The Block
Quick Take President Joe Biden tapped the CFTC’s Christy Goldsmith Romero to lead the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Kristin Johnson to a top role at the Treasury Department. Both Democratic CFTC commissioners have pushed the agency to issue rules or guidance to protect consumers and address conflicts of interest in crypto. Commissioner Romero, up for a spot as FDIC chair, has warned of “contagion risk” in crypto markets, drawing comparisons to the industry and the financial crisis in 2008.
Quick Take Proof of Play’s crypto game “Pirate Nation” secured a token listing on Coinbase shortly after its launch on Thursday. Last September, a16z crypto, Anchorage Digital and Naval Ravikant participated in a $33 million seed round for Proof of Play.
Quick Take Some worry the CFTC is “biting off a hell of a lot more than they can chew,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on Thursday. Durbin also asked SEC Chair Gary Gensler, previously the chair of the CFTC, if the commodities regulator could take on overseeing crypto.
Quick Take Leading web3 venture capital firm Paradigm has raised $850 million for a third fund focused on investing in crypto. In April, Paradigm was in talks with investors about raising the same amount for a new fund.Separately Thursday, Paradigm said it promoted Georgios Konstantopoulos to general partner.
Bitfarms announced it will develop a “large-scale” mining site in Pennsylvania that will boost capacity, which caused its stock to jump in price.A committee also determined the Riot Platforms takeover proposal “significantly undervalues Bitfarms and is not in the best interest of shareholders.”
SEC Chair Gary Gensler estimated that the S-1 approvals for spot ether ETFs could occur sometime by the end of this summer. A Tennessee Senator also chastised Gensler’s rule-making for the cryptocurrency industry, stating that the agency’s “roadblocks” have spurred U.S. companies to move abroad.
Quick Take Prolific crypto venture capital firm Paradigm has made Georgios Konstantopoulos a general partner.
Quick Take The Graph has transitioned to a fully decentralized data layer following the completion of The Graph Foundation’s Sunrise initiative. The transition sees subgraphs upgraded from centralized hosting providers to a globally distributed network of token-incentivized data indexers.
Quick Take Global crypto investment products rebounded with $436 million in net inflows last week led by Bitcoin, according to CoinShares. However, Ethereum-based funds continued to struggle, experiencing weekly net outflows of $19 million.
JPMorgan analysts are skeptical about the sustainability of strong crypto inflows so far this year, citing current high bitcoin prices.If the current trend were to continue, it would result in an annualized net inflow of around $26 billion, they said.
