The blockchain industry is ready for one of its own to join the U.S. Congress, whether it’s Messari founder Ryan Selkis or someone else. That’s judging by reactions on the floor of Messari’s conference, Mainnet 2021, taking place at the Marriott Marquis in Manhattan this week. Yesterday Selkis said he was going to run for…

All cryptocurrencies will be regulated. Or else. That was the clear and unambiguous message Gary Gensler, the chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, delivered Tuesday in a livestream with The Washington Post.  Gensler said there’s no question in his mind that digital tokens fit the definition of securities and are subject to federal registration…

Messari founder Ryan Selkis announced plans to run for the U.S. Senate in 2024. Selkis has become increasingly vocal against stringent cryptocurrency regulation but the final straw, he said, was when securities regulators allegedly showed up at the conference he organized and served one of the speakers with a subpoena. He tweeted: “If you’re wondering…

Crypto markets were in the red on Monday morning NY time, and DeFi names were taking a beating as investors worldwide turned bearish overnight. Pacesetter Aave was down 13.6% in the last 24 hours, and Maker’s MKR wasn’t far behind with a 10.7% drop, according to CoinGecko. Ethereum shed 8% in the last day, and…

The Tracer Protocol has completed a sale of 50M TCR tokens for 3.75M DAI, giving its total supply a valuation of $75M at the sales end. It has since nearly doubled to $137M, according to CoinGecko. The auction ran for five days, ending on September 15, and it used the Gnosis batch auction system, so…

Solend, a lending platform built on the proof-of-stake blockchain, Solana, has hit $100M in deposits, according to its team.  Solend has done so without liquidity mining opportunities, but those are coming. Solend works basically the same way Compound and Aave do. Users can post assets that will earn interest, and they can borrow a certain…

0xMaki is stepping down from leadership in the community-run decentralized automated market maker, SushiSwap, to take an advisory role in the decentralized autonomous organization, a person with knowledge of the matter told The Defiant. A statement from 0xMaki will come out on Friday.  Another knowledgeable source verified these details.  Sources did not provide details about…

The insider buying scandal at OpenSea has hit just as a crop of rivals are circling the NFT marketplace leader.  On Sept. 15, a startup called NFTX launched what it called “the world’s most liquid decentralized marketplace,” meaning the exchange operates “on chain.” It also permits buyers and sellers to make deals without the need…

NFTs are huge here in crypto, but the old web is not sure. Digital collectibles on the blockchain have captured the imagination of crypto heads and attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in investments. Players ranging from the Walt Disney Co. to Super Bowl champion quarterback Tom Brady are embracing their revolutionary marketing potential. Newcomers…

OpenSea, the world’s biggest NFT marketplace with $100M in daily volume, just learned a painful lesson — inside information can lead to unscrupulous trading by employees. Devin Finzer, OpenSea’s co-founder and CEO, said in a blog post Wednesday that an employee purchased “items” ahead of their public listing on the auction site’s front page. With…