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Crypto leaders launch PAC to back congressional candidates

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A cadre of crypto industry leaders announced Friday the formation of a new political action committee (PAC), the latest sign that crypto riches made in recent years are bleeding into the American political system and executives want to influence election outcomes. Dubbed GMI PAC, the new committee will back congressional candidates in the 2022 midterm elections “who work to give consumers and innovators the opportunity to build and use next-generation technologies services here in America.” The PAC’s founding donors and …

Ethereum-BSC bridge of Qubit Finance exploited, lost $80 million

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The cross-chain bridge of DeFi protocol Qubit Finance, called X-Bridge, has been exploited and lost $80 million in the process. X-Bridge facilitates swapping tokens from Ethereum to Binance Smart Chain. In other words, when someone deposits an ERC-20 token to the bridge, they receive a BEP-20 token in return, which can then be used on Binance Smart Chain. There was a “logical error” in X-Bridge’s smart contract code that led to the exploit, according to blockchain security firm CertiK. The …

A look back at social media growth of crypto trends

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January 27, 2022, 5:59PM EST • 6 min read Quick Take The Block Research reviews social media metrics for the three biggest hype cycles of 2021 We researched Twitter, Reddit, and Wikipedia to assess the degree of engagement around major Layer-1 blockchains, NFTs, and meme coins Join The Block Research for exclusive research like this Gain access to this research piece and 100s of others, including ecosystem maps, company profiles, and topics spanning DeFi, CBDCs, banking and markets. Together with …

Crypto exchange Apifiny goes public after $530 million deal with Abri SPAC

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Apifiny Group Inc announced Thursday that it is going public after a merger with Abri SPAC I, a special purpose acquisition company.  Apifiny is expected to be listed on NASDAQ once the $530 million deal officially closes in the third quarter of 2022.  Founded in 2018, the San Francisco-based firm consolidates various aspects of digital asset trading markets, such as clearing and settlement, onto one platform. The firm’s partners include crypto big weights such as Huobi Global, OKEx, OKCoin and …

Robinhood looks to beef up crypto offering after Q4 revenue slide

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Crypto and equities trading platform Robinhood is looking to expand its crypto offerings, despite missing revenue targets for Q1 2022 and posting a decline in crypto transaction-based revenue. Robinhood posted its fourth quarter earnings today, reporting total revenues of $363 million. Though that’s an increase compared to Q4 2020, Robinhood’s projections for Q1 2022 are falling short of Wall Street’s expectations. The firm expects to rake in $340 million, considerably less than the projected $448.2 million. In Q4 2021, crypto …

Crypto advocates sound alarm on America COMPETES bill over new financial surveillance provisions

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On Tuesday night, Democrats of the House of Representatives released their draft language for the America COMPETES Act, a bill that aims to bolster the US in its global rivalry with China.  The Biden administration’s legislative agenda has faced a number of hurdles. The 3,000-page bill seems to be an attempt to garner a legislative win based on bipartisan concerns over China in advance of the November midterm elections. However, some in the crypto world are calling out a provision …

FTX.US, BinanceUS and Gemini jumped into US lobbying in recent months, yet they trail Coinbase’s $1 million quarterly spend

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Per the latest data from the Federal Election Commission, lobbying programs have become practically a must-have for crypto exchanges, especially those based in the US.  As was the case last quarter, Q4 saw Coinbase at the head of the pack. Its internal lobbying program grew to $740,000 with an additional $260,000 in contracts with outside law and lobbying firms.  The combined total of Coinbase’s reported lobbying spending hit $1 million even for the quarter, an unprecedented figure for the industry.  …

Mina Protocol: A Technical Overview

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January 27, 2022, 1:23PM EST • 12 min read Quick Take Mina protocol uses recursive zero-knowledge proofs to maintain a small blockchain size The current size of the entire Mina blockchain is 22kb, although the actual on-chain size is closer to 11kb Mina uses a modified version of the Ouroboros protocol, the proof of stake consensus developed by IOHK and is used by Cardano Unlike typical blockchains, Mina’s nodes do not host the entire blockchain’s history There are still various …

Genesis is exploring institutional hedging and liquidity products for NFTs

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The institutional market for non-fungible tokens is heating up, with Genesis Global confirming that it wants to build out its own platform to address the needs of large traders in this fast-growing corner of the crypto market.  The firm, which traded $100 billion in spot crypto last year, said in its fourth-quarter report that it currently holds “curated NFT collateral” on behalf of certain clients. Indeed, much ink has been spilled explaining the unique role of NFTs in the broader …

Why two ‘NFT nerds’ built LooksRare — and what’s next for it

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Quick Take LooksRare has very quickly taken a large portion of the NFT market in both trading volumes and protocol revenue. Yet this is largely due to the way it incentivizes traders to use the platform. The Block spoke to the LooksRare team to find out who created it and how they’re planning to solve the rampant amount of wash trading. This feature story is available to subscribers of The Block Daily. You can continue reading this Daily feature on …