FreeCryptoCurrency.Me

NFT platform Autograph, co-founded by Tom Brady, is working with ESPN in a new deal to create the network’s first NFTs.

The project includes an NFT collection inspired by the documentary series Man in the Arena: Tom Brady, produced by Religion of Sports, another company co-founded by Brady. The film highlights Brady’s and other big figures’ careers. 

NFTs can be viewed on Autograph.io starting April 6, but are available on DraftKings Marketplace for purchase. Fifty NFTs will be signed by Brady. Another collection will also become available with the premiere of the series’ tenth episode on ESPN+. 

“ESPN is excited to offer our first NFTs to meet our fans at the intersection of sports, technology and content,” said Kevin Lopes, Vice President of Sports Business Development & Innovation at ESPN, in a statement. “Our work with ESPN Edge has led us to where we are today, exploring new, innovative ways of engaging fans, and we are thrilled to partner with Autograph for this collection and others in the future.”

In January, Autograph raised $170 million in Series B funding led by a16z and Kleiner Perkins in an effort to allow celebrities in sports to sell NFTs.

Until recently, the NFL had strict rules around crypto partnerships, which it loosened in March. 

© 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

• The Block tracked key 55 hires, exits, and board positions during March.
• Here’s who’s moving where.

This feature story is available to
subscribers of The Block News Plus.
You can continue reading
this News Plus feature on The Block.

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

Lawmakers want more answers on the Treasury’s work targeting crypto in Russia’s sanctions evasion.

On April 6, Janet Yellen, secretary of the US Treasury Department, testified before the House Financial Services Committee in a hearing entitled “The State of the International Financial System.”

Though Yellen only said the word “sanction” once in her opening statements, it was the central focus of many of the representatives on the committee, with many on ways of tightening sanctions against Russia’s government. 

Nydia Velásquez (D-NY), the second-most senior Democrat on the committee, spotlit the role of crypto, asking Yellen:

“Many of us on this committee are concerned about a potential use of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets in order to avoid sanctions,” asked Velásquez. “How is the Treasury Department carrying out this pledge?”

Yellen enumerated the Treasury’s work on sanctioning cryptocurrencies, saying “we’re monitoring for any attempts to use cryptocurrency to evade sanctions.”

She listed work from the Office of Foreign Asset Control and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to target crypto exchanges serving Russian cybercrime, including designating darknet market Hydra and affiliated crypto exchange Garantex just yesterday.

The Treasury has made a number of public statements on crypto and sanctions in the past month and a half in response to a great deal of political concern over the issue. This is despite limited evidence that it is happening or even viable in the case of Russia. 

In contrast, Republicans were generally more interested in explanations for why the Treasury had not done more to target Russia’s energy markets. 

© 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

• Riot Blockchain and Marathon Digital managed to grow their Bitcoin mining production and hashrate significantly over 2021.
• Despite the initial doubt and scrutiny from the public and regulators, they have proven a successful business pivot into Bitcoin mining.
• The vital equity financing starting in 2020 helped the two place large pre-orders for the newest Bitcoin ASIC miners before the market rally.
• We take a further analysis based on the evolution of their strategy and key financial metrics over the past few years.

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

OpenSea, the venture-backed marketplace for non-fungible tokens, has gone live with its long-anticipated integration of Solana. 

The move enables a wide crop of NFTs on the platform, which prior to today catered largely to Ethereum-based NFTs along with integrations with the Polygon and Klatyn blockchains. Still, the Solana news represents a significant expansion for OpenSea. The firm raised $300 million at a $13 billion valuation in January. 

The Solana integration was expected, with OpenSea teasing the move in a tweet last week.  

What remains to be seen is what impact the development will have on the existing ecosystem for Solana NFT marketplaces, including Magic Eden, which recently raised $27 million and has emerged as the dominant market on that network. 

Solana saw $173 million in NFT trade volume during March, according to data tracker CryptoSlam. 

Last month, OpenSea posted roughly $3.4 billion worth of trade volumes, according to The Block’s Data Dashboard.

A recent first-quarter report from the Metaplex Foundation, which is tied to the popular protocol for minting Solana-based NFTs, found that a total of 9.7 million NFTs have been minted via the protocol. 

© 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-focused investment firm Pantera Capital is raising a new fund, targeting a $200 million close at the start of May.  

Dubbed the Pantera Select Fund, it will aim to help its limited partners gain exposure to three growth-stage deals, which it has already locked in, plus seven to nine others over the course of the next year, the firm said in a blog post on Tuesday.  

Pantera says the Select Fund will be smaller, more targeted, and therefore more concentrated than a typical growth fund. The three deals it has already closed include investments in Amber, a crypto investments gateway; an unnamed company which produces NFT domain names; and an Indian crypto exchange. 

“We will primarily focus on more mature, revenue-generating companies than our typical Seed and Series A venture investments,” it said. ” The Select Fund may also invest in a few earlier-stage opportunities that Pantera Blockchain Fund is leading.

Pantera was one of the first investment firms to focus exclusively on blockchain and cryptocurrencies, and recently signaled that it was preparing to raise more than $1 billion for a new venture fund, dubbed the Pantera Blockchain Fund. At the time it said the fund had planned to take new investments until April.

According to the blog post, the Pantera Blockchain Fund has now invested in 48 early-stage token projects and venture equity deals, including leading the $12 million funding round for the Aurora bridge and VLAR exchange’s $50 million Series B.

The Block contacted Pantera Capital for comment but had not heard back by the time of publication. 

© 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.

Goldman Sachs is gearing up to offer over-the-counter (OTC) ether options trading following its first successful OTC crypto transaction last month, according to head of crypto trading Andrei Kazantsev, who made the comments during a Goldman client webinar seen by Bloomberg.

Kazantsev didn’t offer a definite date for the launch, merely saying that trading would open up “in due course.” But he has been floating the idea since December last year when he discussed the development of options markets as the next big step for the crypto space during a Coindesk-led webinar.

Although Kazantsev sees these types of products as being in their infancy compared to traditional markets like equities and forex, that hasn’t stopped the New York-based bank from pushing through a slew of crypto-related products over the last year.

Last month, in particular, Goldman made its first-ever OTC crypto transaction in the form of a bitcoin non-deliverable option with its partner Galaxy Digital, a crypto-focused investment firm.

Goldman also already offers investment in ether through Galaxy Digital’s ETH fund.

Meanwhile, demand is growing among the bank’s clients for holding more digital assets. A survey by Goldman obtained by The Block suggested that 60% of its clients expect to increase their digital asset holdings over the next one to two years. Just under a third believed this increase would be “significant.”

© 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.

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez advocated for the election of pro-bitcoin officials in a speech opening Bitcoin 2022.

“The next president of the United States has to be a pro-bitcoin candidate,” said Suarez. 

Suarez joked that perhaps he could be that presidential candidate in the future.

“I thought, ‘how can I go bigger, and I thought I can make an announcement, that I’m running for….nah, not this year,” Suarez said.

Still, Suarez said he wanted to articulate a “vision for the country” related to crypto, which he calls “Vision for Bitcoin America 2024.” In addition to pushing to elect pro-Bitcoin candidates who can shape a favorable regulatory climate, Suarez called for an integration of bitcoin into “every part of our society,” including purchasing everyday goods with the crypto.

Ultimately, Suarez wants a collaborative effort to “unleash the macro power of bitcoin,” which he defines as using the blockchain to break cycles of poverty by uncoupling it from some federal monetary policies.

“Bitcoin has the power to democratize and to create wealth for the unbanked and the poor in our community who are getting decimated by inflation and government spending that has run rampant,” said Suarez. 

Suarez made waves early last year for his stated desire to invest some of Miami’s reserves into bitcoin. Miami’s government has since sought to position the city as a hub for bitcoin and crypto companies, a position for which the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, has indicated support. 

© 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 market-maker Wintermute has launched Node, an over-the-counter (OTC) platform for institutional clients and qualified investors to trade digital assets and their derivatives.

Wintermute Node is an extension of the company’s OTC API product launched in June 2021 that functioned as a liquidity delivery mechanism for digital asset trading.

The company says Node will deliver proprietary prices and reliable feeless click-to-trade execution for over 250 digital assets.

According to the announcement issued Wednesday, Wintermute’s existing proprietary algorithms that aggregate data from over 60 centralized and decentralized exchanges (DEX) will power NODE’s pricing and execution function.

Wintermute CEO Evgeny Gaevoy told The Block that the new OTC platform has both API and a user interface. Wintermute has been running institutional OTC crypto trading APIs since June 2021 and is one of the few OTC spot trading desks approved by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The company says NODE will make it easier for family offices, hedge funds, and other big-money players to participate in niche markets like decentralized finance (DeFi).

As Gaevoy noted, Wintermute’s status as an FCA-regulated entity provides a viable pathway for institutions to get involved in the DeFi space, which is the subject of a nascent but evolving regulatory environment worldwide. 

© 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.