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: Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange Outlines Plans For Crypto
The Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange (TLV: TASE) has outlined four goals in its strategic plan for the years 2023-2027 one of which is “creating a platform for digital assets using blockchain (digital ledger technology) and venturing into crypto.”
Digital Assets: Brazilian Digital Bank NuBank To Float Own Crypto For Rewards Program
Buffett-backed, Brazilian digital bank Nubank (NYSE: NU) announced Wednesday its plans to launch Nucoin, a digital token as “a new way to recognize customer loyalty and encourage engagement with Nubank products.” The move would also mark the neo bank’s move into crypto assets.
Digital Assets: Walmart Global CTO Says Crypto To Play Big Role In Payments
Walmart (NYSE: WMT) global CTO, Suresh Kumar made it very clear Tuesday that he envisaged a major role for crypto in the company’s future: “Crypto will become an important part of how customers transact. We want to make sure that we make it as friction free for customers to be able to transact, and to be able to buy, and how they are able to derive value out of it.”
Digital Assets: Retail Vigilantes Join In The Global Race To Nab Do Kwon
Kang Hyung-suk, who used to work in Do Kwon’s cryptocurrency operator Terraform Labs in Seoul, belongs to the UST Restitution Group, which is trying to locate Do Kwon alongside Interpol and South Korean authorities. Do Kwon is wanted in South Korea on charges of financial fraud.
Digital Assets: FTX And Its Billionaire Owner Sam Bankman-Fried Being Investigated By Texas State Securities Board
Joe Rotunda, the enforcement director of the Texas State Securities Board (TSSB), found that he could easily apply to join FTX’s yield-earning offering even though he listed his Austin address. The problem? FTX has not registered to sell securities in Texas. It appears, therefore, that FTX has been offering unregistered securities to Texas residents through its yield-bearing cryptocurrency accounts – a matter under investigation by the TSSB since last week.
Digital Assets: Uniswap Lands $165M Series B At $1.66B Valuation
Uniswap, which intends to bring Web3 to everyone, announced a $165 million Series G round led by Polychain Capital and with participation from existing investors a16z crypto, Paradigm, SV Angel, and Variant. The round valued the company at around $1.66 billion.
Digital Assets: Cumulative Transactions In The Digital Yuan (e-CNY) Exceed 100.04B Yuan ($13.9B)
In statistics unveiled by the People’s Bank of China, the country’s CBDC, known as e-CNY, has amassed a cumulative value of 100 billion yuan ($13.9 billion) as of Aug. 31, 2022. Given the number of transactions during the period was 360 million, the average value of a transaction was 278 yuan.
Digital Assets: Using The Metaverse To Restore Chinook Salmon To A Native American Watershed In California
Pom, a Native American tribe leader in Northern California, will use blockchain to revive the native species of Chinook salmon his community once relied on. Pom and his team have created Salmon Journeys, a video game on Decentraland. A user who snags a Chinook salmon in the game wins an exclusive non-fungible token (NFT) by Sawalmen, a Web3 entity that represents Indigenous spiritual values and raises funds for restoration efforts and the landback movement.
Digital Assets: Google Cloud And Coinbase Partner On Web3
“Over the next few years, we believe every company and developer will be building on Web3 — to the point where Web3 will become synonymous with the internet itself,” says Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) in a blog post announcing its Web3 partnership with Google Cloud. The cloud and digital asset giants have come together to address the potential of Web3.
Digital Assets: BNY Mellon’s Digital Asset Custody Platform Is Live In The U.S.
BNY Mellon, the investment arm and a brand name of the Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE: BK), announced that select clients would now be able to hold and transfer bitcoin and ether on its newly-launched Digital Asset Custody platform.
FinTech: Visa And Global Crypto Exchange FTX Tie Up For FTX-Branded Debit Cards
Sam Bankman-Fried owned FTX has struck a long term global partnership with Visa (NYSE: V) that will kick off with the issue of FTX-branded Visa debit cards to FTX customers internationally—with a focus on countries in Latin America, Europe and Asia in the initial phases of the rollout.
Digital Assets: Hacker Steals $570M Of The Binance BNB Token By Exploiting Cross-Chain Bridge Linking
A hacker has forced crypto exchange Binance to temporarily suspend its BNB Chain blockchain after they looted $570 million worth of its BNB token by targeting a cross-chain bridge linking with it. A vulnerability allowed them to move the BNB tokens off the network. Binance is the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume.
Venture Capital: CyberSecurity Companies Arctic Wolf And NetSPI Rake In The Big Bucks
Two big fund rounds, both in excess of $400 million, showed investors’ willingness to back cybersecurity startups despite the dismal conditions in financial markets. While KKR invested $410 million in NetSPI, Arctic Wolf got a $401 million infusion through convertible notes.
Digital Assets: SWIFT Experiments Show CBDCs, Digital Assets Can Move Cross-Border On Existing Financial Infrastructure
SWIFT conducted two separate experiments to assess interoperability in cross-border transactions between traditional payment systems, Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), and tokenised assets. SWIFT found that fiat money, CBDCs and digital assets could seamlessly be moved across the existing global financial infrastructure.
Alternative Investments/Digital: Fidelity Launches Ethereum Index Fund For Accredited Investors
The fund (not an ETF) has already amassed $5 million in assets. Fidelity Investments, the multi-trillion dollar asset manager, is launching the Fidelity Ethereum Index Fund, according to an Oct. 4 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It will provide investors with exposure to ETH, or the Ether cryptocurrency. The new fund is housed…
Digital Assets: NYDIG Builds On Solid Q3 With $720M Raise, And C-Suite Rejig
Bitcoin company NYDIG on Monday announced top-level changes, promoting executives Tejas Shah and Nate Conrad to the roles of CEO and President, respectively. Shah and Conrad were previously NYDIG’s Global Head of Institutional Finance and Global Head of Payments, respectively. Prior to joining NYDIG in 2020, Shah had a nearly 20-year career at Goldman Sachs where he was a partner. Conrad joined Stone Ridge in 2016 and NYDIG in 2020, after also beginning his career at Goldman Sachs.
Alternative Investments/Digital: Bitwise Asset Management Launches Web3 ETF
Bitwise Asset Management, the world’s leading crypto index fund manager with more than $1.3 billion in assets under management, has launched the Bitwise Web3 ETF (ticker: BWEB). The ETF will provide investors with exposure to companies that will ride the coming boom from Web3 – the third stage of the evolution of the internet.
Digital Assets: Uniswap To Raise Between $100M – $200M ; Could Nab Unicorn Status
A report by Tech Crunch said Friday that Uniswap Labs is in preliminary discussions for a fundraising of $100 million – $200 million and could command a valuation of around $1 billion, thus acquiring the hallowed ‘unicorn’ status. The company is the parent of Uniswap, the biggest decentralized exchange in the world that commands 64% of all DEX volumes, according to DeFi Llama. Further, it is significant that the exchange protocol’s token has a market cap of nearly $5 billion despite the bear market in crypto assets.
Alternative Investments/DA: BlackRock Debuts Blockchain ETF In Europe
BlackRock (NYSE: BLK), the largest asset manager in the world, launched last week the iShares Blockchain Technology UCITS ETF [BLKC] targeted at European investors looking for exposure to blockchain and crypto technologies.
Digital Assets: Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX US Wins Auction For Voyager Digital’s Bankruptcy Assets With $1.4B Bid
West Realm Shires Inc., dba FTX US, has won the bankruptcy auction for the assets of Voyager Digital with a bid of about $1.422 billion. It was held to be the best and highest bid after an auction process that included multiple rounds of bidding over a period of two weeks.
Digital Assets: Do Kwon Not In Singapore; Interpol Issues Red Notice For The Terra Co-Founder
According to a Bloomberg report, South Korean authorities have confirmed in a text message Monday that Interpol had issued a Red Notice for Kwon, requesting law enforcement forces globally to locate and arrest Do Kwon, the co-founder of the ill-fated Terraform Labs. Kwon is accused in South Korea of various crimes, including violations of capital market law, and courts there have already issued a warrant for his arrest.
Digital Assets: Nasdaq Launches Institutions-Focused Digital Assets Business
With a view to driving broader institutional adoption of digital assets, NASDAQ has launched a new digital assets business titled Nasdaq Digital Assets to provide a proprietary custody solution with liquidity and execution services for financial institutions.
Digital Assets: Japan’s Nomura Holdings Incorporates Digital Assets Subsidiary In Switzerland
Nomura Holdings (TYO: 8604), the Japanese investment banking behemoth, has incorporated Laser Digital Holdings AG in Switzerland for its new digital assets business, Laser Digital. Laser will focus on the three core businesses of Secondary Trading, Venture Capital and Investor Products.
Digital Assets: Lumos Digital Mining Flags Off Solar-Powered Mining Of Bitcoin Down Under
Lumos Digital Mining has inaugurated its solar powered 5 MW bitcoin data mining centre in the steel city of Whyalla, South Australia. It will be operated for the mining of bitcoins, a process which requires extensive competition of power to solve complex mathematics problems. Crypto mining has been roundly criticised in recent times for its rapacious use of energy, said to exceed annually the consumption of a medium-sized nation such as Argentina.