Ben Strack

<div id="highlights-block_634d6c8c4f40a" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Mastercard survey found 65% of respondents wanting their financial institution to offer crypto-related services</li>
 <li>The payments giant earlier this month revealed a dashboard designed to track where cardholders are purchasing crypto products</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Mastercard is delving deeper into the cryptoasset business by offering banks the ability to provide trading capabilities to customers, as it seeks to utilize recent acquisitions and partnerships.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Institutional partners involved in Mastercard’s Crypto Source program are set to gain access to buy, hold and sell certain cryptoassets, the company revealed Monday.&nbsp;



A Mastercard spokesperson told Blockworks the initiative is being prepared for pilot programs, noting that the company is working out which assets will be supported.



The upcoming program comes after banking giant <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/bny-mellon-moves-to-let-institutions-hold-bitcoin-ether/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BNY Mellon said last week</a> that it would allow certain institutional clients the ability to hold and transfer bitcoin and ether on its new crypto custody platform in the US. Industry watchers and executives <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/qa-cf-benchmarks-ceo-says-institutions-more-interested-than-ever-in-crypto/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">have said</a> that TradFi institutions are opting to get more involved in the segment despite the ongoing crypto winter.



Mastercard is also set to offer banks and fintechs security management, the ability to spend and cash out crypto, as well as product development and consulting services.&nbsp;



Blockchain infrastructure platform Paxos is slated to provide the cryptoasset trading and custody services on behalf of the banks, while Mastercard will use its technology to integrate those services into banks’ interfaces.



Mastercard had previously partnered with Paxos — as well as others such as Evolve Bank &amp; Trust and Circle — last year in an effort to streamline crypto-to-fiat conversions.



“Our commitment is simple — to explore crypto and the underlying digital assets technology to support consumer choice in payments,” Mastercard Chief Digital Officer Jorn Lambert said in a statement. “Today is an exciting step in our crypto journey that draws on the strengths of our global businesses, from open banking and identity verification to analytics and fraud monitoring to settlement solutions.”



Nearly 30% of respondents of Mastercard’s <a href="https://www.mastercard.com/news/perspectives/2022/digital-payment-landscape-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2022 New Payments Index</a> — published in June — held crypto as an investment, with another 65% reporting a preference for their current financial institution to offer crypto-related services.



Ajay Bhalla, the company’s president of cyber and intelligence, said in a statement that Mastercard’s acquisitions last year of <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/mastercard-to-acquire-crypto-intelligence-company-ciphertrace/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">crypto intelligence company CipherTrace</a> and customer identity verification company Ekata give it a unique edge.



Mastercard said earlier this month that it was using data from CipherTrace <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/mastercard-is-tracking-where-and-how-cardholders-buy-crypto/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">to launch Crypto Secure</a>, a dashboard designed to track where cardholders are purchasing crypto products.  



The payments company last month <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/mastercard-hi-launch-nft-customized-debit-cards-as-nft-interest-dips/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">launched a debit card</a> allowing users to customize their own NFT avatars. It also partnered with crypto exchange Binance to <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/binance-and-mastercard-to-bring-streamlined-crypto-payments-to-argentina/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">offer a prepaid crypto card</a> in Argentina, and with Middle Eastern digital asset gateway Fasset to <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/mastercard-partners-with-fasset-to-drive-financial-inclusion-in-indonesia/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">expand its services</a> to Indonesia.



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New Mastercard Program Looks To Offer Crypto Capabilities to Banks

Sebastian Sinclair

The supply of leading stablecoin <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/tether">tether</a> has clawed back recent losses to reach two-month highs as speculation of this year’s market rally continues to drive digital assets further.



USDT witnessed a 3.8% increase in market capitalization from a Nov. 27 low of $65.3 billion to $67.8 billion on Sunday — its highest point since the collapse of FTX led the market lower.



The asset, whose value is pegged one-to-one to the US dollar, is the industry’s most widely used stablecoin, eclipsing rivals USDC and Binance’s BUSD.



Data compiled by NYDIG across the previous 30 days show <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/usdt">USDT</a> has facilitated more than $980 billion in exchange trading volume, compared to BUSD’s $323 billion and USDC’s $135 billion.



The tech and financial services firm points to an increase in the stablecoin’s supply as evidence of a capital flow boost into the market and a positive sign based on prior events.



“We think the continued growth of Tether supply is a positive indicator for the continued price rally,” the firm said in a Friday newsletter.



The supply growth resembles 2019’s recovery which coincided with another rally for bitcoin whose price jumped from $3,250 to more than $13,000 before retracing in the second half of that year.



That was also true with the lead-up to the industry’s most recent bull run, where the stablecoin’s supply ballooned 100% from August 2020 through to January 2021 alongside a 130% increase in bitcoin’s price.



Though not all are convinced the appreciation in USDT’s supply is closely correlated.



“We have definitely seen an elevated interest in digital asset accumulation as well as transaction flows in stablecoins recently,” William Fong, Treasurer at Australian trading firm Zerocap told Blockworks. “However, we cannot be sure if it&#8217;s directly related to USDT supply movement or is really simply a risk adjustment on macroeconomic events.”



More likely catalysts are the several central bank policy meetings this week, including a potential reduction in the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-ether-prices-strong-markets-eye-easing-rate-hikes">pace of tightening</a> from the US Federal Reserve, Fong said.



BUSD, the industry’s third-largest stablecoin, has been unable to keep up the pace. Binance’s stablecoin supply has instead fallen 27% from $21.8 billion on Dec. 13 to $15.7 billion.&nbsp;



Pressure on BUSD was exacerbated, in part, due to the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/bb50a204-5239-4db0-9964-c3bf9339c594" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">outflows</a> from the token’s native exchange in mid-December and those pairings facilitating traders exiting the platform. 



A general drop in the confidence of the Binance brand following Mazer’s decision to halt its <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-taps-deloitte-as-new-auditor-doubles-down-on-proof-of-reserves">auditing services</a> of the exchange’s assets only strengthened the stablecoin’s decline in the fourth quarter of last year.



Tether has failed to deliver on years-long promises to engage an accounting firm for an audit of its own reserves.



USDC, the industry’s second-largest, has fared better — down about 4.6% from $45.1 billion to 43 billion over the same period.



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Growth of Tether Supply ‘Positive’ Indicator for Further Crypto Gains

The majority of crypto-related equities finished up in positive territory last week, with US-traded mining firms gaining distance from historical lows set at the end of last year.



Bitcoin is also pushing for further gains on the day after closing the session roughly 3.2% higher to $23,800 Sunday, while its market capitalization also leaped 3.3% to $458.6 million.



Ether clocked a higher daily close above $1,645, gaining 4.5% alongside a $10 billion uplift to its market value. Bitcoin and ether are now up 43.9% and 37.6% year-to-date respectively.



Bitcoin miners continue to rise alongside market sentiment, witnessed by the positive jump in spot prices for digital assets as the beleaguered sector takes stock of a shifting risk-on attitude.



Hong Kong-based Bit Mining (BTCM), listed on the New York Stock Exchange, posted a Friday close of 7.6% to $3.55 while Chinese miner SOS ADR, also listed in New York, rose almost 2%.



NASDAQ-listed mining firms Bitfarms, Stronghold Digital, Cipher Mining, Cleanspark and Bit Digital rose between 2.8% and 16.6% on Friday.



Marathon Digital and Iris Energy were the US’s main outliers in the bitcoin mining category, shedding 8.3% to $8 and 4.3% to $2.10 respectively by the end of last week’s closing bell.&nbsp;



Greenidge Generation Holdings, which also fell 0.8% on Friday, has begun to reverse prior losses, with a 2.6% gain in after-hours trading to $0.90.



Prices for most US-traded miners have more than doubled this year, following daily lows set at the end of 2022. It comes as the average mining difficulty for bitcoin hit a new all-time high beginning Jan. 18 — now 41% greater than a year ago, <a href="https://ycharts.com/indicators/bitcoin_average_difficulty#:~:text=Bitcoin%20Average%20Difficulty%20is%20at,41.09%25%20from%20one%20year%20ago.">data from YCharts</a> show.



Global hashrate — a measure of bitcoin network security — hit a fresh all-time high on Friday at 316 exahashes per second (EH/s), while miners have until Feb. 11 before the next <a href="https://www.coinwarz.com/mining/bitcoin/difficulty-chart">difficulty adjustment</a> will make it an estimated 4.3% harder to mine.



Both a rise in the price of bitcoin and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-wholesale-power-prices-broadly-expected-fall-this-year-2023-01-10/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">anticipation</a> of cheaper power prices this year are beginning to erase previous sector sell-offs that had begun amid last year’s Q2 market rout.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-mining-nuclear-energy">Going Nuclear: Bitcoin Mining’s Potential Energy Future</a>



Other sectors across the industry also posted positive gains Friday, with exchanges Coinbase (COIN) and Robin Hood (HOOD) up 15.7% and 7.8% respectively. COIN has <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-stock-soaring">continued to outperform</a> both the broader tech sector and bitcoin, up an eye-watering 80% since the new year began.



<a href="https://twitter.com/MacroAlf/status/1619380322004766721" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Analyst fears</a> over a global recession remain firmly entrenched, with several leading indicators now pointing to declining economic growth in the second quarter of this year.



The impact for risk-on assets, such as crypto, would likely result in further market sell-offs as traders seek to book profits and allocate capital into cash, large market cap equities and gold.



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Bitcoin Price Boosts Miners, as Hashrate Climbs

Casey Wagner

Crypto companies with US operations — including Wirex and B2C2 — withdrew their applications to register with a United Kingdom financial watchdog in recent months after the standards for acceptance were raised.&nbsp;



The vast majority of crypto firms that have attempted to register with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have been denied, the agency <a href="https://www.fca.org.uk/cryptoassets-aml-ctf-regime/feedback-good-poor-quality-applications#section-who-this-is-for" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a> this week. There are now 41 companies listed on the FCA’s cryptoasset firm registry, according to the <a href="https://register.fca.org.uk/s/search?predefined=CA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">agency</a> — or about 15% of applicants. 



An FCA executive, Sarah Pritchard, in a <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/33650/documents/183917/default/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">letter</a> earlier this month said 85% of the firms vying for the regulator’s approval “were unable to demonstrate they met the required, minimum standards.”



Added Pritchard: “As part of the registration process we identified significant failures in relation to key controls such as customer due diligence, risk assessments, transaction and ongoing monitoring [and] governance.”&nbsp;



Representatives for Wirex, a crypto payments platform, and B2C2, a digital assets liquidity provider, did not immediately return requests for comment.&nbsp;



The FCA also had doubts that the people leading some of the denied crypto firms lacked the experience and knowledge needed to effectively and safely run the business.&nbsp;



&#8220;It is difficult to judge whether leading personnel in firms ‘lack appropriate knowledge, skills and experience’ when it is judged against a lack of transparency and an absence of benchmarks and guidance from the FCA,” said Alexander Carter-Silk, cryptocurrency solicitor at Keystone Law. “There is no clear explanation as to what is applicable to crypto asset businesses, possibly because the FCA is fearful of the new technology.”&nbsp;



Earlier this year, the UK set a deadline that any crypto entity hoping to conduct business in the country had to register with the FCA by April 2022.&nbsp;



By March, just 27 of the 100-plus companies under consideration had been approved. A total of 58 firms withdrew or were denied by March 15 of the same year, the regulator said, and a “small number” of companies were found to be allegedly involved in criminal activities, the FCA said.&nbsp;



Wintermute Trading, Galaxy Digital’s UK branch and Fidelity Digital Assets are among the firms that were able to make the cut.&nbsp;



In the US, states have some control over which crypto services can be offered by which companies. For example, New York’s BitLicense law has prevented several companies from conducting business in the state, including Binance.US and Kraken.&nbsp;



Companies hoping to operate in the UK have expressed frustration with the current system, which some leaders say puts too much emphasis on scrutinizing individual firms versus creating a set of standards.&nbsp;



“Former chancellor Philip Hammond has declared that the UK needs to take measured risk in order for the UK to excel as a leader in cryptocurrencies, but for that the community needs measurements to abide by,” said Katharine Wooller, business unit director at digital asset protection firm Coincover.



“If we want to get ahead as a global leader in digital assets, we need to stop assessing firms, and start working with them to develop a regulatory framework.”



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UK Denies Crypto Companies the US Lets Operate 

Bessie Liu

Crypto infrastructure companies scored significant funding this week.&nbsp;



Among them was Blockstream, which landed $125 million in a convertible note from London-based Kingsway Capital, with participation from bitcoin-focused Fulgur Ventures. The <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/fundraising-wrap-over-800m-in-investments-poured-into-crypto-this-week">overall infrastructure trend isn&#8217;t necessarily new</a>, but such efforts do appear to be escalating. 



The latest capital haul <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-infrastructure-firm-blockstream-reaches-unicorn-status-with-3-2b-valuation">follows the firm’s Series B in August 2021</a>, when the company procured $210 million from investors to expand mining facilities and acquire Spondoolies, a crypto mining gear startup.



Erik Svenson, Blockstream’s president and chief financial officer, said in a statement that the fundraise allows the company to “accelerate” its year-over-year revenue growth and “build infrastructure for the future Bitcoin economy.”



Added Svenson: “We remain focused on reducing risk for institutional bitcoin miners and enabling enterprise users to build high-value use cases on the most secure, robust, and scalable blockchain in the world — Bitcoin.” 



Another infrastructure company that corralled funding this week was QuickNode. The end-to-end development platform <a href="https://www.theblock.co/post/205028/quicknode-reaches-800-million-valuation-in-series-b-round" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">closed</a> a $60 million Series B led by 10T holdings. Other investors who participated in the round include Tiger Global, Seven Seven Six, Protocol Labs and QED. 



The latest funding brings QuickNode’s total valuation to $800 million, and will be used to grow the company’s international presence.



“The long-term health and success of Web3 are dependent on scalability, accessibility, and interoperability,” ​​said Alexis Ohanian, founder of Seven Seven Six, which also invested in the company’s seed round.



”[QuickNode’s] foundational technology and platform is building not only to meet the current needs of top Web3-native companies and flagship global brands but also those of the future decentralized web,” he said.



In a smaller fundraising effort, Tholos, an MPC wallet platform — similar to Fireblocks — landed pre-seed funding of $1.5 million.



The round was led by four crypto-native venture capitalists, including North Island Ventures, Lattice, Dispersion Capital and Chainforst. A handful of angel investors also participated, Abraham Litwin-Logan, the founder of Tholos, told Blockworks.



Tholos’ team currently consists of the co-founders, a full stack engineer, a mobile engineer and the head of product and design, as well as two part-time senior back-end engineers. But additional hiring, enabled by the cash infusion, is already under way, according to the team.



“On the cryptography side of things — we’ve partnered with a multi-party computation cryptography team in Israel, which is made up of three cryptographers,” Litwin-Logan said, adding that the remaining cash would be used for product development and testing before it goes onto the market.



Other notable fundraises this week include:



<ul>
<li>Spatial Labs <a href="https://www.theblock.co/post/205813/spatial-labs-iddris-sandu-seed-funding" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lands</a> $10 million from Blockchain Capital, with participation from Marcy Venture Partners, a firm co-founded by Jay-Z. </li>



<li>Gemba, a software developer for virtual reality training, secures $18 million from Parkway Venture Capital, bringing its valuation to $60 million.&nbsp;</li>



<li>London-based blockchain infrastructure company Calimero Network closes an $8.5 million seed round led by Khosla Ventures, Lyrik Ventures and NEAR Foundation.</li>
</ul>



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Funding Roundup: Crypto Infrastructure All the Rage

Despite rocky digital asset markets, a couple crypto-related firms are set to soon shell out Super Bowl ad dollars — though another would-be buyer of one of the coveted slots has pulled back.&nbsp;



Overall representation from the sector’s companies during the NFL’s championship appears to be shaping up as muted, though. That’s especially true compared to last year’s display, when FTX, Crypto.com, Coinbase and eToro all touted television spots.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Viewers can safely assume FTX won’t be running a Super Bowl ad.



The bankrupt exchange — whose founder, Sam Bankman-Fried is under <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sbf-wont-actually-pay-250m-for-his-bail-bond">house arrest</a> — in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_VZpH9dG2o" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">its commercial</a> last February featured the comedian Larry David, who implied the company was doomed to fail.



Ironic.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



LeBron James appeared in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUygWsIj_GU" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Crypto.com’s ad</a> during last year’s title game. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIUD_NE1BDo" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Coinbase’s spot</a> was simpler, displaying a floating QR code box directing people to a promotional page that temporarily spurred traffic-fueled <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/super-bowl-ads-spark-public-interest-coinbase-site-crashes-from-traffic">connection issues</a>. 



Crypto.com declined to comment on its Super Bowl plans this time around. The firm has become one of many industry players <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-com-cutting-5-of-workforce-amid-digital-asset-downturn">to cut staff</a> as markets have tanked.&nbsp;



Coinbase — which itself took <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-lays-off-950-staff-cuts-operational-costs-by-25">cost-cutting measures</a> earlier this month — did not return a request for comment.



Social investing network eToro, which <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O4rP3qwlfo" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ran an ad</a>, too, is not taking part this year, a spokesperson told Blockworks.



“We dial up or down specific channels based on many factors including market conditions,” the representative said in a statement. “We&#8217;re building for the long-term and will continue to invest heavily in marketing and in building brand awareness in our key markets, including the US.”



<h3>What about others?</h3>



Canadian crypto exchange Bitbuy is set to follow up <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI3LNq_lres" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">last year’s ad</a>, which featured NBA star Kyle Lowry, with a spot that introduces a new brand ambassador.



Binu Koshy, Bitbuy’s branding and communications director, declined to identify the celebrity — beyond dropping the hint that he is “one of the NBA&#8217;s most popular rising stars.”


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="682" src="https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/220917-RV-BitBuy-Ad-BTS-6352-1024x682.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-44903" srcset="https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/220917-RV-BitBuy-Ad-BTS-6352-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/220917-RV-BitBuy-Ad-BTS-6352-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/220917-RV-BitBuy-Ad-BTS-6352-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/220917-RV-BitBuy-Ad-BTS-6352-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/220917-RV-BitBuy-Ad-BTS-6352-386x257.jpg 386w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/220917-RV-BitBuy-Ad-BTS-6352-392x261.jpg 392w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/220917-RV-BitBuy-Ad-BTS-6352-329x219.jpg 329w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/220917-RV-BitBuy-Ad-BTS-6352-80x53.jpg 80w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/220917-RV-BitBuy-Ad-BTS-6352.jpg 1772w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Bitbuy&#8217;s Super Bowl ad set. Bitbuy covered the NBA player&#8217;s face with an emoji for the time being. | Source: Bitbuy</figcaption></figure></div>


The firm’s new 60-second spot is set to appear on the Canadian broadcasts of the title game — shown on the networks CTV and TSN — within an hour before kick-off. He did not share how much the company paid for the ad.&nbsp;



The messaging will be different from last year’s spot, which was designed to establish the company’s brand in Canada before larger players fully entered the market, Koshy said.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“One year later, the landscape has completely changed,” Koshy told Blockworks. “As more and more unlicensed international crypto exchanges target Canadians, we wanted to remind people that Bitbuy is 100% Canadian, fully regulated and transparent.”&nbsp;



Blockchain gaming company Limit Break said in October it bought a Super Bowl ad for $6.5 million, adding that the television spot would feature its <a href="https://opensea.io/collection/digidaigaku" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DigiDaigaku</a> NFT collection. The company gave away the collection during a free mint in August around the time the Limit Break raised $200 million.



“Having this ad is exciting for us because prior to the Super Bowl, there’s going to be millions of people who have never heard of an NFT,” Limit Break co-founder Gabriel Leydon <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/what-crypto-super-bowl-ads-can-we-expect-in-2023">told Blockworks</a> at the time.&nbsp;



Leydon more recently <a href="https://venturebeat.com/games/limit-break-will-do-free-nft-mint-during-super-bowl-commercial/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told GamesBeat</a> the commercial would include a QR code directing players to apply for a free NFT mint. 



The company did not return a request for additional comment.&nbsp;



Crypto exchange OKX, meanwhile, has had a change of heart.&nbsp;



OKX Chief Marketing Officer Haider Rafique told Blockworks in October the company was planning on buying a spot for the Super Bowl, adding that the commercial could cost more than $10 million.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



The executive said at the time the exchange’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U2Nai5xVvA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">“What is OKX?”</a> campaign was a preamble to its 2023 marketing efforts. Rafique added the potential Super Bowl spot could focus on OKX’s self-custodial Web3 wallet. 



A few weeks later crypto markets were once again rattled as FTX collapsed, shaking confidence in centralized exchanges and similar entities.&nbsp;



A spokesperson said this week that the firm has decided not to pursue a Super Bowl ad this year.&nbsp;



“This will allow us to better plan for what we have in mind for Super Bowl 2024,” the representative said, declining to comment further.



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Who’s Coughing Up Crypto Winter Dollars for Super Bowl Ads?

Shalini Nagarajan

Web3 venture builder Chainway recently announced a tool that would interest <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/tornado-cash">Tornado Cash</a> users — a tool that would provide data supposedly showing their funds are from a legitimate source. 



At issue is that Tornado Cash — at least for <a href="https://www.fincen.gov/who-united-states-person" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">US persons</a> — is, for now, off limits.



The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/us-treasury-bans-citizens-from-using-mixing-service-tornado-cash">sanctioned the crypto mixing service</a> in August, accusing it of allowing users to launder billions of dollars in stolen cryptocurrencies, including $445 million by <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/lazarus">North Korean hacking group Lazarus</a>.



In September, the Treasury said Tornado Cash’s website had been deleted from the internet but that it could be found on some internet archives. It is also indefinitely <a href="https://twitter.com/TornadoCash/status/1213660104743981058">available</a> on decentralized storage network IPFS.



“While engaging in any transaction with Tornado Cash or its blocked property or interests in property is prohibited for U.S. persons, interacting with open-source code itself, in a way that does not involve a prohibited transaction with Tornado Cash, is not prohibited,” the agency says in its <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/financial-sanctions/faqs/added/2022-09-13" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">list</a> of frequently asked questions. 



The move sparked much debate, raising questions about instances where people may want to use Tornado Cash for legitimate reasons such as donations. Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin himself <a href="https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1556925602233569280" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">revealed</a> that he donated funds to Ukraine through the service. 



Still, &#8220;proof of innocence&#8221; as a concept may not hold any water, because — regardless of whether it works as intended — Tornado Cash is a sanctioned entity.



<h3>Proof of innocence goals and pitfalls</h3>



Chainway says Tornado Cash users may want to show that their use of the mixing service is unrelated to any illicit activity. Its tool allows users to show that their funds don’t come from specified deposits and allows them to “clear their name and demonstrate their innocence without revealing their identity.” 



However, even if the tool prevents law-abiding citizens from inadvertently mixing cryptoassets with illicit actors, many legal experts believe it won’t resolve the main issue for US persons.



To the extent such conduct is “willful,” US persons using the proof of innocence tool with Tornado Cash may expose themselves to criminal prosecution, Anand Sithian, counsel at Crowell &amp; Moring, told Blockworks.



Richard Mico, chief legal officer at Banxa, agrees that it’s highly unlikely that a tool like proof of innocence would mollify the US Treasury.



“I doubt that this proof of innocence technology has any legs in terms of making Tornado Cash legally viable or regularly used in any way, shape or form in the short to medium term,” Mico said.



<h3>License for use unlikely</h3>



Only those who initiated transactions with the service prior to Aug. 8, 2022 (the date of the ban) may apply for a specific license to engage with the service to extricate funds. 



“I think a general license to deal with Tornado Cash, even using a proof of innocence protocol, is unlikely to be granted considering that the US government has made crypto-related enforcement matters a top priority in light of the recent bankruptcies of FTX and others,” said Jeffrey Blocking, general counsel at Quadrata.



<h3>Ask a lawyer first, but expect ‘no’</h3>



Jason Gottlieb, partner and chair of Morrison Cohen’s digital assets and white collar and regulatory enforcement groups, found the proof of innocence concept an interesting one, and he hopes that regulatory bodies can eventually adopt ways to allow users to control their own assets and protect their privacy while being full compliant.



“For the moment, however, interacting with sanctioned wallets, even in the name of trying out a new technology, could carry heavy penalties. Anyone considering interacting with the Tornado Cash wallets should first call a lawyer, and be prepared to hear ‘no,’” he said.



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Why Proof of Innocence Won’t Work for US Tornado Cash Users

John Gilbert

Estimates suggest that&nbsp;over a third of the current supply of bitcoin is made up of potentially lost or dormant coins. This statistic and the horror stories of people digging through landfills for a lost seed phrase continue to keep skeptics on the sidelines.&nbsp;



Industry experts have long debated how to solve this problem without losing the self-custody of the BIP-39 seed phrase standard. For example, wallet manufacturers such as <a href="https://zengo.com/mpc-wallet/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ZenGo</a> and <a href="https://www.argent.xyz/blog/argent-secure-decentralised-ethereum-wallet-recovery/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Argent</a> launched seedless alternatives, but their critics argue that they sacrifice a degree of autonomy and censorship resistance for convenience.&nbsp;



And as the application layer of the crypto ecosystem grows, wallet manufacturers are competing to own the layer of user experience in Web3. The simple offline paper wallets of the early days in crypto can’t support this new demand for smart contract functionality and security.



Watch: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYbWNGx63cs" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Wallet Wars: Rise of the SuperApp | Qiao Wang</a>



But these developments also come with new risks. A recent <a href="https://www.certik.com/resources/blog/5Kz34Vyv4WhrIgjmhAn5II-bombflower-backdoor-uncovering-an-evasive-fake-wallet-campaign" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a> published by CertiK exposed malware that can steal the private keys of mobile wallets.&nbsp;



Noisy debate and increased complexity makes it even more difficult for average users to navigate the different ways to safely store their assets.&nbsp;



This explainer series on crypto wallets will attempt to make this journey a little less mind numbing. In this article, we will start with explaining the seed phrase debate and will follow up with a hot vs. cold wallets breakdown and then a full wallet security guide.&nbsp;



<h2>What is a seed phrase?</h2>



A seed phrase is a series of words that grants access to a crypto wallet on any compatible device. It is also known as a recovery or mnemonic phrase and is best understood as a security measure for self-custodied digital assets.&nbsp;



Both hot wallets and cold wallets can use a seed phrase for recovery. For example, MetaMask (hot browser extension wallet),&nbsp; Exodus (hot mobile wallet), and Ledger (cold hardware) all use seed phrases for recovery.&nbsp;



<h2>The difference between seed phrases and private keys</h2>



Seed phrases and private keys are often used interchangeably, but they are different. The private key is a string of numbers and letters used to approve a transaction from an owner&#8217;s public address.&nbsp;



They are safely stored in wallets so that users don’t have to manually enter them everytime they want to approve a transaction. The wallet seed phrase provides the users with a way to recover that wallet if it is ever lost or broken. If for whatever reason someone gets access to a private key though, they can move the funds without using the seed phrase. As in the case of the <a href="https://www.certik.com/resources/blog/5Kz34Vyv4WhrIgjmhAn5II-bombflower-backdoor-uncovering-an-evasive-fake-wallet-campaign" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BombFlower Backdoor</a>, hackers used wallet imitation malware to steal the private keys directly from users’ phones.



<h2>What’s the point?</h2>



A general driving force behind crypto and the push to self-custody is a distrust of the banking system and more specifically, ‘centralized entities.’ Many who have been burnt by custodial crypto platforms and are concerned with their country’s monetary policy want to take full ownership of their assets. We can save the merits of their reasons for another article, but the point self custody activists make is, if users want an alternative that is truly permissionless, they also need to take security into their own hands.&nbsp;



So don’t think of a seed phrase as a username or password. Because unlike online banking, there isn’t tech support available to verify identity and restore access. A better analogy is a fire-resistant safety box. Its effectiveness is completely contingent on how the owner uses it.&nbsp;



<h2>How seed phrase recovery works</h2>



One of the most widely-used standards for seed phrases is BIP39 (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 39). And while it was initially proposed for bitcoin wallets, it became a popular standard across the board. It outlines how crypto wallets generate the phrase and reinterpret the data for wallet recovery.



The sequence of events is essential to understanding how this works. Before a user’s new public and private keys exist, a wallet automatically generates a seed phrase or asks the user to provide one. It is a mnemonic phrase that is made up of 12, 18 or 24 words.&nbsp;



The wallet software then converts the string of words into a binary seed (ones and zeros) and uses it to produce a set of private keys and public address pairings. BIP39 is not the only standard wallet manufacturers use in account creation and recovery.&nbsp;



They can also use BIP44 and BIP32. These standards work together with BIP39 and specify a tree structure for organizing addresses derived from a seed phrase. This method is often called a hierarchical deterministic structure and allows for the creation of multiple private/public key pairings and child pairings. This structure is important because it adds a layer of privacy and security protection by using a different address for every transaction. .



Once users set up their wallet and child pairings, they don’t need to use the seed phrase for access. Instead, they login to their hardware (cold wallet) or software (hot wallet) with a passcode or pin to automatically sign transactions. This keeps the private keys out of view from the public.&nbsp;



The seed phrase comes back into play if the user loses the device. In that event, the user should ideally have stored that seed phrase in a location separate from the wallet. They would then use it to restore access on another compatible device.



<h2>Argument for seed phrase recovery</h2>



The seed phrase recovery system offers full control over the security and accessibility of crypto. By using standards such as BIP39, manufacturers can provide clear instructions for recovering private keys from other compatible wallets.&nbsp;



For example if two manufacturers use the popular combination of BIP32, BIP39 and BIP44 to create a hierarchical deterministic structure, then seed phrase recovery is compatible on both wallets. This system can give users more control over their assets and also provides a safety net in case the wallet manufacturer is no longer in operation.&nbsp;



The seed phrase is protected from hackers if it is secured properly offline (on an air-gapped machine or device) and out of view from anyone else. But it is important to consider that depending on the wallet type, there are other security vulnerabilities outside of hackers accessing the keyphrase. We will cover these differences in greater detail in our full guide on crypto wallet security.&nbsp;



<h2>Argument against&nbsp;</h2>



The seed phrase creates a single point of failure. And its protection is not an easy endeavor, as it requires extensive knowledge on best practices. For example, users commonly store the seed phrase on paper. While this protects the phrase from online threats, it can easily become unreadable over time through natural wear and tear. For this reason, some use a prefabricated metal plate, also called a seedplate, with an etched version of the seed. But if they are stored in the same location of the wallet, they become subject to the same risks such as fire, natural disasters and theft.



If a seed phrase is stored on a computer or any device that can connect to the internet, then it is vulnerable to hackers. Even computers that are disconnected from bluetooth and wifi are prone to various malware that can expose the seed phrase.&nbsp;



These extra security measures add burdens to an already clunky user experience that average consumers are not accustomed to in Web2. And even if a user takes every precaution to protect the seed phrase, their wallet can still be hacked if it is not entirely offline and air gapped from any bluetooth connections.&nbsp;&nbsp;



<h2>What about seedless wallets?&nbsp;</h2>



A seedless wallet is a type of crypto wallet that does not rely on a single seed phrase for account creation and recovery. Instead, it uses multi-party computation (MPC) or smart contract technology to distribute key generation and signing processes among multiple parties or devices.&nbsp;



It is important to remember that the seed phrase was never a necessary component for wallet functionality. In the early days of bitcoin, users relied entirely on the private key for sending BTC. So seedless wallets are really just an alternative way to secure those private keys.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



The main purpose of seedless wallets is to help users lighten that security burden. Like the seed phrase, these options still require more responsibility than traditional banking, but they use innovations aimed at removing the central point of failure in conventional seed phrase wallets.&nbsp;



Many institutions and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) are beholden to security compliance that requires these types of security solutions. And if implemented correctly, they can offer a secure alternative for people not wanting the burden of protecting their seed phrase. But they still have security risks and trade offs that some argue run counter to the spirit of decentralization.



<h2>Multi-party computation (MPC) protocols</h2>



MPC wallets use a technique called Threshold Signature Scheme (TSS) to remove the central point of failure in conventional wallets. Two examples include <a href="https://zengo.com/mpc-wallet/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ZenGo</a> (mobile) and <a href="https://www.cypherock.com/how-it-works" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cypherock</a> (hardware). TSS is a cryptographic method that allows a group of people or machines to generate and store a private key in such a way that no single person or device controls the entire key.&nbsp;



But unlike the popular multi-signature (multisig) wallets, MPC wallets don’t require multiple individual private keys to sign a signature. Instead, it divides one private key into separate shards. This distinction may sound semantical, but it unlocks more features and protections that multisig wallets can’t offer.&nbsp;



For example, many DAOs use multisig wallets to manage their treasury. If they wanted to add or move a participant, they would need to move their funds into another multisig wallet. Every time an organization is forced to move all funds to a different location, it opens them to a new set of unnecessary risks.&nbsp;&nbsp;



With MPC wallets, organizations can use something called a ‘private key rotation’ to recreate private key shards without moving funds.&nbsp;



<h2>Why does splitting the key help with security?</h2>



Mobile wallets can benefit from this approach because it prevents the entire private key from being stored on the device (a central point of failure). For example MPC wallets like ZenGo store the second key share on their servers. So, theoretically, if a hacker was only able to acquire one half of the key, they would be unable to approve any transactions without ZenGo’s permission.



According to a recent <a href="https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1ypJddodvMqJW?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Twitter Space</a> conversation with CertiK&#8217;s chief security expert, Kang Li, multiparty computation (MPC) is a safer method for transactions in general, as it requires multiple parties to sign. However, he warns that the level of security can vary depending on the implementation. In some cases, an attacker may only need one half of the key and a token from another signer to predict and sign a transaction, bypassing the need for the other half of the key. Li emphasizes that while MPC is generally a better scheme, it is important to pay attention to the details of the implementation to ensure the best level of security.&nbsp;&nbsp;



In the event that a MPC device is hacked or broken, the user still needs a way to recover the wallet. Mobile wallets such as ZenGo offer a recovery system that would enable users to reinstate their wallet without using a seed phrase. Upon downloading their wallet app, they provide instructions on setting up a <a href="https://help.zengo.com/en/articles/2603673-what-is-zengo-recovery-kit" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">recovery kit</a>.&nbsp;



The recovery kit consists of two parts: a face scan and a recovery file. The face scan is performed locally and privately on the user&#8217;s phone. And the unique recovery file is stored in the user&#8217;s default personal cloud storage system.&nbsp;



As long as these two items are accessible on the user’s cloud, they can use it to authenticate ownership when redownloading the app.&nbsp;



Early concerns that hackers would be able to use a 2D image of a face to hack scans have proven to be false. However, a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2019/08/10/apples-iphone-faceid-hacked-in-less-than-120-seconds/?sh=23404ade21bc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">black hat hacker conference in 2019</a> proved that it was possible to trick the liveness detection of an Apple face scan using spectacles and black tape.



<h2>What if the wallet servers shut down?</h2>



This recovery system though is contingent on ZenGo’s servers authenticating ownership and the cloud service storing the recovery file. 



In response to concerns of users being unable to access funds in the event that ZenGo shut down, ZenGo&#8217;s Chief Technology Officer Tal Be’eri told Blockworks that &#8220;recovery is indeed mandatory.&#8221;



&#8220;In the case of ZenGo going out of business, we have a trustee that would effectively release ZenGo remote share, and the app will be able to unite its personal share with the remote share and create a private key that can be mounted by many non-custodial wallets.&#8221;



This type of key recreation is very similar to the private key rotation made possible by the MPC protocol. If this wallet was a multisig wallet, the contingency plan would not be possible. Yet, while this does offer another layer of protection, it still requires the participation and permission of the trustee — a fact that self-custody maxis like to point out.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



<h2>Final considerations</h2>



At the end of the day, this explainer only begins to scratch the surface of new alternatives to seed phrase wallets. There are still smart account wallets that unlock a whole new set of functionality in the Web3 world. The challenge with these new innovations is in understanding the complexity. But in the Web3 culture of ‘trust, don’t verify’, this increased complexity means that the vast majority of users will still end up trusting the company behind the decentralized and transparent systems.



This can present a problem because, <a href="https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1ypJddodvMqJW?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to Li</a>, not all claims of decentralization are created equal. Upon investigation of certain wallets, Li and his team at CertiK discovered that these wallets were actually centralized, with key management and transaction signing taking place at a centralized location. Despite these centralized practices, the wallets continue to advertise themselves as decentralized.



Opponents of both sides of the seed phrase debate can agree that better education is needed. Without it, the technical transparency holds no real value to users.



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What Are Seed Phrases and Are They Needed? The New Debate

David Canellis

Insiders at public crypto companies have bought millions of dollars worth of their own stocks since FTX crumpled last November — an event which sent the price of bitcoin spiraling 25%.



Coinbase director Tobias Lütke, perhaps better known as the CEO of Canadian ecommerce giant Shopify, has led the charge. He’s been busy buying the Coinbase dip, spending $4.86 million on the stock over the past three months, per SEC filings.



Lütke has snapped up nearly 110,000 <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/coinbase">Coinbase</a> shares in that time for an average price of $44.37. COIN traded for about $60 on Friday afternoon, which means he’s up 35% on his recent haul.&nbsp;



As Blockworks previously reported, Lütke has been regularly buying Coinbase stock, spending upwards of $350,000 practically every single week since August.



<ul>
<li>Lütke joined Coinbase’s board of directors in January 2022, when its shares were worth more than $200 a piece.</li>



<li>In total, he has acquired just under 172,000 Coinbase shares for about $9.3 million, at an average price of $54.30.&nbsp;</li>



<li>His total haul is currently worth more than $10.3 million — his dip buying has, so far, paid off.</li>
</ul>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-flourish wp-block-embed-flourish"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" title="Interactive or visual content" src="https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/12569721/embed#?secret=ERGFPbJboS" data-secret="ERGFPbJboS" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="575" width="700"></iframe>
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Chart by David Canellis</figcaption></figure>



Three insiders at major <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/marathon-digital">bitcoin miner Marathon</a> have also recently backed their own stocks. Directors Douglas Mellinger and Kevin DeNuccio respectively spent $104,000 and $339,000 on Marathon shares throughout December.&nbsp;



Marathon CEO Fred Thiel himself plonked around $19,000 on 5,000 shares; altogether those three execs bought stock at an average price of $4.40. Marathon now trades for $8.18, which means they’ve collectively gained 86% — another win for the dip buyers.



CleanSpark Chief Financial Officer Gary Vecchiarelli grabbed $34,500 or 19,400 shares at $1.78 apiece in mid-December. CLSK is now at $2.90; Vecchiarelli is up 63%, lodging more than $21,000 in paper gains.



Altogether, these insiders spent $5.35 million buying the dip on their own stocks since the start of November. That same cache is now worth $7.48 million — a 40% gain.



<h3>Others insiders tapped out at local lows</h3>



Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is the yin to Lütke’s yang. While the Shopify CEO has relentlessly bought COIN, Armstrong has been busy fulfilling his pledge to offload 2% of his company stake.&nbsp;



Armstrong has dumped $8.57 million in Coinbase stock since the start of November (often coinciding with exercised options), most recently $4.55 million on Jan. 13. He’s overall sold more than 178,000 shares for $48.05 a pop, on average.&nbsp;



Coinbase stock is up 25% from that price point. He previously pledged to funnel that cash into science and tech projects, such as life extension unit NewLimit, which he co-founded last September.



Coinbase General Counsel Paul Grewal, CFO Alesia Haas, and Chief Accounting Officer Jennifer Jones also sold the dip, cashing in more than $15.8 million in COIN since Nov. 1. Haas is responsible for the lion’s share of the selling between the three, hitting an average price of $40.16. 



Had Haas waited until now to sell her stock, they would’ve generated an additional $7.75 million — a prime example of selling the dip gone wrong. (Almost all trades cited were made in accordance to pre-set trading plans lodged with the SEC in the months prior.)



<ul>
<li>Chad Harris, chief communications officer at bitcoin mining stock Riot, sold 75,565 shares for $4.15 a piece to generate around $313,600 in the first week of December.&nbsp;</li>



<li>RIOT now trades for $6.26, so Harris missed out on about $160,000.</li>



<li>General Counsel William Jackman sold 25,000 shares for $100,000 for $4 each — the same amount would fetch nearly $157,000 today.</li>
</ul>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-flourish wp-block-embed-flourish"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" title="Interactive or visual content" src="https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/12570072/embed#?secret=L3kuzXNROI" data-secret="L3kuzXNROI" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="575" width="700"></iframe>
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Chart by David Canellis</figcaption></figure>



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/riot-blockchain">Riot Blockchain</a> Director Lance D’Ambrosio sold too, getting rid of shares worth $166,100. Tyler Page, CEO at rival firm Cipher Mining, joined in, giving up 35,000 shares at $0.82. The stock now trades at $1.46 — 78% above that price point.



But by far the most active sellers are a string of executives at Block, the payments firm behind Cash App formerly known as Square, founded by <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/jack-dorsey">bitcoin bull Jack Dorsey</a>.&nbsp;



Block executives have altogether sold roughly $25.5 million in company stock since the start of November.&nbsp;



Square Lead Alyssa Henry, who joined the firm from Amazon back in 2014, made up 95% of those sales, selling more than 373,000 shares for $64.92 on average. SQ trades for $85.43 today, meaning Henry has effectively left $7.65 million on the table.



Other SQ insiders to offload stock over the dip include CFO Amrita Ahuja, CAO Ajmere Dale, Cash App Lead Brian Grassadonia and Chief Legal Officer Sivan Whiteley.



Our selling insiders collectively sold $50.5 million during their companies’ dips, but if sold today, they would’ve raked in $68.75 million.



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Crypto Execs Bought the Dip on Their Own Stocks — They’re Up 40%

Macauley Peterson

For small independent game studios, attracting an audience is a major challenge. Nascent gaming franchise Unioverse thinks Web3 can provide an answer — and be fun for gamers.



The only way to get gamers in the door nowadays is to spend 50% to 80% of a game’s revenue on user acquisition, Tony Harman, Unioverse co-founder and chief executive of Random Games, told Blockworks.



“The horrible thing about those markets is you can’t be seen — because there’s 4,000 Steam games a month,” Harman said, referring to the video game digital distribution service and storefront launched by Valve in 2003.



Unless you’re a giant company like <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/square-enix">Square Enix</a> or Activision, it’s hard to get noticed, much less turn a profit, considering the 30% in fees taken off the top by Steam, Google and Apple.



Harman, who started his career at Nintendo, is a gamer at heart.



“I’ve had No. 1 hits in 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit, mobile, free to play, all those — I love games, I love new things,” he said.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">From there I was able to head up other independent studios to launch hit franchises like Grand Theft Auto and Crackdown. But almost no one today can start like I did by just walking into a company building and asking for a job. (3/6)&mdash; Tony Harman (@tonyharman) <a href="https://twitter.com/tonyharman/status/1575136109969002496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 28, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



But realizing that he doesn’t own any of his past successful franchises, like Grand Theft Auto — and fascinated by the rise of blockchain-based assets and their gaming applications — Harman had an epiphany:&nbsp;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
“What if we just gave away the project to everyone from the beginning?” Harman recounted telling his co-founder, Wyeth Ridgway.
</blockquote>



Unioverse is in the world-building business.&nbsp;



The company hires experienced artists, writers and designers to craft stories, devise environments and develop characters — or “heroes” as they call them. Indie game developers can piggyback on it all: the code, models, animations and skins.



It’s what Harman describes as “tens of millions of dollars worth of assets” to build their games, all without paying Random Games a penny.



The business model is focused on the company’s initial ownership of the heroes, which are represented by NFTs the company sells to provide an access pass to any future games in the Unioverse franchise network.



“We want to be the Roblox for professional game developers,” Harman said, estimating that a small group of five to 10 Unity game-engine developers would be enough to build a game using the Unioverse toolkit.



Under the concept, the heroes are interoperable between all Unioverse games, and once you own one, all the games are free to play. Hero owners just have to download a game — which helps indie developers build a following — and log in with a <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/wallet">Web3 wallet</a>, to drop their character in and start playing.



“You get the Unioverse crowd, the community, coming over to your project,” Harman said.



<h3>The first (hero) of many</h3>



To kick off that community, the project <a href="https://opensea.io/collection/unioverse-collectibles" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">distributed</a> around 900,000 NFTs on the Polygon version of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/opensea">OpenSea</a>, collectibles that could earn their holders points called “protens.” Those points, gathered from completing activities like collecting sets of NFTs, then made the holder eligible to mint the first hero, Reyu, which launched on Ethereum last week.&nbsp;



The hero came in five distinct <a href="https://opensea.io/category/unioverse" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">collections</a>, distinguished by traits of varying rarity, from “common” to “legendary.” But the visual distinction — like skins in other games — doesn&#8217;t necessarily make them more powerful or useful in the virtual worlds they will later inhabit. And Harman says it might just put a target on a player’s back.



But that’s not the point; it’s a status symbol, and one that may solve a perennial problem with in-game purchases.



Unlike games where accessories are worthless if you stop playing — what Harman calls “buyer’s remorse” — the fact that Unioverse heroes can be resold by the player on secondary markets gives them lasting value. Players can, of course, opt to take their character with them to a new game in the Unioverse.



They also have full intellectual property rights to characters for creative endeavors, including making videos or selling merchandise — activities that would get you a sternly worded cease and desist letter from Star Wars owner Disney’s legal team.



The Reyu genesis collection trades for floor prices between 0.0009 ETH (about $1.60) for a common and 0.25 ETH (around $390) for a legendary, as of 2:00 pm on Jan. 27.



Any hero from the 20,000 initially released will give players free access to games in the network, Harman said, though the first proof of concept, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw4BdesoM10">Danger </a><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw4BdesoM10" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Room</a>,” is slated for a second quarter 2023 release.



In the meantime, “you could go right now, you could take your Reyu model, 3D print him, and set up an Etsy store and start selling him, and you don’t owe us a penny,” Unioverse&#8217;s co-founder Wyeth Ridgway, who serves as Random Games chief technology officer, told Blockworks.



Other characters are set to follow suit. By the end of 2023 the team expects to have “at least a million NFTs just in this character set,” he said.&nbsp;



<h3>“Chain agnostic” design</h3>



The Unioverse use of blockchain is limited to asset rights management. Ridgway has a “chain agnostic notion of assets that can be moved across marketplaces,” Ridgway said.



The team began building on <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/immutable">ImmutableX</a>, the layer-2 Ethereum startup, in early 2022. Immutable, alongside OpenSea, promised support for OpenSea&#8217;s marketplace by the end of the quarter. “Honestly, I was very hopeful,” he said, but the deadline came and went with no explanation from Immutable for the delay, so the project pivoted to Polygon. 



Immutable did not return a request for comment.



Ridgway criticized early efforts at on-chain games as “too error prone today,” leaving developers to deal with problems that distract from the development of a fun game.



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/axie-infinity">Axie Infinity</a>, he said, “was a kind of hellscape of the future of gaming,” adding that “we somehow managed to make gaming into a sweatshop industry.”



Axie Infinity developer Sky Mavis could not be reached for comment.



Ridgway finds the view of proponents of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/play-to-earn">play-to-earn</a> models, including venture firms like Griffin Gaming Partners and a16z, baffling.



“It’s just insanity. It defies basic common sense…that will certainly never be part of what we’re doing,” Ridgway said.



<h3>Advocate for creator royalties&nbsp;</h3>



The Unioverse business model relies on the 10% royalties for secondary sales of heroes, so the technical implementation of the <a href="https://www.blockworksresearch.com/glossary#erc-721-token" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ERC-721 token</a> standard had to be augmented with bespoke <a href="https://polygonscan.com/address/0xed55e4477b795eaa9bb4bca24df42214e1a05c18#code" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">smart contract code</a> to limit its transfer function.



That means that NFTs can only be sold on whitelisted marketplaces — currently OpenSea and <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/rarible">Rarible</a>, but in principle, any other marketplace that will publicly agree to honor royalties.



Read More: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/nft-royalties-sometimes-they-work-sometimes-they-dont">How NFT Royalties Work — and Sometimes Don’t</a>



Those that choose to make royalties optional, Ridgway expects, will hide Unioverse collections rather than allow their users to run into opaque blockchain errors when they attempt to transact. But that’s just fine with him; Ridgway and Harman are firmly of the view that royalties on NFT sales should be <a href="https://www.unioverse.com/explore/how-the-unioverse-is-taking-on-marketplaces-that-dont-respect-royalties/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">an industry standard</a>, and thinks that NFT creators will increasingly launch their collections using a similar enforcement mechanism in 2023.



“We look forward to the day where there’s an ERC-level solution to this,” Ridgway said.



It’s not only the principle of protecting creators at stake, it’s also the company’s bottom line — the 10% royalty across thousands, or even millions of hero sales can be quite significant, Harman said.



But why stop there?



“I want to be a community owned franchise equivalent in size — actually even bigger — than Star Wars and Marvel Universe,” he said.



Disney <a href="https://eu.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2012/10/30/disney-star-wars-lucasfilm/1669739/">purchased</a> Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise for about $4 billion back in 2012, but it’s brought in <a href="https://www.statista.com/topics/4362/star-wars/#topicHeader__wrapper">revenue</a> in the tens of billions.



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Rejecting Web3 Gaming’s ‘Hellscape,’ Unioverse Turns to ‘Heroes’

Layer-1 Aptos has seen the price of its token, APT, soar by 460% since the start of the year.



Previously dubbed the ‘Solana Killer,’ proof-of-stake network Aptos promised to create a fast and cheap blockchain that would enable NFTs, DAOs and DeFi activity but <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/aptos-mainnet-launch-draws-criticism">fell short</a> when it launched in October last year.&nbsp;



Only 50 active developers are currently active on Aptos, according to data from <a href="https://tokenterminal.com/terminal/projects/aptos" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">TokenTerminal</a>. Its number of daily active users currently sits around <a href="https://explorer.aptoslabs.com/analytics" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">31,000</a>.&nbsp;



Despite these numbers, Aptos’ fully diluted valuation (FDV) is significantly greater than that of other blockchains, including Avalanche, Solana, Polygon, and Optimism, <a href="https://www.blockworksresearch.com/?ref=blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Blockworks Research</a> Senior Analyst <a href="https://twitter.com/smyyguy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dan Smith</a> said.



<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/APT" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Aptos’ recent price surge</a> correlated with the deployment of the decentralized exchange (DEX) PancakeSwap on its blockchain two weeks ago&nbsp; — the DEX makes up a total of $33.26 million in TVL on Aptos — almost 60% of the entire Aptos TVL, <a href="https://defillama.com/chain/Aptos" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to DefiLama</a>.



“The lack of development is obvious in the on-chain liquidity, which mostly resides on a non-native DEX — PancakeSwap — in the form of non-native tokens such as USDC, BUSD, WETH,” Smith said.&nbsp;



By contrast, projects such as Fuel or zkSync run a series of testnets with developers who are building on their network before mainnet launches. That “creates a community of developers and users before the token launch, which is undeniably a more ethical process,” Smith added.



So why is the network with few users and developers seeing such a huge increase in its token’s price?



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-flourish wp-block-embed-flourish"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" title="Interactive or visual content" src="https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/12567570/embed#?secret=ylMQokgElq" data-secret="ylMQokgElq" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="575" width="700"></iframe>
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Nearly 400 articles about Aptos were published in the weeks leading up to its 460% rally | Chart by David Canellis</figcaption></figure>



<h3>The South Korean market&nbsp;</h3>



The price rally of Aptos parallels the beginning of “Xangle Blockchain Foundation Week” in South Korea, where the project has been heavily promoted.



In fact, Aptos’ focus on the South Korean market has always been intentional. A Twitter user who goes by the pseudonym DataaRocks noted in a series of <a href="https://twitter.com/DataaRocks/status/1618915057374748673" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweets</a> that the company had released a Korean language <a href="https://aptos.dev/aptos-white-paper/aptos-white-paper-in-korean/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">version</a> of its white paper and partnered with local gaming company Npixel in November last year to launch METAPIXEL.&nbsp;



It is also preparing to launch its world tour hackathon in Seoul, DataaRocks said.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Additionally, Aptos is preparing to launch the Aptos World Tour Hackathon in 2023, with a total of four cities. Aptos put their first stop in Seoul, for 3 days from 1 &#8211; 3 Feb. 5/ <a href="https://t.co/GE8UUVPrJU">pic.twitter.com/GE8UUVPrJU</a>&mdash; Rock 🪨 (@DataaRocks) <a href="https://twitter.com/DataaRocks/status/1618915057374748673?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



This momentum, however, is reminiscent of Ripple’s run in 2017, Markus Thielen, head of research and strategy at Matrixport, said in a report.



“This reminds ‘Matrix on Target’ of XRP Ripple, which had 50% of [its] trading volume driven by Korean retail investors during the 2017 peak when the token went 10x in a matter of weeks,” Thielen said in a report.



<h3>Short positions</h3>



It is also likely that many traders are looking to short APT, Thielen said, noting that over the past 48 hours, price movements have been driven by two large short squeezes.



“By far, the largest volume comes from ByBit for Aptos, which is estimated to have its web traffic source from Russia [at] 19% and Korea [at] 14%,” he said.



Funding rates for APT perpetual futures have also been trading negatively, indicative of heavy short interest. According to information on <a href="https://coinalyze.net/aptos/funding-rate/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Coinalyze</a>, Aptos’ funding rate fell sharply on Jan. 25 and Jan. 26, before leveling out once the price spiked.



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Aptos Surge Triggers Flashbacks of Ripple’s 2017 Bull Run

Though more crypto firms revealed layoffs this week, several segment players added high-level executives.&nbsp;



The Algorand Foundation named <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicatsaichin/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jessica Tsai Chin</a> as its new chief marketing officer.



The hire comes after Algorand <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/algorand-adds-ex-comms-head-at-visa-fidelity-as-cmo">brought aboard</a> Chief Marketing Officer Michele Quintaglie, a former communications executive at Fidelity Investments and Visa. A spokesperson told Blockworks that Quintaglie will continue in that role, while Chin leads on the foundation side. &nbsp;



Chin was most recently head of brand for global privacy at WhatsApp, where she also led the marketing team’s metaverse efforts.&nbsp;



Prior to joining WhatsApp, she worked in global brand marketing at Nike, where she developed mobile-first membership growth initiatives for platforms like SNKRS and the Nike Run app. She also spent about four years at Apple, leading global special projects for enterprise technology products.&nbsp;



Blockchain.com’s former chief compliance officer with an extensive traditional finance background has moved over to Kraken to work in the same role.



<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-rinaldi-877388/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CJ Rinaldi</a> joined Blockchain.com in October 2021, according to his LinkedIn. As its compliance leader, he helped the crypto platform build out global compliance frameworks.



Before that, Rinaldi was a head of markets compliance at Deutsche Bank Securities after heading up the investment bank’s anti-financial crimes compliance business. He also formerly worked at UBS, working as a transaction risk manager for currencies and commodities, among other roles.



<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/monicalong/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Monica Long</a> is now Ripple’s president after working at the company for roughly a decade.&nbsp;



She first joined Ripple in 2013 as its first marketing and communications hire, and was most recently a senior vice president and general manager of both RippleNet and RippleX.&nbsp;



RippleNet is a decentralized global network of banks and payment providers using Ripple&#8217;s distributed financial technology. RippleX is the open platform enabling developers and entrepreneurs to build payments into their application through the XRP Ledger.



Long said in a statement that Ripple is looking to delve deeper into crypto-enabled services like liquidity, settlement and custody.



The crypto unit of alternative investment manager Brevan Howard hired <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-hu-46a03343/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kevin Hu</a> as a portfolio manager.&nbsp;



Hu joins from crypto investment firm Dragonfly where he was a general partner and head of liquid strategies. He also previously led liquid investments in Dragonfly’s venture funds.&nbsp;



Before focusing on digital assets, Hu was an investor at BlackRock’s alternatives investment group and also led the group’s research effort into digital assets in 2016.



Brevan Howard’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sources-brevan-howard-launches-first-digital-assets-fund-in-massive-crypto-push">Digital Multi-Strategy Fund started trading in January 2022</a>, sources told Blockworks at the time. The vehicle <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/brevan-howard-scores-largest-crypto-hedge-fund-launch-ever">raised more than $1 billion</a> from institutional investors but had been recently<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/brevan-howard-crypto-layoffs"> parting ways with underperforming portfolio managers</a>, sources said.&nbsp;



Crypto tax and accounting platform Ledgible hired <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/pauldiegelman/details/experience/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Paul Diegelman</a> as chief revenue officer and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/will~coleman/details/experience/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Will Coleman</a> as head of institutional product.&nbsp;



Diegelman was formerly head of business development and partnerships for data and connectivity at fintech firm Fiserv for nearly seven years.&nbsp;



Coleman was the principal architect of attest services to support cryptocurrency investment funds for Cohen &amp; Company, the largest auditor of cryptocurrency investment funds in the US.



Legible raised $20 million in June as part of a Series A round.&nbsp;



<h3>Another week, another week of layoffs</h3>



Despite the slew of executive hires around the crypto space, layoffs continued.&nbsp;



Gemini is set to lay off another 10% of staff, The Information <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/gemini-is-laying-off-10-of-staff-marking-latest-blow-for-winklevoss-crypto-startup" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a> Monday.&nbsp;



The news came the same week the founders of Gemini-owned NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/nifty-gateways-founders-leaving-gemini">revealed their departure from Gemini</a>.



The company is also battling <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pomerantz-law-firm-announces-the-filing-of-a-class-action-against-gemini-trust-company-llc-and-certain-officers-301729924.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lawsuits</a> from customers of its lending platform, Gemini Earn, following the collapse of Genesis, which <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/genesis-in-chapter-11-wont-insulate-silbert-winklevoss-says">filed for bankruptcy</a> last week.&nbsp;



Gemini, founded by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, said last June <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/gemini-joins-growing-list-of-crypto-exchanges-cutting-staff-amid-downturn">it was cutting 10% of its workforce</a> — citing the crypto downturn, as well as macroeconomic and geopolitical factors.



Crypto exchange Luno is set to cut 35% of its workforce, CEO Marcus Swanepoel <a href="https://discover.luno.com/luno-adjusts-size-of-team-to-navigate-the-current-crypto-winter/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a> Wednesday. The company co-founder cited the “incredibly tough year” for crypto and the broader tech industry, including “a series of shocks including Luna, Three Arrows and FTX.”



“Luno unfortunately hasn’t been immune to this turbulence, which has affected our overall growth and revenue numbers,” he said. &nbsp;



The company is owned by Digital Currency Group, which also owns struggling crypto lender Genesis and Grayscale Investments, manager of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).&nbsp;



Read More: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/asset-managers-potential-gbtc-takeover">Asset Managers ‘Licking Their Chops’ Over Potential GBTC Takeover</a>



Billionaire Jihan Wu is cutting 10% of the staff at his crypto lending firm Matrix Asset Management, Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-27/billionaire-wu-s-matrix-asset-management-loses-top-executives">reported</a> Friday.



The company’s workforce was an estimated 300 people late last year.&nbsp;



Matrixport had <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-platform-matrixport-hires-big-name-coinbase-exec-to-build-us-business">hired a former Coinbase executive</a> to lead the cryptocurrency investment platform’s US business, sources told Blockworks in June.



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Latest in Crypto Hiring: Former Nike, Apple Marketing Pro Joins Segment

Solana (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/sol" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SOL</a>) is eyeing a return to the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market value — now trading only 25% below its price point recorded just before FTX imploded.



SOL sank more than 70% in the months following the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bankman-fried-bail-past-indictments" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sam Bankman-Fried scandal</a>, as markets rejected <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ftx-backed-projects-plunge-as-sam-coins-underperform" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">crypto associated</a> with the disgraced alleged fraudster.



The trend had <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/shiba-inu-flips-solana-as-markets-play-bankman-fried-for-a-joke" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">inspired markets to value</a> memecoin shiba inu (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/shib" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SHIB</a>) more than SOL for most of the past few months. 



Solana’s ecosystem meanwhile <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-community-remains-bullish-despite-ftx-fallout" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hoped to distance itself</a> from Bankman-Fried, historically one of the network’s <a href="https://twitter.com/SBF_FTX/status/1347964322459262977" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">loudest proponents</a> and primary backers.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-flourish wp-block-embed-flourish"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" title="Interactive or visual content" src="https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/12566085/embed#?secret=zb3viM6LIb" data-secret="zb3viM6LIb" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="575" width="700"></iframe>
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Click play to watch SOL and SHIB duke it out</figcaption></figure>



But SOL had spent most of January well ahead of SHIB — now valued at more than $9 billion compared to SHIB’s $6.4 billion.&nbsp;



SOL is currently whiskers shy of the top 10 by market cap, around $600 million short of polygon (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/matic" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MATIC</a>) and $1.6 billion ahead of polkadot (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/dot" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DOT</a>). The token sat ahead of both before its association with Bankman-Fried dragged it downward.



Solana has <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-token-jumps-110" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">easily outperformed most</a> top assets year to date, jumping from under $10 to nearly $24 — returning around 140%. 



Still, it’s lagging behind bellwethers bitcoin (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/btc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BTC</a>) and ether (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/eth" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ETH</a>) since the end of October (FTX would <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ftx-bankrupt-hacked-investigated-a-timeline-of-events" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">file for bankruptcy</a> two weeks later). BTC is up 11% while ETH is flat.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-flourish wp-block-embed-flourish"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" title="Interactive or visual content" src="https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/12566338/embed#?secret=zHSHjmhVRV" data-secret="zHSHjmhVRV" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="575" width="700"></iframe>
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">MATIC appears to have benefitted from the SBF scandal</figcaption></figure>



MATIC, the native token of Polygon — considered a direct rival to Solana — is up nearly 19% over the same period.



SOL overtaking MATIC to regain its original position would effectively mark the end of Bankman-Fried’s influence over the network.



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Solana Flips Shiba to Regain Footing Post-FTX — Is MATIC Next?

A government agency in the most populous US state, California, is testing blockchain technology using a private fork of Tezos to execute some of its record keeping, including the issuance of car ownership and simplifying transfers of such ownership.



The CA Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is expected to develop consumer-facing applications such as digital wallets and car title NFTs later this year, according to Ajay Gupta, the agency’s chief digital transformation officer.



The state opted to team up with Tezos and crypto software provider Oxhead Alpha to embrace California’s <a href="https://www.govops.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2020/07/BWG-Final-Report-2020-July1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">roadmap</a> to explore crypto adoption, according to an Oxhead <a href="https://www.oxheadalpha.com/PR_20230125_DMV.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a>.



Oxhead Alpha has built a set of smart contracts on a version Tezos — but not the public permissionless chain — to test e-titles, enabling the electronic exchange of title information, in a move that could lessen processing time for documentation. California had over 30 million <a href="https://www.valuepenguin.com/auto-insurance/car-ownership-statistics#state-total" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">registered</a> vehicles as of 2020.



Gupta told <a href="https://fortune.com/crypto/2023/01/26/california-announces-dmv-run-blockchain-through-partnership-with-tezos/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Fortune</a> that he hopes the plans to materialize the title database on blockchain come to fruition in the next three months.



This collaboration comes after California Governor Gavin Newsom last year <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/california-unveils-crypto-executive-order-as-competition-for-us-crypto-capital-builds">signed an executive order</a> directing state agencies to discern ways in which they can employ blockchain technology and digital assets. 



The use of blockchain-based projects has evolved in use cases, pushing developers to build out more decentralized applications. Several governments and business entities have been pursuing its adoption in sectors including capital markets, healthcare, insurance and digital identities.



The pilot is the latest example of attempts to find technology solutions that benefit enterprises looking for smoother compliance and efficiency in their business operations. In another instance, a Cleveland-based startup called ChampTitles looking to overhaul the car title and registration systems using blockchain raised nearly <a href="https://www.crainscleveland.com/technology/cleveland-startup-champ-titles-raises-129-million-series-b-investment-round" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$13 million</a> in a Series B round in September.



California has also listed its Department of Food and Agriculture for pioneering a similar project to track food-borne contamination through the collection and organization of data from parties involved like growers and transporters, and proposed moving state archives on a similar ledger.



The DMV-specific project itself is up and running with validator nodes, but is yet to cover broader services like title transfers between states.



This story was updated on Jan. 27, at 9:12 a.m. ET, to clarify that the pilot is not running on public Tezos.



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California Pilots Blockchain Car Title Management System on Tezos Fork

Documents filed Wednesday in Delaware’s US Bankruptcy Court list thousands of potential FTX creditors, though lawyers said the names within the documents are not necessarily significantly tied to the company.



One large bank in particular is looking to distance itself from the exchange.&nbsp;



The 116-page filing, called “Verification of Creditor Matrix” includes the names of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, BNY Mellon, and other household names in financial services.&nbsp;



It also comprises a number of crypto firms, airlines, some of the world’s largest tech firms — even media companies.



While industry watchers and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/major-media-wants-ftx-users-names-says-theres-no-danger">large media outlets</a> are anxious to find out the entities to which FTX owes money, the document filed Wednesday does not specify, lawyers said. 



A Goldman Sachs spokesperson told Blockworks in an email the bank is not an FTX creditor.&nbsp;



“This type of creditor matrix is prepared by the debtors for the purpose of providing notice to interested parties in a bankruptcy proceeding and is not necessarily evidence of a creditor relationship,” the representative added.



A spokesperson for JPMorgan Chase declined to comment.&nbsp;



HSBC and BNY Mellon did not immediately return requests for comment.&nbsp;



Dov Kleiner, a partner at law firm <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bare-bones-ftx-bankruptcy-filings-are-likely-bad-investor-omen-lawyers-say">Kleinberg Kaplan</a>, said the creditor matrix is generally pulled from the debtor’s books and records and can include lots of different parties.&nbsp;



A creditor matrix includes lending counterparties and account holders, as well as all other known creditors. But some of the companies and entities listed could be vendors or landlords who have already been paid, or known litigation parties.



“The idea is to include anyone who might have a claim so that the notice of the filing is as broad as possible,” Kleiner added. “Ultimately, the debtors are looking to have their claims resolved finally in the bankruptcy, so they will want to cover everyone they can.”&nbsp;



A professional who represents debtors, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, added that the debtor — as part of a creditor matrix — offers a list of everyone it did any business with over the last several years.



“It could be anything,” the person said. “It is not necessarily meaningful that a particular entity is on the list.”&nbsp;



Kleiner said it is understandable why a creditor matrix is given more attention in a high-profile case like this.



FTX <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ftx-bankruptcy-like-enron">filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy</a> in the District Court of Delaware in November. The company crashed after a $6 billion bank run fueled by rumors of insolvency and allegations of commingling user funds with <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/alameda-research">sister trading firm Alameda Research</a>.



Crypto companies have struggled from ripple effects, as <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/blockfi-bankruptcy-highlights">BlockFi filed for bankruptcy</a> a few weeks after FTX after <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/blockfi-eyes-bankruptcy-as-ftx-fallout-continues-report">suspending withdrawals</a> amid the FTX developments.&nbsp;



Lawyers representing FTX and affiliates said in a bankruptcy <a href="https://pacer-documents.s3.amazonaws.com/33/188450/042120644082.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">motion</a> in November that as many as <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ftx-doom-draws-dozens-of-federal-state-international-agencies">one million creditors could be named in the suit</a>. A Delaware bankruptcy judge said earlier this month a list of those creditors could remain sealed for now.&nbsp;



What will be more telling than the creditor matrix, Kleiner said, will be when parties begin filing proofs of claim and when FTX, subsequently, provides a claims estimate.



“Goldman [Sachs] is just trying to reassure people that the fact that it shows up on the FTX creditor matrix does not mean that Goldman’s balance sheet is exposed to FTX losses,” he said.



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Goldman Sachs: We Are Not an FTX Creditor

Michael Bodley

Amazon is launching a digital assets enterprise, according to four sources familiar with the matter, who said that an NFT initiative is expected in the spring.



Amazon has been shopping the digital collectibles effort to no shortage of power players in the industry, per multiple sources. Said to be among those entities are layer-1 blockchains, blockchain-based gaming startups and developers and digital asset exchanges. There’s a focus on blockchain-based gaming and related NFT applications, two sources said. 



One example in the works, per one source: getting Amazon customers to play crypto games and claim free NFTs in the process.&nbsp;



The effort is still developing, sources said. April appears to have been penciled in for the e-commerce giant to make its bold crypto ambitions public.



Amazon “coming into the space” is “a big one” for crypto “for many different reasons, one source said.&nbsp;



“We knew it was possible,” the source said. “But now it seems like it’s really happening. That’s going to affect the existing players in the space — if they execute and do this right and are smart about it.”



Amazon executives leading the push reached out to at least one family office in recent months, one of the sources said. At the time, the plan, in its earlier iteration, was to do at least one NFT drop with an artist, the same source said. Amazon’s Web3 blueprint appears to have significantly evolved since.&nbsp;



It wasn’t immediately clear who in terms of personnel is leading Amazon’s NFT initiative. Details about the platform, which would include certain NFT gaming initiatives, are still unfolding, but two sources said the platform is set to run out of Amazon proper, rather than its popular web-hosting platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS).



An additional fifth source said Amazon has been exploring a number of other Web3 initiatives of late. When it comes to both the platform and Amazon’s additional crypto forays, a number of internal hires would likely be a prerequisite, one source said.&nbsp;



While Amazon Web Services has posted occasional roles for developers and engineers in the Web3 realm, the e-commerce site is not as well known for exploring the crypto or blockchain arenas. An Amazon <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201434520">Coins</a> program continues to exist, following an introduction in 2013, but it is more akin to a straightforward loyalty program than a crypto initiative.



Andy Jassy, the CEO of Amazon, has previously <a href="https://cryptobriefing.com/amazon-ceo-hints-at-nft-sales/">stated</a> that he is open to the company selling NFTs — and that the company is not closing the door to cryptocurrencies generally.



Also an open question: the full extent of Amazon’s Web3 ambitions and end goals. Whether the company intends to compete with the likes of OpenSea and Rarible isn’t exactly clear, but two sources said both entities would view a successful launch as a substantial threat.&nbsp;



“With the [number] of customers Amazon has, they could make a huge splash in the NFT marketplace,” one source said.



Over 2.5 million users have so far interacted with OpenSea, the leading NFT marketplace today by trading volume, according to <a href="https://dune.com/queries/2877/5680">data</a> from Dune Analytics. There are now multiple <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/your-guide-to-nft-platforms" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">well-established places to buy and sell NFTs</a>. 



AWS recently inked a partnership with Ava Labs, the company behind the Avalanche blockchain, which Emin Gün Sirer of Ava <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ava-labs-partnership-with-amazon-cloud-triggers-avax-rally">described as</a> “a huge boon for both individual and enterprise developers to be able to spin up nodes and test networks on the fly with AWS in whatever legal jurisdiction makes the most sense for them.“



A representative for Amazon did not immediately have a comment.



Updated Jan. 26 at 4:55 pm ET: Additional context and quotes throughout.



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Amazon NFT Initiative Coming Soon: Exclusive

Crypto and equities markets whipsawed during Thursday’s session as traders leaned more risk-off and speculated what strong GDP numbers might mean for interest rates going forward.&nbsp;



Preliminary data shows economic growth remained stable during the last quarter of 2022, beating expectations and posting only a moderate decline from the previous period.



The US Commerce Department just reported <a href="https://www.bea.gov/data/gdp/gross-domestic-product">initial gross domestic product</a> (GDP) numbers, which showed a 2.9% annual rate of economic growth, adjusted for inflation. Several revisions to the data are expected in the coming months.&nbsp;



The Federal Reserve is expected to continue raising interest rates, although at a slower pace, delaying the shift in policy traders have been eyeing. As of Thursday afternoon in New York, markets were pricing in a 99% chance of a 25 basis point increase next month.&nbsp;



“The market&#8217;s obsession with rates and inflation, and their implications for the dollar, leads me to believe that this ultimately ends up bearish for asset prices,” Darius Tabatabai, CEO of decentralized exchange Vertex Protocol, told Blockworks. “A strong GDP print will serve as a warning around potential inflation risks, and most likely embolden hawks on the FOMC.”



Tom Siomades, chief investment officer of AE Wealth Management, agreed, noting that continued lagging unemployment is not helping the case for the Fed to pause interest rate increases anytime soon. The trend means investors will be more likely to allocate to safer investments, he added.&nbsp;



“Expect fixed income, quality and dividend paying stocks to do well as this tug of war between when the Fed stops and how high it may raise rates continues for the next few months,” Siomades said.&nbsp;



<h3>Downward trend for crypto still on the cards</h3>



Markets traded mixed on the GDP news, with the S&amp;P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes initially falling before rallying around 0.5% and 1%, respectively, later in the session.&nbsp;



<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/btc">Bitcoin</a> remained mostly flat, trading about 0.2% lower Thursday afternoon in New York, while <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/eth">ether</a> lost around 1%. A downward trend for cryptos would not be surprising, analysts said.&nbsp;



“Given recent price action, we could see some reversal in the movements of the last few weeks — which would likely lead to crypto prices heading lower,” Tabatabai said. 



“Indeed, this is already happening, and I’d expect rate sentiment to be hawkish for longer than the market expects; especially with the FOMC likely to favor inflation fears over recessionary concerns.”



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Strong GDP Numbers May Be Bearish for Crypto – Here’s Why

EffortCapital

STFX

STFX: The SocialFi Marketplace

Permissionless is the brainchild of Blockworks and Bankless. Over 5,500 people attended the inaugural event in 2022, making Permissionless the world’s largest DeFi conference.&nbsp;



What sets Permissionless apart? It’s a crypto native’s paradise, crafted specifically for both builders and investors who are dedicated to scaling the industry.&nbsp;



Permissionless is headed to Austin in 2023, and you know what they say… Everything is bigger in Texas.&nbsp;



Permissionless 2023 will feature the biggest names in Web3, a gargantuan exposition hall filled with the top brands in the space, an awe-inspiring NFT Gallery, inclusive, community-focused parties and events, metaverse experiences, and so much more.



See you in Paradise.

Tickets

Buy Tickets

Prices increase every 2 weeks. Only 250 tickets available in each drop. Register today and save!

General Admission Pass

Get notified 

Student tickets will be launching in early 2023

Student Ticket 

Prices increase every 2 weeks. Only 250 tickets available in each drop. Register today and save!

Speakers

Erik Voorhees

Mary-Catherine (MC) Lader is the Chief Operating Officer of Uniswap Labs, a developer of foundational web3-based products and applications. In this role, she oversees the company’s growth efforts, strategic initiatives, and operations. Previously, she held various leadership roles at BlackRock, including as the Global Head of the firm’s digital sustainability business, Chief Operating Officer of the firm’s digital wealth business, and leader of the firm’s strategic fintech investments and blockchain activities. MC began her career as an investor in Goldman Sachs’ Special Situations Group. She received her J.D. and M.B.A. degrees at Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School, respectively, and her B.A. at Brown University.

Mary-Catherine Lader

Zaki Manian is a Co-Founder of Sommelier, the most powerful coprocessor yet for DeFi traders and Liquidity Providers. He’s also a Co-Founder of iqlusion, which provides infrastructure like a data center and a Cosmos validator for next-gen crypto technologies. Previously, Zaki helped build the Cosmos ecosystem, including launching the first public Cosmos testnet, and served as a director of Tendermint. Zaki has been a leading developer in the blockchain space since 2014, when he taught himself cryptography and began contributing to projects including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Zcash, and Tendermint. Having studied history of science at the University of Pennsylvania, Zaki’s skill sets in software engineering, programming, and computer science are largely self-taught.

Zaki Manian

Justin Drake

At Alluvial, Chief Growth Officer Mara Schmiedt focuses on advancing industry participation and adoption of Liquid Collective, seeking out world-class partnership opportunities, and overseeing Business Development, Sales, and other strategic functions. Mara recently joined Alluvial as Chief Growth Officer from Coinbase, where she served as the Head of Sales for Coinbase Cloud, the leading developer platform for blockchain-based infrastructure products and APIs. She expanded Cloud's staking business, supporting large-scale organizations, enterprises, and institutional investors. Prior to joining Coinbase, she managed Business Development at Bison Trails, a leading provider of blockchain-based infrastructure acquired by Coinbase in February 2021. Mara also served as Strategy Manager at ConsenSys, where she supported the strategic development of Codefi, the blockchain application suite for Web3 Commerce and Finance.



Mara is passionate about open-source technology and has published multiple research reports and papers on liquid staking, such as <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/13-s15SvCIUBukhSZiNkpd0sTff3izQ5G/view">The Internet Bond</a> and <a href="https://consensys.net/insights/eth-2-staking-ecosystem-report/">Ethereum 2.0 Staking Ecosystem Report</a>.&nbsp;



Additionally, she has led various industry initiatives, including leading the working group with the Ethereum Foundation that developed the Ethereum Launchpad and the first distributed validator technology (DVT) PoCs. Mara's deep experience in bringing technology and blockchain-based products and services to market — as well as her track record of building world-class business and sales organizations — bolsters Alluvial's support of Liquid Collective.

Mara Schmiedt

Stani Kulechov

Hasu

Christine is a Partner and Head of Digital Asset Strategy at Apollo Global Management, Inc. In this newly created position, Christine leads digital asset strategy across the firm, exploring more ways to apply blockchain technologies to Apollo’s business. She also plays a key role in Apollo’s strategy to invest in some of the most innovative digital asset companies and founders, with a specific focus on those transforming the financial services sector where Apollo can serve as a validator and enabler of new technologies. Previously, she was a Managing Director at J.P. Morgan and led its Blockchain/Crypto/Metaverse program through initiatives in digital assets, tokenized payments, internet of-things, decentralized identity, NFTs, and virtual worlds. She is a graduate of Brown University. Christine was named in Fortune’s The Ledger 40 Under 40 list of “the most impressive, young superstars transforming business at the leading edge of finance and technology.”

Christine Moy

Santiago Roel Santos (CryptoPunk #9159) is an investor focusing at the intersection of DeFi and the Web3 metaverse (NFTs/gaming). Most recently was a Partner at ParaFi Capital, one of the largest crypto funds specializing in DeFi. Prior to that, he was at Sageview Capital investing in Internet and software and, before that, at JP Morgan investment banking. Santiago began investing in crypto in 2012.

Santiago Roel Santos

Michael Anderson is the co-founder of Framework Ventures, one of earliest and largest VC firms to enter the “DeFi” or Decentralized Finance industry. With over $1B in AUM, the firm has since expanded into additional maturing verticals like blockchain gaming and social crypto. Prior to Framework, Michael and his co-founder Vance Spencer launched Hashletes, a digital collectible startup with official licensing from the NFL. Before entering crypto, Michael served as a product manager at both Snapchat and Dropbox, where he helped build out their monetization platforms.

Michael Anderson

Soona Amhaz is founder and GP of Volt Capital, a venture firm that focuses on pre-seed and seed companies in the digital assets space. Soona is also an advisor to On Deck, Forbes 30 under 30 in VC, and an alum from the University of Michigan School of Engineering.

Soona Amhaz

Colleen Sullivan is Co-Head of Ventures at Brevan Howard Digital. Prior to joining Brevan Howard Digital, Colleen co-founded and served as CEO of CMT Digital, where she was also a partner with the broader CMT Group and commenced activities in the crypto industry in 2013. Prior to starting CMT Digital, Colleen co-founded Sullivan Wolf Kailus, a boutique law firm that specializes in hedge fund, private equity, venture capital, digital assets, and other alternative investment products. Colleen also previously practiced law in the Investment Funds and Derivatives group at Sidley Austin LLP and, at age 25, co-founded a company called iOptions Group LLC, which developed hedging and monetization strategies for holders of employee stock options. Ms. Sullivan currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Chamber of Digital Commerce.

Colleen Sullivan

Tarun is an alumni of D. E. Shaw Research (DESRES), Vatic Labs, an HFT firm, and Cornell. He fell into the blockchain world in 2011, when he was working on ASICs at DESRES and observed Bitcoin ASIC mining rigs substantially delay DESRES’s ASIC production. He has spent the last seven years working on simulation-based R&amp;D at the intersection of high-performance computing and AI and is applying this knowledge to the blockchain ecosystem.

Tarun Chitra

Kevin Owocki is the founder of Gitcoin.co — Where builders &amp; funders come together to build the open web.  Gitcoin has delivered <a href="http://gitcoin.co/results">$50mm worth of value</a> to OSS devs in the last several years. He has a BS in Computer Science, 15 years of engineering leadership experience in Open Source Software and Web Startups. Kevin is a community organizer in the Boulder Colorado Tech Scene.

Kevin Owocki

Meltem Demirors is Chief Strategy Officer of CoinShares, a publicly listed investment firm that manages over five billion in digital assets on behalf of a global investor base, and is a trusted partner to investors and entrepreneurs navigating the digital asset ecosystem.



 An established veteran of digital asset investing, Meltem draws on her substantial experience and widespread influence to accelerate growth and acceptance of the asset class. Prior to joining CoinShares, Meltem helped build and grow Digital Currency Group, raising capital from the world’s largest corporations and managing a portfolio of 120 companies and 4 subsidiaries. Before she was bitten with the bitcoin bug, Meltem worked in the Oil &amp; Gas industry in trading, corporate treasury, and M&amp;A roles. 



Meltem has been recognized for her personal contributions to the industry and serves as an outspoken advocate. She is a founding member of the World Economic Forum Blockchain Council. Meltem teaches at her alma mater MIT as well as Oxford, and is passionate about privacy and civil rights.

Meltem Demirors

Vance is the co-founders of Framework Ventures, a thesis-driven venture capital firm whose team of technologists, researchers, and investors partner with founders and teams to build token-based networks and develop the requisite cryptoeconomics, governance, and community to scale.

Vance Spencer

Jim Bianco is President and Macro Strategist at Bianco Research, L.L.C. Since 1990 Jim’s commentaries have offered a unique perspective on the global economy and financial markets. Unencumbered by the biases of traditional Wall Street research, Jim has built a decades long reputation for objective, incisive commentary that challenges consensus thinking. In nearly 20 years at Bianco Research, Jim’s wide ranging commentaries have addressed monetary policy, the intersection of markets and politics, the role of government in the economy, fund flows and positioning in financial markets.



Jim appears regularly on CNBC, Bloomberg and Fox Business, and is often featured in the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, Grants Interest Rate Observer, and MarketWatch. Prior to joining Arbor and Bianco Research, Jim was a Market Strategist in equity and fixed income research at UBS Securities and Equity Technical Analyst at First Boston and Shearson Lehman Brothers. He is a Chartered Market Technician (CMT) and a member of the Market Technicians Association (MTA). Jim has a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Marquette University (1984) and an MBA from Fordham University (1989).

Jim Bianco

Mr. Forman is the Founder and Managing Partner of ParaFi Capital. ParaFi is a leading investment firm focused on the blockchain and digital asset markets, and an early pioneer in decentralized finance (“DeFi”). ParaFi is one of the largest investors, users, and governance participants within the DeFi ecosystem, spanning the full network lifecycle from pre-launch to full decentralization. Mr. Forman serves as the Chief Investment Officer across the firm’s strategies, which include investing in public and private cryptoassets, systematic credit and market neutral DeFi strategies, and blockchain-focused venture capital and growth equity investing.



Prior to founding ParaFi in 2018, Mr. Forman spent 10 years at leading alternative investment managers, including KKR and TPG. While at KKR, Mr. Forman served as a Director in the Credit business, investing across a wide array of industry sectors and strategies, including distressed special situations, private credit, and opportunistic and liquid credit. Prior to KKR, Mr. Forman served as a Vice President with TPG’s former credit business, Sixth Street Partners, as one of the first investment professionals to join the platform, helping scale its private credit vehicle, TPG Specialty Lending, which listed publicly in 2014. Earlier in his career, Mr. Forman worked in private equity at Littlejohn &amp; Company and investment banking at Rothschild &amp; Co. Mr. Forman graduated with a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania.

Ben Forman

Haseeb is a Managing Partner at Dragonfly. He was previously a partner at Metastable Capital, and has a background in software engineering at Airbnb and Earn.com (acquired by Coinbase).

Haseeb Qureshi

Vanessa Grellet is a Managing Partner at Aglaé Ventures. Vanessa is a Global Executive with over 20 years of expertise in the Financial Services and Tech industry. At Aglaé Ventures she manages the Web 3 focused fund. Prior to joining Aglae she has Head of Portfolio growth at CoinFund and Executive director at ConsenSys where she focused on driving adoption for Ethereum based products,  Strategic initiatives, Alliances and Channels.  She was involved in setting up the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), the Accounting Blockchain Coalition (ABC) and the Blockchain for Social Impact Coalition (BSIC). Prior to ConsenSys she was a Strategy Executive at NYSE focused on investments and M&amp;A and a key member of PwC’s global wealth management team. Vanessa is a Founding Board member of AABC focused on Blockchain and Art, a member of the Advisory Council of ConsenSys, a Milken Institute Associate, a contributor to the  World Economic Forum Digital Future Council and part of <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/top-people-in-crypto-and-blockchain-2022/vanessa-grellet">Cointelegraph’s list of 100 most influential people for 2022</a>. Mrs. Grellet graduated Cum Laude from Law School (Paris II Assas) and Business School (HEC).

Vanessa Grellet

Mihailo Bjelic received his MSc in CS from the University of Belgrade. Prior to entering Web3/blockchain industry, he co-founded an AI/ML-powered platform for automotive industry and several other smaller startups and side projects. In 2017, he decided to join the Web3 movement full-time, primarily as a researcher interested in Ethereum scaling and multi-chain paradigms. In parallel with his work, he became one of the prominent Ethereum proponents and community members. In 2019, he started working on Polygon and conceptualized its architecture, vision and brand. In 2020, he joined hands with the Matic Network team and they have been working together on Polygon since then.

Mihailo Bjelic

Ben is a co-founder of Optimism, a leading Ethereum L2 ecosystem. He served as Chief Scientist before becoming a director at the Optimism Foundation. In his free time, he makes Ethereum-based parody songs under his stage name, Weird ETH Yankovic.

Ben Jones

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Speaker applications can be submitted <a href="https://form.asana.com/?k=L3gwAY1GRAX-RRAGDZYc0g&amp;d=1199885946213540">here</a>. Due to the high volume of submissions, we will not respond to all applicants. We anticipate &lt;2% of applicants being selected.
Blockworks&#8217; content team will reach out in the event you are accepted to speak. Please do not follow up directly.

Speaker Application

<h2>Why Sponsor Permissionless 2023?</h2>
If you’re serious about crypto, you have to be at Permissionless. Permissionless brings together DeFi builders, DAO participants, protocol developers, crypto companies, funds and institutions, and more. It’s a true crypto-native’s paradise, where you’ll have the opportunity to showcase your offerings and form lasting connections with the community.
We’ll work with your team to define the perfect sponsorship opportunity that best fits your needs and budget. Want to do something completely revolutionary? Our team can help design a bespoke package that brings your vision to life.
Get in touch with us at <a href="mailto:sales@blockworks.co">sales@blockworks.co</a>
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