Stablecoin project Basis is shutting down | Analysis of cryptocurrency exchange traffic: Could results hint at faked volume? | As the crypto market bleeds red, Pantera’s venture fund is up 60%
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Stablecoin project Basis is shutting down and returning nearly all capital raised to investors
Analysis of cryptocurrency exchange traffic: Could results hint at faked volume?
As the crypto market bleeds red, Pantera’s venture fund is up 60%
“Returning capital is something I never wanted to have to do, and had the regulatory climate loosened rather than tightened it would have been amazing for our technology, and also for the people who would use it.” — Nader Al-Naji, CEO of Basis on why he is shutting the company down
The Big Block
Basis, one of the most well-known stablecoin projects, is shutting down and returning nearly all capital raised to investors.
According to a Basis investor, Basis had a specific contract with investors defining how the majority of capital raised was required to be held. Most of the money was legally required by contract to be held in the currency in which it was contributed and could not be touched by the company until Basis launched its stablecoin.
In the event that Basis failed to launch, the capital was required to be returned in the form in which it was escrowed. Since Basis contributions were made primarily in cash by investors, nearly the entire treasury of the company remains intact and will be returned to investors.
The firm, which raised $133 million in funding, ran into regulatory headwinds as it attempted to get its algorithmic stablecoin off the ground, said multiple people with direct knowledge of the situation. As a result, Basis is shutting down operations and returning the majority of capital raised to investors. Backers include Bain Capital Ventures, GV, Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Ventures and a number of other firms.
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Analysis of cryptocurrency exchange traffic: Could results hint at faked volume?
The Blockchain Transparency Institute released a research report in August which estimated that over $6 billion dollars in daily trade volume is being faked with over 67% of daily volume being wash traded. This disturbing discovery could mean fraud is rampant in the industry, but The Block looked deeper for a more precise analysis of the situation.
In a wide-ranging study, The Block analyzed the website traffic on the most frequently used cryptocurrency exchanges from data provided by SimilarWeb. SimilarWeb, while far from perfect, is a good indicator of real activity on the exchanges. SimilarWeb uses multiple algorithms and data sources but it’s important to recognize that the data are still estimates. An analysis of SimilarWeb accuracy found that it was the most accurate tool available outside actual analytics access. — More
As the crypto market bleeds red, Pantera’s venture fund is up 60%
Pantera Capital, the California-based cryptocurrency investing firm, has not completely succumbed to the grip of the cryptocurrency bear market, according to an investor letter out December 13.
Pantera’s venture fund, dubbed VFII, is up nearly 60% from Q1 to Q3, according to the note. Over the same period, bitcoin is down 53%. Passive fund Bitwise Index 10, which tracks ten cryptos, is down 59% over the same period. — More
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