BlockFi has secured a $250M revolving line of credit from crypto exchange FTX. The additional funds will be used to bolster BlockFi's balance sheet and platform strength. More: - The crypto market crash has affected the company's workforce, as BlockFi announced that it is cutting down its staff by 20% ahead of the crypto winter.
- The line of credit is subordinate to client accounts, including Interest accounts, BlockFi Personalized Yield, and loan collateral, meaning those would be paid before FTX.
- The company also hinted at a potential partnership between FTX and BlockFi to accelerate crypto financial services globally.
- FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said the cryptocurrency exchange has a responsibility to help struggling crypto companies during this market downturn. "I think that's what's healthy for the ecosystem, and I want to do what can help it grow and thrive," he said.
Zoom out: - Last week, BlockFi was hit with a $100M penalty from the SEC, one of the largest settlements made by a crypto company. The SEC alleged that the company was delivering high yields as unregistered securities.
- The company discontinued high-yield accounts for American residents.
- Other state securities regulators, including Alabama, Kentucky, New Jersey, Texas, and Vermont, also issued show-cause or cease-and-desist orders.
- Other crypto lenders also have undergone investigations from state and federal regulators, including Coinbase and Celsius. As a result, Coinbase canceled its plans to offer high-yield Lend products in September.
- The $100M fine was to be paid partially to the SEC and jurisdictions: $50M would be paid to the SEC and $50M to the states.
- BlockFi paid Iowa Insurance Division $1M as part of the $100M fine for selling unregistered securities in the state.
Decrypt 
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FalconX, a crypto brokerage firm, raised $150M in a Series D round at an $8B valuation despite the crypto market crash. The company doubled its previous $3.75B valuation from Aug. 2021 and has raised more than $430M total. More: - The round was led by GIC and B Capital Group with participation from Tiger Global Management, Adams Street, and Thoma Bravo.
- The fresh capital will be used to enable new markets for institutional customers, launch new products, explore M&A opportunities, and hire additional staff.
- The recent crypto market crash did not affect the company, CEO Raghu Yarlagadda said. "FalconX has had no material exposure in this market because of our robust risk management program. We are financially strong and growing because we have a market-risk-neutral business model," he said.
- The company's credit offering is over-collateralized and backed by liquid collateral deploying assets only within its platform, which allows the company to manage and mitigate risk.
- FalconX also anticipates seeing growth in spot and derivative markets.
Coin Telegraph
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 A message from THE WEB3 FOUNDATION Polkadot Decoded is back for its third edition on June 29th and 30th, 2022, with a fully hybrid experience of online and in-person events. Attend our live conferences in Berlin, Buenos Aires, Hangzhou, and New York, or visit our community-led events worldwide. All talks in the official locations are live-streamed, meaning you can watch them as they’re happening from wherever you are. In the spirit of decentralization, the community has helped curate the Polkadot Decoded main program by voting on submitted presentation proposals. The full program can be viewed here. Location-based invites are limited, so be sure to register ASAP. Polkadot empowers builders and developers to lead the way to Web3. Register Here
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The SEC's approval of ProShares’ Short Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) is good news for the crypto industry. Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein believes that the SEC is becoming more comfortable with Bitcoin-linked investment products. More: - Initially the SEC rejected Bitcoin Spot ETFs due to concerns about market volatility, maturity, fraud, and manipulation.
- Until now, the SEC has rejected many applications that tried to introduce a spot-based Bitcoin ETF to the U.S. crypto markets. Although the regulator has approved some bitcoin ETF products, none were spot-based.
- ProShares ETF started trading on NYSE on Tuesday under the ticker BITI, which serves as a testament to Bitcoin's maturity.
- Grayscale also wants the regulator to convert its flagship trust into a spot ETF and threatened to sue the SEC if disapproved.
Crypto Potato
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Roxe, a Web3-based payments firm, will go public in a $3.6BSPAC merger. The firm is in talks with Goldenstone Acquisition Ltd to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker ROXE. More: - Goldenstone Acquisition Ltd, a special-purpose acquisition firm (SPAC), made the announcement that it has plans to go public with Roxe Holding Inc.
- Roxe is a blockchain-based global payments company that offers both B2B and consumer payments services.
- The SPAC agreed to a $3.6B merger with Roxe to be listed on the Nasdaq, and internal stakeholders are not planning to sell their stake post-merger.
- Goldenstone’s recent IPO generated $57.5M in capital. CEO Haohan Xu had also agreed to a second listing earlier this year; a $530M SPAC deal with Apifiny Group.
Coin Telegraph
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Huobi's former senior manager is accused of making $5M in illegal trades. The former employee allegedly traded against the company's account to earn $5M in Tether. More: - Hong Kong authorities are prosecuting Chen Boliang, a former senior manager, for allegedly making $5M by secretly trading against the company in February and March 2020.
- Chen was fired in May 2020 and was arrested soon after.
- The civil lawsuit alleges that Chen had set up a retail account under his father's name and used his authority to approve a $20M credit line from the trading platform.
- Chen also allegedly traded against corporate accounts that were under his control and generated a $5M profit from USDT, the largest stablecoin.
- The senior manager has a preliminary hearing next week and is currently out on a $25K bail. He faces a total of six counts of accessing the company's computer system with criminal intent and one count of employing the proceeds of the crime.
- Huobi is the fourth largest crypto exchange in the world by trade volume behind Coinbase, FTX, and Binance.
Blockworks
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Uniswap Labs acquired Genie and plans to offer NFTs. The company continues to see value in digital assets despite the market sell-off period. More: - The goal is to offer ERC-20s and NFTs in an effort to expand more products into the market.
- The company will integrate NFTs into its web app, allowing its users to buy and sell digital assets across all major marketplaces, including developer APIs and widgets.
- Uniswap plans to airdrop USDC to its early users by Aug. 2022. Anyone that has used the platform qualifies to receive the stablecoin, which is claimable for up to 12 months.
- The company issued the following statement: "As the world's largest decentralized exchange protocol, Uniswap is a simple and safe place to access the benefits of digital ownership, offering deeper liquidity than leading centralized exchanges. We're excited to bring what we've learned building DeFi products to NFTs, giving even more people access to digital ownership and value."
- The acquisition news comes shortly after OpenSea acquired Genie's rival, Gem, earlier this year.
Crypto Potato
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 |  | Gia Mattu is based in Calgary, Alberta. She is an entrepreneur with experience in climate technology, drones, AI, machine learning, and blockchain technology. When she's not working, she loves to hike the Canadian Rockies, try new cuisine, and travel. | | | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford. | |
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