Cryptocurrency News: Coinbase Up 50% Before Earnings, Blocks Bitcoin Losses, FLOW Flies
Cryptocurrency News Update: COIN stock rises ahead of earnings report on news like Coin base (COIN) and Black stone (BLK) is collaborating on a cryptocurrency platform for institutional investors. Block (SQ)’s quarterly revenue and sales have fallen over the year, partly due to a drop in Bitcoin revenue. Meta (META) expands its NFT footprint, sending FLOW flying. Robin Hood (HOOD)’s crypto subsidiary was fined $30 million for anti-money laundering and cybersecurity lapses. Hackers feel sorry for stealing $200 million from crypto firm Nomad and have started returning funds.
Cryptocurrency News: Price Action
Bitcoin is above $24,000 after returning 16.8% in July, its best monthly performance since October 2021. Ethereum is at a two-month high after climbing near $1,800 ahead of its expected merger into a proof-of-stake blockchain . Ethereum is in the midst of transitioning the Goerli network to PoS, which will take place on the 6th-12th. August. It is the last test network before the official merger which is set for September. July also marked the best month for digital asset funds so far this year. Digital asset fund inflows totaled $474 million for the month, nearly equaling June’s $481 million. About $490 million of fund money has been invested in digital asset products so far this year.
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Coinbase is merging with BlackRock
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is partnering with the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, on an institutional cryptocurrency investment platform. Announced on Thursday, Coinbase Prime will offer crypto trading, custody, brokerage, financing and staking opportunities to institutional clients of Aladdin, BlackRock’s investment management platform.
COIN stock jumped more than 10% after the news broke, and is up nearly 50% in the past week ahead of its Aug. 9 earnings report. COIN is down more than 60% so far this year alongside the broader cryptocurrency market crashes.
For the quarter, Wall Street expects Coinbase to report an adjusted loss of 72 cents per share versus adjusted earnings of $7.42 per share last year. Forecasts see revenue plummet to $874 million from $2.23 billion.
Block’s Bitcoin loss
Block, the parent company of Square and Cash App, beat forecasts for its second-quarter results, despite earnings falling 72% and revenue falling 6%. Cash App’s Bitcoin revenue fell 34% for the period to $1.79 billion, driven by a decline in Bitcoin prices, consumer demand and greater uncertainty surrounding cryptoassets, Block said.
The company’s gross profit from Bitcoin was $41 million, down 24% over the year. Block also recorded a $36 million impairment loss on Bitcoin, which improved from a $45 million write-down last year.
Robinhood Crypto Fine
In other cryptocurrency news, Robinhood was fined $30 million by the New York Department of Financial Services earlier this week for its crypto subsidiary’s “significant” anti-money laundering, cybersecurity and consumer protection violations, as well as lying about its compliance status.
“As the business grew, Robinhood Crypto failed to invest the necessary resources and attention to develop and maintain a culture of compliance – a failure that resulted in significant violations of the department’s anti-money laundering and cybersecurity regulations,” DFS Superintendent Adrienne Harris said in a press release .
NYDFS says the AML program was inadequately staffed, failed to transition from a manual transaction monitoring system and did not devote enough resources to managing risks. Similarly, RHC’s cybersecurity program ignored operational risks and compliance with multiple security and virtual currency regulations, stemming from management and oversight deficiencies.
As part of the settlement, Robinhood Crypto must retain an independent consultant to evaluate regulatory compliance.
Meta NFT extension
Meta is rolling out NFTs in 100 countries after integrating with Coinbase Wallet and Dapper labs. The company formerly known as Facebook has been testing NFT support for Instagram and its namesake social media platform for the past few months. Meta will also add support for Dapper’s Flow Blockchain, which is behind major NFT collections and partnerships like NBA Top Shot.
META stock is down nearly 3% this week. COIN shares are up more than 50% on news, there’s also partnership with BlackRock ahead of earnings. And FLOW Token rose more than 48% this week following the news.
Nomadic hackers return funds
A hacker and regular investors stole nearly $200 million from crypto firm Nomad in a matter of hours last week. A hacker found a code comment in Nomad’s audit report that explained how Nomad Bridge could be exploited. The hacker manipulated the transaction code to siphon funds from the bridge into their personal wallet. Everyday cryptocurrency investors saw what was happening and joined in the looting by copying the transaction. All they had to do was exchange their wallets at their destination.
The bridge was tapped for $190 million by pressing copy and paste. At least some investors feel remorse. Etherscan data shows that approximately $32.6 million in various cryptocurrencies were returned or donated to Nomad’s official fund recovery address by Monday afternoon.
Cryptocurrency News You May Have Missed
It turns out Helium, which touted itself as a blockchain-powered wireless network, doesn’t make much money or have many customers. Helium received $365 million in funding from the likes of a16z, and private investors spent $250 million buying hot-spot nodes to earn passive income. But Helium only generates $6,500 in monthly revenue. People bought the $800-$1000 nodes expecting to recoup their investment and start making money within a few months.
The company was also misleading about its contracts with Lime and Salesforce (CRM). Helium even posted its logos on its website under the list of partners until questions arose about it.
A16zAndrew Chen, who was one of the lead investors for the clubhouse and substack deals, is now in charge of the firm’s new Game Fund One, which will invest in the metaverse, augmented-reality/virtual-reality game studios, social platforms for gamers and more. Game Fund One will operate out of Venice, California, Chen wrote in his understatement.
Cryptocurrency in focus
Dapper Labs’ FLOW token is the native cryptocurrency for the Flow network and blockchain. Flow’s platform uses smart contracts that allow developers to create their own apps, games and non-fungible tokens.
Dapper Labs is behind some of the biggest projects for officially licensed NFTs and has partnerships with the NBA, NFL, UFC and Spain’s La Liga soccer league. It’s NBA Top Shot series of NFTs, which are essentially digital trading cards with highlight clips, have recorded around $1 billion in transactions.
The company is adding more partnerships with celebrities and athletes to expand its product pipeline. Dapper Labs raised $725 million in its last funding round in May, valuing it around $7.6 billion.
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