Digital Assets
Digital assets are about more than just Bitcoin. The global adoption of blockchain, expansion of cross-border payments, new investment vehicles tied to intellectual property, and more, could one day establish a global market of digitized assets worth $50 trillion. This channel provides access to the latest developments, opportunities, risks, and thought leaders in the growing Digital Assets space.
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Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD) has launched its Crypto app in the European Union (EU), allowing eligible customers to engage in crypto trading with the added incentive of earning Bitcoin rewards. Customers stand to receive up to 1 BTC as a reward when signing up and can earn an additional 1 BTC for each successful referral. The platform claims to be the sole custodial crypto platform in the EU offering customers a percentage of their trading volume back every month, paid in Bitcoin.
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More Stories on Digital Assets
Digital Assets: Sustainable Aussie Bitcoin Miner Iris Energy In Pre-Listing $200M Cash Chase
Iris Mining, a Sydney-based bitcoin mining company that uses renewable energy for its operations, is looking to raise $200 million before its seeks a direct listing on the Nasdaq, according to a Bloomberg report. The company has already appointed an adviser, commenced discussions with potential investors, and plans to use the funding to lay the base for the listing – perhaps this year.
Digital Assets: The Pegasus Spyware From Israel’s NSO Group Hacked Phones Of Journalists And Activists
Forbidden Stories, a Paris-based journalism nonprofit, and Amnesty International shared a contact list with The Pegasus Project, a collaborative investigation between the Washington Post and 15 other news organizations to investigate smartphone hackings of reporters, human rights activists, business executives and the fiancee of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Digital Assets: PayPal Bumps Up Crypto Purchase Limits Five-Fold
Paypal (NASDAQ: PYPL) announced Thursday that it was boosting its weekly crypto spending limit five times from $20,000 to $100,000. It also said it had cancelled its annual spending ceiling of $100,000.
Venture Capital: Cybereason, Which Offers Extended Detection and Response (XDR), Lands $275M
Cybersecurity provider Cybereason, a US-Israeli startup, raised $275 million in a Series F funding that, according to media reports valued it at $3.1 billion. The financing was led by Liberty Strategic Capital, a venture fund launched by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, which put in $200 million, its maiden investment. Irving Investors, certain funds advised by Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers, and Softbank Vision Fund 2 invested the balance of $75 million.
Digital Assets: Nuclear Fission Energy Startup Oklo Signs Up With Compass Mining
Compass Mining, the world’s first online marketplace for bitcoin mining hardware and hosting, and Oklo Inc, a startup developing clean energy plants using advanced fission, have struck a 20-year deal. Eyeing the growing demand for emission-free power to use in bitcoin mining, Oklo’s advanced fission power houses will supply 150 MW of energy to Compass bitcoin mining machines commencing in the early 20’s.
Alternative Investments/ESG: Global X Launches ETFs For Blockchain, Agtech, And Hydrogen Exposure
Global X ETFs, of the Mirae Asset Financial Group, has launched the Global X Blockchain ETF (BKCH), the Global X AgTech & Food Innovation ETF (KROP), and the Global X Hydrogen ETF (HYDR). The three new ETFs bring up the number of Global X’s thematic funds to 30. They offer investors a focused exposure to “long-term, paradigm-shifting themes.”
Alternative Investments/ESG: Brazil’s Hashdex To Offset Mining Emissions In New Bitcoin ETF
Brazilian asset manager Hashdex said Tuesday it will launch a bitcoin ETF that will be carbon-neutral in respect of its holdings of the cryptocurrency. The fund manager will purchase carbon credits to offset the emission footprint of its bitcoin using a portion of its management fee. The ETF, titled the Hashdex Nasdaq Bitcoin Reference Price Index Fund (BITH11), will commence trading on the Brazilian B3 stock exchange effective August 4.
Digital Assets: REvil, Russia’s Notorious Ramsomware Gang, Has Vanished
Did REvil up-and-leave on its own after the heat simply got too much? Will it reband again with another name? Did Mr. Biden carry through on his threat to Putin that the U.S. will take “any action” to combat the persistent hack attacks on U.S. entities? Or, did Putin have a change of heart and pull the plug on REvil? These questions are all unanswered.
Digital Assets: London’s Metropolitan Police Seize $249M In Cryptocurrency
London’s Metropolitan Police, acting on information received about the transfer of criminal assets, seized almost £180 million ($249 million) in cryptocurrency on Saturday. The investigations surrounding the seizure related to international money laundering. The haul follows another amount of £114 million ($158 million) of cryptocurrency confiscated in June, which was itself a UK record. (CNN)
Alternative Investments/Digital: Guggenheim’s Minerd On Bitcoin – “This Is Probably A Crash”
Minerd has taken his previous, “real bottom” price of bitcoin a notch lower. Based on technical analysis, he said last month that bitcoin would likely find a base at $15K. On Friday, speaking on CNBC, Minerd said he now thought the leading cryptocurrency could plumb $10,000 depths.
Digital Assets/ESG: A South Korean University Pays 10 Ggool To Students To Recycle Their Poo
Professor Cho is the inventor of the BeeVi toilet, which routes human excrement to a laboratory that converts it to biogas and manure. The eco-friendly toilet disburses 10 Ggool, a cryptocurrency created by Cho, to every person who uses the toilet for defecation. The biogas (methane) is a power source for the university building while the manure is used in gardening.
Digital Assets: Square Mulling A Hardware Wallet For Bitcoin
There has been fresh development on the thought process on a bitcoin hardware wallet kicked off by Square (NYSE: SQ) CEO Jack Dorsey in June. Square hardware lead Jesse Dorogusker confirmed in a tweet that the company was going ahead with plans to make new tools for bitcoin.
Alternative Investments/Digital: Roundhill Launches A Virtual Worlds’-Focused “Metaverse” ETF
Roundhill Investments launched last week a new ETF built around the theme of the Metaverse. The Roundhill Ball Metaverse ETF is the first-of-its-kind ETF to provide investors exposure to the market of the Metaverse – “a successor-state to today’s mobile Internet, but which will involve countless interoperable and persistent virtual worlds, be richly integrated into the physical world as well, thereby creating a new medium and economy for work, leisure, and innovation.”
Digital Assets: Bank of America Creates Cryptocurrency Research Team
Cryptocurrencies are here to stay, judging from a push into their research by Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), the latest Wall Street entity to dip its toes into digital assets. According to Bloomberg, which saw an internal memo, the Bank has installed a new research team focused on cryptocurrencies.
Digital Assets: Ethereum Could Steal A March Over Bitcoin, Says Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) said in a Tuesday note that in years to come, Ether’s market capitalization could overtake that of bitcoin, driven by more real-world applications running on the Ethereum blockchain.
Digital Assets: The Flip Flop Around Cryptocurrencies
In a note published last week, analysts at UBS’ global wealth management unit warned that investors should stay clear of cryptocurrencies because they were vulnerable to tougher regulations, particularly in the US and UK.
Digital Assets: World Bank Snub Regardless, El Salvador Announces Bitcoin Wallets, ATMs
Speaking to the nation on Thursday, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele said that bitcoin will become legal tender in the country effective September 7. Bukele also gave details of the Chivo bitcoin wallet that Salvadoreans could use and which would be credited with a free $30 worth of bitcoin for signing up.
Venture Capital: Andreessen Horowitz Floats Third Crypto Fund For $2.2B
Andreessen Horowitz, the Silicon Valley venture giant that took a trail-blazing bet on Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) and had already raised $815 million in two earlier funds, is scaling up its commitment to crypto and blockchain. It announced today a new $2.2 billion “Crypto Fund III” in the face of the dramatic volatility in bitcoin’s price, its increasingly sullied climatic image, and the role of crypto in criminal activities such ransom attacks.
Digital Assets: Africrypt, The South African Crypto Platform, Is Missing $3.6B In Bitcoin
This is another instance when exchange founders have decamped with investors’ savings held on their platform as investments in crypto, this time in South Africa. Bloomberg reported that about 69,000 bitcoin worth $3.6 billion is missing from South African crypto investment platform Africrypt. Also untraceable are the Cajee brothers, who founded Africrypt in 2019.
Digital Assets: Stronghold Digital Mining Raises $105M To Mine Cryptos Using Waste Coal
Stronghold Digital Mining has raised $ 105 million through two private equity placements for its Scrubgrass Generation Plant power generation facility in Venango County, Pennsylvania. The utility converts waste coal from abandoned mines in the area to generate electricity on the scale of a large-scale hydropower plant. Stronghold uses this energy to mine cryptocurrencies including bitcoin.
Digital Assets: BTC.com, A Major Crypto Mining Pool, Relocates To Kazakhstan From China
BTC.com, a significant mining pool said to be the world’s fifth-largest, has shifted its first batch of 320 mining machines to Kazakhstan from their earlier location in western Sichuan province in China following a withdrawal of power supply by the grid.
Venture Capital: A Cybersecurity Solution Without Passwords Earns Transmit A $543M Round
Israeli cybersecurity startup Transmit Security, which promises to rid the world of clunky, usually-forgotten passwords, announced today its raise of $543 million in a Series A round led by Insight Partners and General Atlantic, with additional investment from Cyberstarts, Geodesic, SYN Ventures, Vintage, and Artisanal Ventures.
Venture Capital: Crypto Financial Services Amber Scores $100M, Turns Unicorn
Amber Group, the Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency financial services startup, announced Sunday its Series B round of $100 million at a valuation of $1 billion. Led by private equity player China Renaissance, the round saw participation from new investors Tiger Brokers, Tiger Global Management, Arena Holdings, Tru Arrow Partners, Sky9 Capital, DCM Ventures, and Gobi Partners.
Digital Assets: Steve Cohen Is “Fully Converted” To Crypto; Burry Expects A Crash
Steve Cohen, the billionaire Chairman and CEO of Point72 Asset Management, the family office, came out swinging in favor of cryptos in an interview last week. “I’m not going to miss this,” he said. “I already feel like I missed the first part of it, but I still feel like it’s early.”