FTX and Lightspeed Venture Partners have led a $21 million Series A funding round for gaming studio Faraway.Faraway said in a press release Thursday the other participants in the funding round included a16z, Sequoia Capital, Pantera Capital, Jump Capital and Solana. Faraway raised an $8 million seed round earlier this year, which was also led by Lightspeed.The investment will be used to integrate the Solana blockchain into Faraway’s most popular gaming title, “Mini Royale,” a battle royale-based first-person-shooter game similar to Counter-Strike.The browser-based game will utilize an in-game economy compatible with FTXPay and Solana non-fungible tokens (NFT), becoming the first multiplayer video game to do so, according to the press release.With Web 3 gaming still … [Read More...]

This episode is sponsored by NYDIG.Download this episodeOn today’s episode, NLW follows up on the burgeoning bitcoin-mayor competition between New York City’s Eric Adams and Miami’s Francis Suarez. The show’s main topic is an open letter sent by Congressional Blockchain Caucus co-chairs Rep. Tom Emmer and Rep. Darren Soto to Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler about the recent approvals of bitcoin futures-based exchange-traded funds. They argue it simply doesn’t make sense to approve a futures ETF but not a spot ETF that holds actual bitcoin. Surprise, surprise, the crypto community agrees.See also: US Lawmakers Call for Bitcoin Spot ETF in Letter to SEC Chair Gensler“The Breakdown” is written, produced by and features Nathaniel Whittemore aka NLW, with editing by … [Read More...]

Blockchain gaming remains a largely underappreciated area of crypto. There are, for instance, still no gaming coins in the top 50 tokens. But the gaming industry is due for its own blockchain revolution, one that could bring more trust and security – and potential new avenues of monetization – that could change the industry forever.The gaming industry is huge, largely digital and ripe for decentralization. According to a report released last month by the international consultancy Accenture, global gaming is a $300 billion industry enjoyed by more than a third of all people on the planet. More than 500 million players joined the gaming fold in the last three years alone. That means the gaming industry is now bigger than the music and movie markets combined.Much of … [Read More...]

There are things out of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s control. The central bank has a dual congressional mandate to maintain the U.S. dollar’s long-term value and achieve maximum employment, but it’s dealing with a mix of uncertainties as it pursues those goals.Yesterday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell announced the monetary body will begin scaling back its historic asset purchasing program, one of the key levers it pulled to support and stimulate the economy during the worst of the coronavirus pandemic.This article is excerpted from The Node, CoinDesk’s daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news. You can subscribe to get the full newsletter here.Beginning in November, the Fed will purchase $10 billion fewer Treasury bonds and $5 … [Read More...]

MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor has personally done very well by his longtime support for bitcoin, with his own holdings of the crypto now worth more than $1 billion.On Thursday, Saylor retweeted a tweet of his from a year earlier in which he disclosed that he personally held 17,732 BTC he purchased for an average price of just under $10,000 (at the time, those holdings would have been worth $235 million). In his retweet, he added the comment that “you do not sell your #bitcoin.”Saylor confirmed in an exchange with CoinDesk that he has not sold any of his bitcoin holdings.You do not sell your #bitcoin. https://t.co/zMGyYU1iRp— Michael Saylor?? (@saylor) October 28, 2021At current prices, Saylor’s holdings would be worth about $1.1 billion, … [Read More...]

When most people think of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), they think of their value as lying in their being unique – hence “non-fungible.” As one-off, digital representations of art, they are indivisible and non-replicable, to which people can attach value. But now there is a growing move to make NFTs usable in several different ways. This movement toward added utility creates a different kind of value proposition for NFTs, on top of their scarcity and collectability.One of the more novel concepts is NFT staking or farming. This refers to staking NFTs to a protocol to earn a yield. It gives NFTs passive yield-generating utility, and can be thought of as decentralized finance (DeFi) meets NFTs.Onessus Blockchain Systems is a blockchain … [Read More...]

Bitcoin has traded mostly sideways over the past two weeks, prompting some traders to consider alternative cryptocurrencies such as ether for greater profit potential.“Our models are still full risk-on ETH (whereas our bitcoin model started reducing exposure last week) but we are starting to see some slowing in conviction buying,” Ben McMillan, chief investment officer at quantitative research firm IDX Insights, wrote in a research report.BTC’s price has been roughly flat over the past week, compared with a 4% rise in ETH and a 23% rise in Solana’s SOL token over the same period.“Investors are likely looking for the next catalyst for another leg higher, but the absence of such is likely to leave bitcoin vulnerable to a break below $60,000,” … [Read More...]

Incoming New York City Mayor Eric Adams said on Thursday that he will take his first three paychecks in bitcoin when he takes office in January.“In New York, we always go big, so I’m going to take my first THREE paychecks in bitcoin when I become mayor. NYC is going to be the center of the cryptocurrency industry and other fast-growing, innovative industries! Just wait!” Adams wrote in a tweet on Thursday.The tweet was in response to one from Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who on Tuesday pledged to take his next paycheck in bitcoin. Suarez won reelection earlier this week by a wide margin.Adams, currently the Brooklyn borough president and a retired New York City Police Department captain, was pro-crypto throughout … [Read More...]

The Bank of Spain is asking the country’s leading financial institutions to provide information on their crypto-related plans for the next three years, the newspaper El Pais reported Thursday.The central bank has requested that banks include information on their relationships with crypto service providers, stakes in crypto companies and exposure to crypto. It has also asked banks whether they plan to issue tokens or provide custody, trading or payment services for crypto, and to outline any initiatives to market products or offer services to customers through a digital platform over the next three years.According to unnamed Bank of Spain sources cited in the El Pais article, the purpose of the data request is to know “the impact that the ongoing process of digitalization and … [Read More...]

Payments firm Square said in its third-quarter earnings letter Thursday that its peer-to-peer payment service, Cash App, generated $1.82 billion of bitcoin revenue in the quarter and $42 million of gross profit, up 115% and 29% year over year, respectively.Bitcoin revenue and gross profit decreased in the third quarter versus the second quarter, however, Square said, citing the “relative stability in the price of bitcoin, which affected trading activity compared to prior quarters.”Square also noted bitcoin revenue and gross profit may fluctuate in future quarters given changes in customer demand and bitcoin’s market price. It said that may be particularly the case “as we lap strong growth rates on a year-over-year basis in the fourth quarter of 2020.”Square’s total net … [Read More...]

A group of U.S. regulators urged lawmakers to subject stablecoin issuers to the same strict federal oversight as banks, in a highly anticipated report released Monday.Congress should also require custodial wallet providers to be regulated by a federal agency and limit stablecoin issuers’ interactions with non-financial companies such as tech or telecom providers, the President’s Working Group for Financial Markets said. The latter recommendation appeared to be aimed squarely at Diem, formerly Libra, the controversial stablecoin project created by Meta, the social media giant previously known as Facebook.The report is part of an escalating effort by policymakers to rein in this $138 billion segment of the broader crypto market to mitigate the risks they believe stablecoins pose to consumers, markets and the financial … [Read More...]

This episode is sponsored by NYDIG.Download this episodeNLW counts down the top 5 things to happen in crypto over the last month, including a DAO buying a Wu Tang clan album, top 5 U.S. banks creating new crypto offerings, battles around SEC subpoenas and much more. Listen to find out why we will view October 2021 as a significant transitional month in bitcoin and crypto history.See also: Biden Administration to Congress: Put Stablecoins Under Federal Supervision – Or We Will“The Breakdown” is written, produced by and features Nathaniel Whittemore aka NLW, with editing by Rob Mitchell, research by Scott Hill and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Adam B. Levine is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. The music you heard … [Read More...]

The Houston Firefighters’ Relief and Retirement Fund (HFRRF) made news recently when it announced it was investing $25 million in bitcoin and ether, marking what was believed to be the first time a U.S. pension fund had put cryptocurrencies directly on its balance sheet.Of course, $25 million is only a drop in the bucket compared to the $5.5 billion in total assets held by the fund – more precisely, it represents just 0.5% of its portfolio. But it still was a notable first step by the historically conservative investment fund. And if other pension and retirement funds follow suit, it could open up a huge source of additional demand for cryptocurrencies, with the funds collectively controlling trillions of dollars in global assets.To be sure, … [Read More...]

A new report and recommendations on the regulation of stablecoins issued today by a coalition of U.S. financial authorities is, on the whole, sensible and contains a lot of elements that crypto advocates taking the long view should support. But it strikes a worrying tone of urgency that could lead to a regulatory power grab in the almost-certain absence of clear action by legislators in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.Stablecoins, such as tether and USDC, are cryptocurrency tokens tied to a basket of assets meant to “peg” each token’s value to a stable currency, such as U.S. dollars. By far the most worrisome element of stablecoins is that the assets backing them are not subject to consistent oversight, raising serious … [Read More...]

En un primer momento Cynthia Gutiérrez se negó a descargar Chivo Wallet, la billetera digital desarrollada por el gobierno de El Salvador para el uso de bitcoin en todo el país, lanzada el 7 de septiembre.Decidió descargar la aplicación el 16 de octubre después de enterarse por otros salvadoreños de que hackers habían activado billeteras asociadas con diferentes documentos de identidad, conocidos por sus siglas como DUI en El Salvador.“Esto fue creciendo cada vez más, llegando a mi círculo cercano”, dijo Gutiérrez, de 28 años, a CoinDesk.Cuando Gutiérrez introdujo sus datos personales, apareció una pantalla con una notificación que indicaba que su número de documento ya estaba asociado a una billetera. Inmediatamente, hizo una captura de pantalla, temiendo que sus datos fueran utilizados con fines ilícitos.El … [Read More...]

Canadian miner Bitfarms plans to grow its mining capacity to more than 2 exahashes (EHs) per second in November after hitting a record hashrate last month, according to a SEC filing on Monday.The miner’s October bitcoin product rose 12.5% from September, due to production from its newly built, larger facility in Cowansville, Québec. The company increased its mining capacity to 1.8 exahashes.“With new miner deliveries en route and deliveries continuing throughout November, this month we expect to grow our hashrate to over 2 EH/s and improve our electrical efficiency to 44 watts per terahash,” CEO Emiliano Grodzki said in the statement.The company has mined 2,750 bitcoin so far this year and plans to achieve 3 EH/s mining power by the end of the first quarter of 2022, and 8 … [Read More...]

NFL superstar Aaron Rodgers offered a resounding endorsement of bitcoin on Monday, tweeting that “I believe in Bitcoin & the future is bright.”The longtime Green Bay Packers quarterback and three-time MVP revealed that he’s working with Square’s Cash app to receive an undisclosed amount of his salary in bitcoin for the first time. New York Giants star running back Saquon Barkley said in July he would be receiving all his future endorsement money in bitcoin, while several other NFL players have also said they would get part of their salaries in cryptocurrency. Rodgers signed a four-year contract worth $134 million with the Packers in 2018.Rodgers also said he’s giving out one million dollars to his fans who submit their cashtags on Twitter and follow … [Read More...]

Argo Blockchain (NASDAQ: ARBK), the London-based miner that recently started trading on Nasdaq, achieved record revenue of $26 million in the third quarter, according to its earnings statement.The miner had record Ebitda of $26 million for the third quarter and gross margin was 120%. Meanwhile, its mining margin reached 85% during the quarter. On Oct. 7, the miner said it had a gross margin of 145% and mining margin of 86% during August.The company holds 1,836 bitcoin as of Sept. 30 and has a hashrate of 1.075 EH/s.Argo expects its previously contracted purchase of 20,000 Bitmain Antminer S19J Pro machines to be delivered starting in the second quarter of 2022, which will bring the company’s total hashrate capacity to approximately 3.7 EH/s.“I am proud of the … [Read More...]

Bitcoin has traded in a tight range over the past few days. It appears that extreme bullish sentiment is starting to cool after BTC reached its all-time high of around $66,900 two weeks ago. For now, traders are gearing up for a strong November and expect positive crypto returns heading into the end of the year.Still, some analysts see room for a slight pullback as open interest rises in the bitcoin futures market. “[Rising open interest] is typically a bearish signal as it means there is more leverage in the system – this increases the chance of a liquidation event where traders are forced to sell and the price cascades lower,” Marcus Sotiriou, a sales trader at U.K.-based digital asset broker GlobalBlock, … [Read More...]

Mawson Infrastructure Group has listed an Australian crypto mining exchange-traded fund (ETF) that includes Galaxy Digital and Hut 8 mining, among other companies.The provider of diversified digital infrastructure services said Monday the ETF, which will be the first product offered by its Cosmos Asset Management unit, will be named Cosmos Global Digital Miners Access ETF, under the code “DIGA.CXA.” The ETF will track the performance of the Global Digital Miners Index, which is managed by Standard & Poor’s, according to a statement. The press release didn’t specify when the ETF will start trading.The ETF’s top three holdings will be Galaxy Digital with a 20% allocation within the fund, while Hut 8 and Marathon Digital will both have a 14% weighting, according to the Cosmos … [Read More...]