Blockchain
Synthetix announces $12 million raise led by Paradigm, Coinbase Ventures, and IOSG


The Synthetix DAO has added some new, perhaps surprising voices to its governance.
Today the synthetic asset protocol announced a $12 million dollar fundraise led by venture capital firms Paradigm, Coinbase Ventures, and IOSG. The funds purchased SNX tokens directly from the DAO treasury, and “will contribute where possible by providing liquidity in the form of SNX collateral, and also participate in its rapidly evolving community governance system,” the announcement reads.
“We’re excited about supporting the synthetixDAO as it builds the leading synthetic asset platform,” said Paradigm investment partner Arjun Balaji. “Synthetix has one of the best communities in crypto and we’re glad to be a part of it.”
The investment is notable for being among the first instances of funds investing directly with and through a project governed by a DAO. How VCs interact with DAO-governed protocols has been a hot topic of late, with some arguing that VCs shouldn’t get preferential treatment, while others say that VCs are welcome, like any entity, to participate in an open ecosystem.
A recent Tweet thread from Hayden Adams, the founder of Uniswap, made the case for working with VCs — so long as they’re the right ones.
1/
I think it’s worth briefly explaining the positive and mutually beneficial experience I’ve had working with @paradigm @a16z @usv and other investors.
I’ve seen a lot of negativity and propaganda so I think it’s worth sharing my personal experience.
Quick thread:
— Hayden Adams (@haydenzadams) February 12, 2021
Jordan Momtazi, a core contributor to Synthetix DAO (and the former Synthetix COO pre governance decentralization), agrees that it’s all about which funds a protocol is working with.
“Many VC’s don’t add much value. The delta between quality VC’s and the rest is quite large,” he said in a statement to Cointelegraph.
Each of the three VCs that joined in on the $12 million raise are bringing additional value to the table that an individual investor might not be able to muster, Momtazi said.
“Paradigm has been helping the protocol recruit talent through their in house HR and network. They’ve also been actively helping think through our v3 planning. Providing insights into approaches around our re-architecture,” Momtazi said. “Coinbase ventures has helped with connectivity across many functions, both internally and externally.”
IOSG, meanwhile, is helping to spearhead Synthetix’s push into China by assisting with the hiring of a China regional lead, as well as with “in person roadshows and creating educational content in Chinese.”
The raise comes during an especially productive period for Synthetix. The team recently announced the launch of synthetic Tesla stock, and SNX was among the tokens that filings show may be the next to be listed as a Grayscale investment trust.
It’s momentum Momtazi hopes the latest members of the community can help carry forth.
“Having the sharpest minds applied to the hardest problems is part of the community’s success and we look forward to working closely with these new stakeholders.”
Blockchain
How strong is the floor to Bitcoin’s price?

A volatile few weeks for the cryptocurrency market have instilled fear in the minds of investors, many of whom hadn’t anticipated the short-term sell-off. While Bitcoin’s price had recovered somewhat to trade around $47,700 at press time, research from Chainalysis suggests that Bitcoin’s floor prices are stronger than before.
Philip Gradwell, Chief Economist at Chainalysis, explained that the floor of these recent price swings can be determined by analyzing the price level at which different types of investors entered the market.
Gradwell found that investors who acquired at least 1,000 BTC since the end of November 2020 have bought 1.7 million BTC at an average price of $35,000 per Bitcoin. “This recent and rapacious willingness to buy at this price level likely puts a floor on the Bitcoin price of at least $35k,” the analyst went on to observe.
According to him, the market has changed radically since the end of November. Prior to the same, larger investors held 1 million BTC at an average purchase price of $14.8k. However, the same set of investors has since entered the market to hold more Bitcoin at double the cost, with the Chief Economist adding,
“There is a far stronger floor to the price than ever before.”
Gradwell’s analysis can be further supported by a recent report from CoinMetrics. The crypto-market analytics research firm found that on-chain indicators showed signs of a key metric resetting, one with positive implications for Bitcoin.
Bitcoin’s Spent Output Profit Ratio (SOPR) is a ratio of the price at the time a UTXO is spent to its price at the time of creation. Essentially, this estimates whether holders are selling at a profit or at a loss.
CoinMetrics found that while the BTC SOPR dropped below one on 27 February for only the second time since October 2020, implying that investors were capitulating and selling at a loss, it rebounded back above one on 28 February. What did this mean? Well, it suggested that the market is stabilizing once again, a finding consistent with Gradwell’s findings.
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Source: https://eng.ambcrypto.com/how-strong-is-the-floor-to-bitcoins-price
Blockchain
No crypto ban in India: Finance Minister predicts “very calibrated” stance


Yet another “crypto ban” turns out to be temporary FUD.
In an interview with CNBC this morning, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that reports of a blanket ban on cryptocurrencies are overstated. While negotiations are ongoing, she said she expects the end result to be more tempered:
“Yes, a lot of negotiations, discussions are happening, with Reserve Bank,” said Sitharaman. “Obviously the Reserve Bank will be taking a quorum on how, what kind of unofficial currency, cryptocurrency will have to be planned, and how it has to be regulated. But also, we want to make sure that there’s a window available for all kinds of experiments which will have to take place in the crypto world.”
She went on to say that regulations won’t be as “severe” as have been previously reported. Authorities will “look inward” and take a “very calibrated” stance, in contrast to the “mixed messages coming in from across the world.”
“The world is moving fast with technology. We can’t pretend that we don’t want it. […] I can only give you this clue: that we are not closing our minds, we are certainly looking at ways in which experimentations can happen in the digital world, in cryptocurrency and so on.”
Finance Minister @nsitharaman says “Govt. wants to ensure there’s a window for experiments in cryptocurrency space”. ⁰Time for India to innovate and shine!@FinMinIndia pic.twitter.com/fbSH2hzTC4
— BlockchainedIndia (@blockchainedind) March 6, 2021
The comments from Sitharaman is no doubt a source of relief for crypto businesses, users, and hodlers in the world’s second most populous country. Earlier this month, a report from Bloomberg citing a senior Indian financial minister said that the country would be banning all cryptocurrencies.
The hypothetical ban drew widespread criticism from across the crypto community, with some likening it to an attempt to ban the Internet. Some companies found the reports to be hot air, however, and continued on with developments apace.
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Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/no-crypto-ban-in-india-finance-minister-predicts-very-calibrated-stance
Blockchain
Crypto Pundits Say US Money Laundering Legislation Could Cripple Bitcoin Market
Prior to leaving office, Donald Trump and his administration proposed new rules that they said were aimed at taking on money laundering via cryptocurrency. The new rules would require financial firms to record the identities of cryptocurrency holders.
Some experts believe this would cause a severe drop across the entire cryptocurrency market.
But the new proposed rules have opponents in both the cryptocurrency world and the traditional financial sector. Usual Bitcoin proponents like the Winklevoss twins have spoken out against harsher regulations and have been joined by other crypto companies like Coinbase and Kraken in voicing their anti-regulation opinions. But with companies like Fidelity and payment giants like Visa and MasterCard joining the anti-regulation movement, the cause has more power.
Matthew Maley, the chief market strategist for Miller Tabak & Co., a leading institutional trading firm, says it’s not the right time to be adding these rules.
“Bitcoin is very risky and very volatile and it’s going to continue to be that way. If you add something like a new regulation, it’s going to be very vulnerable to a correction,” Maley said.
Another tricky part of this situation is that the rules were proposed by Trump’s administration but must now be considered by the new Biden administration. Janet Yellen, Biden’s new Treasury Secretary has made seemingly positive and negative comments about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies but there is no real indication on whether or not she will impose rigid regulations on the cryptocurrency space.

There is no official timeline or deadline to determine how any rules will be considered or implemented at this time. But industry insiders remain steadfast in spreading information about the dangers of over-regulation. The Winklevoss brothers recently issued a statement that claims the new proposed rules could actually increase money laundering while damaging market value for no real reason.
Still, there is a healthy level of optimism in cryptocurrency regarding regulations for a few reasons. The crypto sector has allies in Congress on both sides of the aisle and a recent notice from the US chamber of commerce that anti-money laundering regulations could end up having a series of unintended consequences.
Furthermore, it was clear that the previous Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin had a strong anti-crypto stance, while Janet Yellen seems to be taking a more neutral approach.
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The views expressed in the article are wholly those of the author and do not represent those of, nor should they be attributed to, ZyCrypto. This article is not meant to give financial advice. Please carry out your own research before investing in any of the various cryptocurrencies available.
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Source: https://zycrypto.com/crypto-pundits-say-us-money-laundering-legislation-could-cripple-bitcoin-market/
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