2024-02-23 07:41

Injective has partenred with DEX DojoSwap to introduce the CW-404 standard. Injective’s CW-404 standard allows for fractional ownership of NFTs, making it more accessible to users and allowing for financial use cases. The Sushi Fighter NFT collection is the first to utilize the CW-404 standard on Injective, featuring generative profile pictures and custom minting logic. Layer 1 blockchain Injective introduced the CW-404 standard, a replica of the wildly popular experimental token standard ERC-404, for its network on Friday. The Cosmos-based Injective is teaming up with decentralized exchange DojoSwap to offer the CW-404 standard. CW-404 is a port of the ERC-404 and combines the CW-20 and CW-721 standards, which relate to token issuance and NFTs, respectively. ERC-404 is an unofficial Ethereum token standard that allows multiple wallets to directly own a single non-fungible token (NFT) and gives its holders the ability to create a use case where that specific exposure can be tokenized and used to take out loans or stake holdings. Tokens standards are a set of rules and protocols that define how digital tokens should behave and interact within a specific blockchain ecosystem. The “experimental" standard brought in millions of dollars worth to the Ethereum ecosystem but has also been criticized for referencing the official “ERC” name. As a category, ERC-404 tokens are collectively worth over $173 million, data from CoinMarketCap shows, despite having been released just over two weeks ago. The CW-404 is a way for Injective to bring some of the investment from Ethereum to its own network. “CW404 is set to spawn a legion of new dApps and innovations that are simply not possible anywhere outside of Injective,” developers said in an X post. The Sushi Fighter NFT collection is the first to utilize the CW-404 standard on Injective, featuring generative profile pictures and custom minting logic, as per a post. The blockchain currently locks less than $50 million worth of tokens, data shows, a significantly smaller amount than Ethereum, which holds a massive $46 billion. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/02/23/layer-1-injective-introduces-cw-404-to-capitalize-on-the-erc-404-hype/

2024-02-23 06:17

The motion to sell around 7.84% of Anthropic that FTX held as of January 2024 had been filed in early February 2024. FTX's request to sell its stake in Anthropic has been granted by a court. FTX and sister investment firm Alameda invested $500 million in Anthropic in 2021. The FTX bankruptcy estate has been granted approval to sell its stake in artificial intelligence (AI) startup Anthropic, court filings from Thursday show. The motion to sell around 7.84% of Anthropic held by FTX had been filed in early February 2024. An initial attempt to sell the stake was made in June 2023, but was paused after months of bidders’ due diligence. FTX and its sister firm Alameda invested $500 million in Anthropic in 2021. The valuation of the Anthropic stake may hover around 1 billion as Anthropic’s valuation had tripled to $15 billion. In January 2024, the FTX estate said it expects to fully repay its customers. Sam Bankman-Fried, the former FTX boss, is due to be sentenced next month after being found guilty of fraud last year, with his prison duration expected to be hotly contested. Read More: FTX Expects to Fully Repay Customers but Won't Restart Defunct Crypto Exchange https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/02/23/ftx-estate-can-sell-near-8-stake-in-ai-startup-anthropic-court-rules/

2024-02-23 05:16

Block, Inc. (SQ) stocks were up 13% in after-market trading hours. Fintech company Block, in its fourth-quarter earnings report released Thursday, reported a remeasurement gain of $207 million on its bitcoin (BTC) holdings. As of Dec. 31, 2023, Block held approximately 8,038 BTC for investment purposes with a fair value of $340 million. The Jack Dorsey-owned company made $66 million in gross profit on bitcoin sales last quarter through Cash App, a banking services platform, representing a 90% increase year over year. “The total sale amount of bitcoin sold to customers—which we recognize as bitcoin revenue—was $2.52 billion, up 37% year over year,” the report said. “The year-over-year increase in bitcoin revenue and gross profit was driven by an increase in the average market price of bitcoin as well as a benefit from the price appreciation of our bitcoin inventory during the quarter.” Shares of Block (NASDAQ: SQ) are up 13% in after-hours trading to $76, data shows. Overall, Block reported its gross profit grew 22% yearly to $2.03 billion. Square generated a gross profit of $828 million, up 18% year over year, and Cash App generated a gross profit of $1.18 billion, up 25% year over year. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/02/23/bitcoin-bets-yield-207m-in-gains-for-jack-dorseys-block/

2024-02-22 22:10

StarkWare, the developer behind the Ethereum layer-2 blockchain Starknet, had come under heavy criticism for the unlocking schedule for its new STRK tokens. Starknet's STRK token jumped as much as 10% over $2 on Thursday after developer firm StarkWare agreed to change the unlocking schedule after community backlash. Some 0.64% of the 10 billion tokens initially minted will unlock on April 15, instead of the planned 13.4% (1.34 billion tokens), according to StarkWare's emailed statement. Starknet's STRK token jumped as much as 10% Thursday after developer firm StarkWare agreed to drastically reduce the number of tokens allocated to the team that are scheduled to unlock in April, following heavy criticism from the community. The statement came after the Ethereum layer-2 project this week airdropped more than 700 million tokens to early users, contributors and other targeted groups, with the additional disclosures that developers and investors might be able to start sell much of their own allocations as early as next month. The market capitalization of the tokens, based on the circulating supply, currently stands around $1.44 billion. "After listening to feedback from ecosystem friends and collaborators, we are changing the lockup schedule for StarkWare's early contributors and investors to make it more gradual," according to an emailed statement. StarkWare is the primary developer behind Starknet, a layer-2 blockchain atop Ethereum. Under the new schedule, 0.64% of the 10 billion tokens initially minted will unlock on April 15, instead of the planned 13.4% (1.34 billion tokens), according to the statement. "The gradual unlock will continue at a pace of 0.64% (64 million tokens) monthly until March 15, 2025, after which it will change to 1.27% (127 million tokens) monthly for the next 24 months until March 15, 2027," StarkWare said. "Under the new unlock plan, 580 million tokens held by early contributors and investors will be unlocked by the end of 2024, as opposed to 2 billion of those tokens under the previous schedule," according to StarkWare. "1.4 billion additional tokens will be gradually unlocked by the end of 2025, another 1.5 billion will be unlocked by the end of 2026 and 380 million will be unlocked by March 15, 2027." Starknet, developed by developer firm StarkWare, is a layer-2 network that makes use of zero-knowledge cryptography, allowing decentralized applications operating on top of it to scale the Ethereum blockchain. It does this by bundling transactions off-chain into a proof that is submitted to Ethereum, which in turn is supposed to process the transaction faster and lower fees for computing them. Starknet's token unlocking schedule for the development team and early investors came under criticism from market observers. STRK started trading at $5 earlier this week, then quickly fell. At press time, the token was changing hands at $2. https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2024/02/22/starknets-strk-jumps-after-developer-starkware-agrees-to-delay-token-unlocks/

2024-02-22 20:52

The company also acquired ether and Polygon "as a form of payment for sales of certain virtual goods.” Reddit said it invested part of its excess cash in bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH), making the firm one of the few companies that directly purchased digital assets alongside likes of Michael Saylor's MicroStrategy and Elon Musk's Tesla. The social media platform submitted a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to go public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “RDDT.” As part of the filing, the social media platform disclosed that it invested part of its excess cash in bitcoin and ether. It also said that it acquired ether and Polygon (MATIC) "as a form of payment for sales of certain virtual goods.” Reddit said it may continue this strategy in the future. The firm didn't disclose how many tokens it holds but said in the filing that the net carrying value of the digital assets was "immaterial." “We hold cryptocurrencies and experiment with blockchain technology, which may subject us to exchange risk and additional tax, legal, and regulatory requirements,” the filing stated. The move comes after a years-long process with regulators to become a publicly traded company. Reddit first filed a non-public draft with the SEC in December 2021. The San Francisco-based company expects to begin trading in March. “We are going public to advance our mission and become a stronger company,” co-founder Steve Huffman said in the filing. “Our users have a deep sense of ownership over the communities they create on Reddit. This sense of ownership often extends to all of Reddit. … We want this sense of ownership to be reflected in real ownership—for our users to be our owners. Becoming a public company makes this possible.” According to the filing, Reddit had $804 million in sales in 2023, a figure much higher than the previous year. The company also has a total of $1.6 billion in assets, including $1.3 billion in cash. Bitcoin and ether prices saw a slight bump on the news of the holdings before paring their gains. Another Reddit-related token, DONUT - the token that represents the community points of the r/ethtrader subreddit - surged 41%. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/02/22/reddit-discloses-holding-bitcoin-and-ether-in-ipo-filing/

2024-02-22 20:17

BNB holders transferred over $400 million worth of BNB tokens in 24 hours to benefit from cross-chain gaming project Portal's upcoming airdrop, Arkham Intelligence noted. BNB price climbed over $380 for the first time since Nov. 2022, and outperformed the broader crypto market. The token is benefitting from fading concerns about crypto exchange Binance after last year's regulatory troubles, and web3 gaming project Portal's airdrop farming campaign for BNB holders. Binance-adjacent cryptocurrency BNB (BNB) climbed to its highest price since the crash of FTX, leaving behind last year's worries about the crypto exchange's legal troubles and buoyed by an upcoming airdrop mobilizing BNB users. BNB, the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, hit $387 during the day for the first time since Nov. 2022, gaining 7% over the past week, CoinDesk data shows. It outperformed the broad-market CoinDesk 20 Index's (CD20), which showed a slight decline over the same time period. BNB is closely linked to Binance. It was issued by the crypto exchange in 2017 and powers the blockchain ecosystem BNB Chain, formerly known as Binance Smart Chain. The exchange also conducts a regular token burning scheme that reduces the outstanding supply of BNB. While the broader crypto market rebounded last year, BNB's price struggled, sinking to a two-year low price last October as regulatory troubles mounted for Binance. most notably the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing a lawsuit against the exchange, its CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, and claimed BNB security. "A lot of sentiment was around U.S. sanctions impacting Binance beyond just the U.S.," David Alexander, research partner at Anagram, said in an interview via X direct messages. "In many ways, BNB's performance is tied to the exchange, so if user activity and volume on the exchange suffered, this could spill over into the broader ecosystem of the BNB network." Pressure on BNB eased following Binance's settlement with U.S. authorities – paying a $4.3 billion fine and CZ stepping down –, and the token staged a relief rally as market participants' worry over the exchange dissipated. Portal's airdrop farming Rejuvenated activity also likely fueled the price action, as the latest airdrop frenzy has reached to the BNB ecosystem. Binance introduced on Wednesday cross-chain gaming platform Portal to the Binance Launchpool, offering Binance users a way to benefit from the project's PORTAL token airdrop slated for Feb. 29 and also listing the upcoming token on the exchange. Users may lock-up BNB tokens or FDUSD stablecoins in Portal's liquidity pools to qualify for the airdrop. Following the announcement, BNB holders transferred over $400 million worth of BNB tokens in 24 hours to Portal in anticipation of the airdrop, blockchain intelligence firm Arkham noted Thursday in an X post. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/02/22/bnb-price-climbs-to-highest-since-ftx-crash-amid-airdrop-frenzy-easing-binance-worries/