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: REINNO Offers Investors $237M In Tokenized Commercial Real Estate
REINNO intends to disrupt commercial real estate investing by breaking down the financial barriers which limit entry to the small guy. REINNO’s platform offers tokenization of real estate, loans against tokenized real estate, and a marketplace for property owners to list the token offerings. It announced Thursday the launch of its marketplace for tokenized commercial real estate with five offerings worth over $ 237 million.
Alternative Investments/ESG: BlackRock Unveils Multi-Asset, ESG ETFs
BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) has unwrapped three new innovative UCITS funds that are claimed to be Europe’s first offering of tradable multi-asset ESG portfolios built with ETFs. Each of these funds are made up of iShares ETFs to provide access to a wide selection of stocks and bonds.
Digital Assets: Mastercard Creates Platform For Simulating a CBDC Ecosystem
As central banks navigate the feasibility of their CBDC projects through uncharted territory, Mastercard has unveiled a proprietary virtual testing environment for them to evaluate CBDC use cases.
Digital Assets: Diginex, Parent Of Equos Crypto Exchange, Raises $20M
Diginex Limited, the owner of digital assets exchange Equos, announced Tuesday its raise of more than $ 20 million through the private placement of a convertible note. Launched on July 30, Equos is an institutional-grade exchange that caters to both individuals and institutions.
Digital Assets: Ransomware Attack Freezes Argentina’s Borders
Dirección Nacional de Migraciones, Argentina’s official immigration agency, suffered a Netwalker ransomware attack in late August. According to Bleeping Computer, which quoted from a criminal complaint published by Unidad Fiscal Especializada en Ciberdelincuencia, Argentina’s cybersecurity agency, the government was alerted of the attack when border checkpoints started calling up with technical problems early in the morning on August 27.
Digital Assets: Revolut Steps Up Crypto Offerings; Revolut Business Snags 500K Customers
According to an announcement Wednesday, digital challenger bank Revolut has enhanced the scope of crypto trading for its customers in the US. It has added Bitcoin Cash and LiteCoin to its range of cryptocurrencies that customers can buy sell or hold.
Digital Assets: Rising Crypto Adoption – Pornhub Expands Crypto Payment Options
Pornhub is the leading free, ad-supported adult video streaming website with over 12 million videos and over 130 million visitors a day. On Tuesday, it announced via Twitter that it had started to accept Bitcoin and Litecoin as payment methods. (Bitcoin.com)
Digital Assets: Singapore Exchange Firsts – Issues Digital Bond; Launches Crypto Indices
The Singapore Exchange’s (SGX) digital asset issuance, depository, and servicing platform announced Tuesday the successful pilot of its first digital bond – a S$400 million 5.5-year public bond issue and a follow-on S$100 million tap of the same issue by Olam International (SGX: O32).
Digital Assets: Vertalo to Tokenize Real Estate in Mexico and Canada
MountX Real Estate Capital is a proptech investment platform that provides access to investment opportunities backed by institutional-quality real estate assets in Canada. The firm has partnered with Vertalo, a digital transfer agent that specializes in the tokenization of assets, to design and launch over 15 digital real estate projects in Mexico and Canada.
Liquid Alternatives: Soon, On A Blockchain With The Archax+ Algorand Tie-Up
Archax and blockchain provider Algorand will collaborate to create smart financial products that can trade on the newly FCA-regulated Archax digital exchange. These innovative new products include stablecoins and liquid alternatives. The latter are financial products, available in an ETF or mutual fund wrapper, that employ alternative investment strategies but can be bought or sold every day.
Digital Assets: Grayscale Owner DGC Makes $100M Bitcoin Mining Foray
Digital Currency Group (DCG), the owner of Grayscale Investments and CoinDesk, and an investor in blockchain companies globally announced its commitment to invest over $ 100 million in Foundry, a wholly-owned crypto mining subsidiary.
Digital Assets: Russian Nabbed In Attempted DDoS Cyberattack on Tesla
The Department of Justice on Tuesday announced the arrest of Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov, a Russian citizen, on the charge of conspiring to breach Tesla’s (NASDAQ: TSLA) network and to infiltrate it with malware.
Digital Assets: Nasdaq-Listed Cryptominer Marathon Acquires Fastblock Mining For $22M
Marathon Patent Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: MARA) will acquire Fastblock Mining for approximately $22 million in an all-stock deal. Marathon will issue 8,658,009 shares to Fastblock, a mining-as-a-service company, in a private placement transaction. Marathon shares closed Wednesday at $2.54.
Venture Capital: ReliaQuest Reels In Over $300M In Funding Round Led by KKR
ReliaQuest, a global leader in cybersecurity, protects enterprises from security breaches. It announced Tuesday its fundraising of over $300 million in growth financing in a round led by global investment firm KKR. Ten Eleven Ventures and ReliaQuest founder and CEO Brian Murphy also participated in the round.
Digital Assets: Crypto Exchange FTX Snaps Up Portfolio Tracker Blockfolio for $150M
FTX is a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange that offers spot and futures trading on various cryptocurrencies, the world’s first liquid cryptocurrency index future, futures that settle to the absolute change in the price of a coin over time, options, leveraged tokens, and other such innovative crypto products. The institutional-focused exchange acquired Blockfolio, a portfolio tracker that supports over 10,000 cryptocurrencies and blockchain assets across 500+ exchanges.
Digital Assets: Canadian Software Company Snappa Converts 40% Cash to Bitcoin
Canadian graphics software company Snappa started converting cash reserves into bitcoin since March this year after realizing that the purchasing power of Canadian and U.S. dollars is actually decreasing after adjusting for inflation. Writing in a blog, Snappa co-founder Christopher Gimmer said bitcoin “now makes up a significant percentage of our company’s overall cash reserves.”
Digital Assets: Bitcoin An Insurance Policy Against Inflation [Grayscale Report]
In an attempt to unravel the complexities of evaluating the dominant cryptocurrency, Grayscale Investments has assessed macroeconomic factors and indicators of demand and supply in a new report titled “Valuing Bitcoin.” The report concludes that the current Bitcoin market structure parallels that of early 2016 before it began its historic bull run.
Artificial Intelligence: Deep Learning AI To Foil Cryptojacking Computer Pirates
Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have devised an AI-based software watchdog that thwarts malicious actors from hijacking computer resources for the illicit mining of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and monero. This criminal activity is known as cryptojacking.
Digital Assets: Crypto Lender BlockFi Raises $50M in a Series C Round
BlockFi, an online crypto lender that also offers accounts paying compound interest and trading, raised $ 50 million in a Series C round led by Morgan Creek Digital. Other participating investors include Peter Thiel-backed Valar Ventures (the lead investor in BlockFi’s Series A and B), CMT Digital, Castle Island Ventures, Winklevoss Capital, SCB 10X, Avon Ventures, Purple Arch Ventures, Kenetic Capital, HashKey, Michael Antonov, NBA player Matthew Dellavedova, and two university endowments.
Alternative Investments/Digital Assets: CoinShares ETPs’ AUM Hits $1B
CoinShares’ bouquet of XBT Provider Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) has grossed AUM of above $1 billion. CoinShares is Europe’s largest digital asset manager and allows trading in a range of ETPs to investors.
Digital Assets: Institution-Focused Digital Exchange Archax Is Now FCA Regulated
Institutions can soon trade on a fully regulated exchange for digital assets. The UK-based Archax digital exchange boasts of several licenses received from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The FCA has licensed Archax to operate as a multilateral trading facility exchange, a broker, and a custodian for cash and assets. Archax also became the first-ever company to receive the FCA crypto-asset registration and is therefore a fully compliant Virtual Assets Service Provider (VASP).
Digital Assets: Greenidge Gen, Once A Coal Plant, Is Now A Profitable Crypto Miner
Greenidge Generation, once a mothballed coal-fired power station located in the New York Finger Lake Region, has converted to a power plant-cum-mining hybrid business model that combines power generation with a blockchain mining facility. Greenidge commenced a large-scale cryptocurrency mining operation in January 2020 with a data center comprising 8,500 latest generation miners.
FinTech: Colibra Compensates You for Flight Delays, Now Also In Bitcoin
Colibra is a Bulgarian startup that aims to make compensations for flight delays accessible to any traveler in EU countries. Travelers using the app need to pay nothing upfront and can hope to get a fair and guaranteed chance at compensation if the flight is delayed by just an hour, even due to weather. The app has now extended the option for travelers to receive compensation in bitcoin.
Digital Assets: Big Investor Names Move Into Gold, Boosting Targets for Bitcoin
An analysis of Q2 SEC filings shows that Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) jettisoned stocks of Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS). On the other hand, he bought 20.9 million shares in Barrick Gold (NYSE: GOLD) – a safe haven bet worth about $563.6 million. Gold and crypto bugs are currently joined at the hip. So its no surprise that one analyst has predicted a price of $50,000 for bitcoin.