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Onramp Invest, a crypto investing platform for clients of financial advisors, has raised $6 million in a seed funding round.

The round was backed by notable investors, including Coinbase Ventures, Gemini Frontier Fund, Galaxy Digital, Galaxy Fund Management, Ritholtz Wealth Management, WisdomTree, Fox Ventures, and Eterna Capital.

With fresh capital at hand, California-based Onramp Invest plans to expand its team and its services to registered investment advisors (RIAs) and explore broker-dealer registration.

Onramp Invest was launched in May 2020 and provides services via Gemini and Prime Trust. Onramp also offers educational resources for financial advisers and their clients through Onramp Academy.

Fox Ventures’ investment in Onramp is “six times larger” than its standard check size, said Fox Ventures’ managing partner Chad Fox. “This is a testament to what this team is capable of,” he said.

“Black founders historically get left out of these types of funding opportunities,” said Onramp CEO Tyrone Ross, Jr. “I want to thank all of our seed fundraising participants for blessing our company with this great opportunity to demystify cryptoassets and for me to inspire little Black boys and show them that they can be a startup CEO too.”

© 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.

Along the way, we realized our community goes beyond just entertainment brands and fans. It includes crypto OGs, NFT lifers, apes, kennels, goatz, cats, and more. Our community represents the best of the general NFT community while it also welcomes more mainstream fans who share a love for entertainment and great storytelling. 

That’s why we’re excited to announce Curio X. A new home for the NFT projects you’ll love from the NFT creators you respect. This dedicated collab will give NFT creators the support of an active and passionate community while introducing our community to new and upcoming brands created by the next generation of IP creators. 

The first project is Curio X NFT Dungeon™. This collection of 12,000 generated RPG (Role-Playing Game) adventurers was created by Sam Ellis, best known for his work on Archer (FX) and Adventure Time (BOOM! Studios). After releasing the first 1,000 on OpenSea, Sam brought the project to Curio, a win-win since he’s currently serving as Curio’s Head of Product. Sam says, “NFT Dungeon is a love letter to all things crypto-geek, namely NFTs and RPGs.” Curio X NFT Dungeon launches on Curio today, August 4th at 12 PM PT, with a limited run of 500 editions sold at 0.05 ETH. 

In true community fashion, we’re proud to launch with the support of enthusiastic partners like Metakey & House of Kibaa. In the case of Metakey, you have an avid DnD fan in Michael P, Community, Social Media and Marketing Manager, who openly loves the project and is on record as saying: 

“There are a rapidly accelerating number of RPG nerds exploring the metaverse, myself included! NFT Dungeon combines the viral potential of the D&D and TTRPG renaissance; the economy and collectibility of the generative NFT avatar movement; and the animated whimsy of Sam’s iconic art style. With its mainstream fandom-bridging architecture, Curio feels like the perfect platform for NFT Dungeon to thrive. The Metakey team are all extremely excited about the shared experiences we’re building together!” 

The Metakey group loved the project so much that they even live-streamed a Dungeon’s & Dragons One-Shot, yesterday, Tuesday, August 3rd at 7 PM EDT. Some lucky streamers were even gifted the in-game adventurers. 

While Jason, Grant, & the entire HOK team have been thrilled to throw their technical prowess behind the collection and have created 500 one-of-a-kind 3D NFT Collectibles. These 500 NFTs will be airdropped to randomly selected collectors as the project meets sales thresholds. We’re honored to partner with these groups and know that these collaborations are what the NFT community is all about.

Check out the Curio X NFT Dungeon collection on Curio — and if you’re a creator or artist, get in touch. We’ve created a nifty little form for you to tell us more about your project. Reach out to us and start the conversation. 

Cheers,

Team Curio

@CurioNFT

© 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.

Genesis Global Trading—the New York-based crypto firm that bills itself as a prime brokerage—turned over more than $8 billion worth of derivatives last quarter. 

Joshua Lim is the man behind those billions as the firm’s Head of Derivatives. Lim joined The Scoop this week to unpack Genesis’ second quarter report, explaining how new preferences among investors and traders have shaped the make up of derivatives. He told The Block’s Frank Chaparro that the growth of crypto-native hedge funds have increased their need for derivatives, including options and futures, to hedge their positions. 

“I think it’s mostly crypto negative hedge funds that we deal with that were more willing to engage with us on hedging strategies,” he said. As bitcoin was approaching $55,000, he said many were “looking for attractive pricing on the implied volatility across two different strikes such that they could buy some cheap sort of protection for their portfolio.”

That desire to hedge among crypto players was echoed in Genesis’ report, which was released Wednesday:

“As BTC/USD marched to new highs in April, a number of our forward-thinking crypto-native hedge fund and corporate treasury counterparties meaningfully stepped up their systematic put-hedging programs.”

As for the second-quarter specifically, Lim pointed out a number of trends that played out, including the tightening of the spread between spot and futures and a reversal of the popular basis trade that aims to profit from that spread. 

In this episode Lim also unpacks:

• How the derivatives market in crypto evolved from linear products to a wide-range of products
• How the spread between spot and futures can indicate how frothy the market is
• The big takeaways from Genesis’ second quarter report
• What needs to happen in the NFT market for it to support derivatives
• The emergence of market neutral strategies in crypto

© 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.

Krystal, a crypto platform that offers access to various decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, has raised $6.6 million in a seed funding round.

The round was led by crypto venture firm Hashed, with participation from Signum Capital, BlockTower, Crypto.com, Arrington Capital, DeFi Alliance, Coin98, and others.

This was an equity round and will help Krystal expand its team and strengthen its research and development efforts, CEO Sunny Jain told The Block. Krystal’s current headcount is 25, and Jain plans to hire more developers to launch more features on the platform.

Krystal currently allows users to swap tokens through DeFi protocols like Uniswap and SushiSwap and earn yield through platforms such as Compound and Aave. Krystal currently supports Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Polygon networks, and plans to integrate more protocols and blockchains, including Solana and Polkadot, said Jain.

As for new features, Jain said Krystal plans to provide access to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and staking on its platform. “Plans are still in initial stages, as Krystal’s research and development team is still working on concrete steps on development and implementation. By end-August, we expect to start rolling out elementary features at these fronts,” said Jain.

Initially incubated at Kyber Network, Krystal was launched in April of this year and currently has 8,000 to 9,000 users from around 87 countries, said Jain. Its most popular markets are the Philippines, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, the U.S., and Nigeria, he added.

“In the short span since Krystal’s launch, the seamless aggregation of multiple DeFi services, such as token swaps, earning interest, and portfolio management, has already proven to be a great asset for new DeFi users and veterans alike,” said Hashed CEO and managing partner Simon Kim. “We’re excited to see what new product developments they will deliver to improve usability on various blockchains.”

Asked if Krystal has plans to launch its own token in the future, Jain said it was a possibility but there are no immediate plans on that front.

© 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 platform Crypto.com has hired Spotify’s former head of global user growth Henrik Johansson to lead its own growth efforts. His new position will be as global head of growth.

According to a release, the platform has hired 1,500 people in the last 12 months — in line with other major exchanges — bringing its total headcount to 1,800. And the company plans to expand its user base more aggresively, with aims to grow from 10 million to 100 million users within two years.

“Streaming brought the world’s music to people’s pockets with a price, speed and ease-of-use that had never been possible before. As consumer behaviour and preference changed, so did the music industry,” Johansson told The Block. “Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology has the potential to be an equally transformative technology, and the key to step changing its growth is to make the technology more accessible and approachable to a broader group of consumers.”

Crypto.com has already been heavily focused on growth. In July, it became the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s (UFC) official fight kit partner, a deal set in place for the long term. Its logo is now being shown on fighter kits, such as for the recent Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor’s trilogy fight, which had 1.8 million pay per views.

“Henrik is a rare talent, who has a deep understanding of growth, product and marketing,” said Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek in the release.

Crypto firms continue to hire aggresively, with a number of key hires made in the last seven months, including many people from traditional finance and tech.

© 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.

Shanghai-headquartered bitcoin mining firm The9 City is building a 100 megawatts mining facility in Kazakhstan as it migrates overseas after China’s crackdown.

The Nasdaq-listed bitcoin miner said in a statement on Wednesday that its fully owned subsidiary NBTC Ltd has signed investment terms with a Kazakhstan mining partner KazDigital. The goal is to establish a joint venture to build the 100 MW crypto mining facility by Q1 2022 in the region.

The development will come in four phases with each one installing 25 MW in capacity quarter by quarter, according to The9. The first phase has been completed by August 1 and The9 said it will ship 1,000 units of its bitcoin mining machines to test the waters. The on-site operation will be managed by the local partner.

The9 is one of the few publicly listed bitcoin mining firms that were materially affected by China’s crackdown orders since May this year. Its move to build infrastructure from scratch comes amid a global supply crunch on bitcoin mining hosting capacity now that the market has been flooded with bitcoin ASIC miners that have gone offline.

The9 signed a contract last month to reserve 15 MW in capacity at Russia-based colocation firm BitRiver. But it appears that was far from enough and it’s needing more space.

Before China shut down power supplies to local bitcoin mining farms, The9 deployed the majority of its 35,000 old generation bitcoin miners in Sichuan, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia and Gansu, per its annual report filed in the U.S.

In addition, The9 expects its first batch of pre-ordered 24,000 units of Bitmain’s AntMiner S19j hardware to arrive starting from November.

© 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.

NFT marketplace MakersPlace has raised $30 million in a Series A fundraising round, the company announced Wednesday. 

The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Pantera Capital with participants including Uncork Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and Sony Music Entertainment. 

MakersPlace plans to use the cash influx to grow its team and continue to expand its marketplace.  

“With this Series A we will further our commitment to uniting the best digital artists with the most passionate collectors and continue to bring this new medium for creativity and collecting to a mainstream audience,” said MakersPlace co-founder and CEO Dannie Chu.  

MakersPlace was founded in 2018 by former Pinterest employees Dannie Chu and Yash Nelapati, as well as e-commerce executive Ryoma Ito. According to the company, MakersPlace has raised $100 million in sales over the past year, with thousands of creators and collectors on the platform. 

A growing demand for NFTs

The San Francisco-based company made headlines earlier this year after it sourced, minted and brought to market the digital artist Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days, which sold for over $69 million at Christie’s auction house. The collage of digital images was sold as an NFT. 

Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are digital collectibles on the blockchain that can represent different files like audio or images. Beeple’s collection is the most expensive NFT sold to date, as well as one of the most expensive works by a living digital artist. 

Although NFT trading activity declined slightly after peaking in March, it has picked back up in recent weeks. In fact, weekly NFT trade volume surpassed $300 million earlier this week. Amidst this flurry of activity, NFT marketplaces have continued to grow in popularity, with platforms like OpenSea and Rarible securing funding recently.

NFT marketplaces play a crucial role in the creation and sale of these digital collectibles because they allow creators to store, display and trade their work. Typically, creators need to get verified to put their work up for sale in order to receive and accept bids. 

© 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.

Decentralized market maker Popsicle Finance has been hit by a $20 million exploit, due to a “simple” bug. This adds to the list of more than 20 DeFi hacks that have happened so far this year, pushing the total haul north of $310 million. 

“We are aware of the current exploit to Fragola. We will investigate and publish post mortem. The other Popsicle Finance’s contracts have not been exploited. If you still have funds in the ETH/AXS, ETH/SLP, ETH/LINK or any EURt Pool please remove them immediately,” tweeted Popsicle Finance. (Fragola is a tool that provides liquidity and helps liquidity providers maximize trading fee earnings.)

The perpetrator reportedly used flash loans — where tokens are borrowed, used for some function and repaid all in the same transaction — to borrow some $30 million in tether (USDT) and $32 million in ether (ETH). This was used to maximise the impact of the attack.

According to SushiSwap core developer Mudit Gupta, “the hack was complex but the bug was simple.” He explained that, under certain conditions, the contract was allowing anyone to receive rewards from much further back in time than they should have. It also let the perpetrator claim rewards multiple times for the same shares.

Gupta added that this was a rather common bug that has been exploited in around a dozen other protocols prior to this attack.

© 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.

The subway system in Beijing has extended its trial of China’s central bank digital currency to a full integration with its payment ecosystem.

According to the Beijing railway’s announcement on Tuesday, China’s digital yuan, also known as the e-CNY, is now fully supported as a payment or balance top-up option across 428 subway stations in 24 lines. 

It is a major upgrade to the subway system’s trial rolled out in June where the e-CNY was initially only supported for the Yitongxing mobile app. With the latest upgrade, the e-CNY is practically launched for Beijing subway’s 10 million daily riders whether they need to top up their physical transportation cards, buy a single-trip ticket online or offline, or scanning their Yitongxing mobile app.

A review video shot by a local business media outlet on Tuesday shows that the ticket vending terminals inside a subway station in Beijing now has the e-CNY payment option next to cash, WeChat Pay or AliPay for when users choose to buy a single-trip ticket or a transportation card.

Opting for the e-CNY payment method, users will need to open their e-CNY wallets to scan the payment QR codes displayed on the terminal screen. 

To top up the balance of their transportation cards, riders will need to go through a similar process by choosing the e-CNY payment option and scan the payment QR codes with their e-CNY wallets. 

In addition to automated ticket machines, all staffed service counters will also allow riders to top up their cards or buy tickets using their e-CNY wallets.

© 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.

Aspen Digital, a crypto investment platform for asset managers, institutions, and other professional investors, has raised $8.8 million in a pre-Series A funding round.

The round was co-led by RIT Capital Partners — a publicly traded investment firm founded by British billionaire banker Jacob Rothschild — and Liberty City Ventures, an investor in crypto firms such as BitGo, Paxos, and ConsenSys.

With fresh capital at hand, Hong Kong-based Aspen Digital plans to expand its team and open new offices in London and Singapore to serve clients in Europe, Middle East, and Southeast Asia.

Founded earlier this year, Aspen Digital provides a single account through which users can gain crypto exposure. It offers services such as trade execution, custody, access to yield-generating products, and portfolio reporting under one roof. Aspen provides these services through crypto firms such as FTX, Celsius Network, and Hex Trust.

Other investors in the funding round included Cherubic Ventures, Token Bay Capital, Somerley Capital, and Chatchaval Jiaravanon & Chaval Jiaravanon, members of Thailand’s richest family and owners of Fortune magazine. Aspen was co-incubated by Everest Ventures Group and TT Bond Partners.

RIT Capital Partners also acquired a stake in the crypto exchange Kraken earlier this year. RIT has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since 1988 and has generated a total return of 11.7% per annum for its shareholders, according to its website.

© 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.