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CRYPTOCURRENCY
Brave browser's Japanese users will soon be able to receive BAT token
by Yogita Khatri
July 30, 2020, 8:25AM EDT · 1 min read
Privacy-focused Brave browser's users in Japan will soon be able to receive its native basic attention token (BAT) as a reward.
Brave recently partnered with Japanese crypto exchange BitFlyer to develop a crypto wallet. Today, the two companies announced that the wallet is under development and is expected to release in November.
The wallet, dubbed "Integrated Wallet," will allow users to trade, as well as receive BAT as a reward. Brave currently cannot reward Japanese users in BAT due to local regulations, so it offers them BAT Points instead.
"Brave users in Japan who are currently opted in to Brave Rewards are receiving BAT Points for viewing ads, but after the release of the Integrated Wallet, will receive BAT in their bitFlyer account linked to the Integrated Wallet," said the two companies.
BAT is currently listed on several exchanges, including BitFlyer, Binance, Coinbase Pro, and Gemini.
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BITCOIN
More than 50% of bitcoins from Twitter hack have been sent through mixers, says Elliptic
Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic has released a new report today, saying that over 50% of bitcoins from Twitter hack have now been sent through mixers.
Full Story
JUL 31, 2020, 11:10PM GMT+8
CRYPTOCURRENCY
Bank of Japan appoints new lead for department that researches digital currency projects
The Bank of Japan (BOJ) has appointed notable economist Kazushige Kamiyama as the new head of a department that oversees research on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
According to a Reuters report, Kamiyama will lead the BOJ’s payments and settlement department, which has carried out collaborative research with other central banks on CBDCs and cryptocurrencies.
Kamiyama has a track record of using big data to analyze fluctuations in the economy. According to Reuters, this approach played a significant role in helping the central bank navigate changes in the economy during the coronavirus pandemic.
The BOJ recently set up a new team to further its study of digital currencies following reports that the Japanese government was considering issuing a CBDC in its policy framework this year. The BOJ has said although it does not plan to issue its own digital currency any time soon, it has been doing research with other central banks on the topic.
Expand Story ▾
JUL 31, 2020, 10:16PM GMT+8
CRYPTOCURRENCY
Coinbase is exploring the addition of 19 new tokens, including Ampleforth and tBTC
Crypto exchange company Coinbase announced Friday that it is exploring whether to add 19 new cryptocurrencies and tokens.
These include, in alphabetical order: Ampleforth, Band Protocol, Balancer, Blockstack, Curve, Fetch.ai, Flexacoin, Helium, Hedera Hashgraph, Kava, Melon, Ocean Protocol, Paxos Gold, Reserve Rights, tBTC, The Graph, THETA, UMA, and WBTC.
Coinbase said it would continue to explore more crypto assets, and over time it expects to support “at least 90% of the aggregate market cap of all digital assets in circulation.”
Last month, Coinbase disclosed that it was weighing support for 18 assets, including Aave, Bancor, COMP and Synthetix, among others.
Expand Story ▾
JUL 31, 2020, 10:03PM GMT+8
RIPPLE
Ripple paid $15.1 million in XRP incentives to MoneyGram in Q2 2020
Ripple paid its partner MoneyGram $15.1 million in XRP incentives in the second quarter of 2020.
MoneyGram revealed the figure in its Q2 earnings report published on Thursday. The Nasdaq-listed firm said Ripple paid $15.1 million, but $6.3 million was offset by related transaction and trading expenses, leaving $8.8 million as a net benefit.
MoneyGram categorizes Ripple payouts as "market development fees" and "contra expense" rather than revenue. The firm receives these incentives in XRP based on the volume it does via Ripple's On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) platform.
The Q2 incentives are a tad lower than the previous quarter figure of $16.6 million.
MoneyGram does not hold any XRP it receives from Ripple. "We sell XRP as soon as we receive it," a MoneyGram spokesperson told The Block earlier this year.
Ripple and MoneyGram partnered in June 2019 to leverage XRP in forex settlements as part of MoneyGram's cross-border payment process. As part of the deal, Ripple invested $50 million in MoneyGram. Their partnership agreement is scheduled to expire in July 2023.
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JUL 31, 2020, 7:31PM GMT+8
CHINA
China's top antitrust agency could probe payment giants Alipay and WeChat Pay - report
The State Council Information Office of China, the country’s top antitrust agency, could reportedly probe Alipay and WeChat Pay for their dominant positions in the payments space.
A Reuters report on Friday, citing “sources with knowledge of the matter,” said that the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, has recommended the State Council to launch a probe into the two companies.
The State Council is reportedly taking the central bank’s recommendation “very seriously,” which was made sometime in the second quarter. The council has been collecting information on Alipay and WeChat Pay for more than a month, per the report.
At the same time, the two companies are reportedly lobbying government officials to avoid a probe. Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay together command 94% of market share.
The news comes as China’s central bank is nearing to launch its own digital currency. It is not clear why the central bank would want to start a probe against the two companies since they were reportedly going to act as distributors of digital yuan.
Both Alipay and Tencent are working on digital currency-related projects, one person close to the two firms told The Block recently. Alipay has also set up a separate office for digital yuan, the person said at the time.
Expand Story ▾
JUL 31, 2020, 6:45PM GMT+8
DEFI
DeFi project KeeperDAO raises 'seven-figure' seed funding to build liquidity pool
KeeperDAO, an on-chain liquidity underwriter for decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, has raised seed funding from notable investors.
Full Story
JUL 31, 2020, 4:25PM GMT+8
THE BLOCK RESEARCH
The Interchange: You can get +8% yield on USD Coin. Why? Follow the flow
I tend to subscribe to the maxim that most books should be essays, most essays should be blog posts, most blog posts should be tweets, and most tweets should be deleted. Sure, there are true exceptions to the rule. Some may even follow an inverse process flow through this principle. Frank’s soon to be tweeted […]
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JUL 31, 2020, 12:55PM GMT+8
LEGAL
Congressional Blockchain Caucus co-chairman ordered to pay $50K fine following House ethics probe
Republican Congressman David Schweikert of Arizona was ordered to pay $50,000 in fines and was issued a formal rebuke by a House of Representatives ethics panel following a two-year investigation.
As reported by Politico, Schweikert was found to have violated 11 ethics rules and standards, including those related to campaign finance and reporting errors. The investigation was related to a former aide to Schweikert, Oliver Schwab, who previously served as his chief of staff.
“We are pleased the Committee has issued their report and we can move forward from this chapter,” a Schweikert spokesperson told Politico. “As noted in the review, all issues have been resolved and Congressman Schweikert will continue working hard for Arizona’s 6th District.”
Schweikert is one of a group of co-chairmen of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus, which advocates for and advances measures related to the technology and its applications. Earlier this year, Schweikert introduced a bill that, if passed, would create a de minimis tax exemption for cryptocurrency transactions.
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JUL 31, 2020, 5:57AM GMT+8
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Org Chart: Blockchain Capital
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JUL 31, 2020, 5:39AM GMT+8
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Charting Ethereum's five-year journey by the numbers
The Block took a look at five years worth of Ethereum data.
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JUL 31, 2020, 4:36AM GMT+8
COMPANIES
The number of Robinhood users holding Kodak stocks soars after Trump admin announces $765M loan
As of Thursday afternoon, more than 125,000 Robinhood users held Kodak stocks, a more than 1200% increase from last week.
Kodak's stock soared after the company secured a $765 million loan from the Trump administration to launch a pharmaceutical manufacturing business. Kodak stocks jumped up by over 200% on Tuesday, increasing to 318% by Wednesday. On Thursday, the stock price has fallen about 14% as of press time, hovering around $28. (Eagle-eyed stock watchers noted that Kodak's stock moved upward prior to the Trump administration's announcement, raising concerns about a possible leak that the company's CEO declined any knowledge of.)
Kodak, once known for its film and cameras, has pivoted several times since it declared bankruptcy in 2012. In May, Kodak reported a GAAP net loss of $111 million for the first quarter of 2020.
Robintrack, which catalogs activity on the popular brokerage app, shows a big swell in activity around Kodak's stock in the wake of the loan announcement. The number of Kodak stockholders has since dipped slightly after rising above 130,000.
The company also had a brief stint in the crypto space when it launched KodakONE, a blockchain project that would allow photographers to store and track the use of their photographs. The announcement on that initiative provided a significant but temporary boost to Kodak's public share price, as reported at the time.
Kodak also lent its name to KodakCoin, an ostensibly photographer-oriented cryptocurrency created by a third-party company called WENN Digital. The token's public sale was initially scheduled for January 2018 but was delayed because of concerns over the way the process would be vetted.
Expand Story ▾
JUL 31, 2020, 4:00AM GMT+8
ETHEREUM
ConsenSys launches accelerator aimed at speeding Filecoin adoption
ConsenSys Labs now accepting applications for an accelerator program aimed at speeding the adoption of Filecoin, the yet-to-be-launched decentralized file storage platform, within the Ethereum community.
The Ethereum-focused software company announced today that it has partnered with Filecoin to offer 12 weeks of financial support ($80,000), benefits, and guidance on business strategy to between 15 and 20 teams. ConsenSys and the firm behind Filecoin, Protocol Labs, will make available their facilities and networks of experienced technical experts, researchers, entrepreneurs, and legal advisors in the blockchain industry.
“This cohort will be focused on startups building more open, interoperable, and programmable tools, infrastructure, and applications for the distributed web through IPFS and Filecoin,” according to a statement from ConsenSys. Applications for the prorgram are open through August 21.
The official launch of Filecoin’s incentivized testnet is slated for the first week of August. If all goes as planned, that will be followed by the launch of Filecoin public mainnet in the third quarter of 2020. The launch has already been delayed once this year.
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JUL 31, 2020, 2:04AM GMT+8
BLOCKCHAIN
SEC highlights Binance Chain transaction tracing in new contract notice
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said that it intends to award a contract to blockchain analytics firm CipherTrace, pointing to its intention to track Binance Chain transactions.
In a notice published Wednesday, the SEC said CipherTrace is the only known firm that supports Binance's native blockchain and all tokens issued on it, including Binance Coin (BNB). The notice was first reported by CoinDesk.
A Binance spokesperson told The Block that Binance Chain is a "community-driven software system launched by Binance and community contributors" and that it's a "public blockchain. All transactions are public."
The SEC said it would award the contract to CipherTrace on or before July 31. The contract would initially be of one year with four one-year option periods.
The total value of the contract is yet to be determined. CipherTrace CEO Dave Jevans told The Block: "As the blockchain ecosystem continues to mature, investors and regulators across the globe demand better transparency, security, and compliance."
CipherTrace added support for Binance Chain in November 2019. Jevans said CipherTrace's clients, including regulators, can "browse the Binance Chain blockchain, identify high-risk addresses and set controls to protect decentralized applications (DApps), exchanges, or other cryptocurrency-based applications."
Binance itself started using CipherTrace tools in April 2019 to enhance its anti-money laundering compliance program. In fact, Binance also uses CipherTrace rivals Chainalysis and Elliptic's solutions to trace high-risk transactions.
Update: This story has been updated to include comments from CipherTrace CEO Dave Jevans
Expand Story ▾
JUL 31, 2020, 12:33AM GMT+8
COMPANIES
CoinList launches professional exchange in bid to become one-stop shop for token investing and trading
Token sale platform CoinList is furthering its push into digital asset trading with the launch of a professional exchange venue, the company announced Thursday.
The firm, which previously announced the launch of an exchange following an investment from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in 2019, is best-known for conducting the token sales of projects including Filecoin, Dfinity, and Blockstack.
The new exchange platform, dubbed CoinList Pro, is effectively an upgrade of the exchange it launched last year, adding features like "a live order book and multiple order types." It also marries the firm's token sale offering with secondary trading, said president Andy Bromberg. That will improve some of the frictions investors and traders previously faced following a token distribution after a sale, he said.
"Previously, the token sale would happen and then we would give users instructions to generate a wallet, then they would wait for an exchange to support the token on the trading side and then they would have to send the tokens from their wallet to the exchange," Bromberg explained.
The one-stop-shop experience the company is looking to offer could give it a leg-up over other venues. Still, there's no guarantee that traders will stick around on the platform to trade large-cap coins like bitcoin. In a sense, CoinList is looking to be "the Nasdaq" of the crypto exchange space, catering to traders in more bleeding-edge tokens rather than "blue chips." Nasdaq was once known for being the go-to listings venue for early-stage tech companies.
"The exchange space is hard," Bromberg admitted. "But our biggest advantage is: anyone who participated in a token sale on our platform is a CoinList user and they are going to be the most passionate community members. And we instantly will have those community members as exchange clients."
CoinList raised $10 million in a Series A funding round in October 2019. Its investors include Polychain Capital and Collaborative fund in addition to Dorsey.
Expand Story ▾
JUL 31, 2020, 12:00AM GMT+8
DEFI
Dharma integrates with Uniswap, opening up trading access to more than 2,000 tokens
Crypto lender Dharma announced Thursday that it is enabling support for every token listed on Uniswap v2, with the integration accessible to anyone who owns a smartphone.
The new features built atop Uniswap is meant to attract newcomers to DeFi and create a more seamless user interface for DeFi natives, according to Brendan Forster, co-founder and COO of Dharma Labs. In addition to enabling the swap of over 2000 tokens, the new release will come with price charts, price alerts and, down the line, will include trustless limit orders. It also allows U.S. users to deposit up to $1,000 a week via their debit card.
Forster also said Dharma is looking to balance the permissionless nature of investing with danger recognition. For that reason, this Dharma release has a disclaimer for unverified tokens on Uniswap.
"We're trying to walk a delicate balance between permissionlessness on one side and not having users run themselves off a cliff on the other side," he said. "We do think that these users in general are fairly savvy, but want to make sure that the appropriate disclaimers and disclosure are present for people."
In the spirit of Robinhood's no-fee model, Dharma will pay gas — the term for transaction fees on the Ethereum network — on behalf of users. Additionally, the firm is offering a "no-fee, no-gas promotion" for the month of August.
While the firm will continue to pay the gas fees after the promotional month, August will reward new customers with no fees for swapping, which is usually 30 bits per second.
Expand Story ▾
JUL 30, 2020, 11:03PM GMT+8
CAPITAL MARKETS
Circle links up with Genesis Global Trading to advance USDC services, nets $25M in funding from Digital Currency Group
Digital Currency Group is investing $25 million in crypto startup Circle as part of a joint product development partnership focused on the USDC stablecoin.
Full Story
JUL 30, 2020, 9:00PM GMT+8
CRYPTOCURRENCY
Brave browser's Japanese users will soon be able to receive BAT token
Privacy-focused Brave browser's users in Japan will soon be able to receive its native basic attention token (BAT) as a reward.
Brave recently partnered with Japanese crypto exchange BitFlyer to develop a crypto wallet. Today, the two companies announced that the wallet is under development and is expected to release in November.
The wallet, dubbed "Integrated Wallet," will allow users to trade, as well as receive BAT as a reward. Brave currently cannot reward Japanese users in BAT due to local regulations, so it offers them BAT Points instead.
"Brave users in Japan who are currently opted in to Brave Rewards are receiving BAT Points for viewing ads, but after the release of the Integrated Wallet, will receive BAT in their bitFlyer account linked to the Integrated Wallet," said the two companies.
BAT is currently listed on several exchanges, including BitFlyer, Binance, Coinbase Pro, and Gemini.
Expand Story ▾
JUL 30, 2020, 8:25PM GMT+8
CHINA
Chinese authorities have arrested all 27 major suspects of PlusToken Ponzi scheme - report
China's Ministry of Public Security has reportedly arrested all 27 major suspects of the PlusToken Ponzi scheme that defrauded nearly $3 billion from its victims.
Several Chinese news outlets reported the news on Thursday, saying that the ministry has also arrested 82 "key members" involved in the scheme.
In August 2019, Chinese police officials confirmed to The Block that six suspects affiliated with PlusToken had been arrested, but the main suspects were still on the run at the time.
PlusToken was launched in early 2018 and was already suspected to be a pyramid scheme as early as September 2018. In June 2019, the company triggered a wide-ranging panic among Chinese and Korean investors when some users reported that they could not withdraw funds from the wallets. However, the issues were then brushed off as a "hacker attack."
PlusToken managed to collect multi-billion dollars from about 800,000 investors. Over a period of time, hundreds of millions of dollars tied to PlusToken have been moved. Just last month, nearly 790,000 ETH, worth roughly $188 million at the time, were moved.
Expand Story ▾
JUL 30, 2020, 6:45PM GMT+8
CRYPTOCURRENCY
The market cap of Ampleforth's AMPL token has tanked by over 60%
The market capitalization of AMPL, the native token of Ampleforth protocol, has declined by over 60% in the last three days.
CRYPTOCURRENCY
Crypto firm Diginex is listing on Nasdaq via a reverse merger
Hong Kong-based crypto and blockchain solutions firm Diginex is set to list on Nasdaq via a reverse merger deal.
Diginex is merging with 8i Enterprises Acquisition Corp, the Nasdaq-listed special purpose acquisition company, which will allow it to go public once the deal is completed in September.
The Diginex-8i deal was first announced in July 2019, and the listing was scheduled for this March, but it got delayed due to market meltdown from the coronavirus pandemic.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has now re-approved the listing, and Diginex shareholders will vote on it on September 15. After the voting, the current listing of 8i will become Diginex between September 20-23 and the 8i ticker, JFK, will also change.
Diginex CEO Richard Byworth said the upcoming Nasdaq listing is “further testament to our commitment to compliance, regulation and transparency.”
Founded in 2017, Diginex has today also launched its own crypto exchange called EQUOS.io, which will offer both spot and derivatives trading. The firm also operates an over-the-counter (OTC) crypto trading desk, Diginex Access, and a “hot and cold” custodian, Digivault.
EQUOS.io operates in Singapore under a temporary exemption from licensing under the country’s Payment Services Act. Diginex today said it has applied for a Major Payment Institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, in line with current regulations.
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CRYPTOCURRENCY Brave browser's Japanese users will soon be able to receive BAT token by Yogita Khatri July 30, 2020, 8:25AM EDT · 1 min read Privacy-focused Brave browser's users in Japan will soon be able to receive its native basic attention token (BAT) as a reward.
Brave recently partnered with Japanese crypto exchange BitFlyer to develop a crypto wallet. Today, the two companies announced that the wallet is under development and is expected to release in November.
The wallet, dubbed "Integrated Wallet," will allow users to trade, as well as receive BAT as a reward. Brave currently cannot reward Japanese users in BAT due to local regulations, so it offers them BAT Points instead.
"Brave users in Japan who are currently opted in to Brave Rewards are receiving BAT Points for viewing ads, but after the release of the Integrated Wallet, will receive BAT in their bitFlyer account linked to the Integrated Wallet," said the two companies.
BAT is currently listed on several exchanges, including BitFlyer, Binance, Coinbase Pro, and Gemini.
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CRYPTOCURRENCY EXCHANGES Related Reading
U.S. bank regulator grants authority for national banks, federal savings associations to custody crypto REGULATION
Avanti expects to open its crypto-centric bank in October, details digital asset for payments COMPANIES
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Brian Armstrong explains how Coinbase Analytics extends 'goodwill' to regulators COMPANIES
Hardware wallet firm Ledger suffered data breach in June, says customer contact and order information compromised CRIME
Under the microscope: This week in Open Finance DEFI
Open interest in CME bitcoin futures hits an all-time high of $724 million BITCOIN
If Western Union buys MoneyGram, where does that leave Ripple? COMPANIES Get Your Crypto Daily Brief Delivered daily, straight to your inbox.
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BITCOIN More than 50% of bitcoins from Twitter hack have been sent through mixers, says Elliptic Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic has released a new report today, saying that over 50% of bitcoins from Twitter hack have now been sent through mixers. Full Story
JUL 31, 2020, 11:10PM GMT+8 CRYPTOCURRENCY Bank of Japan appoints new lead for department that researches digital currency projects The Bank of Japan (BOJ) has appointed notable economist Kazushige Kamiyama as the new head of a department that oversees research on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
According to a Reuters report, Kamiyama will lead the BOJ’s payments and settlement department, which has carried out collaborative research with other central banks on CBDCs and cryptocurrencies.
Kamiyama has a track record of using big data to analyze fluctuations in the economy. According to Reuters, this approach played a significant role in helping the central bank navigate changes in the economy during the coronavirus pandemic.
The BOJ recently set up a new team to further its study of digital currencies following reports that the Japanese government was considering issuing a CBDC in its policy framework this year. The BOJ has said although it does not plan to issue its own digital currency any time soon, it has been doing research with other central banks on the topic.
Expand Story ▾ JUL 31, 2020, 10:16PM GMT+8 CRYPTOCURRENCY Coinbase is exploring the addition of 19 new tokens, including Ampleforth and tBTC Crypto exchange company Coinbase announced Friday that it is exploring whether to add 19 new cryptocurrencies and tokens.
These include, in alphabetical order: Ampleforth, Band Protocol, Balancer, Blockstack, Curve, Fetch.ai, Flexacoin, Helium, Hedera Hashgraph, Kava, Melon, Ocean Protocol, Paxos Gold, Reserve Rights, tBTC, The Graph, THETA, UMA, and WBTC.
Coinbase said it would continue to explore more crypto assets, and over time it expects to support “at least 90% of the aggregate market cap of all digital assets in circulation.”
Last month, Coinbase disclosed that it was weighing support for 18 assets, including Aave, Bancor, COMP and Synthetix, among others.
Expand Story ▾ JUL 31, 2020, 10:03PM GMT+8 RIPPLE Ripple paid $15.1 million in XRP incentives to MoneyGram in Q2 2020 Ripple paid its partner MoneyGram $15.1 million in XRP incentives in the second quarter of 2020.
MoneyGram revealed the figure in its Q2 earnings report published on Thursday. The Nasdaq-listed firm said Ripple paid $15.1 million, but $6.3 million was offset by related transaction and trading expenses, leaving $8.8 million as a net benefit.
MoneyGram categorizes Ripple payouts as "market development fees" and "contra expense" rather than revenue. The firm receives these incentives in XRP based on the volume it does via Ripple's On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) platform.
The Q2 incentives are a tad lower than the previous quarter figure of $16.6 million.
MoneyGram does not hold any XRP it receives from Ripple. "We sell XRP as soon as we receive it," a MoneyGram spokesperson told The Block earlier this year.
Ripple and MoneyGram partnered in June 2019 to leverage XRP in forex settlements as part of MoneyGram's cross-border payment process. As part of the deal, Ripple invested $50 million in MoneyGram. Their partnership agreement is scheduled to expire in July 2023.
Expand Story ▾ JUL 31, 2020, 7:31PM GMT+8 CHINA China's top antitrust agency could probe payment giants Alipay and WeChat Pay - report The State Council Information Office of China, the country’s top antitrust agency, could reportedly probe Alipay and WeChat Pay for their dominant positions in the payments space.
A Reuters report on Friday, citing “sources with knowledge of the matter,” said that the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, has recommended the State Council to launch a probe into the two companies.
The State Council is reportedly taking the central bank’s recommendation “very seriously,” which was made sometime in the second quarter. The council has been collecting information on Alipay and WeChat Pay for more than a month, per the report.
At the same time, the two companies are reportedly lobbying government officials to avoid a probe. Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay together command 94% of market share.
The news comes as China’s central bank is nearing to launch its own digital currency. It is not clear why the central bank would want to start a probe against the two companies since they were reportedly going to act as distributors of digital yuan.
Both Alipay and Tencent are working on digital currency-related projects, one person close to the two firms told The Block recently. Alipay has also set up a separate office for digital yuan, the person said at the time.
Expand Story ▾ JUL 31, 2020, 6:45PM GMT+8 DEFI DeFi project KeeperDAO raises 'seven-figure' seed funding to build liquidity pool KeeperDAO, an on-chain liquidity underwriter for decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, has raised seed funding from notable investors. Full Story
JUL 31, 2020, 4:25PM GMT+8 THE BLOCK RESEARCH The Interchange: You can get +8% yield on USD Coin. Why? Follow the flow I tend to subscribe to the maxim that most books should be essays, most essays should be blog posts, most blog posts should be tweets, and most tweets should be deleted. Sure, there are true exceptions to the rule. Some may even follow an inverse process flow through this principle. Frank’s soon to be tweeted […] Read Report
JUL 31, 2020, 12:55PM GMT+8 LEGAL Congressional Blockchain Caucus co-chairman ordered to pay $50K fine following House ethics probe Republican Congressman David Schweikert of Arizona was ordered to pay $50,000 in fines and was issued a formal rebuke by a House of Representatives ethics panel following a two-year investigation.
As reported by Politico, Schweikert was found to have violated 11 ethics rules and standards, including those related to campaign finance and reporting errors. The investigation was related to a former aide to Schweikert, Oliver Schwab, who previously served as his chief of staff.
“We are pleased the Committee has issued their report and we can move forward from this chapter,” a Schweikert spokesperson told Politico. “As noted in the review, all issues have been resolved and Congressman Schweikert will continue working hard for Arizona’s 6th District.”
Schweikert is one of a group of co-chairmen of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus, which advocates for and advances measures related to the technology and its applications. Earlier this year, Schweikert introduced a bill that, if passed, would create a de minimis tax exemption for cryptocurrency transactions.
Expand Story ▾ JUL 31, 2020, 5:57AM GMT+8 THE BLOCK RESEARCH Org Chart: Blockchain Capital The Block has mapped out the team members associated with Blockchain Capital. Read Report
JUL 31, 2020, 5:39AM GMT+8 FEATURED STORY Charting Ethereum's five-year journey by the numbers The Block took a look at five years worth of Ethereum data. Full Story
JUL 31, 2020, 4:36AM GMT+8 COMPANIES The number of Robinhood users holding Kodak stocks soars after Trump admin announces $765M loan As of Thursday afternoon, more than 125,000 Robinhood users held Kodak stocks, a more than 1200% increase from last week.
Kodak's stock soared after the company secured a $765 million loan from the Trump administration to launch a pharmaceutical manufacturing business. Kodak stocks jumped up by over 200% on Tuesday, increasing to 318% by Wednesday. On Thursday, the stock price has fallen about 14% as of press time, hovering around $28. (Eagle-eyed stock watchers noted that Kodak's stock moved upward prior to the Trump administration's announcement, raising concerns about a possible leak that the company's CEO declined any knowledge of.)
Kodak, once known for its film and cameras, has pivoted several times since it declared bankruptcy in 2012. In May, Kodak reported a GAAP net loss of $111 million for the first quarter of 2020.
Robintrack, which catalogs activity on the popular brokerage app, shows a big swell in activity around Kodak's stock in the wake of the loan announcement. The number of Kodak stockholders has since dipped slightly after rising above 130,000.
The company also had a brief stint in the crypto space when it launched KodakONE, a blockchain project that would allow photographers to store and track the use of their photographs. The announcement on that initiative provided a significant but temporary boost to Kodak's public share price, as reported at the time.
Kodak also lent its name to KodakCoin, an ostensibly photographer-oriented cryptocurrency created by a third-party company called WENN Digital. The token's public sale was initially scheduled for January 2018 but was delayed because of concerns over the way the process would be vetted.
Expand Story ▾ JUL 31, 2020, 4:00AM GMT+8 ETHEREUM ConsenSys launches accelerator aimed at speeding Filecoin adoption ConsenSys Labs now accepting applications for an accelerator program aimed at speeding the adoption of Filecoin, the yet-to-be-launched decentralized file storage platform, within the Ethereum community.
The Ethereum-focused software company announced today that it has partnered with Filecoin to offer 12 weeks of financial support ($80,000), benefits, and guidance on business strategy to between 15 and 20 teams. ConsenSys and the firm behind Filecoin, Protocol Labs, will make available their facilities and networks of experienced technical experts, researchers, entrepreneurs, and legal advisors in the blockchain industry.
“This cohort will be focused on startups building more open, interoperable, and programmable tools, infrastructure, and applications for the distributed web through IPFS and Filecoin,” according to a statement from ConsenSys. Applications for the prorgram are open through August 21.
The official launch of Filecoin’s incentivized testnet is slated for the first week of August. If all goes as planned, that will be followed by the launch of Filecoin public mainnet in the third quarter of 2020. The launch has already been delayed once this year.
Expand Story ▾ JUL 31, 2020, 2:04AM GMT+8 BLOCKCHAIN SEC highlights Binance Chain transaction tracing in new contract notice The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said that it intends to award a contract to blockchain analytics firm CipherTrace, pointing to its intention to track Binance Chain transactions.
In a notice published Wednesday, the SEC said CipherTrace is the only known firm that supports Binance's native blockchain and all tokens issued on it, including Binance Coin (BNB). The notice was first reported by CoinDesk.
A Binance spokesperson told The Block that Binance Chain is a "community-driven software system launched by Binance and community contributors" and that it's a "public blockchain. All transactions are public."
The SEC said it would award the contract to CipherTrace on or before July 31. The contract would initially be of one year with four one-year option periods.
The total value of the contract is yet to be determined. CipherTrace CEO Dave Jevans told The Block: "As the blockchain ecosystem continues to mature, investors and regulators across the globe demand better transparency, security, and compliance."
CipherTrace added support for Binance Chain in November 2019. Jevans said CipherTrace's clients, including regulators, can "browse the Binance Chain blockchain, identify high-risk addresses and set controls to protect decentralized applications (DApps), exchanges, or other cryptocurrency-based applications."
Binance itself started using CipherTrace tools in April 2019 to enhance its anti-money laundering compliance program. In fact, Binance also uses CipherTrace rivals Chainalysis and Elliptic's solutions to trace high-risk transactions.
Update: This story has been updated to include comments from CipherTrace CEO Dave Jevans
Expand Story ▾ JUL 31, 2020, 12:33AM GMT+8 COMPANIES CoinList launches professional exchange in bid to become one-stop shop for token investing and trading Token sale platform CoinList is furthering its push into digital asset trading with the launch of a professional exchange venue, the company announced Thursday.
The firm, which previously announced the launch of an exchange following an investment from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in 2019, is best-known for conducting the token sales of projects including Filecoin, Dfinity, and Blockstack.
The new exchange platform, dubbed CoinList Pro, is effectively an upgrade of the exchange it launched last year, adding features like "a live order book and multiple order types." It also marries the firm's token sale offering with secondary trading, said president Andy Bromberg. That will improve some of the frictions investors and traders previously faced following a token distribution after a sale, he said.
"Previously, the token sale would happen and then we would give users instructions to generate a wallet, then they would wait for an exchange to support the token on the trading side and then they would have to send the tokens from their wallet to the exchange," Bromberg explained.
The one-stop-shop experience the company is looking to offer could give it a leg-up over other venues. Still, there's no guarantee that traders will stick around on the platform to trade large-cap coins like bitcoin. In a sense, CoinList is looking to be "the Nasdaq" of the crypto exchange space, catering to traders in more bleeding-edge tokens rather than "blue chips." Nasdaq was once known for being the go-to listings venue for early-stage tech companies.
"The exchange space is hard," Bromberg admitted. "But our biggest advantage is: anyone who participated in a token sale on our platform is a CoinList user and they are going to be the most passionate community members. And we instantly will have those community members as exchange clients."
CoinList raised $10 million in a Series A funding round in October 2019. Its investors include Polychain Capital and Collaborative fund in addition to Dorsey.
Expand Story ▾ JUL 31, 2020, 12:00AM GMT+8 DEFI Dharma integrates with Uniswap, opening up trading access to more than 2,000 tokens Crypto lender Dharma announced Thursday that it is enabling support for every token listed on Uniswap v2, with the integration accessible to anyone who owns a smartphone.
The new features built atop Uniswap is meant to attract newcomers to DeFi and create a more seamless user interface for DeFi natives, according to Brendan Forster, co-founder and COO of Dharma Labs. In addition to enabling the swap of over 2000 tokens, the new release will come with price charts, price alerts and, down the line, will include trustless limit orders. It also allows U.S. users to deposit up to $1,000 a week via their debit card.
Forster also said Dharma is looking to balance the permissionless nature of investing with danger recognition. For that reason, this Dharma release has a disclaimer for unverified tokens on Uniswap.
"We're trying to walk a delicate balance between permissionlessness on one side and not having users run themselves off a cliff on the other side," he said. "We do think that these users in general are fairly savvy, but want to make sure that the appropriate disclaimers and disclosure are present for people."
In the spirit of Robinhood's no-fee model, Dharma will pay gas — the term for transaction fees on the Ethereum network — on behalf of users. Additionally, the firm is offering a "no-fee, no-gas promotion" for the month of August.
While the firm will continue to pay the gas fees after the promotional month, August will reward new customers with no fees for swapping, which is usually 30 bits per second.
Expand Story ▾ JUL 30, 2020, 11:03PM GMT+8 CAPITAL MARKETS Circle links up with Genesis Global Trading to advance USDC services, nets $25M in funding from Digital Currency Group Digital Currency Group is investing $25 million in crypto startup Circle as part of a joint product development partnership focused on the USDC stablecoin. Full Story
JUL 30, 2020, 9:00PM GMT+8 CRYPTOCURRENCY Brave browser's Japanese users will soon be able to receive BAT token Privacy-focused Brave browser's users in Japan will soon be able to receive its native basic attention token (BAT) as a reward.
Brave recently partnered with Japanese crypto exchange BitFlyer to develop a crypto wallet. Today, the two companies announced that the wallet is under development and is expected to release in November.
The wallet, dubbed "Integrated Wallet," will allow users to trade, as well as receive BAT as a reward. Brave currently cannot reward Japanese users in BAT due to local regulations, so it offers them BAT Points instead.
"Brave users in Japan who are currently opted in to Brave Rewards are receiving BAT Points for viewing ads, but after the release of the Integrated Wallet, will receive BAT in their bitFlyer account linked to the Integrated Wallet," said the two companies.
BAT is currently listed on several exchanges, including BitFlyer, Binance, Coinbase Pro, and Gemini.
Expand Story ▾ JUL 30, 2020, 8:25PM GMT+8 CHINA Chinese authorities have arrested all 27 major suspects of PlusToken Ponzi scheme - report China's Ministry of Public Security has reportedly arrested all 27 major suspects of the PlusToken Ponzi scheme that defrauded nearly $3 billion from its victims.
Several Chinese news outlets reported the news on Thursday, saying that the ministry has also arrested 82 "key members" involved in the scheme.
In August 2019, Chinese police officials confirmed to The Block that six suspects affiliated with PlusToken had been arrested, but the main suspects were still on the run at the time.
PlusToken was launched in early 2018 and was already suspected to be a pyramid scheme as early as September 2018. In June 2019, the company triggered a wide-ranging panic among Chinese and Korean investors when some users reported that they could not withdraw funds from the wallets. However, the issues were then brushed off as a "hacker attack."
PlusToken managed to collect multi-billion dollars from about 800,000 investors. Over a period of time, hundreds of millions of dollars tied to PlusToken have been moved. Just last month, nearly 790,000 ETH, worth roughly $188 million at the time, were moved.
Expand Story ▾ JUL 30, 2020, 6:45PM GMT+8 CRYPTOCURRENCY The market cap of Ampleforth's AMPL token has tanked by over 60% The market capitalization of AMPL, the native token of Ampleforth protocol, has declined by over 60% in the last three days. CRYPTOCURRENCY Crypto firm Diginex is listing on Nasdaq via a reverse merger Hong Kong-based crypto and blockchain solutions firm Diginex is set to list on Nasdaq via a reverse merger deal.
Diginex is merging with 8i Enterprises Acquisition Corp, the Nasdaq-listed special purpose acquisition company, which will allow it to go public once the deal is completed in September.
The Diginex-8i deal was first announced in July 2019, and the listing was scheduled for this March, but it got delayed due to market meltdown from the coronavirus pandemic.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has now re-approved the listing, and Diginex shareholders will vote on it on September 15. After the voting, the current listing of 8i will become Diginex between September 20-23 and the 8i ticker, JFK, will also change.
Diginex CEO Richard Byworth said the upcoming Nasdaq listing is “further testament to our commitment to compliance, regulation and transparency.”
Founded in 2017, Diginex has today also launched its own crypto exchange called EQUOS.io, which will offer both spot and derivatives trading. The firm also operates an over-the-counter (OTC) crypto trading desk, Diginex Access, and a “hot and cold” custodian, Digivault.
EQUOS.io operates in Singapore under a temporary exemption from licensing under the country’s Payment Services Act. Diginex today said it has applied for a Major Payment Institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, in line with current regulations.
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