FreeCryptoCurrency.Me

Roll, a platform for issuing social tokens on the Ethereum network, suffered an apparent exploit on Sunday, resulting in the theft and subsequent sale of tokens.

Blockchain data shared across social media indicates that holdings of numerous social tokens issued on Roll were transferred and liquidated, with some of those funds subsequently moved to transaction mixer Tornado. An analysis by The Block’s Igor Igamberdiev indicates that some $5.7 million in ETH was netted during the attack. The market sale of the affected social tokens resulted in significant price declines.

1/5

Two hours ago, someone sold a huge amount of social tokens issued on Roll platform.

As a result, an attacker earned almost 3k ETH ($5.7M), of which 700 have already been sent to Tornado Cash.

Most of social token prices dumped as a result. pic.twitter.com/WmdMogBBnd

— Igor Igamberdiev (@FrankResearcher) March 14, 2021

The creator of WHALE, one of the social tokens affected during the incident, shared additional details on Twitter, noting that “[t]he price dip was a result of our social token issuer’s hot wallets being compromised with the tokens immediately sold…. This represented 2.17% of total supply and it has been fully diluted into the market.”

A representative for Roll confirmed that the project’s hot wallet was the target of the attack, stating: “We’re looking into a vulnerability in our hot wallet and will share more details as soon as possible.” No additional updates have been released as of press time.

This is a developing story and will be updated as new details become available.

© 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.

Reports from last week indicate that comics publisher DC Comics is weighing whether to undertake a foray into the marketplace for non-fungible tokens.

According to a report from Gizmodo’s i09, the news came as part of a letter issued last week by DC Comics’ legal affairs office. 

“DC is exploring opportunities to enter the market for the distribution and sale of original DC digital art with NFTs including both new art created specifically for the NFT market, as well as original digital art rendered for DC’s comic book publications,” the letter notes.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are essentially digital certificates connected to a particular piece of art, with that data held as a unique token on a blockchain network like Ethereum. The idea behind the concept is that NFTs are digital renditions of the non-divisible, scarce nature of artworks in the physical world.

But as Gizmodo notes, the letter also serves as a warning to DC staffers and freelancers about issuing non-fungible tokens bearing the likeness of the company’s licensed characters. Comic book artist José Delgo was involved in the creation and sale of a Wonder Woman-themed NFT collection that netted $1.85 million last week, according to Decrypt.

The letter goes on to say:

“As DC examines the complexities of the NFT marketplace, and we work on a reasonable and fair solution for all parties involved, including fans and collectors, please note that the offering for sale of any digital images featuring DC’s intellectual property with or without NFTs, whether rendered for DC’s publications or rendered outside the scope of one’s contractual engagement with DC, is not permitted. If you are approached by anyone interested in including any of your DC art in an NFT program, please let Lawrence Ganem, DC’s VP, Talent Services know.”

The letter provides no indication as to when DC comics might take the plunge into NFTs.

“We expect the participation of DC’s freelance talent will be an integral component of the NFT program that DC puts into place. We’ll share further information as it becomes available, and we appreciate your cooperation and partnership,” the letter concludes.

Image Credit: Sunshine Seeds / Shutterstock.com

© 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.

Public records indicate that lawmakers in Kentucky appear set to approve two proposed laws aimed at incentivizing cryptocurrency mining activity in the U.S. state.

There are two bills moving through the state’s legislature, known as the General Assembly. One is centered around tax incentives and, as noted by local media, is part of a broader push to draw technology businesses into Kentucky. The other measure would, if approved, extend the state’s clean-energy incentives to cryptocurrency miners, provided that they meet a particular investment threshold of $1 million.

Voting records show that the Kentucky House of Representatives passed the energy bill Friday in a 74-19 vote after clearing the Senate on March 3. It’s unclear at this time the extent of differences between the two chambers’ bills and whether they’ll need to be reconciled before final passage.

The legislature’s tax-related bill passed the House of Representatives on March 3, with 84 voting to approve and 16 members not voting. According to the General Assembly’s website, the tax bill was “posted for passage in the Regular Orders of the Day for Monday, March 15, 2021” in the House on Friday. A proposed amendment would sunset the tax exemption for miners in mid-2030. 

The developments come as the U.S. bitcoin mining ecosystem continues to grow, drawing significant interest from institutional investors. Despite high demand for hardware, such investors are betting that the U.S. will be competitive with China as a hub for mining operations. 

A mining pool operated by Digital Currency Group subsidiary Foundry opened to the public on Thursday.

© 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.

Bitcoin’s price crossed the $60,000 mark for the first time on Saturday.

According to Coinbase data, the price hit $60,415.34, up roughly 7.7% percent in the past 24 hours. The cryptocurrency is currently trading hands at about $59,810 on the U.S.-based exchange.

Data from TradingView shows that the price reached $60,419 on Bitstamp, $60,499 on Bitfinex and $60,420 on OKCoin.

The price of bitcoin crossed the $50,000 line for the first time in mid-February.

© 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.

Valkyrie Digital Assets has filed for a new exchange-traded fund (ETF) that would invest in companies that hold bitcoin on their balance sheets.

The firm submitted its filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the Valkyrie Innovative Balance Sheet ETF on Friday. 

The practice of adding bitcoin to a company’s balance sheet gained popularity as MicroStrategy continued to make large purchases. Soon after, S&P 500 company Tesla added bitcoin to its balance sheet, making it so that any investor with an S&P index fund had indirect exposure to bitcoin. The Valkyrie ETF is adding another way to gain indirect exposure. 

The fund will primarily invest in common stocks, but it may invest up to 20% of net assets in securities. It plans to focus on investing in bitcoin-related firms, especially those with what it terms “innovative balance sheets.”

The investment adviser, KKM Financial, will include companies that “directly or indirectly invest in, transact in, or otherwise have exposure to bitcoin or operate in the bitcoin ecosystem,” as part of the fund’s investments. This could include bitcoin trading platforms, miners, custodians, payments companies and wallet providers, according to the S-1. It plans to issue shares on NYSE Arca. 

Valkyrie also lodged a bitcoin ETF prospectus with the SEC in January of this year, joining others in an increasingly crowded bid for first approval. VanEck and Cboe’s offering is the only one with an impending decision date as of 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.

The NFT auction launched by NFL star player Rob Gronkowski, popularly known as “Gronk,” is underway and drawing bids. 

Gronkowski spoke Friday to CNBC about the effort, which was unveiled earlier this month. The collection auction is being hosted on NFT marketplace OpenSea and will end on March 13. 

“This is where we are now, the auction’s live now, it’s going to be a success, it’s going to be amazing,” Gronkowski told CNBC in an interview Friday. 

“My good friend has been talking about crypto money for months now, there’s teammates talking about crypto money, I’ve had friends talk about crypto money,” he went on to say. “And I never really understood it. You know, during the season, that crypto stuff, I’m live, I’m not digital during the season… I didn’t know much about it.”

Gronkowski said he was approached after the season, and those discussions led to the OpenSea debut.

In the interview, Gronkowski said that as of today he doesn’t own NFTs on his own, but he indicated that he’s “planning to” look into the market. 

The NFT collection commemorates the player’s four Super Bowl championships and features five different trading cards. The cards were created by Black Madre, one of Gronkowski’s favorite artists. For four of the cards, 87 pieces will be available.

The “crown jewel” of the NFT batch is the 1-of-1 Rob Gronkowski Career Highlight Refractor Card, which he digitally signed and celebrates all four of his championships. The owner of the card (there’s only one) will have the opportunity to meet the player in person.

At press time, the 1-of-1 trading card had received a bid of 5.5 ETH — an amount worth roughly $9,675 at press time — after starting at 0.05 ETH.

Editorial image credit: lev radin / Shutterstock.com

© 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.

Each month The Block Research hosts an analyst call reviewing the most important topics from the month prior. You can register for future analyst calls here.

This month Lars Hoffmann takes takes macro look at the month of February. Ryan Todd shares insights and first impressions from the Coinbase S-1 filing. Mike Rogers shares an initial look at The Block Research’s recent white paper titled “Stablecoins: Bridging the Network Gap Between Traditional Money and Digital Value”. Lastly, Eden Au take a look at the staggering growth in the NFT Market.

You can view the full recording below and can download the accompanied slides here.

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

The market for non-fungible tokens, digital collectibles, and tokenized music is hitting the mainstream. On Thursday, Beeple’s NFT-powered suite of 5,000 images sold for a staggering $69 million, making it the third-highest figure paid for work by a living artist. Indeed, the sale sent shockwaves across the broader press, cementing NFT’s place in the mainstream consciousness.

The market has been growing at a fast clip, with weekly users on NFT platforms soaring from around 20,000 at the beginning of the year to nearly 200,000 this week, according to data from The Block. 

On this episode of The Scoop, The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Ryan Todd unpack the market’s recent headlines with DJ and music producer 3Lau.

Performing artist 3Lau has long been focused on the intersection of music and crypto. Recently, he tokenized an album in a move that netted the Long Island native more than $11 million.

In this episode of The Scoop, the group discusses how tokenization will usurp record labels and put more money in the pockets of artists, his plans for helping more artists get involved in NFTs, and what makes this current crypto boom cycle different from the initial coin offering rally. 

“You have these middlemen that have capitalized on artists’ emotions and their lack of financial savviness,” he said, describing the record labels and managing companies that capture much of the value from a musician’s work.

Through NFTs, artists can now engage directly with their audiences. 

“Beeple is an example of that as someone who makes amazing stuff. Will there be speculation in the short term? Yes. Will there be innovation in the long term? Yes,” he said, adding:

“But in the end, just like with any market, there is a period of price discovery and that’s what we’re going through right now. The difference between this and what happened with the ICO boom in 2017: back then, people were buying ideas that could barely be delivered upon. Now people are buying things that give them emotions.”

© 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.

Founder and financer of NFT fund Metapurse Metakovan bought popular digital artist Beeple’s 5,000-day collection for nearly $70 million dollars, British auction house Christie’s announced Friday.

The collection, which sold for a whopping $69.3 million, is one of the highest art auction sales ever and makes Beeple one of the top three most valuable living artists. 

The sale, hosted by British auction house Christie’s, received a total of 353 bids. According to the auction house, 22 million people tuned in for the sale, which ended yesterday.

“When you think of high-valued NFTs, this one is going to be pretty hard to beat. And here’s why – it represents 13 years of everyday work. Techniques are replicable and skill is surpassable, but the only thing you can’t hack digitally is time,” Metakovan said in the announcement. “This is the crown jewel, the most valuable piece of art for this generation. It is worth $1 billion.”

The collection of 5,000 pieces titled Everydays: The First 5000 Days has been called “one of the most unique bodies of work to emerge in the history of digital art.”

To create the collection, Beeple produced a new work of art every single day for 14 years, starting in May 2007. The auction, the result of a partnership between Christie’s and NFT marketplace MakersPlace, marks the first time non-fungible token (NFT) art has been sold at an auction 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.

A lawmaker in France has signed on to a new petition calling for the French government to allow the country’s central bank to buy bitcoin.

The president of a blockchain development firm introduced the petition, and if it meets certain conditions, it will be referred to the French Senate.

So far, the petition has received 322 signatures. The petition will be active until September 5. Among its signatories is Jean-Michel Mis, a member of the National Assembly since 2017 who serves on the Committee of Legal Affairs. 

The petition came from Francois Thoorens, president and co-founder of ARK Ecosystem, a blockchain development platform. It calls on the French central bank to actively explore strategies related to acquiring bitcoin as a treasury asset like gold.

However, for that to happen, France’s legislature would need to update the monetary and financial code to enable the central bank to actually undertake such activities. 

The petition has already been sent to the Senate for validation to allow its publication on the body’s petitions site. If it receives 100,000 signatures, the goal will go before the Conference Presidents, which consists of the president of the National Assembly, vice presidents, presidents of permanent commissions and some other prominent members of the National Assembly. The group decides on any follow-up activities related to the petition.

© 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.