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Cryptocurrency News Articles
The Protocol: Side-Dealing Accusations Put Crypto VC Funding in Spotlight
Jul 11, 2024 at 01:40 am
In this week's blockchain tech newsletter, we're highlighting the firm Polychain's accusation against a former general partner over an alleged ethics breach
The Protocol: Side-Dealing Accusations Put Crypto VC Funding in Spotlight
In this week's blockchain tech newsletter, we're highlighting the firm Polychain's accusation against a former general partner over an alleged ethics breach, along with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin's speech in Brussels and Bitcoin's Saxony problem.
The Ethereum Foundation's Vitalik Buterin drew more than 1,000 people into a room in Brussels at the EthCC conference, and CoinDesk's Margaux Nijkerk was on the scene. We've got that story plus lots of announcements emanating from Europe's biggest Ethereum-focused conference.
But one of the biggest blockchain stories making waves is the revelation (scooped by CoinDesk's Sam Kessler) that a prominent builder in the space has been accused by his former employer, the prestigious crypto venture-capital firm Polychain, of violating ethics policies by taking an undisclosed personal allocation of tokens from a project that raised funds from the firm. Read on.
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This article is featured in the latest issue of The Protocol, our weekly newsletter exploring the tech behind crypto, one block at a time. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday. Also please check out our weekly The Protocol podcast.
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Polychain says Ritual co-founder Niraj Pant, an ex-general partner, broke its policies. (Ritual)
SIDE DEAL? Two months ago, the blockchain-development world was rocked by the news that Neel Somani, founder of the uber-modular blockchain project Eclipse, was stepping aside from his role in response to sexual misconduct allegations. Now, there's fresh accusations surrounding the project's fundraising. Crypto venture capital giant Polychain has accused Niraj Pant, a former general partner at the fund, of making a backroom deal with Eclipse that broke the fund's policies, a scoop by CoinDesk's Sam Kessler. According to three sources close to the situation and internal Eclipse documents reviewed by CoinDesk, Eclipse's Somani quietly allocated Pant 5% of a forthcoming Eclipse crypto token in September 2022 – just days after Pant directed Polychain to lead the company's $6 million pre-seed funding round. The allocation was eventually reduced to 1.33%, worth $13.3 million at the token's most recent fully diluted valuation in a private investment round. Pant insists the arrangement was completely kosher because it wasn't finalized until September 2022 – the month after Polychain had already invested in Eclipse. Under a copy of an agreement obtained by Kessler and signed by Somani, Pant's Psychological Operations Co. would receive a grant of Eclipse's tokens in exchange for "periodic teleconference sync meetings" as requested by Eclipse. Somani told his inner circle that the generous token grant was meant to incentivize Pant to secure Polychain's cash and the veteran VC's coveted endorsement, according to two people familiar with the matter. "Polychain's statement to CoinDesk grants a rare insight into the sausage-making process of the cozy world of crypto VC firms and the projects they fund," Kessler wrote. Snarky posters on the social-media platform X snickered ironically that they were "shocked" to learn that such practices might go on in the crypto fundraising scene.
Former President Donald Trump's Republican Party has officially adopted a platform that would seek to support cryptocurrency innovation, according to the document released Monday by the Republican National Committee. Separately, Multicoin Capital, one of the largest U.S. investment firms focused on cryptocurrency, is pledging up to $1 million to support Senate candidates with favorable views of the industry.
Residents of the small city of Granbury, Texas, have complained of suffering physical symptoms due to a "dull aural hum" emanating from a nearby Bitcoin mining facility that was "exceeding legal noise ordinances on a daily basis," Time reported. "A representative for Marathon Digital Holdings, the company that owns the mine, did not answer questions about health impacts, but told Time that it is working to remove the noisy fans from the site."
Blockchain games are "now emerging fully-cooked," writes David Z. Morris in a guest column: "That is, many are at least as enjoyable as games that have nothing to do with crypto." Another CoinDesk contributor, Jeff Wilser, examined the success of the tap-to-earn darling Hamster Kombat, a game launched on TON blockchain that has become so popular in Iran that the country's deputy military chief described it as part of the West's "soft war."
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin gave a keynote talk about hardening the Ethereum blockchain as a base layer, in front of a packed room full of an estimated 1,100 attendees, at a developer conference in Brussels on Wednesday. Buterin spoke at length during his presentation at the Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC) about the strengths and weaknesses of the largest smart-contracts
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- MTT Sports Launches Weekly Tournament With Rewards of 1 BTC and 100,000 MTT Tokens Starting October 1st
- Sep 25, 2024 at 02:45 pm
- Indeed, one Bitcoin every week! This is the Bitcoin tournament to be launched by the MTT Sports project in October, which attracted significant
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- Is Bitcoin a Risk-On or Risk-Off Asset? BlackRock Weighs In
- Sep 25, 2024 at 02:35 pm
- Robbie Mitchnick, Blackrock's head of digital assets, discussed his perspective on bitcoin during a Bloomberg interview on Tuesday.
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- Bitcoin (BTC) Price Approaches Key Resistance Level That Could Define Its Next Major Trend
- Sep 25, 2024 at 02:35 pm
- Bitcoin's current price movements are stirring up discussions, as it approaches a key resistance level that could define its next major trend.
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- The Cryptocurrency Market: Solana (SOL), Shiba Inu (SHIB), and Toncoin (TON) Capture Attention as Market Dynamics Shift
- Sep 25, 2024 at 02:35 pm
- The cryptocurrency market is once again capturing attention as significant movements in major coins hint at shifting dynamics.
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- Cardano’s Voltaire-era governance overhaul prevents it from becoming a “dictatorship” like Ethereum and sidesteps the “anarchy” of Bitcoin, says founder Charles Hoskinson.
- Sep 25, 2024 at 02:35 pm
- Speaking to Cointelegraph in Singapore, Hoskinson attacked Ethereum’s current governance model, claiming that it relies far too heavily on its co-founder Vitalik Buterin for direction.
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- Chinese Pools Still Control Majority of Bitcoin Hashrate
- Sep 25, 2024 at 02:25 pm
- According to metrics shared by Ki Young Ju, the founder and CEO of cryptoquant.com, mining pools in China currently dominate 55% of Bitcoin's network hashrate
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- Bitgert, Floki Inu and Reef: Top Buys Right Now?
- Sep 25, 2024 at 02:15 pm
- As a bull run is expected in the crypto market in Q4, 2024, investors are looking for the most profitable options. As per experts, these three are set to deliver some massive returns: Bitgert, Floki Inu, and Reef.
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- GoodEgg (GEGG): The AI-Driven Social Dating Meme Coin That's Capturing the Attention of Former Solana Whales
- Sep 25, 2024 at 02:15 pm
- In the rapidly shifting world of cryptocurrencies, new opportunities constantly emerge for investors and developers alike. Solana (SOL) has gained significant traction in the blockchain industry over the past few years, renowned for its speed and scalability. However, the spotlight is now turning towards GoodEgg (GEGG), a new AI-driven social dating meme coin that is capturing the attention of former Solana whales.
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- Sky Reconsiders WBTC Offboarding Plan After New Recommendation From BA Labs
- Sep 25, 2024 at 02:05 pm
- Decentralized finance (DeFi) pioneer Sky, formerly Maker, is reconsidering its plan to offboard Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) as collateral for its lending protocol