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Founded in 2018, The Block<\/em> had bought out its investors in April 2021, making the publication 100 percent employee-owned. The company had previously raised over $4 million from venture firms like Greycroft, BlockTower Capital, Bloomberg Beta, and Pantera. However, that buyout was funded by a $12 million loan, the first of the three supplied by the now disgraced Alameda Research. The second loan of $15 million supplied capital to The Block<\/em> by way of an LLC called Lonely Road, while the final $16 million loan went to an LLC called Red Sea that McCaffrey used to buy real estate in the Bahamas.<\/p>\n That a media platform in the crypto space received under-the-table funding from one of Web3\u2019s most discredited names (and used a significant amount of that funding to purchase real estate for personal use) is a reputational disaster for both Web3 and The Block<\/em> alike. It proves that the tremors from SBF\u2019s shady professional dealings in the crypto space continue to ripple outward.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis news came as both a shock and disappointment to The Block leadership team,\u201d the new CEO Bobby Moran wrote in the company statement. \u201cMike\u2019s decision to take out a loan from SBF and not disclose that information demonstrates a serious lack of judgment. It undermines The Block\u2019s reputation and credibility, especially that of our reporters and researchers, as well as our efforts at industry-leading transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n Moran goes on to say that no one on the team knew of McCaffrey\u2019s loan deal, maintaining that he has seen no evidence of the money having any influence on the publication\u2019s coverage. Moran himself said he learned of the loans for the first time just before Thanksgiving of this year.\u00a0<\/p>\nWhat\u2019s next:\u00a0<\/h2>\n