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Venmo, the mobile payments outfit owned by PayPal, has launched a new crypto cashback tool.

The company will allow Venmo credit card users to automatically purchase cryptocurrency using cash back rewards earned through credit card purchases, according to an announcement.

The new feature gives users a transaction fee-free method of acquiring crypto, albeit with a conversion spread baked into each monthly transaction.

Darrell Esch, SVP and GM of Venmo, said the tool offers “a new way to start exploring the world of crypto” for users of the payments app.  

Venmo began rolling out crypto trading functionality in April. The move gave customers the option to buy and sell different cryptocurrencies, view market data, and access educational content.

The four cryptocurrencies that can be traded through the app are bitcoin, ether, litecoin and bitcoin cash.

Keeping up with crypto

PayPal, founded by Peter Thiel and others, today provides payment services to over 400 million customers and merchants globally.

But the more than 20-year old company is evidently keen to stay ahead of the curve on developments in the crypto space.

In addition to acquiring crypto security firm Curv in March, The Block revealed in May that PayPal has even held exploratory talks about launching its own stablecoin.

© 2021 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.

Cross-chain protocol Poly Network has been hacked for $611 million in the largest DeFi hack to date.

“We are sorry to announce that #PolyNetwork was attacked on @BinanceChain @ethereum and @0xPolygon,” tweeted Poly Network today, adding, “We call on miners of affected blockchain and crypto exchanges to blacklist tokens coming from the above addresses.“

Poly Network is a protocol for swapping tokens across multiple blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ontology. It was formed by an alliance between the teams behind multiple blockchain platforms, namely Neo, Ontology, and Switcheo.

The assets stolen were $273 million of Ethereum tokens, $253 million in tokens on Binance Smart Chain and $85 million in USDC on the Polygon network.

According to The Block Research’s Igor Igamberdiev, the root cause of the hack was a cryptography issue — which is not usually the case. It appears that the attackers somehow created a fake transaction signature to steal the funds.

The hack has also had wider implications. As a result of it, O3, a trading pool that uses Poly Network to trade tokens among different blockchains, has had to suspend its cross-chain functionality.

© 2021 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 and custodian Gemini has acqui-hired decentralized predictions platform Guesser, meaning Guesser’s team is joining Gemini, but the platform will be shut down.

Sharing the news exclusively with The Block on Tuesday, Gemini said the acqui-hire is aimed at growing the adoption of its Gemini dollar (GUSD) stablecoin and increasing its presence in the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

“We believe DeFi will play a significant role in the future at Gemini,” Marshall Beard, head of strategy and corporate development at Gemini, told The Block. “The Guesser team is experienced in DeFi — including the protocols and applications, how it all works and how to engage in the ecosystem. We’re excited about the future of DeFi at Gemini with this team on board.”

Guesser’s team comprises four people, including co-founders Jose Garay and Carlos Gonzalez, and all of them are moving to Gemini, said Beard. Garay is joining Gemini’s product team as a product manager, and Gonzalez is joining Gemini’s wallet engineering team as a software engineer, said Beard.

Their responsibilities include developing relationships with DeFi protocols and submitting GUSD integration proposals, among others, said Beard.

Planning to grow usage of GUSD

GUSD currently has a negligible presence in DeFi. Other stablecoins, including Circle’s USDC and Tether’s USDT, have a larger share, according to data compiled by The Block Research. Borrowers and lenders within DeFi protocols use stablecoins to earn a yield, and decentralized exchange users often use it for collateral.

USDC has a larger share in DeFi because Circle seems to have historically engaged directly with many DeFi projects, according to Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino. “Recently Tether has been gearing up good communications with different DeFi projects, which will definitely help to improve the overall presence of Tether in the broader DeFi ecosystem in the coming months,” Ardoino told The Block.

As for GUSD, Beard said DeFi is still in the early stages and that the acqui-hire of Guesser will help grow the usage of the stablecoin. GUSD has a current total supply of over $250 million, while USDC and USDT have a current total supply of over $27 billion and $63 billion, respectively, according to The Block’s Data Dashboard.

Gemini did not disclose the terms of the Guesser deal, but the DeFi platform has raised $2.15 million to date.

Guesser is Gemini’s fourth acquisition. The company has previously acquired NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway, crypto credit card startup Blockrize, and crypto custody technology developer ShardX.

When asked if Gemini is looking to acquire more crypto firms in the near future, Beard said the company is always exploring unique opportunities and looking to support talent in the crypto space.

© 2021 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.

Twitter’s NFT giveaway, “The 140 Collection,” which Twitter minted and released on June 30, has generated 1,700 ETH ($5.3 million) in total trading volume on NFT marketplace OpenSea. While this is far lower than NFT projects like Axie Infinity and CryptoPunks, it’s a considerable amount of trading volume for just 140 NFTs.

NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are blockchain-based tokens that can represent any type of file, from images to videos. In the case of the Twitter collection of 140 NFTs, all of the tokens are short GIFs related to the social media platform in different ways, including animations and characters interacting with some aspect of the platform’s brand. The collection features seven different designs with 20 tokens available for each variation. 

Twitter handpicked 140 users who responded to its main tweet announcing the giveaway. Shortly after, the winners came together to form an organization with the goal of getting the maximum value out of their new digital assets.

The founder of the 140 Collection organization, who goes by Geo, was one of the 140 winners. He started the group just a few hours after the giveaway after seeing several winners sell their Twitter-issued NFTs for significantly less than what he thought they were worth. The organization now has 70 members and continues to grow, according to Geo. 

“We have seen the number of holders for the Twitter NFTs plummet with people completing full sets (buying one of each of the seven designs). The fewer people holding the NFTs, the better, and with only 140 available, it’s easier to shake out weak hands,” he told The Block.

Since the organization began, the floor price for these NFTs — the current minimum price that they are available for purchasing — has risen to 90 ETH ($281,000), per OpenSea. Although most recent sales are in the 42 to 69 ETH range ($131,500 to $216,000).

“When you give 140 random people something of value, there’s no way of telling who will hold onto it for its true value at first,” he said. “That’s what you see happening now.”

© 2021 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.

Play-to-earn platform Axie Infinity now accounts for the highest percentage of weekly transactions involving non-fungible tokens (NFTs), overtaking popular basketball-themed trading card game NBA Top Shot. 

According to data collected by The Block, Axie Infinity accounts for 53% of weekly transactions involving NFTs, while NBA Top Shot accounts for about 45%. The remaining volume comes from other projects, including CryptoPunks and Meebits.

NBA Top Shot has accounted for the majority of weekly NFT transactions since it launched in December 2020, but its number of transactions has been declining since late June. On the other hand, Axie Infinity has surged in popularity, seeing its number of daily active users increase by over 230% since the end of June.

In fact, the platform, which was developed by Singapore-based game studio Sky Mavis, has grown at such a staggering rate that its server has struggled to keep up. This has caused several shutdowns in recent weeks.

Axie Infinity now has over one million daily active users on the platform. Earlier this week, it became the first NFT platform to hit one billion dollars in all-time trading volume. 

© 2021 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

• Fenbushi Capital is one of the first and most active Blockchain exclusive venture capital firms in Asia
• More than a quarter of Fenbushi’s investments have been focused across the Enterprise/Analytics / Trading & Brokerage verticals
• In total, Fenbushi has invested in a total of 107 projects across seventeen verticals, which The Block has mapped out

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members of The Block Genesis.
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this Genesis research on The Block.

Crypto exchange BitMEX has partnered with football club AC Milan to advertise its logo on the sleeves of the club’s official match kits. The length of the deal was not specified but it will last multiple years, said BitMEX.

According to a release, the logo will be featured on sleeves for both the men’s and women’s teams, plus for its eSports team AQM.

BitMEX CEO Alexander Höptner said: “Our partnership with AC Milan is the start of a hugely exciting new chapter for BitMEX as we look to ramp up brand awareness and increase understanding of crypto.”

BitMEX follows in the footsteps of several major crypto-sports partnerships in recent weeks. FTX has been on a spending spree, renaming the Miami Heat Arena to FTX Arena, renaming a professional e-sports team from TSM to TSM FTX and penning a seven year deal with Riot Games to sponsor League of Legends Championship Series.

Similarly, Crypto.com has partnered with the UFC to put its branding on its fight kits and also struck deals with Formula 1, the National Hockey League team Montreal Canadiens and football league Lega Serie A.

© 2021 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.

India-based cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX has raised $90 million in a Series C funding round. The round brings CoinDCX’s valuation to $1.1 billion, making it the first Indian crypto exchange to become a unicorn.

B Capital, founded by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, led CoinDCX’s Series C round. Existing investors Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital, Block.one, Jump Capital, and others also backed the round.

The Series C comes just eight months after CoinDCX raised $13.9 million in Series B funding. When asked why it raised funds again so soon, CoinDCX co-founder and CEO Sumit Gupta told The Block that demand for crypto as a trading option is rising in India, and CoinDCX wants to expand its user base and grow its operations.

CoinDCX currently claims to have 4 million users, and it aims to have 50 million users in the future. To that end, CoinDCX has been on an aggressive advertisement drive on social media and television. It recently signed a sponsorship deal with the reality show Bigg Boss. CoinDCX has also collaborated with several social media influencers, offering end-users “free” bitcoin worth around $1.5 or so if they end up opening new accounts.

“With these efforts in place, we have been able to increase our user base and will continue to grow our active user base through these sustained efforts,” said Gupta.

CoinDCX also plans to partner with fintech firms to expand its user base and set up a new research and development facility, but Gupta said those plans are still in the pipeline with no concrete details to share at this time.

CoinDCX also has two new products in the works: CoinDCX Prime and Cosmex. CoinDCX Prime will cater to wealthy clients, and Cosmex will offer crypto-to-crypto trading, said Gupta.

The exchange is hiring for various roles and is looking to expand its headcount from current 185 to about 400 in the near future, said Gupta.

Indian crypto exchanges and firms have been raising funds despite an uncertain regulatory environment in the country. This shows global venture firms perceive upside in India becoming a major market for crypto and are hopeful regulators will warm up to the sector.

The Series C round brings CoinDCX’s total funding to date to $109.4 million. The exchange has previously raised $19.4 million in various rounds.

© 2021 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 late-game attempt to make changes to controversial cryptocurrency tax reporting requirements included in the Senate’s infrastructure bill died on Monday evening.

Senator Pat Toomey presented an amendment to exempt certain network operators from Internal Revenue Service reporting requirements before the Senate, as it was working to pass the infrastructure package. Due to the timing of the bill’s final vote, Toomey presented the amendment for so-called unanimous consent, meaning that a single objection would kill the proposal.

Consequently, the senators behind the amendment were determined to get broad consensus. “There’s an agreement, it’s bipartisan, the White House is on board, we can do this right now,” said Toomey.

After Toomey presented the amendment, however, Alabama Senator Richard Shelby motioned to add his own amendment to the broader infrastructure bill: a $50 billion earmark for defense. The combined package was subsequently shot down by an objection from Bernie Sanders. 

In a surprise step, Senator Ted Cruz then proposed his own amendment that would have struck the crypto language from the bill. “If we do see objections,” Cruz said, “it will have devastating effects.” Again, Shelby motioned to include his defense spending provision. Cruz rejected that motion. Subsequently, Shelby objected to the crypto amendment alone, putting an end to the unanimity it would require. 

The Senate is expected to vote tomorrow on a final bill, which will then need to go through the House.

© 2021 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

• China’s crackdown on Bitcoin mining has dramatically reshuffled not only the network’s geography but also the market share of major mining pools.
• This piece breaks down the numbers behind the mining pool reshuffle.

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