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The Georgia House of Representatives passed a bill that calls for state education officials to develop a program focused on financial literacy, with cryptocurrency highlighted as a specific area of learning.

The bill cleared the lower chamber of the Georgia legislature on March 8 by a vote of 169-2, with four no-votes and five excused. Public records indicate that the bill has been sent to the State Senate for further consideration. Six Republican state representatives submitted the bill on March 1.

The bill’s text states that “The State Board of Education shall prescribe a program of study in personal financial literacy to be completed by students during high school,” and goes on to cite 16 areas of financial literacy.

These areas include “Balancing a checking account”, “Money management, such as saving, spending, credit, credit scores, and managing 19 debt, including retail and credit card debt” and “Computing federal income taxes,” among others. “Cryptocurrency” is number 16 on the list.

“Each local board of education shall implement the minimum program of study prescribed pursuant to subsection (a) of this Code section beginning in the 2021-2022 36 school year,” the text states. “Such program of study may be provided within the framework of existing coursework offered by a local school system.”

© 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 contract notice dated March 4 indicates that work continues on a multi-departmental research project within the U.S. government focused on using blockchain tech to track grant payments.

The project has been ongoing since the start of 2020, as The Block reported at the time, involving the National Institute of Standards and Technology (an agency within the Department of Commerce), the  Department of the Treasury and the Defense Information Systems Agency, which is part of the Department of Defense.

The proof-of-concept involves the use of blockchain-based data or tokens to represent letters of credit. The hope is that the project might one day help make the existing system, described as cumbersome by federal officials, more transparent and efficient.

Per the March 4 contract notice, NIST wants to employ a Maryland-based firm called Prometheus Computing, LLC to assist in the project. 

As the notice describes:

“The government-wide blockchain application research effort has involved internal exploration and testing of Department of Treasury systems, including cryptographic function issue identification, and collaborative interagency relationships requiring mutual trust. It is important for information technology security purposes that this work be limited to as few researchers as possible. Inability to continue the ATO process for the blockchain development research through to completion with the original contractor would jeopardize security as well as the trust and confidence of collaborating agencies in NIST.”

The financial details of a contract are not available at press time, but it would last for six months with a six-month optional extension after that time.

© 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 Currency Group’s mining subsidiary Foundry has announced it is opening up its Foundry USA mining pool after months in private beta mode.

The firm said in an announcement on Thursday that it has signed up its first institutional mining client and is now launching the pool to the public. The pool supports both BTC and BCH using the Full-Pay-Per-Share (FPPS) payout method.

Miner operators who connect their machines to a mining pool using the FPPS mode receive portions of the block rewards and transaction fees based on their hashrate contribution. 

Blockcap, a U.S.-based miner operator, said in the statement that it has already added approximately 10,000 units of its bitcoin mining machines to Foundry USA, a move that added about 910 petahashes per second (PH/s) of computing power.

“We are excited to have Blockcap as the first big customer of our mining pool and look forward to providing our pool’s users with a new mining experience that has been tailor-made to fit the needs of institutional mining companies,” said Mike Colyer, CEO of Foundry.

Foundry quietly went live with its bitcoin mining pool in October and did not reveall itself until mid-December with a coinbase signal “Foundry USA #dropgold” — a reference to a slogan used by DCG’s Greyscale commercial line.

Based on Coinbase transactions to Foundry USA’s payout addresses, the pool has mined more than 125 blocks with over 780 BTC as block subsidies that are worth about $43 million.

The firm said its mining pool is integrated with various financial services under DCG’s Genesis umbrella including custody, trading, lending and yield earning products.

The Foundry pool launches amid growing investment in bitcoin mining from North American institutions. 

The Block reported last month that since October, North American institutions have poured well over half a billion dollars into bitcoin mining hardware purchases.

Indeed, Blockcap has another 10,000 units of AntMiners from Bitmain and 8,400 units from Canaan that are all on order and due for shipment.

Upon full delivery, these machines will contribute additional computing power to Foundry USA’s current bitcoin hashrate, which currently accounts for 1.79 % of the network’s total. That makes it the 11th largest pool, based on bitcoin’s 7-day moving-average hashrate. 

“Mining on a pool that is made and based completely in the US, and offers institutional miners payouts at par with the world’s biggest pools was an obvious choice on our mission to make North America a global hub for digital-asset mining,” Blockcap’s Executive Chairman Darin Feinstein said in the statement.

© 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.

Bakkt, the crypto venture founded by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), has received virtual currency and money transmission licenses from New York’s finance industry regulator.

The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) said Thursday that Bakkt, through a subsidiary, is the latest industry firm to receive a BitLicense. 

“This license will allow Bakkt Marketplace to offer its New York customers the ability to buy and sell virtual currency and subject to DFS’s supervision of its licensed activities,” the agency said.

“This represents a major milestone to achieving our vision of making digital assets accessible to all, and we’re thrilled to continue driving innovation in this rapidly evolving industry, highlighted by the upcoming launch of the Bakkt App,” Bakkt CEO Gavin Michael said in a statement.

The development comes two months after Bakkt confirmed reports that it would go public via a SPAC deal, giving the merged company a valuation of $2.1 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.

Popular digital artist Beeple’s 5,000-day collection has sold for $60.25 million dollars, making it one of the highest art auction sales ever.

Christie’s website shows that the auction concluded with a $9 million premium, which is a percentage of the final (or “hammer”) price.

The sale, hosted by British auction house Christie’s, received a total of 353 bids. 

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.

Crypto exchange Binance said Thursday that it hired Max Baucus, who served decades in the U.S. Senate and later as an ambassador to China, to provide guidance on navigating the U.S. regulatory landscape.

Baucus will provide the exchange with policy guidance and act as a liaison between Binance and regulators, Binance said Thursday.  Baucus previously chaired the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance as well as the Joint Committee on Taxation and Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure. From 2014 to 2017, he served as former President Barack Obama’s ambassador to China. 

Baucus’s time in office mostly focused on healthcare reform, but he did take an interest in blockchain-based payments during his time as ambassador to China.

In 2017 he noted that China was “leapfrogging the standard payments systems still used in the United States.” At the time, he said U.S. legislation that would expand fintech regulation didn’t appear to be forthcoming. 

As noted in Baucus’ profile on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce website, Baucus operates a consulting firm out of his home state of Montana, through which he “provides consulting services to American and Chinese businesses.” He previously served as an advisor to Alibaba Group. 

“Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology represent some of the most potent forces for change in the global financial systems, potentially driving a revolution in how money is managed leading to a fairer and more equitable financial world,” Baucus said in a statement. “Binance is one of the largest organisations involved in bringing these to the mainstream and it’s a privilege to assist in appropriately navigating the complex political and regulatory frameworks that hold the key to enabling wider adoption.”

© 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.

FalconX, the crypto brokerage and trading firm backed by American Express, is raising a new funding round at a $670 million valuation, The Block has learned.

The round is being led by Tiger Global, a New York-based investment firm that has expanded its footprint in the crypto space across a series of notable deals in recent weeks. These include BlockFi’s unicorn-status $350 million Series D round, announced Thursday, and the recent $100 million funding round for tax services company TaxBit. 

FalconX disclosed a funding round in December that notably drew participation from AmEx Ventures, the credit card company’s venture arm. 

The firm raised $17 million in financing last summer from a group of investors that included Avon Ventures, which is tied to asset management giant Fidelity, Coinbase Ventures, Lightspeed and others.

© 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.

CoinShares, Europe’s largest crypto asset manager, has officially gone public through a listing on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market.

The firm’s shares began trading under the ticker CS at 9 a.m. CET Thursday morning.

CoinShares published a series of tweets this morning announcing that it would begin trading after an “oversubscribed IPO”.

The company kicked off a share issue ahead of the IPO in February, making roughly 151 million Swedish Krona (roughly $18m) of shares available for investment. But by the time the company announced the offering on February 22, the bulk of those shares had already been subscribed for by members of its board of directors, management team, existing shareholders, as well as through external investment.

On March 10, CoinShares announced that it had been given formal approval by Nasdaq Stockholm AB to begin trading.

The firm also revealed that it received total subscriptions of 675 million Swedish Krona (around $80m), meaning the IPO was 447% oversubscribed. The company has also acquired 2,280 new shareholders.

Jean-Marie Mognetti, CEO of CoinShares, said the listing represents “a major and exciting milestone” for CoinShares.

“We have had a strong presence in Sweden and on Nasdaq Nordic since 2016 with our XBT Provider line of crypto ETPs, which now have over $4 billion in AUM, and we are delighted to expand our commitment to Nasdaq and Sweden with today’s announcement,” he said, adding:

“As investors look for new ways to gain exposure to the expanding digital asset class, their response to our IPO is an encouraging sign for our future on Nasdaq as well as further evidence of the increased interest in the wider digital asset industry.”

© 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.

© 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.

Smart contract security and audit firm OpenZeppelin has launched a new app to help prevent exploits in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space.

Dubbed OpenZeppelin Sentinels, the app helps DeFi projects detect abnormal behavior and automatically respond to mitigate it. Sentinels is part of OpenZeppelin’s Defender platform that was launched late last year and is already used by several projects, including Compound and Aave.

The Defender platform helps manage smart contract operations. As for the new Sentinels app, it is specifically aimed at reducing DeFi attacks and increase its mainstream adoption.

Last year alone, nearly $130 million was lost to such attacks, according to blockchain analytics firm CipherTrace. This year, several projects have seen multi-millions getting drained from their vaults, including Yearn.Finance.

Yearn lost $11 million in an attack last month. OpenZeppelin CTO Jonathan Alexander told The Block that Yearn, which is already a Defender user, could have prevented the attack if Sentinels was live at the time.

“The Yearn.Finance exploit was composed of 11 transactions (so very large gas fees),” said Alexander, adding that Sentinels helps detect transactions that involve large flash loans or large gas fee payments.

“Projects may take hours to notice or react to incidents, and they often find out via social media or side channels, by the time it’s too late,” said Alexander. “With Defender Sentinels, teams will be alerted in seconds.”

Besides flash loans, price oracles are a common cause for DeFi attacks. Alexander said the Sentinels app, combined with the Autotasks app, also helps monitor price oracles. “Every time an oracle posts a price update on-chain, a Defender Sentinel can detect the update and fire a Defender Autotasks to confirm the price data accuracy vs. other data sources,” he said.

The Defender platform consists of several apps — Sentinel, Autotasks, Admin, Relay, and Advisor — to help projects manage smart contract operations. Defender currently supports the Ethereum blockchain. The support for sidechains such as Binance Smart Chain, Fantom, Fuse, and xDai is coming later this month, Alexander told The Block, adding that Layer-2 blockchain networks will also be supported “soon.”

OpenZeppelin is also discussing a partnership with mempool explorer Blocknative for mempool monitoring, Alexander told The Block. This would help DeFi protocols to detect a malicious or suspicious transaction in the mempool and pause the smart contract before the malicious transaction is executed, said Alexander. Mempool is like a waiting room for transactions that have not yet been included in a 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.