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John Ray III criticizes FTX for private keys decision

Gary Roberts on May 30, 2023

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John Ray III — FTX CEO John Ray III provided an interim update on the company’s actions this week.

Ray said that the corporation held nearly every cryptocurrency asset in hot wallets.

Report and service

John Ray III has been in charge of FTX’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.

While it was not included in the interim report, Ray stated that while Amazon Web Services is a useful tool, it is not appropriate for a multibillion-dollar corporation’s private keys.

The FTX CEO condemned the company’s usage of Amazon Web Services in the same manner he chastised its accounting software, QuickBooks.

“Nothing against Quickbooks. Very nice tool,” said Ray as he testified before the House Financial Services Committee in December.

“It’s not for a multibillion dollar company.”

Instead, the FTX CEO stated in a court statement on Sunday that the business held practically every crypto asset in hot wallets.

John Ray III underlined his argument by referencing the $432 million in unlawful transactions that drained FTX wallets the day after the company declared bankruptcy on November 11.

Interim report

John Ray III filed an interim report with the Delaware bankruptcy court, updating them on the company’s efforts to recover cash and the issues they encountered.

Ray stated that the FTX Group’s lack of accurate record keeping made the task more difficult.

In addition, the study included an in-depth look into how the company was operated and its failure to maintain security.

“In this regard, while the FTX Group’s failure is novel in the unprecedented scale of harm it caused in a nascent industry, many of its roots are familiar, hubris, incompetence, and greed,” it wrote.

The company’s collapse

Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of FTX, built a crypto empire.

However, the empire imploded in November 2022.

Alameda Research, SBF’s trading desk, was found to have billions of FTX Token or FTT on its balance sheet.

Furthermore, complaints surfaced accusing the corporations of mixing user cash with their own.

Sam Bankman-Fried is now facing thirteen felony counts.

Meanwhile, the FTX Group has been trying for five months to collect consumer monies.

SBF charges

Sam Bankman-Fried is charged with a slew of offenses, including:

Wire fraud
Securities fraud
Conspiracy to commit bank fraud
Defrauding the Federal Election Commission

Prosecutors said that SBF and his associates cheated the United States in their FEC-related accusations.

He was also accused of impeding the FEC’s capacity to enforce federal law.

As a consequence, Sam Bankman-Fried was charged with further offenses, including:

Conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business
Conspiracy to commit wire fraud on lenders to Alameda Research
Conspiracy to make unlawful political contributions and defraud the FEC

AWS

According to John Ray III, storing the majority of the cash in hot wallets and the private keys in Amazon Web Services was a bad risk management approach.

Amazon Web Services and its competitors in cloud computing are not impenetrable.

According to data breach tracker Firewall Times, the service has had many large-scale breaches since 2017, exposing data from hundreds of millions of voters, Instagram users, bank clients, consumers, and COVID-19 testing site visitors.

“The FTX group undoubtedly recognized how a prudent crypto exchange should operate, because when asked by third parties to describe the extent to which it used cold storage, it lied,” said Ray in the report.

He also mentioned the company’s 2022 response to advisers and counterparties, as well as a 2019 tweet from Sam Bankman-Fried.

According to the two mails, FTX employed a combination of hot and cold wallets.

However, according to John Ray III, the corporation did not safeguard the crypto assets with offline, air-gapped encrypted, and geographically scattered computers.

Ray also cited messages from a person affiliated to LedgerX, a derivatives exchange owned by the FTX Group.

It was not, however, included in the bankruptcy proceedings, pushing FTX.US to make greater use of cold wallet storage.

Nonetheless, according to John Ray III, no mechanism was in place prior to the bankruptcy.

Heterosis takes a unique spin on flora NFTs

Greg Jackson on May 30, 2023

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Heterosis – Mat Collishaw is a name that the art world should be well acquainted with, having made his mark in the English art scene.

His work has been a prominent staple in the 1980s, and he would continue to showcase his eye for photography to this day.

However, like many artists, Collinshaw is forced with a dilemma: adapt to the new age of technology or get behind the times.

Fortunately, the photographer chose the former, which has allowed him to launch a series of works in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

His decision allowed him to share his works in the form of a digital garden, Heterosis, as he embarked on a new chapter in his artistic career.

The project

Mat Collishaw shifted his artistic eye on a new tulip trend.

His project, dubbed Heterosis, is a pioneering NFT-centric flower collection that offers an immersive metaverse experience.

Heterosis is a joint effort with artist Danil Krivoruchko, snark.art, and EL-GABAl, a collective of metaverse architects.

Snark.art is a company that developed the og.art protocol, which is home to several NFT projects, including Heterosis.

The project is primarily made up of two key elements: a collection of unique NFT flora that are breedable and a virtual greenhouse.

The greenhouse is a digital, overgrown post-apocalyptic recreation of the London National Gallery.

Significance of the project

Mat Collishaw wanted to illustrate the significance of the Heterosis project by describing it as a departure from traditional art forms.

He described it as an experimentation in a unique medium that many have deemed to be the future of art.

“What we’re trying to do is create dynamic things that evolve, mutate, and also be able to visit them in these virtual social system environments,” said Collishaw.

“Things like this wouldn’t be possible in any other medium.”

The NFTs

Heterosis is one of the most unique NFT collections in the market.

When collectors mint, they receive a one-of-a-kind Heterosis flower that carries its own combination of traits and DNA.

The two components will be based on the content of the owner’s wallet.

Once it has bloomed, owners become creators, and they can participate in a hybridization game.

Two Heterosis NFTs can be cross-bred and activate new mutations, colors, and patterns.

They can then create a new exotic digital flower species.

When the hybrid is generated, owners can decide if they keep the flower or have it replaced, ensuring the number of NFTs in the collection is still the same.

For collectors to hybridize, they have to pay a fee to the owners of the second parent.

The price is typically determined by the collectors, which incentivizes the creation of the increasingly rare and beautiful flowers.

The minting for Heterosis NFTs kicked off on Tuesday.

During the project’s “Diamond Hands presale,” the minting sold off within hours.

The sale will continue until late Thursday.

The digital greenhouse

The unique NFT collection can be explored within the metaverse greenhouse.

Users can access it through various devices as it offers high-definition, real-time rendering of thousands of unique plant life, including flowers, trees, and other unique flora.

Once they’re in the digital greenhouse, users can zoom in on some flowers to bask in its uniqueness.

“You can go in there, meet other collectors, talk, and you can see all the flowers in the collection in their current iteration in this social-metaverse environment,” said Collishaw.

He noted that the immersive environment of the project, along with its interactive nature, represents a significant progress in digital arts and NFTs.

“We’ve created The National Gallery in London,” Collishaw continued.

“Rebuilt virtually as if it was neglected, abandoned, decayed, all overtaken by organic matter, as if this old analog world of painting has been neglected, destroyed, abandoned, and this new burgeoning media of digital art in the shape of flowers is now taking over.”

Avalon receives major funding from supports in recent round

Gary Roberts on May 30, 2023

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Avalon – The Web3 space is expanding, with the gaming industry eyed for a potential expansion.

The prospect has also caught the attention of several video game industry figures.

Avalon Corp is the product of such promise, formed by a group of video game industry veterans who raised an incredible round of funding by Bitkraft Ventures.

The news

Bitkraft Ventures led a round of funding that led to $13 million raised.

It found an audience from angel investors like Kevin Lin, the co-founder of Twitch, and Charlie Songhurst, a former Microsoft executive, among many more.

Others who participated in the funding round include:

Coinbase Ventures
Delphi Digital
Hashed
Mechanism Capital

Avalon

The Avalon team is made up of incredible talents consisting of experienced game developers who have lent their genius to big names like:

Blizzard
Electronic Arts
Microsoft
Sony

Avalon is touted as the startup gaming studio’s flagship product, containing elements of the metaverse and some MMO.

It is currently being developed in Unreal Engine 5.

Despite the potential, Avalon Corp CEO Sean Pinnock and Chief Product Officer Jeffrey Butler revealed that they don’t view Avalon as a metaverse.

They explained that the term is misused and co-opted.

“Everyone’s kind of hopping onto this word and just beating the poor word to death,” said Butler.

He cited examples of major brands across industries like fashion and fast food claiming to build their own metaverse.

“At Avalon, we are creating an interoperable universe for creators to build the content of their dreams,” Butler added.

“And [in] our vision of something like a – not metaverse – we imagine that to build such a thing is incredibly challenging, and in fact impossible for a single company to do it,” said Pinnock.

“We’d like to empower gamers, creators, anyone to build worlds. And then those worlds over time interconnected could become something like an Oasis from Ready Player One.”

A fixed version

According to Pinnock and Butler, it won’t be consumer brands that bring metaverse into reality.

Instead, it will be game developers.

They explained that developers have the experience to bring an AAA game to life.

Pinnock and Butler also believe that once Avalon is developed, it could host major brands that are looking to stake their claim in the Avalon universe with their own intellectual property and customized experience.

In addition, Sean Pinnock revealed that Avalon’s COO was the previous Head of Business Development at the North American division of Bandai Namco.

Bandai Namco owns the IP rights of iconic Japanese properties, namely big names in manga and anime like Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, and One Piece.

Blockchain search

Avalon has yet to settle into a specific blockchain that can enable its interoperable economy.

However, Sean Pinnock has had his eyes on Ethereum Layer 2 protocols, particularly Polygon and ImmutableX.

“I personally am a big fan of Layer 2 Ethereum protocols,” Pinnock elaborated.

“What’s great about that technology is the gas price for transactions is significantly less than the cost of a credit card swipe, which has great low environmental impact.”

“We’re also able to get the scalability we need for transactions,” he added.

“In terms of how blockchain will be used in Avalon, digital ownership is going to be a key here.”

“So all of our assets inside of Avalon will be certified through the blockchain.”

Meanwhile, the Avalon team is optimistic in crypto’s function, offering a decentralized metaverse that, if done correctly, will not be a “walled garden.”

“This is going to be the most invasive technologies ever built by society, it’s incredibly important that this technology is actually decentralized,” said Pinnock.

“How do we do that? That’s a really tough problem to solve.”

Potential

Jeffrey Butler has been in the video game industry since 1999, having worked at Sony Online Entertainment for almost a decade with contributions to titles like Everquest.

Butler believes technology like Unreal Engine 5 will allow the team to develop the massively multiplayer universe they want accurately.

However, Avalon is going to be more than just a digital realm.

It will also be gamified, allowing users to transfer assets from one world to another via crypto and NFT.

“For us, gamification is incredibly important,” said Butler.

“I grew up modding Warcraft III a lot, I was actually not the creator, but I was an original Dota modder and made my own Dota spinoff as well as a ton of other games.”

“And what I believe made Warcraft III’s modding community so successful was that there was a game to build around, there was a framework. And so we are going to build our own framework.”

CFTC hands Binance a lawsuit, ban looking inevitable

Greg Jackson on April 10, 2023

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CFTC — The cryptocurrency sector is in shambles in the United States as firms are clashing with regulators.

For example, crypto enthusiasts living in America aren’t allowed to trade crypto derivatives.

To add salt to the wound, major international platforms for trading crypto derivatives are prohibited from letting Americans trade the products.

They can only do so if they are registered with the influential federal regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

The CFTC recently sued the world’s most prominent cryptocurrency exchange Binance for trading products without registering with the regulator.

In November 2022, Binance briefly entertained the idea of bailing out its rival exchange FTX.

However, after monitoring the exchange platform, Binance dropped out, dodging a bullet as FTX is now at the center of a massive federal fraud investigation.

What happened?

The CFTC alleged that Binance and CEO Changpeng Zhao violated US laws.

Among their alleged violations is secretly coaching “VIP” customers based in the United States on how they could evade compliance rules.

The commission also regulates US derivatives trading.

According to the CFTC, Binance and Zhao instructed employees and customers to go around compliance controls to maximize corporate profits.

The CFTC is unable to bring criminal charges.

However, the agency can seek heavy fines that could potentially ban Binance from registering in the United States in the future.

The potential ban could deal the company a major blow as the United States is home to thousands, if not millions, of crypto enthusiasts.

The response

When the news hit the crypto exchange platform, Binance said the lawsuit was unexpected and disappointing.

The company underscored making significant investments in the past two years to ensure regulators that US-based investors are not active on the platform.

On Monday, when news of the lawsuit emerged, Zhao tweeted the number 4, alluding to a previous statement he made:

“Ignore FUD, fake news, attacks, etc.”

In the crypto space, FUD is a commonly used acronym that means “fear, uncertainty, doubt.”

For years, Binance argued that it wasn’t subject to laws set by the United States due to a lack of a physical headquarters in the country.

The crypto exchange platform doesn’t actually have a physical headquarters despite originating from China.

According to Changpeng Zhao, the company’s headquarters are based on wherever he is.

The CFTC’s lawsuit blasted Binance’s approach, saying it was a deliberate attempt to avoid regulation.

The bigger picture

The CFTC’s lawsuit may be a blow to Binance, but it also broadly affects the crypto space.

However, the lawsuit doesn’t have the same magnitude as everything else that happened in 2022.

For example, the FTX collapse created a domino effect throughout the crypto space, causing firms and projects exposed to the company to either freeze or shut down.

Terra/Luna also experienced a meltdown that led to the price of crypto assets and NFTs to collapse.

However, 2023 has witnessed some significant improvements to the Terra/Luna dilemma.

On Monday, prices of the two largest cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin and Ethereum – fell by more than 3%, which was a typical day for trading crypto.

Worst-kept secret

The most significant part of the CFTC’s lawsuit is the way it called out one of its worst-kept secrets in crypto.

Customers based in the United States are gaining access to risky offshore crypto derivatives that should be prohibited very easily.

Due to crypto derivatives being leveraged bets on wildly unstable assets, anyone can access them through the use of a VPN.

While easy to do, it is highly discouraged to follow such a method.

The endgame

According to Blockchain Intelligence Group crypto compliance and regulation expert Timothy Cradle, the most likely outcome would see Binance paying the CFTC hundreds of millions of dollars in fines.

The company would also be banned from registering derivatives exchanges.

The move would not only make a severe blow for users in the US, but also hit a significant portion of Binance’s revenue.

The lawsuit says US users produce 16% of the revenue for Binance’s derivatives products.

Other regulators

The Monday news only adds more regulatory scrutiny on one of crypto’s most prominent names.

Bloomberg also reported that the Internal Revenue Service and Securities and Exchange Commission are also investigating Binance.

Last week, Coinbase, one of the biggest US-listed crypto exchanges, received a Wells Notice from the SEC for possible securities law violations.

In early March, the crypto industry lost two prominent connections to the mainstream finance world: Silvergate and Signature Bank.

Franklin amasses $2.9 million in seed funding round

Gary Roberts on April 4, 2023

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Franklin — The crypto space continues its unstoppable innovation as other companies developed for the sake of the future have seen incredible progress.

While projects have been the focus of most firms, several firms have emerged to aid the growth of the crypto space.

Franklin is among the companies making great strides.

The news

Franklin is a company that provides tax-compliant hybrid crypto and cash payroll services, namely to startups and businesses.

Like most startups, the company needed funds to secure its future.

So far, it has raised a $2.9 million seed funding round, courtesy of venture capital firms gumi Cryptos Capital (gCC) and CMT Digital.

It was also able to raise that amount thanks to investors like Arca, Portage, Sfermion, and Synergis Capital.

Franklin’s payroll software was developed to allow small to midsize businesses that want to have the option to pay their employees in cryptocurrency.

Additionally, the company announced on Monday that its software automatically syncs with Quickbooks now.

Functions

As of now, Franklin is live on the Ethereum Mainnet and Polygon blockchains.

Its initial clients include crypto wallet providers like Alto, Echooo, and Soul Wallet.

“We’re focused on providing a more flexible payroll experience, which is why we have a hybrid cash and crypto product,” said Megan Knab, founder of Franklin.

“We found that lots of Web3 native teams wanted to be using crypto, but the administrative burden of it — from tax form generation, the compliance side, accounting side — was too big of a burden for them.”

Franklin’s current customers primarily perform transactions through stablecoins, processing crypto payments for employee bonuses.

The firm also offer other features, including:

Batched transactions
Multicurrency selection
Automated tax filings

Knab also says it can process US dollar transactions within two business days.

“There are a bunch of rules in the United States about how you can pay your team in crypto, so we bake all those rules into our platform,” she said.

“We look at it on a per-state basis – most states require that you pay your W2 employees in USD-equivalent currency; if you’re paying a contractor, the rules are generally much looser.”

“So we’ll look at where your company is incorporated, where are the W2 workers and what states they’re in, and we make sure that the payment you’re planning to execute follows the rules of that specific jurisdiction.”

Development

Meg Knab is a crypto accountant.

She had previously worked as VP of finance at Serotonin, the Web3 marketing agency.

Knab would later launch Franklin in the spring of 2022.

Franklin is one of the companies (specifically the second company) to spin-out of Serotonin’s product studio.

Mojito, an NFT commerce platform, pioneered the spin-out, launching in 2021.

Serotonin claimed that Mojito generated more than $120 million in sales for well-regarded clients like:

CAA
Lyrical Lemonade
The Milwaukee Bucks
Pace Gallery
Sotheby’s

“Many Serotonin services clients naturally became customers of Mojito or Franklin,” said Amanda Cassatt, Serotonin’s co-founder and CEO.

“Companies come to us for help with their Web3 strategies, then once it comes to executing that strategy, they need a software provider.”

“We refer businesses to Mojit whenever that is a fit, for example, with Sotheby’s and Pace Gallery,” she continued.

“When partners come to Serotonin asking about crypto finance and payroll, we refer Franklin because we are confident it’s a solid product built by a competent team.”

Pricing, seed round, and plans

While Meg Knab didn’t disclose Franklin’s pricing model, she hinted that it was similar to other existing Web2 payroll platforms, Gusto and Justworks.

Additionally, angel investors in the company’s seed round includes Jason Brooke, the VP of Sapphire Ventures, and Iladro Sauls, an associate at Sapphire Ventures.

Franklin has near-term plans to expand the company’s offerings with crypto-integrated retirement savings accounts and health benefits.

The company is also looking to add compatibility with other layer-2 blockchains.

In 2022, financial services entity Fidelity allowed companies to diversify their 401(k) retirement plans using Bitcoin Investments.

However, three US senators asked Fidelity to halt the Bitcoin 401(k) offer to customers following the FTX collapse.

“Being able to offer tax-advantaged crypto via a retirement program is something we’re working on a partnership with,” said Knab.

Stablecoins see migrations after SVB collapse

Greg Jackson on April 3, 2023

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Stablecoin – The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank last week worried the tech and crypto industry, and the latter was especially shaken following the 2022 FTX collapse.

Circle announced that it had been exposed to Silicon Valley Bank, and over the weekend, USDC was briefly depegged.

Fearing for the worst, investors turned to several alternatives.

The news

Over the weekend, USDC holders were anxious following the SVB collapse, but holders of other stablecoins endured a more fruitful movement.

They witnessed a surge in the market capitalizations of their projects.

On Friday, the company behind USDC, Circle, the world’s second-largest stablecoin by market cap, dropped its dollar peg to $0.87.

The sudden decline can be attributed to the company disclosing it held around $3.3 billion in cash reserves in Silicon Valley Bank.

Circle quickly reassured holders that they only had minimal exposure, saying the total amount of its cash in SVB was less than 10% of the $42.1 billion cash reserves underpinning USDC’s value.

On Monday, US and British regulators intervened, helping public confidence in Circle recover.

The stablecoin is currently trading for a fraction of a cent from its peg.

However, while USDC recovered, competitors had already taken advantage of Circle’s wobble.

Tether

Tether has often been one of the most controversial stablecoin developers, but its token, the USDT, saw a slight increase over the weekend.

In 2021, Alex Mahinsky, the then-CEO of bankrupt crypto lender Celsius told Financial Times that Tether was minting USDT against top cryptocurrency Bitcoin and Ethereum collateral for a couple of major customers.

However, Tether was hit with a massive $41 million fine by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in 2021.

The CFTC is an independent watchdog for the US government, regulating derivatives.

The company had lied about its cash reserves, and it didn’t have sufficient USDT for a large period between 2016 and early 2019.

Since then, Tether has improved its transparency.

In August 2022, it hired BDO Italia to create regular attestation reports for USDT reserves.

When Silvergate and Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, Tether CEO Paulo Ardoino reassured followers the company wasn’t exposed.

Gains

On Friday, USDT had a market cap of $71.9 billion.

However, by Monday night, the figure spiked to almost $75 billion.

However, the market cap fell back, but not before it recorded an overall increase of 1.6%.

Dai

DAI’s stablecoin supply is maintained and regulated by the Maker, one of the DeFi’s longest-standing projects.

It is also backed by cryptocurrencies, particularly USDC.

However, other Ethereum-based cryptocurrencies can also be used for minting it, such as Ethereum and Wrapped Bitcoin or WBTC.

Because of the decentralized nature of its collateral and the fact that the protocol monitoring the stablecoin isn’t watched by a single company, DAI is often dubbed a decentralized stablecoin.

DAI is currently the fourth largest stablecoin on the market, boasting a market cap of $6.2 billion.

Gains

Throughout Friday, DAI held a market cap of $4.9 billion.

However, the figure increased by Monday morning, going up by 28.6%.

Its updated market cap now stands at $6.3 billion.

People seeking to jettison USDC were probably referred to DAI as a destination.

When people burned USDC, DAI’s supply experienced a strong upward market trend.

However, on Saturday, DAI was depegged and sank to a low of $0.88, paralleling USDC.

TrueUSD

TrueUSD was introduced in 2018 as an Ethereum-based stablecoin, billing itself as the first regulated stablecoin to be fully backed by the US dollar.

According to Chainlink’s proof-of-reserve monitoring tool, TUSD is backed 1:1 by nothing but cash.

In February, the SEC prepared a lawsuit against Paxos, which was behind Binance’s dollar-pegged BUSD stablecoin.

Binance minted $180 million in TUSD as an alternative, which accounts for the 114.5% increase in TUSD’s market cap in the past month.

However, TrueUSD was exposed to Silvergate.

Minting and redemptions were paused for several Signature Bank users.

However, according to a Monday tweet, the rest of TrueUSD’s banking network operated without a hitch.

Gains

Throughout Friday, TUSD’s market cap stood at around $1.3 billion.

It saw an increase in market cap of 53.8%, and for the past two days, it sat above the $2 billion market cap.

Liquity USD

Liquity functions similar to DAI, operating under similar mechanics but with the addition of interest-free loans.

Liquity charges a small one-time fee upfront instead of variable interest rates with its loans.

LUSD is its dollar-pegged native token, and users receive loans paid out in LUSD with Ethereum as the collateral.

After the crypto banking crisis worries and Circle’s depegging subsided, Liquity CEO Michael Svoboda promoted his stablecoin by retweeting LUSD fans.

Gains

On Friday, LUSD held an incredible market cap of $230 million.

Over the weekend, it blew up by 10.4%, trading today at $256.2 million.

Coinbase joins ‘on-chain’ movement to advance in Web3

Anna Evans on March 20, 2023

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Coinbase – The beauty of Web3 is that, like technology, it is always evolving, and those within the space are aware that they have yet to reach its full potential.

Developers can utilize a suite of products and services to take advantage of Web3.

Coinbase is looking to bring in new users and familiarize old ones to its new Base roll-up as they are looking to bring more revenue.

The company believes they can do so through the development of various new on-chain products and services.

The news

Coinbase was founded in 2012 as a simple market to allow people to buy and sell Bitcoin.

Since then, a lot has changed, and the decade-old firm is eager to stay relevant and keep up with the times.

In February, Coinbase announced the launch of Base, its native layer-2 scaling solution.

Base is built with the OP Stack, which uses a lot of Optimism’s technology.

The platform’s decision to build Base is particularly interesting for a highly-centralized, highly-regulated, publicly traded company based in the United States.

OP Stack

The OP Stack is an open-source set of tools that allows anyone to create their own rollup chain, from fully-centralized crypto projects to companies trading on the Nasdaq.

Rollups are elements of scaling solutions that batch transactions on separate networks before compressing them into a single transaction and finally execute it on the Ethereum mainnet.

It allows the mainnet to remain at a low cost and works fast for other projects.

Additionally, the OP Stack is customizable and modular, reminding users of the term “appchain,” where everything can be fully adjusted based on the project’s needs – from the data later to the consensus mechanism.

The arrangement

According to their arrangement, Coinbase is going to be the sole “sequencer” for layer-2.

A sequence node is a node or set of nodes that executes the batched transactions on the mainnet.

The sequencer from Optimism is a significant revenue generator for the Optimism foundation.

Each time Optimism executes a transaction and an execution occurs on the mainnet, Optimism receives a piece of the profit.

Due to its nature, it’s highly encouraged to get activities on the roll-up.

Coinbase is also looking to take the same sequence of actions.

On-chain native

Coinbase protocols lead Jesse Pollak appeared at ETH Denver last week, saying that the decision to go ‘on-chain native.’ is part of a greater plan.

He covered topics like the company’s innovation strategy and plans to quickly iterate on products like Coinbase NFT and the layer-2 blockchain Base.

“Coinbase, recently, with things likeUSDC, Coinbase Wallet, cbETh, and our dApp Wallet, has started to build what we call ‘on-chain native’ products,” said Pollak.

“It’s still a very small percentage of our overall portfolio.”

Base falls into the small, but rapidly-developing toolbox.

Meanwhile, the cbETH asset is another example of Coinbase shifting to an on-chain direction.

The asset is also called a liquid staking derivative or LSD, a staked version of Ethereum.

When users stake their Ethereum through Coinbase, they get cbETH in return.

Like other LSDs, they can also be reused in the DeFi space.

There is currently more than $29.5 million in cbETH earning interest on the open source protocol Aave.

White-label solution

On Wednesday, Coinbase rolled out a white-label wallet solution for brands eager to develop a crypto wallet.

According to the company, the goal is to make the wallet setup as easy as coming up with a username and password to avoid the technical nature of common digital wallets.

“It’s basically eliminating this huge source of friction for getting Web3 adopted,” said Patrick McGregor of Coinbase.

“Effectively, we’ve created a system to give wallets to literally every human on the planet.”

McGregor hinted that some “household names” would soon join the action.

Regardless, the Coinbase-native layer-2 solution and on-chain products clarify several points.

The company is preparing a mass audience to move their activity off the exchange by generating new, on-chain things for Coinbase users.

However, it doesn’t necessarily take from the company’s pockets due to the fees.

Coinbase NFT vows to persevere despite weak sales

Larry Jansen on March 13, 2023

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Coinbase – The NFT space lagged in 2022 when the crypto market crashed, but has since found its footing again.

This year, the market has seen some major improvements.

Despite the positive news for the wider market, it isn’t entirely sunshine and butterflies as trade volume continues to present a problem for some projects.

Among those venturing into NFTs without much luck is cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.

The platform experienced a massive drop in volume over time, getting bombarded with scrutiny from shareholders.

Despite all that, Coinbase has asserted that it isn’t giving up on its NFT venture.

Shareholders curiosity

Coinbase reported sales that were higher than expected but also suffered a heavy loss of $577 million for the final fiscal quarter of 2022.

During its earnings call with investors and analysts, they allowed questions on the company’s health.

A shareholder then brought up the exchange’s NFT venture, which launched in the spring of 2022.

Coinbase was asked to disclose how much it lost with its marketplace and its contingencies to reduce the “burn” with operating the business.

In addition, the shareholder asked what was ahead for the marketplace and how Coinbase could improve market share.

NFT progress

In the past week, Coinbase NFT had only recorded 41 sales.

According to a Dune Analytics dashboard, they received less than 3 Ethereum, which is worth around $4,900.

The Coinbase NFT marketplace is essentially a virtual ghost town.

Meanwhile, other NFT marketplaces like OpenSea and Blur are enjoying sales with 303,000 and 53,000 sales respectively this week.

Belief in the project

Coinbase President and COO Emilie maintained that the company still sees Coinbase NFT as a worthwhile project without disclosing any losses specifically related to the project.

“We continue to see medium and long-term opportunities here,” she said.

“We’ve got a very lean team on it now, but we’re not throwing in the towel by any means.”

In January, Coinbased announced its second round of layoffs in the past year, with 950 employees set to leave.

In June 2022, the company let go of 1,100 employees.

“The Coinbase NFT team has realigned its resources to focus on the highest impact areas for our users,” said a Coinbase spokesperson.

“We’re bringing increased focus and efficiency to a smaller set of high-impact focus areas within Coinbase NFT.”

The NFT space

NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are uniquely-made digital tokens that collectors have with proof of ownership.

They are typically presented as digital art, but can also be video clips, music, or even social media posts.

Since the NFT boom in 2021, the space has undergone plenty of highs and lows.

Recently, the ecosystem around NFT trading went through a shakeup.

Two marketplaces, Blur and OpenSea, are in the race to become the top NFT marketplace.

Despite only launching last year, Blur’s volume has significantly increased, overshadowing the once untouchable OpenSea.

As a result, OpenSea is taking any measures necessary to reclaim its throne.

This week, the marketplace slashed creator royalties, intent on leaping over Blur.

Coinbase NFT progress

As the two continue their battle, Coinbase NFT has been staggering, paring back elements of its business.

According to the platform, the NFT venture is hitting the brakes on future NFT drops with creators.

Instead, they will take the time to focus on other features and tools, listening to what creators are saying so they can accommodate their needs.

“We recently shared that we are pausing creator Drops on the NFT marketplace to focus on other features and tools that creators have asked for,” tweeted Coinbase NFT.

“To be clear: We are not shutting down the Coinbase NFT marketplace.”

With Blur and OpenSea shifting their focus from creator royalties, Coinbase could take the opportunity to jump in.

The team responsible for Deathbats Club NFTs recently said they are going to utilize Coinbase NFT for buying and selling.

In addition, they are blocking OpenSea.

PleasrHouse to sell the original doge couch

Madelyn Stewart on March 6, 2023

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PleasrHouse: During the NFT boom of 2021, a collective of DeFi leaders, NFT collectors, and digital artists created a platform called PleasrDAO.

Since then, the collective has evolved.

Today, it is an art collecting empire, creating, curating, and elevating the most iconic and diverse collection of artworks.

PleasrHouse will host a 24-hour NFT auction for their latest episode to allow prospective buyers to win the couch from the original doge meme.

A new trend

Last month, a collection of 10,000 pixelated feet became the biggest seller on OpenSea, briefly outracing Bored Ape Yacht Club and other NFT staples.

The PleasrHouse auction follows the same route in auctioning off the mundane.

They will stream the auction for the February 8 episode and feature guests, including the original photographer Atsuko Sato.

Meanwhile, the iconic Shiba Inu Kabosu will also join.

The episode features an Open Edition NFT drop, something the group describes as a way to honor Kabosu and support charity.

Tridog, a PleasrDAO and Own the Doge community lead, released a statement, saying the couch auction came after Kabosu got sick last month.

The group and many others banded to help Atsuko and Kabosu pay the medical bills.

The auction

PleasrDAO announced that the auction would feature the original couch used in the 2010 Kabosu photo.

The winner will immediately receive an NFT and the right to claim the couch from Sato.

Chris Eberle, the head of marketing for PleasrDAO, said that people who aren’t ready to bid to own the couch can still own a piece via Own the Doge’s fractionalized photo.

Origins

PleasrDAO was created in 2021 in an attempt to buy an NFT from digital artist Emily “pplpleasr” Yang, who also inspired the name.

In January, they launched PleasrHouse to align with the minting of whistleblower Edward Snowden and political activist Daniel Ellsberg’s Ethereum NFT.

The project “Wouldn’t You Go to Prison to Help End This War?” honored the release of Ellsberg’s 1971 Pentagon Papers.

It was auctioned during a PleasrHouse live stream.

“This whole format – an NFT auction during a live streaming talk show with folks chatting with thor ENS as their chat handles – is an experiment,” said Eberle.

“We’re learning as we go.”

Proceeds then went to the Freedom of the Press Foundation and the Daniel Ellsberg Initiative for Peace and Democracy.

“Episode 01 of PleasrHouse was a success,” said Eberle.

“Feeback on the product, the content, and the caliber of our guests was overwhelmingly positive, and we know crypto Twitter will tell you when they don’t like something.”

The Doge couch

PleasrDAO acquired the original picture and later fractionalized it.

Since then, a relationship between Atsuko Sato and Own the Doge has taken place, raising money for her favorite charities that aid animals and children.

According to the group, the couch auction will carry on their mission.

“When we fractionalized the NFT, we started the Own the Doge (OTD) community, who has developed a very strong relationship with Atsuko,” said Eberle.

“The Do Only Good Everyday ethos from dogecoiners really resonates with Atusko, and the OTD community has donated $2m+ to charities.”

“$1m of those donations went to Save the Children, and is their largest crypto donation to date.”

Dogecoin origins

In 2013, Jackson Palmer created Dogecoin as a joke, accidentally creating the first “meme coin.”

It was a take on the “doge” Shiba Inu meme.

The doge meme was based on a photo by Atsuko Sato, a Japanese kindergarten teacher.

Although it was a successful project, Palmer left Dogecoin in 2015.

Since then, he has become one of the most vocal critics of cryptocurrency.

From starting as a meme coin, Dogecoin today is one of the most prominent players in the crypto space.

It gained further momentum in 2020 when Tesla owner Elon Musk started championing it.

Today, Dogecoin is a consistent coin in the top ten cryptocurrencies on the market.

It is also the second-largest proof-of-work blockchain, trailing behind Bitcoin.

Cryptocurrency rally raises caution in the crypto space

Anna Evans on February 27, 2023

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Cryptocurrency: Cryptocurrencies have recently made positive progress with an upswing price, especially Bitcoin and Ethereum.

However, the good news also revives a common debate in such situations: is the market set for a rebound, or are the trends just going to lead to another heavy crash?

In November 2021, Bitcoin hit an all-time high selling price of $69,000.

Since then, the digital coin has been struck with higher interest rates and the collapse of high-profile firms, including FTX and Three Arrows Capital (3AC), among others.

Cryptocurrency movement

The leading cryptocurrency is down almost 67% from the November 2021 prices, but digital assets, including stocks, are off to a good start for 2023.

This month, Bitcoin rose by 38%, selling for $22,893.39 – its highest price since August 2022.

Ethereum’s cryptocurrency (ETH) also rose by 38%, selling for $1,635.68.

So far, cryptocurrency prices have risen in January in anticipation of the economic report that indicated inflation cooling in December.

The reading has also been positive, raising the possibility of the Federal Reserve increasing rates at a slower pace than last year in an attempt to slow down soaring prices.

Warnings

Although it has mainly been good news, many are giving warnings of caution.

Crypto commentators believe the recent surge is too good to be true, labeling the current rally a trap.

Commentators also anticipate the increase will abruptly come crashing down, burning naive traders who believed it was the start of a new uptrend.

Others are also skeptical of the crypto rally.

On Twitter, a popular Bitcoin page held a poll with 18,000 participants calling the rally a bull trap.

Meanwhile, a prominent crypto enthusiast and self-titled crypto analyst, il Capo Of Crypto, agreed with his sentiments.

“I’ve been checking charts all this time, avoiding noise from Twitter,” he wrote.

“The way the upward movement is happening, the way htf resistances are being tested…it clearly looks manipulated, no real demand.”

“Once again, the biggest bull trap I’ve ever seen. But they won’t trap me.”

The self-proclaimed crypto analysts’ suspicions were shared across the space.

It also reached Reddit, with one user pushing against observations with a market bottom in a news article.

“Hard to believe that it was only a week or so ago that everyone and their analyst was solemnly and confidently proclaiming that [Bitcoin at] 12k was inevitable and unavoidable,” said the user.

Jim Cramer

CNBC’s Mad Money host Jim Cramer chimed in last Wednesday, calling the crypto bounce a manipulation.

“The manipulation higher of crypto shows you this is truly a sham market,” Cramer tweeted.

Cramer’s commentary was received with mixed accuracy.

It became the subject of mockery, with memes emerging and a series of parody accounts.

For example, one account goes by the name “Inverse Cramer ETF,” a false Exchange-Traded Fund that offers the opposite of Cramer’s advice.

Several accounts also took a swipe at the Mad Money host’s sentiments, taking his pessimism as a positive sign.

Dan Held, the head of growth marketing at crypto exchange Kraken, mockingly raised a toast, replying, “Bottom is in!”

A positive outlook

While others were wary, other influential accounts were bullish.

PlanB declared that a new bull market in digital assets had started as the Bitcoin pump occurred.

Meanwhile, other community members decided to take it as an opportunity to mock people who are cautious of digital assets dealing with more losses.

Wall Street

The surging cryptocurrency prices have also confused Wall Street.

Last Friday, JP Morgan analysts released a research report that couldn’t fully explain the rally confidently.

However, they acknowledged that market conditions had improved for riskier assets, citing the recent inflation report.

“We don’t have a great answer on the January-to-date rally of crypto, we do think it is emblematic of the underlying conviction many still have in cryptocurrencies,” they wrote.

“The crypto-bulls and whales seem to have been reinvigorated.”