The Block is an American online publication specializing in

cryptocurrencies A cryptocurrency (colloquially crypto) is a digital currency designed to work through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. Individual coin ownership records ...

. It is based in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

History

The Block was founded by Mike Dudas at the beginning of 2018. It raised $4 million from venture capital firms including

Greycroft Greycroft LP is an American venture capital firm. It manages over $3 billion in capital with investments in companies such as Bird Global, Bird, Bumble (app), Bumble, HuffPost, Goop (company), Goop, Scopely, The RealReal, and Venmo. Greycroft wa ...

, Pantera Capital, BlockTower Capital and

Bloomberg Beta Bloomberg Beta is an early stage venture capital firm with $450M under management, capitalized solely by Bloomberg. The fund exists to expand Bloomberg's horizons by investing in companies built by extraordinary founders that are creating profoun ...

. In 2020, Mike Dudas stepped down and Michael McCaffrey became CEO, having taken an undisclosed loan of $12 million from Alameda Research to buy out other investors and all former employees. Over the next two years, McCaffrey took two more loans from Alameda Research. One for $15 million to finance the ongoing operations of The Block and another for $16 million to purchase personal real estate in

the Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of ...

. After Alameda Research went bankrupt and McCaffrey's undisclosed loans totaling $43 million were revealed in December 2022, McCaffrey resigned and Bobby Moran, then CRO of The Block, became Interim CEO in November 2022. Moran said that no employee, apart from McCaffrey, knew about the loans from Alameda Research. In March 2023, Larry Cermak became CEO and the company laid off a third of its staff. In November 2023, The Block sold more than an 80% stake to

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

-based Foresight Ventures in a $56 million deal at a $70 million valuation.

Emergence event

The Block and Foresight Ventures hosted a conference called Emergence in Prague in December 2024. Former Czech Prime Minister

Andrej Babiš Andrej Babiš (; born 2 September 1954) is a Czech businessman and politician who served as the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, prime minister of the Czech Republic from 2017 to 2021. He previously served as the Finance Minister of the Cze ...

and former Mayor of Prague

Zdeněk Hřib Zdeněk Hřib (born 21 May 1981) is a Czech healthcare manager and politician, who has served as chair of the Czech Pirate Party since November 2024, and served as the Mayor of Prague from November 2018 to February 2023. Initially a physicia ...

spoke at the event.

Digital Asset Outlook report

In December 2020, The Block released its first Digital Asset Outlook report covering the state of the market, investment trends, decentralized finance (DeFi), and other thematic trends to watch for in 2021. Similar reports were released at the end of each subsequent year.

GMCI indices

The Block and crypto

market maker A market maker or liquidity provider is a company or an individual that quotes both a buy and a sell price in a tradable asset held in inventory, hoping to make a profit on the difference, which is called the ''bid–ask spread'' or ''turn.'' Thi ...

Wintermute launched crypto index provider GMCI in February 2024. It provides 12 indices that track aspects of the crypto market, including sectors such as Layer 1 tokens and AI tokens. The GMCI 30 index represents a selection of the top 30 cryptocurrencies and is available on crypto exchanges Bitget and Woo X, as well as decentralized exchange Vertex.

References

{{reflist 2018 establishments in New York City Cryptocurrency companies Technology websites