Bitcoin $3,400  ▼                 Ethereum $104.99 ▲
Crypto Mkt Cap $112B ▼            BTC Dominance 53.40%  

• Binance moves away from Ethereum as it prepares to launch DEX

• ErisX fills C-Suite spot with former Barclays exec as it eyes the launch of its institutional crypto exchange

• Token mania, lawsuits, and superfans: A CEO shares the highs and lows of running a crypto company

• Facebook spoke to Basis, Algorand and Keybase about possible acquisitions

“I think the crypto space got too much money. It had too many young, unseasoned people, and they got burnt out…I meet people speaking [at conferences] and I just think ‘why are you here?’ People can be good at hyping things but not necessarily good at building.” — Rahul Sood, CEO Unikrn

The Big Block

Binance is moving its token off of Ethereum as it prepares to launch its own decentralized exchange.

Binance DEX’s testnet built on top of Binance Chain is set to launch “in the next week or two” according to Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao. In a Q&A live stream on Thursday, CZ revealed details about the launch of Binance Chain. Binance Coin (BNB), which was issued in the company’s $15 million ICO in 2017, will be migrated from an ERC20 token and act as the native gas of Binance Chain.

Binance Chain was built on Cosmos’ Tendermint protocol because its architecture was closest to what Binance was looking for, according to CZ. It will use Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) and Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT). Binance forked Tendermint “and chopped a lot of things out” including smart contracts because high throughput was more important than feature richness, according to CZ. The interface will allow projects to issue new tokens on Binance Chain, effectively running an ICO by raising funds in BNB.

Binance will get a small fee from each trade on DEX and there will also be a listing fee for projects that launch their token on Binance Chain, which will “probably be close to $100,000” but easily adjustable in the future. CZ said: “I want to deliberately set [the listing fee] little bit high because we want to reduce the number of spam or scam projects. There is also a voting process by the validators to be listed on DEX.” Similarly as on Binance.com, projects can choose to pay the listing fee in the newly issued token or pay with BNB and get a discount.

Read More on The Block (3 Minutes)

Around The Block

ErisX fills C-Suite spot with former Barclays exec as it eyes the launch of its institutional crypto exchange

The C-Suite at ErisX is fully staffed. 

The institutional-grade exchange announced three new hires Thursday as it prepares for the launch of its spot marketplace for crypto in Q2. 

Led by former Citigroup executive Thomas Chippas, ErisX also aims to offer trading in a number of physically delivered futures including ones tied to bitcoin, ether, bitcoin cash, and litecoin. ErisX is looking to attract traditional investors and traders to its market, which it says will be regulated by the CFTC. As for Thursday’s announcement, the firm said it has brought on Robert Thrash as chief operating officer. The new hires mean the firm has finished staffing up its executive team, Chippas said in an interview. — More

Token mania, lawsuits, and superfans: A CEO shares the highs and lows of running a crypto company

It is perhaps telling that Rahul Sood responds to journalists’ emails at 3:30 a.m. There’s seemingly no stopclock for the former Microsoft executive when it comes to Unikrn, his token-based video game betting platform.

It’s a niche concept – gaming betting – but one nonetheless that in 2015 attracted high-profile investments from the likes of Mark Cuban and Ashton Kutcher for its $10 million Series A. Today, professional gamers compete in the virtual worlds of FIFA and Fortnite, linking to the Unikrn platform to generate the odds and to bet on themselves. In some parts of the world, those watching live at home make spectator bets. — More

Telegram investor update claims TON is now 90% complete — More

Bitcoin SV’s op_return upgrade exploited to store child abuse imagery — More

Facebook spoke to Basis, Algorand and Keybase about possible acquisitions — More

Institutional crypto broker sees market shifting to ‘mildly bullish’ in February — More

MIAX Options may soon end Cboe’s volatility market monopoly on a lower-cost SPIKES Index — More

Wells Fargo experiencing nationwide outage of ATMs and online banking services — More

Panties.com promotes bitcoin-payments in its Valentine’s Day offer — More

Startup pins its sights on using AI to disrupt credit markets, raising $100 million — More

A private Indian hospital releases information about QuadrigaCX CEO’s death — More

In conversation with Preston Van Loon, Co-Founder and Team Lead at Prysmatic Labs — More