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Jump Trading — the secretive Chicago-based high-speed trading firm — announced Tuesday its first crypto-related acquisition: it is set to acquire blockchain infrastructure firm Certus One. 

The firm, which is a pioneer in electronic trading, keeps a low profile relative to most other players in the crypto market. But it is one of the more active liquidity providers in the space and its affiliate venture capital firm, Jump Capital, has invested in firms like BitGo, Bitso, and BlockFi — to name a few. 

Its acquisition of Certus One, which offers infrastructure services for blockchains ranging from Solana to Cosmos to Ethereum, will help Jump expand its scope in the crypto market, a press release notes. Financials of the deal were not disclosed. A spokeswoman said it was Jump’s first crypto acquisition. 

“Certus One is one of the most talented teams in the space and we are very excited to welcome [it] to the Jump family,” said Kanav Kariya, director of digital assets at Jump Trading Group. “This acquisition is an opportunity for us to super charge our efforts to build in and contribute to the space and we can’t wait to get going.”

In a sense, the move is an extension of other non-trading related efforts it has made, including its involvement in Pyth, a Solana-based decentralized data project. Jump has lined up a long list of Wall Street firms (including IEX and Virtu Financial) to supply stock market data into Pyth, which will allow developers to build applications.  

“Jump Trading Group has been the fastest moving institution in the space. They share our passion for contributing to and growing the ecosystem,” said Hendrik Hofstadt, founder of Certus One. “We’re incredibly excited to join forces with Jump and leverage their world class talent and resources to drive forward our mission of advancing the state-of-art in decentralized finance.”

Hofstadt is taking on the role of director of special projects at Jump, according to a press release.

© 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

• Tiger Global Management is a major hedge fund/venture capital firm based in New York
• The firm had a very successful year in 2020 and is currently increasing its exposure in the crypto/blockchain sector at a more rapid pace
• The firm has recently made 11 investments in the crypto/blockchain space across five verticals, which The Block has mapped out

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The international investment firm SkyBridge has partnered with MOSS Earth, a carbon credit provider, to reduce the equivalence of 38,436 tons of carbon from the atmosphere, according to a Monday release. 

“We project that bitcoin mining will be fully renewable by the end of the decade,” said SkyBridge founder and managing partner Anthony Scaramucci in the statement. “In the interim, carbon offsets represent an effective way to green the bitcoin network and facilitate adoption by ESG-minded investors.”

MOSS calculates how many carbon credits SkyBridge requires to reduce its carbon emissions, then sources those credits from third-party verified projects that aim to reduce deforestation and atmospheric carbon — a method other environmentally conscious crypto firms like NinePoint and Gemini have opted for. 

While carbon offsetting suggests firms can immediately reduce the carbon associated with their business, the method has been criticized in the past. Determining whether carbon projects reduce atmospheric carbon that would not have otherwise occurred remains difficult, and future factors could disrupt the carbon-capturing necessary to absorb carbon produced at present.

© 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.

Riccardo Spagni, a former maintainer for the Monero privacy coin project and a founder of the emoji username project Yat, is being held by U.S. authorities and faces extradition to South Africa in connection with allegations of fraud.

Court documents filed July 21 allege that Spagni committed invoice payment fraud during his time working as an IT manager for a South Africa-based cookie company, Cape Cookies. “The evidence indicating that SPAGNI engaged in these frauds consists of witness statements and bank records. This evidence indicates that SPAGNI received 1,453,561.47 South African Rand, or roughly $99,185, as a result of his efforts to defraud Cape Cookies,” the documents state. 

The court filing goes on to note:

“SPAGNI was charged in the Western Cape Regional Court, Cape Town for fraud and other charges arising out of these facts. He pleaded not guilty to the charges, and the trial against him was commenced. Evidence was presented against him, but SPAGNI failed to appear in court. South African authorities attempted to locate SPAGNI at his home address and through contacts with his friends and family, but to no avail. Further investigation revealed that SPAGNI had fled South Africa. The trial court issued a warrant for his arrest on April 19, 2021.”

Spagni is currently being held by the U.S. Marshals Service. In the court documents, officials requested that he be held in detention following his arrest on July 21, declaring him a flight risk. He was arrested in Nashville en route to Los Cabos, Mexico, during a refueling stop. 

The South African Police Service issued a public notice on April 30. Per the notice, Spagni “failed to appear twice for his court appearance and all efforts by the investigating officer to establish the whereabouts of the accused were futile.”

Cointelegraph first reported the news.

In a July 31 response to the government’s filing, Spagni’s legal representatives said that the U.S. government “has misstated both the facts and the applicable law in this matter.”

“Throughout the decade that South Africa has investigated, charged, dismissed, re-investigated, and re-charged a fatally flawed case against him, Spagni regularly and routinely appeared in South African court and communicated with authorities there regarding both his case and other legal matters upon which South Africa enlisted his assistance,” the July 31 filing states. 

In a message shared on Twitter through his spouse, Spagni said:

“Unfortunately, due to a misunderstanding with regards to the setting of court dates in an old matter, which I have continuously been trying to resolve since 2011, I have been held in contempt of court and currently awaiting extradition. I am hoping to resolve this misunderstanding within a short while. In the meantime my business affairs will continue under the leadership of my partners.”

According to an August 2 court order, a hearing on Spagni’s pre-trial detention will be held on August 5. 

© 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.

At least one member of the U.S. Senate is joining the crypto industry’s opposition to new language around tax reporting standards. 

In a statement shared with The Block on August 2, Senator Pat Toomey (R-PN) said: “Congress should not rush forward with this hastily-designed tax reporting regime for cryptocurrency, especially without a full understanding of the consequences.”

Toomey’s comments come along with widespread opposition from the crypto lobby, similarly calling the new reporting standards unworkable. 

“Simply put, the text is unworkable. I plan to offer an amendment to fix it,” said Toomey. 

The most recent draft of the legislation has pared back some of the original’s more extravagant definitions of a broker. That draft says “any person who (for consideration) is responsible for regularly providing any service effectuating transfers of digital assets on behalf of another person.’’ An earlier version, since changed, alarmed the industry with the following definition:

“Any person who (for consideration) regularly provides any service or application (even if noncustodial) to facilitate transfers of digital assets, including any decentralized exchange or peer-to-peer marketplace”

The ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, Toomey has emerged as a vocal supporter of the crypto industry in the Senate.

During a hearing on crypto before the committee last week, Toomey envisioned cryptocurrencies making transactions “cheaper, easier, and faster for consumers.”

© 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 FTX is launching an NFT marketplace for prominent sports and entertainment brands, the company announced Monday. 

FTX is partnering up with entertainment company Dolphin Entertainment to create the marketplace. Dolphin’s subsidiaries include several notable PR firms across different industries, including 42West, Shore Fire Media and The Door.  

The marketplace will focus on brands within the film, television, music, gaming, eSports, culinary, lifestyle, and charity industries, FTX tweeted. 

“Dolphin’s reach and scale across all of pop culture is very impressive to us,” FTX.US president Brett Harrison said in an interview with Variety. “We are excited to build marketplaces with Dolphin, both because of their ability to access content and IP, but also because they are leaders in public relations and influencer marketing for every major vertical of entertainment.”

This is not the firm’s first NFT venture. FTX launched a marketplace for the digital collectibles on June 3, where users could buy, sell and hold them, as well as withdraw the tokens to their personal wallets. 

The crypto exchange closed its Series B funding round on July 20, raising $900 million from over 60 investors. According to the firm, the fundraise values FTX at $18 billion. 

© 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.

LibertyX, which operates bitcoin ATMs and kiosks in the U.S., is getting acquired by the Fortune 500 company NCR Corporation.

Announcing the news on Monday, NCR, an enterprise software company, said it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire LibertyX. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close later this year, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.

“This is the first acquisition by any company, public or private, of a bitcoin ATM operator,” LibertyX co-founder and CEO Chris Yim told The Block.

LibertyX was founded in 2013 and operates over 10,000 ATMs in the U.S. NCR, formerly known as National Cash Register, is a software company that makes business-related products such as ATMs, sale terminals, and scanners.

NCR’s chief technology officer Tim Vanderham said the LibertyX acquisition will help the company’s customers offer digital currency solutions, including the ability to buy and sell cryptocurrency, conduct cross-border remittances and accept digital currency payments across digital and physical channels.

“The LibertyX solution will accelerate our ability to rapidly deliver these capabilities to the market,” said Vanderham.

LibertyX’s software runs on ATMs, kiosks, and point-of-sale systems. The firm partners with independent ATM operators, like Cardtronics, who own and manage ATMs in the U.S. at locations like convenience stores, pharmacies, and supermarkets. NCR acquired Cardtronics earlier this year for $2.5 billion.

With the LibertyX deal, NCR said it will offer the digital currency solution for banks, retailers, and restaurants. Earlier this year, Virginia-based Blue Ridge Bank became the first bank in the country to allow customers to purchase bitcoin from its ATMs in partnership with LibertyX. The bank has added the service to 19 of its ATM locations across Virginia.

“We look forward to offering NCR’s customers the ability to quickly and easily offer the digital payments and cryptocurrency capabilities consumers want, while significantly expanding the scope, scale, and reach of our software,” said LibertyX’s Yim.

© 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 weekly trade volume of non-fungible tokens has surged past $339 million, according to data collected by The Block. 

This marks a more than 70% increase from mid-July, when the NFT weekly trade volume peaked at $209.27 million. Before that, the weekly volume high was $197 million reported in February, as shown in the chart below:

CryptoPunks accounted for the majority of the latest weekly figure, coming in at $207 million. Axie Infinity accounted for $127 million and NBA Top Shot accounted for about $4 million. The average NFT transaction value has also increased, hitting an average of $34,600 after a series of CryptoPunk sales earlier this week. 

However, the number of weekly NFT transactions is still in decline as of July 26, with the last peak happening in May. NBA Top Shot has consistently accounted for the majority of transactions since it launched. 

Although trade volumes declined slightly after peaking in March, NFT activity has picked back up in recent weeks. Brands, celebrities, and other entities continue minting their own unique tokens. NFT marketplaces have continued to develop, with platforms like OpenSea and Rarible securing funding recently.

© 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.

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Voyager announced today its acquisition of Coinify ApS, a crypto trading and payment firm, according to a Monday release. 

Coinify was already established in over 150 countries in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Voyager intends to bolster its international expansion, particularly into Europe, in addition to its business-to-business capabilities through acquiring Coinify.  

“The acquisition of Coinify brings a global payment infrastructure to Voyager’s digital asset ecosystem and will give our rapidly growing customer base of over 1.75 million users a fast, easy, and secure way to make payments from their Voyager accounts,” said Voyager co-founder and CEO Stephen Ehrlich in the statement. 

Voyager has consistently had the highest valued stock among crypto companies since the beginning of 2021, according to data compiled by The Block. The firm also experienced a more than 6,000% increase in stock price performance since February 2020. 

Voyager has experienced considerable growth in the past two years. Founded in 2014, Voyager had had only 10,000 users and earned over $87,000 in 2019, The Block previously reported. 

The firm grew to have over 86,000 user accounts and $1.1 in revenue in the 2020 fiscal year, and the Monday release states the Voyager’s user base continued to grow 1,400% in the first six months of 2021.

© 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.