The Block. He no longer has a financial interest in 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.

Some bitcoin miners’ stocks fell further down Wednesday, while others rose back up.

BIT Mining Limited and Iris Energy Limited jumped up by +5.65% and +4.93%, respectively, while Mawson Infrastructure Group fell by as much as -10.64%.

Argo Blockchain saw its stock both rise on Nasdaq by +4.63% and fall on the London Stock Exchange by -1.10%, following an early morning announcement that CEO Peter Wall had exercised options over 430,000 shares at £0.070 each.

The company also disclosed that CFO Alex Appleton bought 39,415 shares at £0.4974 each, among a couple of other employees.

Here’s how crypto mining companies performed on Wednesday, May 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.

Bitcoin’s mining difficulty dropped by approximately -4.33% during a May 25 adjustment — the most it has since July 2021.

The data was published by BTC.com, which tracks network mining difficulty and posts an update roughly every two weeks when the adjustments take place. 

Mining difficulty refers to the complexity of the mathematical process behind mining, during which miners are repeatedly trying to to find a hash below a set level. Miners that “discover” this hash win the reward for the next transaction block. The difficulty adjusts every 2,016 blocks (roughly every two weeks) in sync with the network’s hash rate.

Difficulty levels haven’t fallen more than 1.5% at one time since July of last year, when the difficulty dropped by -4.81%.

That event took place around the time when China was cracking down on Bitcoin mining in the country, leading the total network hash rate to drop by about 50% in the span of less than two months.

Since May 11, the date of the last difficulty update, the network’s hash rate has dropped by about 5.43%, according to data compiled by The Block Research.

Bitcoin’s network difficulty has mostly been increasing, on par with hash rate, since plummeting in the summer of 2021 — apart from a few small and occasional drops.

The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, which is considered a leading source in hash rate distribution data, published new findings last week, indicating that some Bitcoin miners kept operating in China even after the ban.

© 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 Portuguese Parliament voted against two separate proposals from minority political parties to tax crypto assets.

The proposals were from left-wing parties Bloco de Esquerda and Livre and were both rejected on Wednesday afternoon during a 2022 budget voting session, according to economic newspaper ECO.

Nevertheless, the days of a crypto tax-free Portugal may still be numbered.

Earlier this month, the country’s minister of finance declared his commitment to start taxing crypto, stating that the government would work on the regulatory framework, but declining to commit to any time frame.

He also argued that there shouldn’t be any “gaps” resulting in certain gains not being taxed in the country.

Livre’s proposal would see gains above €5,000 be taxed. Prior to the vote, Mariana Mortágua, a member of parliament with Bloco de Esquerda — who has been very vocal about crypto taxation — criticized the government for failing to find a way to tax crypto.

“Regardless of necessary future crypto regulations, our contribution to put an end to this offshore is to subject crypto assets to the same rate applicable to capital gains on equivalent income,” she 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

• Based in San Francisco, California, Kraken is one of the longest operating cryptocurrency exchanges, co-founded by Jesse Powell in 2011.
• The exchange has been one of the most active participants in Crypto M&A with 12 acquisitions
• In February 2021, Kraken established Kraken Ventures, an independent venture fund that has made at least 20 investments across the crypto ecosystem

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Jack Dorsey has stepped down from the Twitter board of directors, a move signaled last fall when he departed the social media giant’s C-suite.

Dorsey was due to exit the board of directors following a Wednesday shareholder meeting, scheduled for 1 p.m. ET. The exit was planned and came as part of November’s announcement that Dorsey would step down as Twitter CEO. 

The exit comes during a tumultuous period for Twitter, given the still-in-flux takeover bid by billionaire Elon Musk.

According to the Washington Post, executives at the firm reportedly declined to answer shareholder questions about the Musk deal, saying that they would discuss it at a later date. Musk was not present during the meeting.

© 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 floor price of the NFT collection CryptoPunks slipped below $100,000 on Wednesday as the NFT market continues to slide. The floor price represents the price of the cheapest piece in the collection and reflects market demand.

The NFT collection, which was launched by Larva Labs in 2017, had a floor price of 47 ETH ($91,673) at the time of writing, according to The Block’s Data Dashboard. This leaves the collection’s floor price down more than 50% in dollar terms over the past month, having previously traded for a minimum of $186,442 on April 25.

In addition, NFT trading volumes have begun to slip, falling from $8.28 million for the week beginning May 9 to $7.45 million the following week. So far this week there has been $2.75 million of trading volume.

NFT floor prices have fallen across the board in line with cryptocurrencies throughout May. Prices in the digital asset space have come under pressure with bitcoin (BTC) trading below $30,000 and ether (ETH) below $2,000 — exacerbated by the collapse of the Terra ecosystem two weeks ago.

© 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.