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Superfluid Finance, an Ethereum-based money streaming protocol that automates recurring transactions, has raised $9 million in a seed funding round.

The round was led by Multicoin Capital, with participation from Semantic Ventures, DeFiance Capital, Delphi Digital, DeFi Alliance, Divergence Ventures, and others. Angel investors, including Balaji Srinivasan, Ryan Selkis of Messari, Stani Kulechov of Aave, also backed the round.

The fresh injection of capital will help Superfluid grow its team and build an ecosystem of new “real-time financial applications” co-founder and CEO Francesco George Renzi told The Block. These applications will enable money flows in real-time, including subscription payments, salaries, and rewards, with single on-chain transactions.

Superfluid is currently live on the Ethereum, Polygon and xDAI networks. Using an ERC20 token called Super Token, Superfluid allows users to perform multiple tasks in a single transaction, said Renzi.

Let’s say for example a user wants to donate to a few different open-source projects on a regular basis. “The first thing you’d do is get your hands on a Super Token, for example, DAIx on Polygon. You could do this by upgrading your existing DAI tokens using Superfluid, a process much like wrapping ETH into WETH,” said Renzi.

“Once you have Super Tokens, you simply need to sign one transaction to start a stream. Once the transaction is confirmed on the blockchain, the stream will start. As the sender, your balance will start ticking down as the receiver’s balance ticks up.”

Unlike payment channels, users don’t have to keep a channel fully funded with Superfluid, and thus the protocol helps with capital efficiency, said Renzi. It, therefore, unlocks an entirely new subscription-based economy on-chain, he added.

“Streaming payments—meaning from one account to another, and then to others, concurrently, all in real time—has long been the holy grail of decentralized finance. State channels were thought to be the solution but by definition cannot scale due to the ‘locked assets’ problem and the capital inefficiency of design,” said Kyle Samani, managing partner at Multicoin Capital. “Superfluid is pioneering an entirely new category of cash flow and incentive design.”

There are currently seven full-time employees and a few part-time members working for Superfluid, and the project is looking to hire at least eight more people across marketing, developer relations, and engineering functions, said Renzi. Superfluid is also creating a grants program with the fresh funding in place to enable more Web2 developers to join the crypto space, according to Renzi.

“We believe we need to create a new generation of crypto natives who will be paid in streaming money,” he said.

© 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.

ClayStack, a liquid staking protocol for cryptocurrencies, has raised $5.2 million in a seed funding round.

The round was secured via a simple agreement for future tokens (SAFT) sale, ClayStack founder and CEO Mohak Agarwal told The Block. It was led by CoinFund and ParaFi Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, the Solana Foundation, Animoca Brands, and others.

Angel investors including Meltem Demirors of CoinShares, Larry Cermak of The Block, Robert Leshner of Compound, and Stani Kulechov of Aave, also backed the round, among several others.

With fresh capital at hand, ClayStack wants to expand its team and launch the protocol by September, Agarwal told The Block. ClayStack’s current headcount is 12, and it plans to increase it to 25 by hiring designers, developers, researchers, and technical writers, said Agarwal.

Liquid staking 

As for the protocol, once launched, it will allow users to stake their crypto holdings without lockup periods or losing liquidity. ClayStack will do so by issuing a liquid synthetic or derivative token, said Agarwal.

Say, for example, a user deposits 1,000 Polygon (MATIC) tokens. In return, they will receive 1,000 csMATIC tokens. ClayStack will stake the original MATIC tokens and send csMATIC tokens as rewards to the user.

The csMATIC tokens can be unstaked anytime by swapping back to MATIC, without lockup periods, said Agarwal. Being fungible, csMATIC tokens can also be used within the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem to earn additional yields in the future, he added.

ClayStack can be compared with the Lido protocol, which currently supports Ethereum 2.0 (ETH2) and Terra (LUNA) staking and has nearly $2 billion worth of staked assets.

ClayStack will support MATIC, ETH2, and The Graph (GRT) tokens at launch, Agarwal told The Block. It plans to support more tokens, including Near (NEAR) and Solana (SOL), in the future, he said, adding that the plan is to become a cross-chain protocol — rather than just multi-chain — and to do so through interoperability.

As for ensuring the liquidity of the ClayStack protocol, Agarwal said liquidity mining incentives in the form of CLAY tokens will be given to early liquidity providers. Support of investors and their communities will also be leveraged for the purpose, he said. The CLAY token will launch after the protocol goes live, given the market conditions, adding that the target is to launch by the end of this year.

The seed round brings ClayStack’s total funding to date to $5.3 million. The project raised $100,000 in a pre-seed funding round last year. ClayStack might raise more funds before the token launch, Agarwal told The Block.

© 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.

Connext, an Ethereum-based interoperability network that helps swap tokens between Ethereum-compatible blockchains and Layer-2 solutions, has raised $12 million in a new funding round.

The round saw participation from a record 82 investors. ConsenSys Mesh and 1kx co-led the round, with Coinbase Ventures, OkEx Ventures, eGirl Capital, and Hashed also participating. Angel investors including The Block’s Larry Cermak, Polygon’s Sandeep Nailwal, Optimism’s Jinglan Wan, Yearn’s Andre Cronje, and many others also backed the round.

This was an equity round, Connext co-founder Arjun Bhuptani told The Block, adding that it will help grow the team, build Connext’s ecosystem, and scale the network.

“We’ll be working on integrations with all of the Layer-2 systems as well as other Ethereum-compatible chains,” said Bhuptani.

There are currently eight people working for Connext, and the project is looking to expand its headcount to around 20 within the next 6-12 months, said Bhuptani. As for developing its ecosystem, Connext is setting up a grants program, said Bhuptani.

And for scaling the network, Connext will increase the number of “routers,” or liquidity providers. “We’re onboarding 10 of the best staking service providers in the space,” Bhuptani told The Block. “We’re also bringing on a bunch of investors who are technical and want to run routers. Besides this, we have a Google form that has over 200 signups from technical folk who want to run routers and provide liquidity.”

Connext went live in January of this year and since then claims to have grown at over 50% week-over-week to hit $40 million in weekly network volume and over 40,000 unique users recently.

“Now that we’ve proven out the use case and shown that we can bootstrap the demand side of the network, our focus is on the supply side,” Bhuptani. “This means our development plans are all based around making sure that there is a lot more liquidity and that liquidity is well balanced.”

Connext will also be working on integrations with all of the Layer-2 systems and other Ethereum-compatible chains, he said.

The round brings Connext’s total funding to date to $15.7 million. The project has previously raised $3.7 million in several 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.

Publicly traded Chinese bitcoin miner BIT Mining has raised $50 million in a private stock offering as it secures back-up plans after China’s crackdown orders.

The New York Stock Exchange-listed firm said in announcement on Tuesday that it has entered a purchasing agreement with institutional and accredited investors for the issuance.

BIT Mining, which is headquartered in Shenzhen and formerly known as 500.com, said it plans to use the net proceeds to “acquire additional mining machines, build new data centers overseas, expand its infrastructure, and improve its working capital position.”

The $50 million private raise comes less than a month after its bitcoin mining facilities in China’s Sichuan province were forced to suspend operations due to the power cut ordered by the local government.

Through a controlled subsidiary in Hong Kong called Loto Interactive, BIT Mining owned three bitcoin mining sites with two that had been running before June 22 and a third one that was supposed to be operational in June. The now-shutdown facilities were said to have a capacity of 400 megawatts. 

BIT Mining has already sent the first batch of its proprietary equipment to the neighboring country of Kazakhstan.

Similarly, Shanghai-based The9 City has also signed an agreement with Russian colocation provider BitRiver to reserve 15 megawatts of mining capacity. 

Underperforming U.S. rivals

Business operations aside, Chinese bitcoin mining firms listed in the U.S. have also seen their stock prices take a collateral hit by China’s recent policy change.

China first revealed its effort to crack down on the bitcoin mining space on May 21. 

Since then, the stock prices of BIT Mining, BIT Digital and The9 City have dropped by 43%, 37% and 10%, respectively, based on data from The Block’s Dashboard.

BIT Digital has not yet informed public shareholders how it plans to do with the more than 32,000 bitcoin ASIC miners it had deployed inside China, which accounted for 80% of its entire fleet.

On the other hand, the performances of major U.S. bitcoin mining firms like Riot Blockchain and Marathon Patent Group have seen an uptick during the same period.

Meanwhile, bitcoin’s price is down by about 20% from $41,000 to its current price of $33,000.

© 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 UK’s Metropolitan Police announced Tuesday that it seized nearly £180 million (around $250 million) worth of cryptocurrency as part of an ongoing investigation into international money laundering.

It is unclear which cryptocurrency the seizure involves. When contacted by phone, the police refused to say whether the cryptocurrency was bitcoin, like some news outlets have been reporting, or if it was any other cryptocurrency.

The new haul comes after a previous seizure of £114 million ($150 million) in cryptocurrency late last month.

“While cash still remains king in the criminal [world], as digital platforms develop we’re increasingly seeing organized criminals using cryptocurrency to launder their dirty money,” said Graham McNulty, deputy assistant commissioner at the Metropolitan Police.

While the police claimed it was the largest crypto seizure globally, there have been multiple other hauls on a much larger scale around the world. For example, the $1 billion of bitcoin seized by the U.S. government when it shut down the Silk Road marketplace or the $4.2 billion in cryptocurrencies seized by China over the PlusToken scandal.

A 39-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of money laundering during the first seizure and has been interviewed under caution over the second seizure, said the police, adding that the investigation continues.

“Today’s seizure is another significant landmark in this investigation which will continue for months to come as we hone in on those at the centre of this suspected money laundering operation,” said Joe Ryan, detective constable at the Metropolitan Police.

© 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-based online gaming and bitcoin mining firm The9 City has signed an agreement with Russia-based colocation provider BitRiver for a capacity of 15 megawatts.

The9 said the initial hosting period with BitRiver will be two years, after which it can be extended for another year. It’s part of The9’s ongoing effort to seek electricity and facilities in different regions to deploy its bitcoin mining equipment either through proprietary capacity or colocation providers.

Originally an online gaming firm listed on Nasdaq, The9 revealed its pivot into mining in January and began operating in February. As of the end of March, it owned about 126 BTC, per a regulatory filing in the U.S. 

The bitcoin mining company is facing regulatory headwinds due to provincial governments in China handing down orders to cut off energy supplies for bitcoin mining facilities in June.

The 15 megawatts reserved so far at BitRiver appears to be far from enough, however, for housing all of the equipment that The9 purchased earlier this year, based on the tech specification of these purchases.

The9’s investment in China

Based on its 2020 annual report released in March, The9 issued several rounds of new equity in Q1 to raise money for purchasing an older generation of bitcoin mining equipment when there was a supply crunch for the newest generation of machines.

Between January and March, The9 bought over 35,000 old bitcoin ASIC miners with a combined hashing power of 745 petahashes per second.

It deployed the majority of them in Chinese provinces including Sichuan, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia and Gansu, the company said in the annual report.

In March, The9 further signed a purchase agreement with Bitmain to buy 24,000 new models of Bitmain’s flagship AntMiner S19j for $82 million. As of then, it paid $16.6 million for the first installment with a delivery schedule starting from November.

The9 has not made any further statement regarding what it plans to do with all of its mining equipment that was once operating inside China or where it plans to host the upcoming batches of machines from Bitmain.

A big impact

The9 is one of several U.S. listed Chinese bitcoin mining firms that have been affected by China’s crackdown orders.

NYSE-listed BIT Mining, previously known as 500.com, announced its relocation plan to Kazahkstan last month as its mining facilities in Sichuan were ordered to shut down.

Nasdaq-listed BIT Digital, which had 80% of its over 40,000 bitcoin mining machines located in Xinjiang, Sichuan and Yunnan as of May, is yet to disclose future plans on its mining operations.

Meanwhile, bitcoin mining colocation providers outside China have announced plans to scale up power capacities in anticipation for the exodus of Chinese miners following the government crackdown.

© 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.

Fidelity Digital Assets, the crypto-focused arm of the asset manager Fidelity, plans on hiring as many as 100 employees to bolster cryptocurrency projects in response to institutional demand in crypto, reports Bloomberg. 

Fidelity Digital Assets president Tom Jessop told Bloomberg that the firm intends on hiring employees in its Dublin, Boston and Salt Lake City offices. Cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin will be the focus of these new projects — ether in particular, as the firm reportedly saw increased interest in the Ethereum-based cryptocurrency in the midst of its all-time high in May. 

The firm also seeks to provide as much full-time crypto trading as possible, reports Bloomberg, as opposed to traditional finance trading that end in the afternoon or on weekends. 

The hiring moves come amid a busy 2021 for Fidelity’s crypto-focused venture. In March, the firm joined the crowded race to create a bitcoin exchange-traded fund, as reported at the time. 

In April, Fidelity unveiled a data analytics tool for institutional investors, dubbed SherlockSM. 

© 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.

Woori Financial Group, one of South Korea’s largest banks, has reportedly struck a deal that will see it take part in a joint venture focused on cryptocurrency custodial services.

The Korea Economic Daily reports that Woori is pairing up with Coinplug on the joint venture. D-Custody, as the new company is called, will count Coinplug and Woori as its first and second-largest shareholders, respectively. The company has yet to be officially unveiled, per the Economic Daily.

The news follows announcements from other major South Korean banks about their own forays into the world of crypto custody. Last year, KB Kookmin partnered with Hashed and Haechi Labs to launch a digital asset custody-focused business. Shinhan Bank and NH Bank have also moved in recent months to establish services in the crypto market. 

The business moves come as South Korea’s government tightens regulations around exchange firms, including a push to prevent employees of crypto exchanges from trading on their respective platforms. These new requirements come into force in September. 

© 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.

Miami-based crypto venture Nifty’s has launched what it claims to be the first-ever NFT-focused social media platform.

Niftys.com first partnership, which is with Warner Bros., will feature a collection of limited-edition non-fungible tokens of characters from the upcoming live-action/animated film Space Jam: A New Legacy. The film stars basketball champion LeBron James and the Looney Tunes and will release in theaters and on HBO Max on July 16. 

As part of the initiative, Nifty’s Inc has raised $10 million in a funding round with participation from Polychain Capital, Ethereal Ventures, and more. According to the company, the venture has received new support from several other entities, including Coinbase Ventures, Dapper Labs, Samsung Next and Topps among others.

The aim of the platform is to give users a platform to interact regardless of their familiarity with NFT technology. The platform allows its members to discover and create playlists of NFTs that can be shared with friends or on the platform without requiring ownership.

“The emphasis on accessibility is rooted in Nifty’s belief that digital collectibles should be available for everyone to discover, share and enjoy and that technological and economic barriers to engagement should be eliminated,” the press release read. 

Warner Bros. will award one limited-edition NFT to each user who registers on Nifty’s and visits the Space Jam: A New Legacygallery to claim their collectible. Fans also have the chance to win a second NFT by sharing a post on social media about the collection. 

The series will feature James and eight characters from the Looney Tunes “Tune Squad,” and digital collectibles will come in five different levels of rarity. Awards will be given out randomly. Additionally, collectors can also purchase additional collectibles (with randomized characters and rarity level) individually for $2.99 each. 

“We are excited to partner with Nifty’s on this new way for our audiences to engage with their favorite characters, connect with other fans and enjoy our movies on and off the screen,” said Pam Lifford, president of Warner Bros. global brands and experiences.

© 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.

Digital asset manager Grayscale Investment’s digital large cap fund has become an SEC-reporting company, according to a statement today.

The digital large cap fund represents a weighted group of some of the biggest cryptocurrencies by market cap. The majority of its holdings are in bitcoin and ether, comprising just shy of 93%. The remaining holdings are in cardano — which was added earlier this month — along with bitcoin cash, litecoin and chainlink.

Grayscale’s main two bitcoin and ethereum trusts are already SEC-reporting companies. The firm has now filed for three more of its trusts — namely for bitcoin cash, ethereum classic and litecoin — to also become SEC-reporting companies.

“Events such as the Fund becoming our third SEC reporting company, and the additional Form 10 filings, signal that there is continued investor interest in gaining exposure to the growing digital currency ecosystem within existing regulatory frameworks, and that regulators continue to engage with market participants in the asset class,” said Craig Salm, vice president of legal at Grayscale.

As an SEC-reporting company, the fund will have to file reports and financial statements with the SEC and comply with further obligations.

© 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.