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Wormhole announces $10 million bug bounty payout

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Crypto bridge Wormhole paid out a massive $10 million to a white hat hacker who disclosed a bug in its core bridge contract on Ethereum in February. That person goes by the pseudonym satya0x, per an announcement from Immunefi, which partnered with Wormhole in hosting its bug bounty platform. Wormhole announced the program back in February, shortly after losing close to $323 million in ETH to a hacker, in one of the largest exploits of a DeFi protocol to date. …

Bitcoin mining stock report: Friday, May 20

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As another week came to a close, most bitcoin miners’ stocks were once again down by the end of Friday’s trading session. Argo, for instance, saw its stock drop by -10.55% on the London Stock Exchange and -9.8% on Nasdaq. On the other side, Stronghold Digital Mining’s stock rose by +12.45%. Bitcoin’s value was close to $29.300 as of press time. Here’s how crypto mining companies performed on Friday, May 20: Trending Stories

BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes avoids jail time, sentenced to six months of home detention

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Arthur Hayes, one of the founders of crypto exchange BitMEX, avoided jail time Friday during his sentencing hearing in New York. Hayes was handed a sentence of six months of home detention as part of a two-year probationary period. He had previously pleaded guilty to violating the US Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). “I’m ready to turn the page,” Hayes said before the sentencing hearing. A representative for Hayes declined to comment following the hearing’s conclusion. The prosecution had asked for …

Bakkt’s chief financial officer is departing the firm next month

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Bakkt’s chief financial officer is leaving the firm next month after a little over a year with the Georgia-based crypto startup. Announced on Friday, the exit of Drew LaBenne is the latest big-name departure for the firm, which saw its president and early employee Adam White leave at the end of 2021. The firm’s chief accounting officer Karen Alexander is stepping into the role on an interim basis. Alexander previously worked at GE Capital in finance and accounting roles.  In …

Deciphering the Metaverse: The Maturation of Financial Instruments

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May 20, 2022, 3:30PM EDT • 16 min read Quick Take This weekly series explores the most interesting insights in NFTs, blockchain gaming, and virtual worlds While NFT liquidity has dried out on Ethereum over the last week, it has started to flourish on Solana In support of more sophisticated NFT trading strategies, more elaborate financial tools have been developed Join The Block Research for exclusive research like this Gain access to this research piece and 100s of others, including …

OpenSea launches new marketplace protocol dubbed ‘Seaport’

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Popular NFT marketplace OpenSea just launched a new marketplace protocol to buy and sell NFTs.  The news, which was first made apparent by an address linked to OpenSea on Etherscan earlier Friday, was confirmed in a blog post by the company. The protocol, dubbed Seaport, allows users to acquire NFTs in a range of new ways. Bidders who use Seaport can bundle different assets in exchange for an NFT, unlike now where only crypto can be exchanged for an NFT. …

DFS chief Adrienne Harris explains how — and why — New York is speeding up the BitLicense pipeline

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New York’s financial regulator is accelerating its work on crypto business licensing. Speaking with The Block on May 19, Adrienne Harris, the superintendent of New York’s Department of Financial Services promoted her work on expanding the DFS’ licensing regime for crypto firms — famous under the moniker “BitLicense.” “Before my coming into DFS, the average time was up to a couple of years. We’re already moving much much faster. We’ve done three licenses this year, soon to do a fourth, …

Aptos CEO faces billion dollar lawsuit by Glazer family member over equity

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The co-founder and CEO of Aptos Labs, the Layer 1 blockchain startup founded by former Diem employees, faces a lawsuit from an early investor alleging she was cheated out of her fair share of equity.  Shari Glazer and her firm Swoon Capital are seeking up to $1 billion from Matonee, also known as Aptos Labs, according to a complaint filed with the Supreme Court of the State of New York in March.   Aptos Labs was founded by former Meta …

Luxury watchmaker TAG Heuer inks deal with BitPay to accept crypto online in the US

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Luxury Swiss watch brand TAG Heuer will now accept cryptocurrency as payment on US websites.  TAG Heuer will accept 12 cryptocurrencies at checkout, including Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Shiba Inu, and 5 USD-pegged stablecoins. The brand will work with the support of BitPay, a bitcoin payment services provider, on transactions up to $10,000, with no minimum spend required. BitPay works by converting cryptocurrency to fiat money, which is ultimately what TAG Heuer receives. “We have been following cryptocurrency developments very closely …

Anchor saw $1 billion of liquidations during UST and Luna’s death spiral

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Terra-based lending protocol Anchor saw more than $1 billion in liquidations last week, the largest liquidation event for a single protocol. This happened as both the crypto market collapsed and the Terra project — including its tokens luna (LUNA) and TerraUSD (UST) — largely collapsed. According to The Block’s Data Dashboard, $1.048 billion worth of staked crypto collateral deposited by borrowers on Anchor was liquidated on the platform between May 7 and May 12. Luna (LUNA) accounted for over $750 …