CoinDesk Crypto

Evaluate.market, the scrappy non-fungible token (NFT) calculator popular among NBA Top Shot users, has raised $1.6 million in a move that presages the one-month-old company’s foray beyond Dapper Labs’ well-funded basketball hit.

The startup, which incorporated in February after its team realized the data-mining website had outgrown hobby level, found pre-seed backers in Castle Island Ventures, Notation Capital and DraftKings’ tech VC, Drive, Christian Dittmeier, one of the three co-founders, told CoinDesk.

The round underscores how Dapper Labs’ hyper-popular digital trading cards are fostering a side economy dedicated to providing market data to the ballooning user base. Some users now have tens of millions of dollars wrapped up in NBA Top Shot moments and the NFT sector’s market cap recently eclipsed $1 billion. 

Related: Scams and Fraud Bubble Up as NFT Mania Takes Hold

But the official marketplace’s price analysis tools failed to meet the expectations of Dittmeier and co-founders Alex Ramirez and Cody Bouche when they started buying packs in mid-January, Dittmeier said. For starters, there was nothing on the site to show their investment appreciation over time.

The founders’ moments “were worth, like, eight times what we paid but there was nothing on [NBA Top Shot] that indicated that,” Dittmeier said, “so we started to kind of get the data for ourselves so that maybe, you know, we could make better investment decisions.”

Dittmeier, a data engineer, began plugging price data into a mock-up while Bouche pieced together an API and Ramirez built out the front end for what would become Evaluate.market. Seven weeks later their hobby, now a company, touts 17,000 registered users and prominent links on Top Shot’s moments pages, he said.

Evaluate.market is now raising cash to expand its team as its founders more closely integrate with Dapper’s Flow blockchain. Next week they will replace their pricing tool’s periodical moment price updates with real-time data bridges. 

Related: DeepDotWeb Operator Pleads Guilty to Laundering $8.4M in Bitcoin Kickbacks

In the long term, the team, which is newly bullish on NFTs, wants to chart a future that can survive the tireless NFT churn, whether that be through more Flow pricing tools or an expansion to the more popular Ethereum blockchain.

“It’s the hardest question right because sometimes the hype cycles for NFTs are super short so we don’t want to do a bunch of dev time to like, you know, kind of be behind the cycle in terms of popularity,” Dittmeier said. “We want to be multi-NFT by the end of the year.”

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A debate is raging among bitcoin traders after a chart-reading analyst spotted a pattern known as a “bull flag,” ostensibly portending a coming rally to $70,000 or beyond.

The analysis, posted on the website Bitcoinist by Yashu Gola and affirmed by Bill Noble at Token Metrics, concluded that the bull flag has formed over the past month, and that the cryptocurrency’s price is set to pop after a breakout in recent days. 

But when it comes to identifying and interpreting price-chart patterns there’s an art to the science, and some practitioners of bitcoin technical analysis say they can’t see the flagpole needed to complete the picture. 

Related: US Bitcoin Mining Venture Blockcap Closes $38M Round for ASIC Expansion

“I disagree that there is a flag pattern because there is no real ‘flagpole’ preceding the consolidation phase that has been resolved to the upside,” Katie Stockton, a technical analyst for Fairlead Strategies, told CoinDesk in an email.

The debate has reached such a fever pitch that it was trending Tuesday on the social-media site Reddit:

The controversy comes as bitcoin continues to draw all manner of bullish predictions, from all corners of the market, having rallied six-fold since October. While some analysts have modeled out long-term price forecasts of $100,000 or even $1 million based on a range of methods, few traders are currently calling for a rally to $70,000 in the short term. 

According to the original post on Bitcoinist, the cryptocurrency broke out of its bull flag pattern on Tuesday, signaling the end of a two-week-long price consolidation phase and marking a resumption of the broader uptrend. 

Related: Anchorage to Custody Digital Securities for Broker-Dealer Prometheum’s Retail Trading Platform

Under the theory of chart analysis, also known as technical analysis, a flag breakout signals an asset is likely to move upwards, roughly on the scale of the preceding bull move, which is known as the pole. In this case, the breakout has created an opening for prices to move toward $70,000 or beyond, according to Gola. 

Bill Noble, chief technical analyst at Token Metrics, a cryptocurrency research company, mostly agreed with the Bitcoinist post in an email, saying the pattern does look like a bull flag on the four-hour chart. 

“If you look at the four-hour chart, the bull flag appears as a parallel channel,” he said. “In my mind, this makes the pattern very clear.”

“Simply put, the recent consolidation in BTC is a pause that refreshes,” according to Noble. “Depending on what time frame you use for the measurement, the upside target for BTC could be either $75,000 as per the four-hour chart or $80,000 per the daily chart.”

However, some analysts say the pattern does not qualify as a bull flag, and traders are running ahead of themselves in making bold predictions based on it.

The rally seen in the first two weeks of March should have been much steeper or bigger in magnitude to qualify as the flag’s pole, according to Stockton. What appears instead is a pole almost equal to the size of the so-called flag. 

“For it to be a flag, in my opinion, the early-March rally would have been steeper, and new highs would have been registered versus the high point of the consolidation phase,” she said. 

Gola, when asked for his response to the critique, told CoinDesk in a LinkedIn chat that the price structure looks like a bull flag despite the pole not being steep enough.

He said the price projection was supported by news developments this week, including the payment giant Visa’s announcement that it will process transactions on the Ethereum blockchain, along with PayPal’s plan to roll out a cryptocurrency check-out service across some 29 million online merchants. Both were seen as signs of growing mainstream adoption of digital assets, which could be broadly beneficial to the bitcoin market.

“I professed my upside bias based on rising volumes, as the price rose on daily timeframes before entering a consolidation period,” Gola said. “Also, the bull flag works in conjugation with supportive fundamentals, including the latest PayPal and Visa announcement. We need to look at all the sides.”

“Anyway, it is a humble opinion, not an outright claim,” he said.

Even if traders agree that bitcoin’s bull flag has appeared in the price chart, there’s still lingering doubts over whether the breakout is confirmed yet, according to Eddie Tofpik, head of technical analysis and senior markets analyst at London-based ADM Investor Services International Ltd.

“Minimum of two consecutive UTC closes” are required above the flag hurdle before the breakout is confirmed, Tofpik said, and “maybe more, given the nature of the market.” A “UTC close” refers to the price of bitcoin at midnight, Coordinated Universal Time. Since global cryptocurrency markets are always open, many traders use that time as a way of marking the end of one trading day and start of the next.

A price rejection around the March 15 all-time high, just above $61,000, could cause a reversion back down, Tofpik said.

Perhaps not a red flag, but a yellow one at the very least.

Also read: Bitcoin Uptrend Intact After Month-Long Consolidation; All-Time High Within Reach

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Broker-dealer Prometheum has tapped digital asset bank Anchorage to be the custodian for an alternative trading system (ATS) for digital securities that the company expects to be open to the public later this year.

According to Prometheum CEO Aaron Kaplan, the ATS application is still pending at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), but the company has built a system that allows brokerage firms and clearing firms to speak to each other easily in an effort to entice Wall Street companies to use a platform with which they’re familiar.

“It’s a Nasdaq on the blockchain,” Kaplan told CoinDesk in an interview. 

Related: US Bitcoin Mining Venture Blockcap Closes $38M Round for ASIC Expansion

Adding more ATS platforms for the digital security market will give issuers more liquidity for their tokens, said Anchorage CEO Nathan McCauley. Last month, security token platform Tokensoft announced it would allow its issuers to trade their digital securities on tZERO, which uses Prime Trust as its custodian.

Other ATS providers for digital securities include OpenFinance and the Public Private Execution Network. Security token firm Securitize applied for both a broker-dealer license and an ATS in October.

“The big advantage of securities tokens is public ledgers,” McCauley said. “The transparency is unprecedented in traditional securities markets.”

During its charting process, Anchorage got specific approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to custody security tokens on behalf of broker-dealers, McCauley added. The bank plans to offer cash loans with security tokens acting as collateral.

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• ‘Bull Flag’ Call for $70K Bitcoin Draws Skepticism From Rival Analysts
• Goldman Sachs, Big Banks Closer to Offering Crypto; Emerging CBDCs
• Crypto Firm Uphold Gets US OK to Buy Broker-Dealer JNK Securities

Crypto startup Uphold has been given the green light by a U.S. financial regulator to acquire a broker-dealer firm and begin offering licensed securities.

The approval by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) paves the way for the digital finance platform to scoop up JNK Securities following its initial filing in 2018, according to a press release shared with CoinDesk on Wednesday.

Uphold is set to become one of the first cryptocurrency businesses in the U.S. to offer securities on an omnibus basis to retail investors, the company said. Uphold also said it now plans to launch fractional equities in the U.S. sometime this year and to provide trading between cryptocurrencies, stocks and precious metals, among others.

Related: US Bitcoin Mining Venture Blockcap Closes $38M Round for ASIC Expansion

“Bitcoin to Tesla stock in one seamless user experience will soon become a reality for our U.S. customers,” said Uphold’s CEO JP Thieriot in a statement. “Our fractional equities offering will render even the most expensive equities accessible and affordable to ordinary people.”

Uphold said the acquisition will also create an “effective vehicle” to market its cryptocurrency investment fund, Digital Asset Alpha, to hedge funds via JNK’s existing traditional client base. The company also said it plans to expand its equities offerings later in the year, from 50 to 3,500 U.S.-based stocks and options.

InnReg, a compliance consulting firm specializing in supporting fintech companies, handled the regulatory approval process, according to the release.

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• Anchorage to Custody Digital Securities for Broker-Dealer Prometheum’s Retail Trading Platform
• Goldman Sachs, Big Banks Closer to Offering Crypto; Emerging CBDCs

European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde says the digital euro will be launched in the middle of this decade.

• In an interview with Bloomberg on Wednesday, Lagarde said if ECB policy makers give the digital currency project the green light this summer then the digital currency will be rolled out within four years.
• “We need to make sure that we do it right. We owe it to the Europeans. The whole process, let’s be realistic about it, will in my view take another four years, maybe a little more,” said Lagarde.
• In January, the European Commission and the ECB teamed up to consider potential issues that could arise from the digital euro before a decision is made to kick off development this summer.
• The ECB said it will release the feedback on the potential launch of the digital currency from a public consultation in which 8,000 participants responded.
• This will be sent to the European Parliament and then the ECB’s decision-making Governing Council to decide whether to move forward with its practical experimentation of the digital euro.
• In March the Central Bank of the Bahamas started the rollout of its digital currency dubbed the “Sand Dollar,” which the ECB will be closely monitoring. 

Read more: ECB’s Christine Lagarde Says ‘Speculative’ Bitcoin Needs Global Regulation

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• Crypto Firm Uphold Gets US OK to Buy Broker-Dealer JNK Securities

Panama-based Deribit, the world’s largest crypto options exchange by trading volume and open interest, has launched a bitcoin volatility index called DVOL to help traders assess the market’s mood.

“DVOL uses the implied volatility smile of the relevant expiries to output one number that gives a gauge of the 30-day annualized implied volatility,” the exchange said Wednesday in an announcement.

Implied volatility refers to investors’ expectations for price turbulence over a specific time period.

Related: US Bitcoin Mining Venture Blockcap Closes $38M Round for ASIC Expansion

In traditional markets, implied volatility usually picks up during bear markets and subsides during bull runs. A volatility index on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of large U.S. stocks is popularly known as the “fear gauge.”

Deribit refers to its bitcoin volatility index as an “action gauge.”

Also read: Ether-Bitcoin Implied Volatility Spread Points to a Macro-Driven Market 

“Market participants need to be able to better understand as well as manage volatility,” Deribit CEO John Jansen said. “As the bitcoin options market has matured, the time is now to launch DVOL, enabling further market growth and hopefully soon welcoming a new suite of volatility traders on Deribit.”

Related: ‘Bull Flag’ Call for $70K Bitcoin Draws Skepticism From Rival Analysts

The exchange plans to roll out futures tied to the bitcoin volatility index soon. That would allow traders to effectively bet on their views regarding near-term market volatility.

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The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a new policy statement Wednesday that includes crypto companies on the list of businesses required to submit a financial crime report.

• Businesses that are required to submit financial crime reporting are referred to by the FCA as “REP-CRIM”, which crypto asset companies are now to be included in.
• Previously, this applied to just 2,500 of the 22,000 firms supervised by the FCA under anti-money-laundering regulations.
• This number will rise to 7,000 with “all cryptoasset exchange providers and custodian wallet providers” included in those added.
• All multilateral trading facilities (MTFs), organized trading facilities (OTFs) and all electronic money institutions are also affected.
• The FCA announced its intention to expand the number of firms required to report on their management of financial crime in August 2020 with a view to widening its insight into firms that carry money-laundering risks.

See also: Korean Government Approves Crypto AML Rule Set to Come Online Thursday

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• Valid Points: Yes, Front-Running Will Still Exist on Ethereum 2.0
• Cryptocurrency Wallet Startup imToken Completes $30M Series B Funding Round

Maximal extractable value (MEV) is quickly becoming a buzzword among Ethereum developers and traders alike, given the recent rise of decentralized finance (DeFi). 

Congruently, the finish line for Ethereum 2.0’s consensus mechanism swap is within sight. Colloquially called “The Merge,” mining on Ethereum is likely to fall by the wayside within the next year or so in favor of staking. Doing so opens up a host of questions, particularly for those completing complex trades on Ethereum.

While GPU mining is likely to go away, MEV most likely won’t, according to a new report from research group Flashbots. Also called “miner” extractable value, MEV is crypto’s version of Wall Street front-running. Yes, that’s the same front-running strategy that brought a Massachusetts day trader to testify before Congress for his role in shorting big name hedge funds into the ground.

MEV, frontrunning and the race to be first

Related: ECB’s Christine Lagarde Says Digital Euro Should Launch Within Four Years: Report

On a more technical level, MEV is all about transaction sequencing: who gets to be first in line to settle a transaction on-chain. Being first increases the odds of netting a profit on an arbitrage trade across various DeFi markets. And traders are willing to pay handsomely to be first in line by bidding up gas fees. Indeed, Flashbots data site shows some $40 million in MEV-based extracted value, when transaction fees are included.

As Flashbots states, under the current schematics Eth 1.x clients will still be in charge of ordering transactions, similarly to how miners order transactions using Eth 1.x software. The Beacon Chain will only finalize these transactions by attesting and validating them via its staking network. Flashbots does state that validators, who act as block proposers, will eventually be capable of extracting MEV from traders as the final arbiter of a transaction.

That simple explanation leaves out a lot of open questions, however. The Beacon Chain processes transactions over a period of time called an “epoch,” which is divided into slots for nestling transactions. Epochs run about 6.4 minutes long and block proposers are given their positions ahead of time. 

Searchers – those who look for MEV opportunities – could have a longer time to find profitable trades, given the heads-up block proposers have compared to the current Ethpow blockchain. So, it’s possible the race to outbid other traders becomes more crowded on Eth 2.0 than Ethpow.

Related: Crypto Options Giant Deribit Launches Bitcoin Volatility Index

Overall, MEV will work nearly the same as it does on Eth 2.0: The more technically inclined remain at an advantage over all others.

Pulse check: How Zelda, our Ethereum validator, is doing this week

If you’re new to “Valid Points” and the topic of Ethereum 2.0 in general, be sure to check out our 101 explainer on Eth 2.0 metrics to get up to speed about terminology used throughout this newsletter. 

Zelda – CoinDesk’s very own Eth 2.0 validator node – continues to cook up attestations.

Per Beaconcha.in, Zelda is nearing 8,000 attestations of the Beacon Chain. One day these attestations will secure value on the Beacon Chain, but for now they merely signal agreement on a block being finalized with other validators.

Sadly, Zelda has not been chosen in the past week to propose a block. So far, our little validator has proposed only two blocks in return for 0.2354 ETH, worth $433 at time of writing. 

Let’s do a little napkin math for CoinDesk to break even. At a current rate of proposing one block per 20 days, CoinDesk needs about 271 block propositions, or 5,437 days, to make back on our initial ether investment. 

Of course, those numbers are bound to change as validators join the network – and that’s assuming no malfeasance on Zelda’s part. This quick calculation also doesn’t include attestation rewards which Zelda is also reaping. As a reminder, all profits from Zelda will be donated to charity.

Validated takes

• Ethereum Blockspace: Who Gets What and Why (Research, Anicca Research)
• Staked Introduces Eth 2.0 Trust for Accredited Investors (Article, CoinDesk)
• The Most Important Scarce Resource is Legitimacy (Blog Post, Vitalik Buterin)
• Visa Settles USDC Transaction on Ethereum, Plans Rollout to Partners (Article, CoinDesk)
• Venture-Backed Ethereum Project Optimism Delays Launch (Article, CoinDesk)

Factoid of the week Open comms

Feel free to reply any time and email research@coindesk.com with your thoughts, comments or queries about today’s newsletter. Between reads, chat with us on Twitter.

Valid Points incorporates information and data directly from CoinDesk’s own Eth 2.0 validator node in weekly analysis. All profits made from this staking venture will be donated to a charity of our choosing once transfers are enabled on the network. For a full overview of the project, check out our announcement post. 

You can verify the activity of the CoinDesk Eth 2.0 validator in real time through our public validator key, which is: 

0xad7fef3b2350d220de3ae360c70d7f488926b6117e5f785a8995487c46d323ddad0f574fdcc50eeefec34ed9d2039ecb. 

Search for it on any Eth 2.0 block explorer site!

Will Foxley and I will be continuing the conversation on Ethereum 2.0 with Consensys’ Ben Edgington in a CoinDesk podcast series called “Mapping Out Eth 2.0.”  New episodes air every Thursday. Listen and subscribe through the CoinDesk podcast feed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocketcasts, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Stitcher, RadioPublica, IHeartRadio or RSS.

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• Cryptocurrency Wallet Startup imToken Completes $30M Series B Funding Round

Crypto wallet and blockchain technology company imToken announced today the completion of a $30 million Series B funding round.

• The round was led by Qiming Venture Partners, with returning investor IDG Capital also participating along with new investors Signum Capital, HashKey and Breyer Capital.
• imToken has over 12 million users, and over $50 billion in assets are managed on its platform, the announcement Wednesday said.
• The Singapore-based company offers a non-custodial wallet and a hardware wallet and claims to be Asia’s largest crypto wallet provider.
• The capital raised will be used to develop “imToken 3.0”, a suite of services including keyless accounts and account recovery and which provides access to decentralized finance (DeFi) services.
• The funding will also be invested in expanding the company’s recruitment efforts and building a research arm called imToken Labs.

See also: PureStake Raises $6M From Binance Labs, Coinbase Ventures

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Bitcoin (BTC) approached resistance just shy of the $60,000 level during Asia hours. The cryptocurrency continues to consolidate with buyers showing limited strength from support levels.

• Support is around $54,000 on the four-hour chart, which is roughly the midpoint of the month-long consolidation.
• The four-hour relative strength index (RSI) is now overbought, which could encourage some profit-taking towards lower support levels.
• The previous RSI overbought signal on March 13 preceded a roughly 13% drop in BTC from its all-time high around $61,000.
• BTC’s uptrend remains intact on the daily chart with support from oversold bounce at $50,000.

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One of Australia’s iconic beers can now be exchanged for excess power generated by solar with the help of blockchain technology.

According to a press release on Wednesday, Victoria Bitter (VB) has launched its Solar Exchange program allowing participants to exchange credit on their power bill generated from solar panels for slabs of beer.

VB will receive the solar credits it obtains under the exchange from Diamond Energy, Power Ledger technology allows users to trace the transactions of rooftop solar energy on a public ledger and to trade excess energy produced on an open marketplace.

Related: ECB’s Christine Lagarde Says Digital Euro Should Launch Within Four Years: Report

Customers who sign up to the program can track how much beer they’ve earned based on how many solar energy credits they have exchanged with VB.

Every AUD$1.25 generated in excess earns a program participant one VB, 24 VBs, worth roughly AUD$30, gets a case of beer delivered to their front door.

The program, which currently has 500 spots available, is part of Asahi Beverages’ sustainability agenda following its acquisition of Carlton & United Breweries last year, according to the release.

See also: Australia’s Government Allocates $5.3M for Blockchain Pilot Projects

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Alongside a sweeping infrastructure plan, U.S. President Joe Biden is proposing an overhaul of the corporate tax system that would finance increased spending and seek to discourage the practices of offshoring by increasing the minimum tax on U.S. corporations.

According to the summary released by White House ahead of Biden’s speech later today, the plan seeks to:

• Set the corporate tax rate at 28%, up from the current 21% but less than the 35% it had been prior to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. 
• Discourage offshoring by boosting the global minimum tax for U.S. multinational corporations to 21%. 
• Prevent U.S. corporations from inverting or claiming tax havens as their residence.
• Deny companies expense deductions for offshoring jobs and credit expenses for onshoring.
• Eliminate what the plan calls a “loophole” for intellectual property that encourages offshoring jobs and invest in effective R&D incentives.
• Enact a minimum tax of 15% on large corporations’ book income. 
• Eliminate tax preferences for fossil fuels 
• Ramping up enforcement against corporations. 

Most if not all of these proposals would need to be approved by Congress.

Related: ECB’s Christine Lagarde Says Digital Euro Should Launch Within Four Years: Report

A keyword search of the proposal’s “Fact Sheet” found no mention of the words “crypto,” “bitcoin” or “digital assets.

The fact sheet signals proposals regarding high earning/high net worth individuals may be coming soon: “The President looks forward to working with Congress, and will be putting forward additional ideas in the coming weeks for reforming our tax code so that it rewards work and not wealth, and makes sure the highest income individuals pay their fair share.” (Emphasis added.)

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Profits at CoinShares, Europe’s largest digital asset investment firm, more than doubled in the company’s Q4, according to interim financial results announced Wednesday.

• CoinShares announced Q4 adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (adjusted EBITDA) of £7.9 million (US$10.9 million), a 147% increase over the year-earlier period figure of £3.2 million ($4.4 million).
• Results were helped by management fees generated by exchange-traded products (ETPs) which increased 137% to £7.1 million (US$9.8 million) in Q4 compared to the year-ago period figure of £3 million ($4.1 million).
• The digital asset manager, which began trading on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market on March 11, saw its assets under management (AUM) grow to £1.74 billion in 2020, an increase of 336% compared to £0.4 billion ($0.55 billion) the year before.
• This has continued in 2021, with CoinShares’ AUM currently more than $4.5 billion.
• These surges can be attributed to the crypto bull market which gathered pace toward the end of 2020, which CEO Jean Marie Mognetti described as “a tipping point on the journey of bitcoin and digital assets.”

See also: Billionaire Hedge Fund Mogul Alan Howard Is a Shareholder in CoinShares

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Tesla just contributed to Bitcoin open source software.

The car maker disclosed a bug in the open-source Bitcoin payment processor and wallet BTCPay Server, and it also helped the project’s team patch the flaw.

The electric vehicle and renewables company informed BTCPay’s team of the bug after reviewing the project’s GitHub last week. It affects users who boot BTCPay from “Docker Deployment, have a configured email server and enabled registration for users in Server Settings > Policies,” according to a post on BTCPay’s GitHub that included a software patch. 

Related: Rep. Gaetz of Blockchain Caucus Faces Investigation for Sexual Misconduct: Report

The team wrote in the post that more information on the bug would be disclosed in BTCPay’s next major release.

“We want to thank @teslamotors for filing a responsible disclosure, helping us with remediation, and handling the situation professionally. We also want to thank Qaiser Abbas, an independent web-security researcher, for an additional responsible vulnerability disclosure that was handled in this release,” BTCPay’s team wrote in the software release fixing the bug.

BTCPay Server was launched in 2017 by Bitcoin developer Nicola Dorier in response to popular Bitcoin payment processor BitPay’s controversial statements regarding the 2016 SegWit soft fork. Since launching, BTCPay has been integrated as a donations portal for charitable efforts around the world, including Nigeria and Venezuela.

The wallet is also used by many Bitcoin industry merchants and companies as a point of sale for online stores.

Related: CryptoCompare: Digital Asset Management Review March 2021

Since Elon Musk announced Tesla’s billion-dollar bitcoin holdings, the company has also started accepting bitcoin in return for its services. Musk has publicly stated the company plans to hold all bitcoin they receive and not convert it to cash.

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U.S. lawmaker Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a member of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus who has put his name to a handful of pro-blockchain bills and letters, is under investigation by the Department of Justice, which is looking into whether he had a sexual relationship with a minor, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

According to the report, which cited “three people briefed on the matter,” Gaetz is also being investigated over whether or not he violated federal sex trafficking laws. He allegedly may have paid for a 17-year-old to travel with him.

The investigation is part of an ongoing case against former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg, who became the first Florida official to announce he would accept bitcoin for tax payments in 2018. Greenberg was arrested last June on sex trafficking and privacy violation charges.

Related: Tesla Just Helped Patch a Bug in This Open Source Bitcoin Payment Processor

Gaetz said on Twitter that the allegations were not true, and that he and his family were “victims of an organized criminal extortion involving a former DOJ official.

“I demand the DOJ immediately release the tapes, made at their direction, which implicate their former colleague in crimes against me based on false allegations,” he tweeted.

The investigation into the congressman was opened during the final months of the administration of former President Donald Trump under Attorney General William P. Barr.

A representative for Gaetz did not immediately return a request for comment. Gaetz told the Times that he was aware of an investigation, but he indicated he wasn’t aware of any wrongdoing.

Related: CryptoCompare: Digital Asset Management Review March 2021

“I only know that it has to do with women. I have a suspicion that someone is trying to recategorize my generosity to ex-girlfriends as something more untoward,” he told the Times.

See also: State of Crypto: Unpacking the Trump Presidency’s Crypto Legacy

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• Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $58,800 as of 20:17 UTC (4:17 p.m. ET). Climbing 2.1% over the previous 24 hours.
• Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $57,069-$59,380 (CoinDesk 20)

Bitcoin has climbed on four of the past five days, and the price is now pushing back toward $60,000 for the first time in a couple weeks.

“It wasn’t with the fanfare and fireworks, but instead just a standard grind higher, helped in part by the continued positive adoption news flow,” Matt Blom, head of sales and trading with the digital-asset firm Equos, wrote Tuesday in an email.

Several stories reinforced the theme of growing mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies, echoing the takeaway from Visa’s announcement on Monday.

• PayPal on Tuesday announced a Checkout service that will allow bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), bitcoin cash (BCH) and litecoin (LTC) to be seamlessly converted into U.S. dollars or other fiat currencies when making purchases, the same as a credit card or a debit card would work inside a PayPal wallet.
• Blockstream, the bitcoin development company, is launching a token tied to the company’s bitcoin-mining production, redeemable in bitcoin.
• Derivatives exchange Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) will launch smaller-sized bitcoin “micro” futures contracts in May, potentially expanding the number of people who bet on the future price of the leading cryptocurrency.
• Tether, the company behind the biggest dollar-linked stablecoin, USDT, published an attestation verifying that it had $35 billion in assets backing a similar amount of its USDT token last month. Some analysts had warned that an unraveling of trust in tether could rattle the bitcoin market.

Related: CryptoCompare: Digital Asset Management Review March 2021

“Bitcoin has tentative resistance at the $60,000 level, but momentum from yesterday’s Visa news should be enough to keep the bullish trend going strong,” Edward Moya, senior market analyst for the foreign-exchange broker Oanda, wrote Tuesday in an email.

Bitcoin Funding Rates Climb, Suggesting Optimism Over Fresh Rally

Bitcoin traders appear to be ratcheting up bets on a fresh rally, and they’re taking on more leverage – and risk – in cryptocurrency derivatives markets.

In the past few days, the cost to fund a long position in the market for bitcoin (BTC) perpetual swaps, a type of derivatives in cryptocurrency markets similar to futures contracts in traditional markets, has broken above neutral levels for the first time since mid-March, according to Arcane Research, a Norwegian analysis firm.

The average cost is now pushing toward 0.08%. That’s still well below a level close to 0.12% witnessed earlier this month, when bitcoin surged to an all-time high price above $61,000, or earlier in the year, when the funding cost was roughly twice as high.

Related: What Turned the ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Into a Bitcoin Believer?

But the recent rise appears to show traders finding a renewed appetite for risk-taking following a market shakeout over the past couple weeks. Bitcoin’s price fell to just above $50,000 as recently as March 25.

“The funding rate spikes coincide with strong optimism and high leverage from short-term traders,” according to the Arcane report.

Read More: Crypto Traders Lever Up as Bitcoin Creeps Back Toward All-Time High

Ether rises with bitcoin

• Ether (ETH) trading around $1,847. Climbing 2.1% over the previous 24 hours.
• Ether’s 24-hour range: $1,787-$1,860 (CoinDesk 20)

Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value, climbed alongside bitcoin, gaining 1.3% to $1,841 as of press time

The native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain, ether has more than doubled this year, but its price is still off the all-time high around $2,000 reached in February.

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• NFL Player Taylor Rapp Is Launching an NFT to Fight Anti-Asian Hate

A young defensive back with the Los Angeles Rams is the latest pro athlete launching a non-fungible token (NFT), hoping to use the sale to raise money, and awareness, to combat the wave of anti-Asian hate crimes this year.

Taylor Rapp, the free safety entering his third season in the National Football League, completely lacks the star power of a Rob Gronkowski or a Patrick Mahomes, marquee players who leveraged their splashy brands into multimillion-dollar NFT sales earlier this month. 

But the backfield starter, who said he’s been hustling with his co-creators for three weeks on their slapdash NFTs, told CoinDesk he hopes to make up the difference by focusing his sale on its anti-racist cause. He’s the only Chinese-American active in the NFL at a time when reports of hate crimes against Asians are surging.

Related: CryptoCompare: Digital Asset Management Review March 2021

“The whole reason behind making the collection was to raise money to donate to the AAPI community and, you know, my Asian community, because we’ve seen all the crazy horrific attacks every single day,” he told CoinDesk Tuesday, hours after New York City police began investigating the latest apparent anti-Asian assault in a year full of them.

Rapp hasn’t yet “locked in” what portion of the NFT sale he will donate to community organizations through GoFundMe’s $5 million #StopAsianHate campaign. But he said it will represent “a substantial amount” of the total.

The NFTs themselves, which do not feature team iconography and are not being released through a deal with the league, might shake the gargantuan NFL machine into addressing the attacks against Asians more forcefully, Rapp said. 

He noted league officials issued a statement condemning the attacks under the hashtag #StopAsianHate in late February, “just like all the other big corporations” that he said are finally waking up to a problem that began with COVID-19 nearly one year earlier after the reports of the disease originating in Wuhan, China.

Related: Market Wrap: Traders Ratchet Up Derivatives Bets as Bitcoin Mounts Rally

“I really hope the NFL sees this and the important message that is behind it in why I’m actually doing it,” Rapp said. “Hopefully, the Rams will be able to see that as well.”

NFTs for a cause

The NFTs lean heavily on Rapp’s Chinese identity. He’s calling them the “Year of the Ox” collection (a reference to this year’s Chinese zodiac sign) and said each carries a Chinese proverb his mother picked out as well as the Chinese character for “Ox” that he said his grandfather hand-painted. 

Digital artists Elena Provolovich, Ryan Darwent, and David Bircham collaborated with Rapp on designing his six NFTs, only one of which is 1-of-1. The other images run as high as 24 copies and the total supply is 90. Darwent told CoinDesk his contribution takes after photography, though others in the collection more closely resemble a museum piece.

Many also come paired with real-world memorabilia, Rapp said, a concession for the “boomers” who, like his father, don’t buy into intangible digital collectibles. For his part, Rapp thinks NFTs have staying power.

He said the auction begins Thursday night on NFT marketplace OpenSea.

Rapp is hopeful the NFT buzz can serve as a vehicle for spreading awareness of Asian athletes, especially in the NFL where aspiring players face an uphill battle due to their underrepresentation in the league, he said.

“Going through the ranks of high school and college and NFL, you begin to see fewer and fewer people who look like you,” Rapp said, noting he had no such “role model” in the NFL while growing up.

“For me, it’s all about representation and being able to be that figure for” young players, he said.

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Canada-based digital asset merchant bank Galaxy Digital (TSX: GLXY) said it is actively preparing for a U.S. listing after reporting positive Q4 earnings Tuesday.

In a press release, the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) listed-firm founded by Mike Novogratz said it will list in the U.S. in the second half of the year. It also has named Alex Ioffe as the company’s new CFO, effective April 1, replacing Ash Prithipaul. Prithipaul is stepping down to spend more time with his family, the company said. 

The company reported its Q4 net comprehensive income, excluding non-controlling interests, rose 1,175% to $335.7 million, from a loss on the same basis of $31.2 million in the year-earlier period. Galaxy attributed the improvement mostly to realized and unrealized gains on digital assets and on investments.

Related: CryptoCompare: Digital Asset Management Review March 2021

Income from the company’s trading business increased 842% to $238.7 million in the Q4 from a loss of $32.2 million in the year-earlier period.

In the firm’s Digital Asset Management business, assets under management increased over 98% to $807.3 million from $407.4 million in the year-earlier quarter. Galaxy Digital said. The unit expects to report preliminary assets under management of $1.24 billion as of March 22.

The company said its Galaxy Digital Trading operations expect to generate record gains in counterparty trading volumes, the size of its counterparty loan book and gross counterparty loan book originations in the Q1 2021.

“We believe our industry is at an inflection point as we participate in a once in a lifetime secular shift into cryptocurrencies as an institutionalized asset class. Galaxy Digital is committed to leading our clients and the industry through this transformation,” said CEO Novogratz.

Related: Market Wrap: Traders Ratchet Up Derivatives Bets as Bitcoin Mounts Rally

In March the firm launched the CI Galaxy Bitcoin ETF which is trading on the TSX under the ticker “BTCX.” 

Read more: Galaxy Digital Taps Blockstream for Hosted Mining Operations

Also during March, Galaxy Digital announced its new bitcoin mining business, Galaxy Digital Mining, is using Blockstream facilities for an initial deployment of machines in the U.S. and Canada. 

At the time of publication, Galaxy Digital shares listed on the TSX were trading up 3.53% at C$24.66. 

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Crypto exchange Coinbase has hired former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) official Brett Redfearn as the new vice president of its capital markets division.

Redfearn, who previously ran the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets, left public service late last year, will oversee exchange operations, brokerage and custody services at Coinbase, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In a blog post welcoming the new hire, Coinbase Chief Product Officer Surojit Chatterjee wrote that Redfearn “will be responsible for defining and driving a vision and strategy to set the global standard for crypto capital markets, including digital asset securities and our crypto trading platform.”

Related: What Do Advisers Tell Clients About Bitcoin Estate Planning?

Redfearn noted that much of his initial exposure to the crypto industry came via enforcement actions against initial coin offerings in the blog post.

“Nonetheless, through it all, I appreciated the significant potential in this space if issuers, markets, and market participants could appropriately navigate the regulatory landscape. And that is something I can help make happen,” he said in the blog post.

Recent regulatory developments at the SEC, as well as other U.S. regulators such as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency “are paving the way for greater opportunities for the cryptoeconomy,” he said.

The hire comes as Coinbase prepares to go public through a direct listing on Nasdaq in the coming weeks. The exchange’s Form S-1 and amended versions were published earlier this year, showing the company generated a net income of over $300 million in 2020, up from a $30 million loss in 2019. It’s expected to see a valuation upward of $100 billion when the shares go public.

Related: PayPal Opens Crypto Payments for Millions of Merchants

Former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton has also joined a crypto firm recently, after being named to the advisory board of investment firm One River Management.

UPDATE (March 30, 2021, 18:00 UTC): Updated with comments from a Coinbase announcement; corrects that Coinbase generated over $300 million in net income in 2020.

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Bitcoin traders appear to be ratcheting up bets on a fresh rally, and they’re taking on more leverage – and risk – in cryptocurrency derivatives markets.

In the past few days, the cost to fund a long position in the market for bitcoin (BTC) perpetual swaps, a type of derivatives in cryptocurrency markets similar to futures contracts in traditional markets, has broken above neutral levels for the first time since mid-March, according to Arcane Research, a Norwegian analysis firm.

The average cost is now pushing toward 0.08%. That’s still well below a level close to 0.12% witnessed earlier this month when bitcoin surged to an all-time high price above $61,000, or earlier in the year, when the funding cost was roughly twice as high.

Related: What Do Advisers Tell Clients About Bitcoin Estate Planning?

But the recent rise appears to show traders finding a renewed appetite for risk taking following a market shakeout over the past couple of weeks. Bitcoin’s price fell to just above $50,000 as recently as March 25.

“The funding rate spikes coincide with strong optimism and high leverage from short-term traders,” according to the Arcane report.

• “The funding rates have once again started to move upwards after two weeks in the neutral territory,” similar to the final weeks of January and February, according to Arcane.
• “After the initial breakouts from the neutral territory, bitcoin began moving upwards towards new price highs, but not without volatility.”
• A positive funding rate in cryptocurrency derivatives markets means traders with long positions pay those with short positions.
• Eventually, rising payouts from long traders to short traders could make downward price bets more attractive using bitcoin perpetual swaps. But BTC optimism is not yet at an extreme, which means longs could remain active at support levels.

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