Mark Cuban

NFT Marketplace Backed by Mark Cuban Raises $13 Million in Series A

01/07/2021 by Idelto Editor

The Mark Cuban-backed non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Mintable has raised $13 million in a Series A funding round, according to an announcement on Thursday. The Singapore-headquartered Mintable, plans to use the funds to expand its offerings, as the application already features 700,000 NFTs minted on the Mintable platform.

NFT Marketplace Mintable Raises $13 Million

On July 1, 2021, the NFT marketplace Mintable announced that it had raised $13 million in a Series A financing round. Investment stemmed from well known investors like Metapurse, Ripple Labs, Animoca Brands, Metakovan, Doug Band the former advisor to Bill Clinton, and the founder of Shutterstock, Jon Oringer as well.

In recent times, Mintable collaborated with the National Football League (NFL) quarterback Trevor Lawrence in an NFT collection series. Lawrence’s NFTs sold for over $400K and Mintable has also collaborated with the popular Japanese fashion brand Bathing Ape.

“With the new injection of funds, Mintable will be focusing on scaling its operations and boosting its growth and user acquisition initiatives,” a statement from Mintable sent to Bitcoin.com News explained.

Furthermore, the founder and CEO of Mintable, Zach Burks, explained during the announcement that non-fungible tokens have gathered widespread attention, and Mintable aims to mature alongside the growing NFT industry. “Throughout 2021, NFTs have reached mass appeal, having touched almost every sector spanning entertainment, fine arts, sports, and many more,” Burks said. Mintable’s founder added:

As the technology continues to mature and the space rapidly evolves, this is a critical company milestone for Mintable and we are thankful for the support from our investors who hold the same shared belief of the many opportunities that NFTs can bring among mainstream users.

Mintable Faces Stiff Competition From a Variety of NFT Marketplaces

Mintable is not the only NFT marketplace gathering investment money, as many other NFT ventures and marketplaces are making moves in the industry.

The very same day Mintable announced the Series A capital raise, Animoca Brands revealed it completed a $138.88 million capital raise on Thursday as well. The funding brings the Animoca Brands company to unicorn status as the firm now has a valuation of $1 billion.

At the end of June, Bitcoin.com News also reported on the NFT marketplace Rarible raising $14.2 million in Series A funding round. As far as Mintable’s investment, Michael Kam, a partner at Double Peak Group said that his firm believes mainstream adoption is important and Mintable will further that goal.

“We believe it is important for NFT platforms to attract non-crypto users, be user-friendly and be decentralised in the long run,” Kam commented. Since launching in 2018, besides being backed by the investor and television personality Mark Cuban, Mintable has also seen backing from Marc Benioff’s TIME Ventures, and Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures.

What do you think about Mintable raising $13 million? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

SEC Delays Robinhood IPO Over Questions Concerning the Company’s Crypto Business: Report

26/06/2021 by Idelto Editor

Robinhood Markets Inc., the American financial services company headquartered in Menlo Park, California, has seen its initial public offering (IPO) delayed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). According to a report citing “people familiar with the matter” the SEC is questioning Robinhood’s cryptocurrency business.

SEC Questions Robinhood’s Crypto Dealings, IPO Delayed

Robinhood was supposed to be having an initial public offering this month but according to a report from Bloomberg, the listing has been slowed by the SEC. The report cites a few people familiar with the matter and they asked: “not to be identified because the matter is private.”

However, they say that the U.S. regulator has questions concerning the cryptocurrency side of the business, as Robinhood also allows customers to purchase popular stocks. Since 2018, Robinhood has allowed customers to purchase and trade crypto assets like bitcoin (BTC), dogecoin (DOGE), and ethereum (ETH).

The company came under fire at the end of January during the Wallstreetbets fiasco that saw the climactic rise and fall of Gamestop (GME) shares. Reports at the time from customers noted that Robinhood ceased offering GME, and other stocks like AMC as well. The move was so controversial, Tesla’s Elon Musk tried to get answers in an interview on The Good Time Show via the Clubhouse app.

Nevertheless, the SEC’s current concerns involve the cryptocurrency business that lets users purchase ETH, DOGE, and ETH rather than scrutinize the stock fiasco. Renowned investor Warren Buffet talked about Robinhood and told CNBC that investing in crypto assets and stocks on Robinhood is akin to casino gambling.

Billionaire investor and Shark Tank star Mark Cuban criticized Robinhood at the end of April and said: “The greatest inhibitor to its growth is that you can’t spend the Doge you buy on Robinhood.” The report authored by Bloomberg’s financial columnist Katie Roof on Friday concerning the SEC and Robinhood noted that the U.S. regulator is very busy dealing with IPOs.

The SEC is also dealing with crypto-based special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) and bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) filings. Roof highlights that Robinhood’s delay is similar to when Coinbase Global Inc., bumped its IPO.

Prior to the Coinbase listing, the exchange had to pay the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) $6.5 million for “inaccurate reporting as well as wash trading.” The SEC further announced this week that it has delayed the bitcoin ETF decision for Valkyrie Digital Assets’ listing proposal.

What do you think about the Robinhood IPO delay? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

NFT Marketplace Rarible Raises Over $14 Million, Plans to Launch on Flow Blockchain

24/06/2021 by Idelto Editor

The non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Rarible has revealed the company has raised $14.2 million in a Series A funding round. Rarible details the funds will be leveraged to take NFTs to the mainstream and announced integration with the consumer-centric blockchain called Flow.

Rarible Raises $14.2M in Series A Funding Round

On Wednesday, the NFT marketplace Rarible, a protocol for creating, selling, and collecting non-fungible, blockchain-based collectibles, revealed the organization raised more than $14 million. The Series A funding round was led by Venrock, Coinfund, and 01 Advisors and the project also revealed it will soon be launching an NFT market on the blockchain Flow.

Brainchild of the creators of Cryptokitties, the Flow project has seen well-known brands like the UFC, Dr. Suess, Ubisoft, Samsung, Warner Music Group, and the National Basketball Association (NBA) mint NFTs using its tech.

Since its launch in 2020, the Rarible marketplace has seen $150 million worth of NFT sales and Rarible’s trading volume has grown “3,000-fold.” Moreover, well-known luminaries have created NFT collectibles on the Rarible marketplace including celebrities like visual neo-pop artist Richard Orlinski, the boxer Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather Jr., actress Lindsay Lohan, billionaire Mark Cuban, hip hop star Tyga, American rapper Bhad Bhabie, and multi-platinum Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Ozuna.

“Just as we have always been at the forefront of the NFT movement, Rarible is determined to pioneer the next wave,” the cofounder of Rarible’s marketplace and CEO Alexei Falin said. “With this company milestone, we are thankful for the support of Venrock, 01 Advisors, and Coinfund and look forward to going beyond the current enclosed crypto environment and taking NFTs into mainstream consciousness.”

Coinfund Expects Major Growth in the NFT Space, NFT Marketplace Competition Has Increased a Great Deal

Jake Brukhman, the CEO of Coinfund, believes that Rarible will remain ahead of the curve in terms of the NFT sector expanding. David Pakman, partner at Venrock expects “major growth in the NFT space as more individual creators, musicians, brands, digital artists and influencers realize the value of digital collectibles and peer-to-peer transactions on platforms such as Rarible become more popular.”

Rarible has a great number of competitors in the space that offer NFT marketplaces as well. The competition includes NFT market operations like Superfarm, Hic et Nunc, Makers Place, Nifty Gateway, Ethernity, Hoard, Enjin, Fansforever, and Opensea. Data from Dune Analytics shows that Rarible has seen over $12 million in 30-day volume and $54,963 over the last seven days. Rarible’s average purchase price for an NFT on the platform is roughly $704 per collectible.

What do you think about the Rarible marketplace raising over $14 million? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Bearish or Bullish? Bitcoin Traders Argue Over Death Cross Outcome

20/06/2021 by Idelto Editor

Bearish or Bullish? Bitcoin Traders Argue Over Pending Death Cross Pattern

On Saturday, cryptocurrency analysts and traders have been discussing bitcoin’s recent chart patterns and the infamous death cross pattern has been a topical conversation. A number of traders believe when bitcoin’s short-term moving average (MA) dips below the long-term MA, the crypto asset could be bracing for a major sell-off. Meanwhile, others are sure the death cross technical pattern means the price is due to rebound and possibly double-top to higher values than the previous all-time high.

The Return of the Infamous Death Cross

On June 19, a number of Twitter conversations, forum posts, and even headlines discussed the technical pattern called the death cross in regard to bitcoin’s (BTC) chart. Bloomberg published an article concerning the death cross on Saturday and the publication featured a few statements from billionaire investor Mark Cuban. The definition of a death cross stemming from Investopedia notes the pattern suggests “the potential for a major sell-off.” The website’s definition adds:

The death cross appears on a chart when a stock’s short-term moving average crosses below its long-term moving average. Typically, the most common moving averages used in this pattern are the 50-day and 200-day moving averages.

However, the death cross doesn’t necessarily mean a bearish market is due. Investopedia details that death cross events led to traditional stock market crashes during the past century including 1929, 1938, 1974, and 2008. Death crosses are not unusual and data from Canterbury Investment Management indicates the Dow Jones Industrial Average has experienced 84 death crosses since 1929. The popular economist and trader Alex Krüger recently discussed the situation of a death cross in relation to BTC/USD charts.

“The Death Cross takes place when the 50 day moving average crosses below the 200 day moving average,” Krüger tweeted. “The Death Cross takes place when the 50 day moving average crosses below the 200 day moving average. Journalists love writing about how a death cross could bring forth a bear market. However, one week historical returns following a bitcoin death cross are POSITIVE. Relax,” Krüger stressed.

Bearish or Bullish? Bitcoin Traders Argue Over Death Cross Outcome — Picture via Alex Krüger on Twitter.

The popular creator of the bitcoin stock-to-flow model, Plan B, also tweeted about the infamous death cross on Saturday. “Study this chart to see what happened [the] last two times the death cross happened, Q4 2019 and Q1 2020,” Plan B said to his 566,000 followers.

However, an individual named Mohit Sorout responded to Plan B’s tweet and noted that there’s been a number of death cross occasions throughout bitcoin’s lifetime.

“There have been 6 past death crosses in bitcoin’s lifetime,” Sorout replied to Plan B. “4 have resulted in enormous downside. The two that didn’t lead to a downtrend were towards the end of a bear market, not after a full blown bull run. Choose your bias wisely,” he added.

Bitcoin Traders Hope a 2013 Double-Top Pattern Emerges

The creator and host of CNBC’s Crypto Trader show Ran Neuner also wrote about the death cross on Saturday too. “Bitcoin shorts are being closed,” Neuner said. “This is confirmation that the shorts were speculative and that it wasn’t miners hedging. We said this would happen in anticipation of the ‘death cross’ that should cross around the 24th June. Expect more FUD. I’m not selling.”

A crypto enthusiast called Sultan discussed the death cross situation with his followers as well and said that it may mean the worst is behind us. “Death cross,” Sultan wrote. “Ironically, death crosses are often a sign that the worst is already behind us. At the 2019 DC, Bitcoin had already went through a -47% dip before the DC flashed, with a 52% recovery after. And a -64% dip before the 2020 DC, with a quick 150% recovery,” he added. Another person wrote to Plan B and said:

A real death cross is when both MA’s are facing down. Good luck to anyone trading the current cross on BTC.

No one really knows what will happen even though a number of traders are confident their predictions will play out. Investor and market watcher John Hostetler also talked about the death cross scenario as well on Saturday. “Only a fool could deny that this Bitcoin DeathCross is more like a bearish cross in red than a bullish one in green,” Hostetler said. “But I do like how the BTC price fell this week, as if to say ‘let’s get it over with, then we can rise’”

“In the end, the cross changes little,” Hostetler further stressed. “Big question remains: has this halving cycle peaked? 2 weeks ago I would’ve assigned that a 1% possibility, because I hadn’t looked at the now-dismal chart of Bitcoin S2F multiple in a while. Since then I have raised the odds to ~20%. But that still leaves 80%. So I continue with the Bitcoin double top model, drawing hope from the summer of 2013, when $BTC came within a breath of a Death Cross: grey arrow on the chart,” he concluded.

What do you think about the bitcoin death cross chart pattern? Do you expect a bear market or a bull market going forward? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Mark Cuban Hit by Iron Finance Token Crash, Calls for Defi Regulation

18/06/2021 by Idelto Editor

Billionaire investor and Shark Tank star Mark Cuban has called for cryptocurrency regulation focusing on decentralized finance (defi) and stablecoins after a token he invested in collapsed from $64 to near zero.

Cuban Wants Defi and Stablecoin Regulation After Investing in Collapsed Token

The billionaire owner of the NBA team Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, invested in a token that crashed from about $64 to near zero Wednesday. Iron Finance called the collapse of its iron titanium token (TITAN) “the world’s first large-scale crypto bank run.” The price of the token is $0.000000029585 at the time of writing.

Responding to a tweet asking whether he “rugged” or “got rugged” on Iron Finance’s token, Cuban wrote: “I got hit like everyone else. Crazy part is I got out, thought they were increasing their TVL [Total Value Locked] enough. Then bam.”

The billionaire investor has been fascinated by defi for quite some time. He wrote a blog post on June 13 touting the potential of defi innovation and TITAN. Some say that the Iron Finance token became popular because of Cuban.

In the blog post, the Shark Tank star explained that he was a small liquidity provider (LP) for Quickswap. “I provide 2 different tokens (DAI/TITAN) that enable Quikswap to offer swaps between these two tokens … my return on my initial $75k investment (based on fees only) as of this writing, is an annualized return of about 206% … in exchange for providing the liquidity both TITAN and Quickswap need for their businesses, I get .25 of the transaction volume for swaps between these two tokens.”

In his letter to Bloomberg Thursday, Cuban talked about his experience with TITAN. He detailed:

I read about it. Decided to try it. Got out. Then got back in when the TVL start to rise back up. As a percentage of my crypto portfolio it was small. But it was enough that I wasn’t happy about it.

“But in a larger context it is no different than the risks I take angel investing,” he noted. “In any new industry, there are risks I take on with the goal of not just trying to make money but also to learn. Even though I got rugged on this, it’s really on me for being lazy.”

Turning to regulation, he suggested, “if you are looking for a lesson learned, the real question is the regulatory one,” emphasizing:

There should be regulation to define what a stablecoin is and what collateralization is acceptable.

“Should we require $1 in U.S. currency for every dollar or define acceptable collateralization options, like U.S. treasuries or?” he continued. “To be able to call itself a stable coin? Where collateralization is not 1 to 1, should the math of the risks have to be clearly defined for all users and approved before release? Probably given stable coins most likely need to get to hundreds of millions or more in value in order to be useful, they should have to register.”

Some people do not believe Cuban’s story, however. Twitter user Paul Bryant wrote: “I don’t believe for one nanosecond that Mark Cuban was caught unawares by the TITAN rug pull. The creator was anonymous, it had zero utility, and he was shilling it at the peak.”

Alex Saunders, founder of Nugget’s News, tweeted: “The incident is being labeled the ‘Cuban Missile Crisis’ after Mark Cuban did a post on TITAN, it then pumped 100x only to be rugged to 0.”

Meanwhile, some people criticized Cuban for calling for regulation after claiming to have lost money in the incident. Entrepreneur Luosheng Peng tweeted: “Mark Cuban invested in crypto TITAN & lost it to almost $0. And after that happened, he is calling for increased Defi regulation. Be careful when you make crypto investments beyond BTC & ETH.” David Schawel, CIO of Family Management Corporation, commented:

I have a hard time when people admit they were lazy in due diligence but then blame lack of regulation.

What do you think about Mark Cuban calling for regulation after getting hit by the token collapse? Let us know in the comments section below.