Borderless Capital Launches $25m Fund to Accelerate Blockchain Investment in Miami
June 2, 2021 — Investment firm Borderless Capital has pledged $25 million to fund blockchain investment in the city of Miami. Through its Borderless.Miami Fund, the company will make direct investment in promising entrepreneurs and businesses, and will also partner with a local incubator to launch the Algorand Miami Accelerator. Payment technology company Circle, which […]
CME Group Launches Micro Bitcoin Futures
CHICAGO, May 3, 2021 — Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group (CME Group), one of the world’s leading derivatives exchanges, has announced the launch of Micro Bitcoin futures, further expanding its suite of crypto derivatives offerings. Micro Bitcoin futures is one-tenth the size of one bitcoin. The smaller-sized contract will provide market participants – from institutions to […]
Ethereum Studio ConsenSys Raises $65 Million
New York, NY, April 13, 2021 – ConsenSys, the Brooklyn-based Ethereum software developer and incubator, announced the final close of its $65 million formation round to accelerate the convergence of decentralized finance (DeFi) and Web3 applications on Ethereum with enterprise blockchain infrastructure. Global financial services firms J.P. Morgan, Mastercard, and UBS invested alongside leading blockchain […]
PayPal Launches “Checkout with Crypto”
San Jose, CA — March 30, 2021 — PayPal Holdings, Inc. today announced the launch of Checkout with Crypto, a new feature which significantly expands the utility of cryptocurrency. Available at millions of global online businesses and continuing to expand over the coming months, PayPal customers with cryptocurrency holdings in the U.S. will be able […]
Visa Becomes First Major Payments Network to Settle Transactions in USD Coin
March 29, 2021 – San Francisco – The global payments network, Visa Inc., today announced it will allow the use of the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin to settle transactions on its payment network, bridging the worlds of digital and traditional fiat currencies. Visa is piloting the capability with Crypto.com, a Visa partner and one of […]
Avanti Completes $37 Million Series A Financing Ahead of Digital Asset Bank Launch
Cheyenne, Wyoming — March 25, 2021 — Avanti Financial Group today announced the closing of its Series A financing round, which raised $37 million for the start-up digital asset bank. Use of proceeds is to fund Avanti’s required regulatory capital needed for launch, as well as to fund engineering build and other operating expenses. The […]
NEM Launches Symbol, The Next-Generation Enterprise-Grade Blockchain Platform
Developed over four years, Symbol from NEM to advance the movement towards decentralization, digitization and tokenization; making waves initially in CBDC space with the world’s first Central Bank digital collector token launched on platform Gibraltar – March 17, March, 2021 – NEM Group today announces the launch of Symbol, its next-generation Proof-of-Stake+ (PoS+) Public Blockchain. […]
Aker ASA Launches Seetee to Invest in Bitcoin and Blockchain Technology
OSLO, Norway, March 8, 2021 — Aker ASA, a Norwegian holding company controlled by billionaire investor Kjell Inge Røkke, announced that it has established Seetee AS, a new company dedicated to investing in projects and companies throughout the Bitcoin ecosystem and which will keep all its liquid investable assets in bitcoin. Seetee is initially capitalized […]
Nym, World’s First Generic Incentivised Mixnet, Releases Whitepaper
February 26, 2021 – In a time when mass surveillance and data harvesting are ever present and not a day goes by without news of companies selling user data for profit, Nym Technologies is building a next generation privacy network that can change the way people use the internet. Chelsea Manning, a famous whistleblower and […]
BlockFi Launches the BlockFi Bitcoin Trust
BlockFi’s investment vehicle will deliver easy access to Bitcoin for institutions and accredited individual investors. Jersey City, NJ, February, 9, 2021 — BlockFi Inc., a financial services company dedicated to building a bridge between cryptocurrencies and traditional financial and wealth management products, today announced the launch of the BlockFi Bitcoin Trust, an investment vehicle for investors seeking […]
Alameda Research Leads $50M Seed Funding Round for an Embedded DeFi Ecosystem on Maps.me
Hong Kong, January 18, 2021 – A seed funding round led by Alameda Research has raised $50M million to create a decentralised finance (DeFi) ecosystem on Maps.me, the world’s leading offline mapping application. Genesis Trading and CMS Holdings also participated in the round. The launch of an embedded multi-currency wallet on Maps.me will unlock DeFi […]
Fireblocks Launches PoS with Blockdaemon and Staked Integrations
Allowing Fireblocks customers to earn 5-15% yield through Polkadot, Tezos and Eth 2.0 New York, January 14, 2021 — Fireblocks announced today it has integrated with Blockdaemon and Staked to add new staking services for over 165 enterprise and institutional customers. The new Fireblocks PoS capabilities will debut with initial support for Polkadot (DOT), Tezos […]
Gemini to Offer Credit Card with Crypto Rewards
New York, January 14, 2021 — Gemini, a crypto exchange and custodian, today announced that it will launch the Gemini Credit Card, a credit card with cryptocurrency rewards. This effort has been accelerated by the acquisition of Blockrize, a fintech startup that has been building a credit card with cryptocurrency rewards. In preparation for launch […]
Bitwise/ETF Trends Survey Indicates Growing Number of Financial Planners Investing in Crypto
San Francisco, January 12, 2021 — Bitwise Asset Management, a leading provider of crypto index funds, and ETF Trends, a leading source of exchange-traded fund news, tips, webcasts, and investing ideas, today released the findings of the Bitwise/ETF Trends 2021 Benchmark Survey Of Financial Advisor Attitudes Toward Cryptoassets. Nearly 1,000 financial advisors answered a series […]
Blockstream Welcomes Six New Members to Liquid Federation
Victoria, British Columbia, January 3, 2021 — Bitcoin infrastructure provider Blockstream announced six new members to the Liquid Federation: Coinos, Komainu, Nym Technologies, Sideswap, Vulpem Ventures, and Watchdog Capital. With these new additions, there are now a total of 59 members in the Liquid Federation, including cryptocurrency exchanges, trading desks, infrastructure providers, gaming companies, and […]
Tether to Go Live on Hermez, an Ethereum Layer 2 Solution
January 11, 2021 – Stablecoin Tether (USDT) is launching on Hermez Network, an Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution that uses ZK-Rollups. Hermez will work with key projects ahead of its official launch to provide significantly cheaper payments and token transfers to millions of users around the world. “Hermez is excited to welcome Tether tokens (USDt) […]
Bakkt to Become a Publicly Traded Company at $2.1 Billion Valuation
ATLANTA & CHICAGO, January 11, 2021 — Bakkt Holdings, LLC (“Bakkt”), the transformative digital asset marketplace launched in 2018 by Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (“ICE”) and a marquee group of investors and strategic partners, and VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings (NASDAQ: VIH) (“VIH”), a special purpose acquisition company sponsored by Victory Park Capital (“VPC”), today announced that […]
Grayscale Investments Names Michael Sonnenshein Chief Executive Officer
The firm expects to double its staff size and launch multiple new products in 2021 New York, January 7, 2021 — Grayscale Investments, the world’s largest digital currency asset manager, today announced that Michael Sonnenshein has been named Chief Executive Officer. Sonnenshein has been with Grayscale for seven years and served in his previous role […]
ShapeShift Integrates Decentralized Exchanges, Removes KYC Requirements
Denver, CO — January 6, 2020 — In order to better protect users while increasing transparency in the digital asset economy, ShapeShift, an international, non-custodial cryptocurrency leader, today announced it has integrated decentralized exchange protocols into its platform. Now, ShapeShift’s customers will be able to trade directly with these external protocols, rather than trading with […]
CoinDesk Acquires TradeBlock, the World’s Leading Crypto Index Provider
New York, January 5, 2021 — CoinDesk, the global leader in crypto and blockchain news, events, data and research, today announced it has acquired TradeBlock, the world’s foremost provider of digital asset reference rates. With this acquisition, CoinDesk is positioned to be the leading source of crypto news, information and data for the financial industry. […]