Blackrock Launches Private Trust Offering Direct Bitcoin Exposure (The Block)
"Investment manager BlackRock has launched a private trust offering US-based institutional clients exposure to spot bitcoin. The trust will be available to US-based institutional clients and will be BlackRock's first product that offers direct exposure to the price of bitcoin. 'Despite the steep downturn in the digital asset market, we are still seeing substantial interest from some institutional clients in how to efficiently and cost-effectively access these assets using our technology and product capabilities,' BlackRock said in a statement."
Steve Cohen Quietly Setting Up Crypto-only Asset Manager (Blockworks)
"Hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen is laying the groundwork for an investment firm focused exclusively on cryptocurrency, according to four sources familiar with the matter. Though the new entity is in its early innings, sources said the business plans to trade spot cryptocurrencies — a segment Cohen’s multi-strategy hedge fund firm, Point72 Asset Management, has yet to touch. It would also trade digital asset derivatives, as well as look to write checks to outside digital asset-focused hedge fund managers, including possible seed deals. The name of the startup — which is set up separately from Point72, Point72 Ventures and Cohen’s family office — isn’t known."
Crypto Mogul Seeks to Sell Huobi Stake at $3 Billion Value (Bloomberg)
"Huobi Group founder Leon Li is in talks with a clutch of investors to sell his majority stake in the crypto-exchange at a valuation of as much as $3 billion, in what could be the industry’s largest takeover since a $2 trillion global crypto rout began. The Chinese crypto-mogul has held discussions with a raft of financiers, seeking to sell a roughly 60% slice of the company he founded almost a decade ago, according to people familiar with the matter. Tron founder Justin Sun and crypto-billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX are among those who’ve had preliminary contact with Huobi about a share transfer, the people said, asking to remain anonymous discussing private information."
MakerDAO Founder Says It’s ‘Almost Inevitable’ DAI Will Abandon USD Peg (The Block)
"Rune Christensen, co-founder of MakerDAO, has stated that the DAI stablecoin could exit its USD peg by eliminating all of its USD Coin (USDC) exposure. The DAI stablecoin is currently backed 60% by USDC, according to daistats. Christensen made the remarks on the MakerDAO Discord channel on Thursday. The MakerDAO co-founder said the recent US Treasury sanctions against crypto mixing service Tornado Cash was the reason for considering the pivot. According to Christensen, the sanctions are more serious than he originally considered. Centre, the consortium behind USDC, froze USDC funds in Tornado Cash wallets following the sanctions."
Crypto Exchange dYdX Blocked Accounts That Received Even Small Amounts From Tornado Cash (CoinDesk)
"Cryptocurrency exchange dYdX said it blocked user accounts with even a token link to Tornado Cash, the crypto-mixing service sanctioned Monday by the U.S. Treasury Department. The Treasury Department's action led to a significant increase in accounts flagged by dYdX's compliance provider, which is used to highlight accounts potentially associated with ransomware, malware, child sex abuse material, known criminals and sanctions lists, the company said in a blog post."
Regulators Weigh Asking Hedge Funds to Report Crypto Exposure (WSJ)
"The collapse in cryptocurrency prices this year has left U.S. regulators scrambling to understand the risks that digital-asset markets could pose to the broader economy. They may soon enlist hedge funds in the effort. The Securities and Exchange Commission issued a proposal Wednesday that would require large hedge funds to report their cryptocurrency exposure through a confidential filing known as Form PF."
Ethereum’s Final Proof-Of-Stake ‘Test Merge’ Is Live on Goerli (The Block)
"Ethereum developers have executed the third and final test merge on the Goerli test network. The move is the final step before the mainnet merge, which will see Ethereum transition from proof-of-work (PoW) consensus to proof-of-stake (PoS). The merge has been eagerly anticipated by crypto developers, who hope that it will make the Ethereum network significantly more energy efficient and cheaper to use."
Crypto Exchange Bitfinex May Be Facing Criminal Investigation in US (CoinDesk)
"Crypto exchange Bitfinex is facing a possible criminal investigation in the U.S., according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) reply to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request shared on Twitter late Wednesday. The DOJ denied a request for information pertaining to Tether Holdings Limited, its parent company iFinex Inc. and its subsidiaries., which include Bitfinex, citing Exemption 7(A) of the FOIA Guide. The exemption prevents the disclosure of ‘records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes, but only to the extent that production of such law enforcement records or information ... could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings.’"
Analytics Firm Elliptic Says RenBridge Was Used to Transfer $540M of Illicit Crypto Funds (CoinDesk)
"RenBridge, a cross-chain channel used to funnel money between different blockchains, was used to facilitate the laundering of at least $540 million in crime-related crypto funds, blockchain analytics firm Elliptic said on Wednesday. The sum includes over $153 million in ransomware proceeds and crypto believed to have been stolen by North Korean hackers, the firm said."
Crypto Trading Platform Hotbit Suspends Service Amid Criminal Investigation Into Former Employee (CoinDesk)
"Hotbit has suspended crypto trading, deposits and withdrawals because law-enforcement authorities have frozen some of the firm's funds during a criminal investigation into a former employee. The company declined to identify the jurisdiction when contacted by CoinDesk. The employee in question worked for the platform until April. Last year, the person was involved in an external project, contrary to the firm's guidelines, that is now suspected of violating criminal laws, Hotbit said Wednesday."
Circle Plans to Only Support Ethereum PoS Chain After Merge is Complete (Cointelegraph)
"On Tuesday, Circle, the issuer of the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin, pledged its full support for the transition of Ethereum to a proof-of-stake, or PoS, blockchain after the much-anticipated Merge upgrade. The firm views the Merge as an important milestone in the scaling of the Ethereum ecosystem, writing: “USDC has become a core building block for Ethereum DeFi innovation. It has facilitated the adoption of L2 solutions and helped broaden the set of use cases that today rely on Ethereum’s vast suite of capabilities. We understand the responsibility we have for the Ethereum ecosystem and businesses, developers and end users that depend on USDC, and we intend to do the right thing.”"
Coinbase Misses Estimates, Sees Q3 Underperforming Q2 (The Block)
"The tough quarter for cryptocurrencies took a bite out of Coinbase. The company reported a net loss of $1.1 billion, including impairment charges, in the second quarter, double the $546 million loss expected by analysts surveyed by Factset. For the year, it narrowed the range for its annual forecast for MTUs to 7 to 9 million from between 5 million and 15 million. Analysts surveyed by Factset were expecting 8.74 million. MTUs were 9 million for the second quarter, versus 9.2 million in the first quarter."
FTX Bringing Crypto Swaps to Reddit (Blockworks)
"In the latest instance of FTX embarking on a massive bear market buying spree, the crypto exchange has struck a deal with Reddit. The crypto-to-fiat exchange platform FTX Pay is integrating with Reddit and Arbitrum to allow users to pay gas fees on Reddit’s “Community Points” tokens using fiat. Community Points, rolled out in 2020, are blockchain-based Reddit tokens that allow users to divvy out rewards and interact with the social platform."
Crypto Notables Are Being Sent ETH From Sanctioned Tornado Cash Wallets (The Block)
"Someone is sending small amounts of ether (ETH) from sanctioned Tornado Cash wallets to a variety of wallets belonging to well-known crypto individuals and celebrities. This move appears to be some kind of protest against the protocol getting hit by US sanctions. As noted by Astaria CTO Joseph Delong (the former CTO of SushiSwap), an individual is sending 0.1 ETH to a range of crypto wallets, primarily ones associated with ENS names and prominent crypto individuals. They have sent such amounts to EthHub co-founder Anthony Sassano, pseudonymous crypto trader Loomdart and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. Talk show host Jimmy Fallon, YouTuber Logan Paul and Mark Zuckerberg's sister Randi Zuckerberg have also received amounts."
Crypto Analytics Platform Messari Plots Raise at $300 Million Valuation (The Block)
"Messari, a crypto-focused data analytics business, plans to raise fresh financing. The startup is in the process of raising capital at a valuation of $300 million and has pitched potential investors, according to two people familiar with the matter. One of those sources said the company is looking to raise $35 million."
Crypto-Mixing Service Tornado Cash Blacklisted by US Treasury (CoinDesk)
"The Treasury Department has banned all Americans from using decentralized crypto-mixing service Tornado Cash. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a watchdog agency tasked with preventing sanctions violations, on Monday added Tornado Cash to its Specially Designated Nationals list, a running tally of blacklisted people, entities and cryptocurrency addresses. As a result, all U.S. persons and entities are prohibited from interacting with Tornado Cash or any of the Ethereum wallet addresses tied to the protocol. Those who do may face criminal penalties."
Potential Ethereum Proof-Of-Work Fork Unlikely to Succeed, Says Vitalik Buterin (The Block)
"The potential upcoming Ethereum proof-of-work fork is unlikely to have substantial long-term adoption, according to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. The idea of a fork gained traction over the past two weeks after popular Chinese crypto miner Chandler Guo — who was involved in the 2016 fork that resulted in Ethereum and Ethereum Classic — said he would fork the Ethereum blockchain, dubbing the new network 'ETH POW.' The idea is that when the blockchain undergoes 'the merge' and transitions to a proof-of-stake network, these miners would create a fork of the network that ignores the update and remains focused on mining."
Galaxy Digital's Q2 Net Loss More Than Triples to $554.7M Amid Market Downturn (CoinDesk)
"Cryptocurrency-focused financial services firm Galaxy Digital (GLXY.TO) reported a second-quarter net loss of $554.7 million, which was more than triple the loss from the same period last year. The larger loss was mainly the result of the crypto market downturn and investments in Galaxy's trading business, the firm said on Monday. The firm reported a loss of $182.9 million for the second quarter of last year."
Circle Freezes Blacklisted Tornado Cash Smart Contract Addresses (Cointelegraph)
"Crypto data aggregator Dune Analytics said that, on Monday, Circle, the issuer of the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin, froze over 75,000 USDC worth of funds linked to the 44 Tornado Cash addresses sanctioned by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control's Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) list. Tornado Cash is a decentralized application, or DApp, used to obfuscate the trail of previous cryptocurrency transactions on the Ethereum blockchain."
Moonbirds Ruffles Some Holders’ Feathers With Abrupt Copyright Switch (The Block)
"Moonbirds, a popular non-fungible token (NFT) project, has abruptly changed its copyright model. Now, some of its holders are not happy about it — and a copyright lawyer says they have a point. Moonbirds co-founder Kevin Rose explained in a Twitter thread on Thursday that Moonbirds and its sister project, Oddities, will adopt the Creative Commons CC0 copyright code. That means the art is now in the public domain and can be freely distributed, augmented and commercialized without the owner’s consent."
Morgan Stanley Job Posting Points to Wide-Ranging Crypto Plans (The Block)
"Financial giant Morgan Stanley is looking for a product development manager with a primary focus on building a wide-range of new crypto products across business lines, according to a LinkedIn job posting by the firm. The position, posted on August 1, is to join the Investment Solutions Product Development team, which offers a wide-range of services that 'support' more than $900 billion in assets under management across mutual funds, money market funds, 529 College Savings Plans and exchange-traded funds."
UK Parliamentary Group Seeks Views of Crypto Industry Players (Bitcoin News)
"A parliamentary group in the United Kingdom, the Crypto and Digital Assets All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), recently said it had launched an inquiry that will examine the country’s present approach to crypto and digital asset regulation. In addition to gathering information via evidence sessions, the APPG said it is also open to views from players in the sector."
Uniswap Labs Alum Proposes Uniswap Foundation to Boost Exchange (The Block)
"Two Uniswap community members have submitted a governance proposal to create the Uniswap Foundation, an entity tasked with growing the decentralized crypto exchange’s ecosystem. The Uniswap Foundation will be a Delaware-based corporation founded by Devin Walsh and Ken Ng, according to the proposal document published on Thursday. Walsh will serve as the executive director while Ng will helm the foundation’s operations."
Beanstalk Celebrates Anniversary With ‘Safe Replant and Unpause’ Months After $182M Exploit (Decrypt)
"Beanstalk, a credit-based stablecoin, has rebooted on the one-year anniversary of its launch—and not quite four months since it was hacked for $182 million. 'The Beanstalk experiment is out in the wild once again,' said a statement on the project’s website. 'It’s impossible to predict how it will perform, but Beanstalk Farms’ belief in the possibilities for a permissionless fiat stablecoin is unwavering.'"
NEAR Protocol Discloses Breach of Email and SMS Data Tied to User Wallets (The Block)
"NEAR Protocol, a Layer 1 blockchain, notified users that SMS and email data used as recovery options in its core wallet offering were leaked to a third party in June. In a new report, NEAR said the issue was resolved before any harm was done. NEAR Protocol’s wallet offering at wallet.near.org allows users to add recovery options including email data or phone numbers to their crypto wallet accounts. A bug in the system accidentally exposed sensitive details to a third party."