FreeCryptoCurrency.Me

Central Africa’s regional banking regulator reminded member states on Friday of its ban on cryptocurrencies, just weeks after the Central African Republic (CAR) made bitcoin legal tender, Reuters said.

The reminder came after a chaotic week for crypto when the linked meltdown of the algorithmic stablecoin UST and Terra’s native Luna asset resulted in big losses for many of those involved. It also led to stoppages of the Terra blockchain and market trading halts as the circulating supply of Luna skyrocketed, The Block reported.

President Faustin Archange Touadera of CAR signed a law on April 27 legalizing cryptocurrencies and making bitcoin a recognized currency in the country after a unanimous parliamentary vote, the AFP news agency reported at the time. CAR was only the second country to do so after El Salvador.

Obed Namsio, the CAR president’s chief of staff, said the move marked an important milestone for the country’s economic recovery, according to a post on the government’s official Facebook page. 

Still, the Banking Commission of Central Africa, which regulates the banking sector in the six-nation Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa, to which CAR belongs, said its prohibition was meant to ensure financial stability, according to Reuters.

© 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 Terra Dapp Expo, slated for June 9 and 10 in Austin, Texas, has been canceled, according to the expo’s official Twitter feed.

“We have been monitoring the community responses to the idea of TDX continuing, and after careful deliberation we have sadly decided to cancel the event. The decision was not made lightly and is crushing news for everyone involved,” the expo organizers said on Twitter.

Over the past week, the linked meltdown of the algorithmic stablecoin UST and Terra’s native Luna asset resulted in big losses for those exposed to the market. The resulting chaos ultimately led to stoppages of the Terra blockchain and market trading halts as the circulating supply of Luna skyrocketed. 

The organizers went on to say in another tweet that “there have been serious threats made from understandably upset individuals who’ve lost everything in this crash – and we don’t want to risk anyone’s health/life.”

They added: “We can say that USD ticket purchases will be refunded, so please be patient with us as we work towards processing those – there will be updates over the coming days.”

© 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.

Jim Prosser, head of communications at crypto venture capital firm Paradigm, said early this morning via Twitter that he would be leaving the company after working there for about a year.

“Personal news,” said Prosser’s post, “I’m leaving @paradigm later next month. The past year has been an incredible learning experience alongside the smartest team in all of crypto investing, but I want to take a pause after a decade of demanding roles.”

He previously worked as a communications executive for both Twitter and SoFi.

The Block quoted Prosser last May when he joined Paradigm as saying, “The firm is young and it needs to establish itself and show the world that we are taking a new approach and supporting our portfolio.”

Paradigm is a crypto-focused fund founded in 2018 by Fred Ehrsam and Matt Huang. Before creating Paradigm, Ehrsam co-founded the crypto exchange Coinbase, and Matt Huang was a partner at Sequoia.

Since its inception, the San Francisco-based fund has attracted investments from funds such as Sequoia and high-profile university endowments including Harvard, Stanford, and Yale and is one of the leading crypto investment firms in assets under management. 

Prosser went on to tweet: “What’s next? Travel, family time, focusing on health, tinkering with a few projects, and generally refilling my tank.”

© 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.

Terraform Labs co-founder and CEO Do Kwon broke his social media silence early Friday evening with a trio of tweets about the collapse of Terra’s LUNA token and associated stablecoin, UST.

1/ I’ve spent the last few days on the phone calling Terra community members – builders, community members, employees, friends and family, that have been devastated by UST depegging.

I am heartbroken about the pain my invention has brought on all of you.

— Do Kwon 🌕 (@stablekwon) May 13, 2022

2/ I still believe that decentralized economies deserve decentralized money – but it is clear that $UST in its current form will not be that money.

— Do Kwon 🌕 (@stablekwon) May 13, 2022

3/ Neither I nor any institutions that I am affiliated with profited in any way from this incident. I sold no luna nor ust during the crisis.

— Do Kwon 🌕 (@stablekwon) May 13, 2022

b

The statements came hours after Kwon floated a proposal via a Terra discussion forum to essentially restart the network with 1 billion tokens distributed to impacted holders and users.  

As The Block has covered in the past week, the paired meltdown of the algorithmic stablecoin UST and Terra’s native LUNA asset resulted in steep losses for those exposed to the market. The resulting chaos ultimately led to blockchain stoppages and market trading halts as the circulating supply of LUNA skyrocketed. 

Earlier Friday, Terra devs said that a post-mortem report detailing the events of the last week was being assembled. “The strength of the #LUNAtics has been amazing. More to come,” that post 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.

Word emerged late Friday afternoon about an apparent phishing attack targeting users of popular crypto data sites like Etherscan and CoinGecko.

Affected users received prompts to connect their MetaMask wallets to a website called “nftapes.win”.

In a tweet, CoinGecko said: “If you are on the CoinGecko website and you are being prompted by your Metamask to connect to this site, this is a SCAM. Don’t connect it. We are investigating the root cause of this issue.”

Etherscan said in a tweet on the matter: We’ve received reports of phishing popups via a 3rd party integration and are currently investigating. Please be careful not to confirm any transactions that pop up on the website.”

“Interim we’ve taken immediate action to disable the said 3rd party integration on Etherscan,” the site said in a subsequent tweet. 

Though the precise cause has not been confirmed, initial indications suggest that malicious code via ads on the affected sites is the vector for the phishing attack.

DexTools, another crypto-focused app site, is also said to be affected. In its tweet, DexTools appeared to blame a crypto ad platform known as Coinzilla. 

“We are disabling all ads until the situation is clarified by @adsbycoinzilla . Please be aware and don’t sign suspicious requests at your wallet. DEXTools does not automatically request any permissions.”

This is a breaking news story and will be updated as more information becomes available.

© 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 Securities and Exchange Commission has asked for additional comments on issuer WisdomTree’s proposal to list a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).

WisdomTree refiled for a spot-bitcoin product in February of this year after receiving a rejection in December 2021. At the time, the SEC cited a lack of surveillance sharing agreements and the subsequent inability to curb fraudulent or manipulative practices in the spot market. The December rejection was the second in a wave of denials from the US securities regulator.

Another attempt from WisdomTree hit the Federal Register in February, and the SEC subsequently punted on the first deadline in March. That decision designated an additional 45 days to May 15. At the time, the Commission said it required additional time to consider the proposed rule change and any comments received.

However, today’s order institutes proceedings to determine whether to approve or disapprove the rule change filed on behalf of WisdomTree by exchange CboeBZX. 

“The Commission is instituting proceedings to allow for additional analysis of the proposed rule change’s consistency with Section 6(b)(5) of the Act, which requires, among other things, that the rules of a national securities exchange be ‘designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices’ and ‘to protect investors and the public interest,'” said the order. 

Commenters are asked to address whether WisdomTree’s proposed product would be susceptible to manipulation and if the Bitcoin markets have grown to a place where they don’t present a significant manipulation risk. Commenters will have 21 days to submit data and arguments, and an additional two weeks to submit rebuttals to those comments. 

A spot product has yet to reach the market in the US, though regulators have approved a number of futures-based bitcoin ETFs. In the SEC’s rejection orders, it has maintained that the spot market has yet to enter into sufficient surveillance sharing agreements to mitigate fraud.

Some, like spot-ETF applicant Grayscale, have argued that this constitutes unequal treatment since futures are priced related to the underlying market.

© 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.

VanEck, Valour and 21Shares have been forced to halt their LUNA-based exchange-traded products (ETPs) as the Terra Network remains halted. 

All three products trade in the European markets, offering exposure to the Terra network. Those products have crashed with the de-pegging of LUNA, as their shares are tied to the underlying asset price. 

Issuer VanEck announced today that it would suspend creations and redemptions for its VanEck Terra ETN given the halts in the Terra Network. Terra halted its blockchain twice in 24 hours due to fears it had become vulnerable to an attack. Terraform Labs co-founder and CEO Do Kwon has since pitched a revival plan involving the creation of 1 billion tokens. 

When the network is halted, it poses problems for ETPs based on the underlying asset.

“VanEck is unable to conduct transactions in Luna through the Terra network,” said VanEck’s statement. “Therefore, it is technically not possible to accept creations and redemption for VanEck Terra ETN.”

21Shares issued informational resources on the LUNA fallout yesterday, saying the volatility in LUNA will be reflected in the indexed products.

“We will continue to closely monitor our products to ensure that they deliver the intended allocations and allow investors well-diversified exposure to this emerging (and sometimes volatile) asset class,” said the firm in yesterday’s statement. 

Like VanEck, the halt of the network means 21Shares is unable to execute the creation and redemption mechanisms in its product. The firm’s CEO and co-founder Hany Rashwan told ETF Stream that the firm would continue to closely monitor the situation. 

Valour, meanwhile, said it elected to halt its Valour Terra SEK, citing the “high volatility and prevailing uncertainty around the Terra ecosystem.” The product trades on the Nordic Growth Market exchange. 

“It is Valour’s intention to provide a market, through the market maker, as soon as it is possible and allowed,” the issuer said in a statement. “We keep a continuous dialogue with the exchange.”

© 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

• This weekly series explores the most interesting insights in NFTs, blockchain gaming, and virtual worlds
• Against the backdrop of intense market volatility, NFTs have seen a widespread sell-off over the last week
• In particular, popular PFP collections have been blindsided by enormous price drops
• Traditional artists are increasingly trying to bridge the physical and digital worlds with their experimental forays into NFTs

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

Dubai-based airline Emirates will “employ bitcoin as a payment service” as part of a push toward embracing blockchain and metaverse projects, according to a May 11 report from the Saudi Arabian news outlet Arab News. 

Speaking at the Arabian Travel Market trade show in Dubai, Emirates’ COO Adel Ahmed Al-Redha told press that the carrier will be hiring up staff to work on metaverse and NFT-related projects and focusing on bitcoin payments.

“The executive revealed that Emirates plans to employ bitcoin as a payment service while adding NFT collectibles on the company’s websites for trading,” the article stated.

Emirates has previously mentioned it would explore NFTs and metaverse experiences, but this appears to be the first time it has publicly discussed plans for bitcoin payments. The airline issued a press release on April 14 announcing that it would turn a pavilion it had built for the Expo 2020 event into an innovation center, with a focus on building out new, tech-focused projects including metaverse, Web3 and NFT initiatives. 

Emirates’ home base of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is focused on positioning itself as a global crypto hub. Its home city of Dubai recently created a new agency focused on virtual asset regulation and overseeing the UAE’s licensing regime for crypto companies. 

Emirates’ acceptance of bitcoin as a payment method would be a significant milestone for the airline industry, as it would be the largest global airline directly accepting cryptocurrencies. While some airlines have adopted cryptocurrencies as a payment method, the practice is still relatively uncommon among major carriers.

Some smaller airlines do accept crypto, such as Latvia’s Air Baltic. Budget airline Volaris also announced in October that it would accept bitcoin payments under its El Salvador subsidiary, in line with the country’s mandate for companies to accept the cryptocurrency. 

Emirates did not respond to The Block’s request for comment 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.

Do Kwon, the co-founder and CEO of Terraform Labs, pitched a revival plan proposal on Friday following the collapse of the algorithmic stablecoin UST and its related Terra-based asset, Luna.

The proposal, included in a post on a forum for Terra discussion, amounted to a restart of the Terra blockchain. “The Terra community must reconstitute the chain to preserve the community and the developer ecosystem,” Kwon wrote. 

Such a restart, as the proposal states, would create 1 billion tokens to be distributed among various community stakeholders. Such an approach would be necessary given the runaway inflation of Luna tokens, owing to the relationship between LUNA and UST, and the collapse in the market price of the Terra-based assets. 

The thinking goes that this approach would incentivize this community to stick around in order to rebuild. 

“While UST has been the central narrative of Terra’s growth story over the last year, the Terra ecosystem and its community is what is worth preserving,” Kwon wrote. 

Kwon’s proposed plan calls for 40% of the tokens to go to Luna holders before the UST de-pegging, 40% to go to UST holders “pro-rata at the time of the new network upgrade,” 10% to Luna holders before the chain halt, and 10% to the “Community Pool to fund future development.”

“Terra needs a community to continue to grow and make its blockspace valuable again – the only way to do this is to make sure that token holders before the attack commenced, the most loyal community members and builders, stick around to keep providing value,” Kwon wrote, adding:

“It is a hard balance – and no easy answers in redistributing value within the network. But value must be distributed to allow the ecosystem to survive, and in its current state it will not.”

Kwon’s post came amid questions about his whereabouts, given that the previously prolific social media user had gone quiet amid the turmoil. 

This story will be updated with additional information. 

© 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.