NFL vs. NFT, Crypto Investment Flows + More News

Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
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NFTs news

• The US National Football League (NFL) has told teams that they cannot sell sponsorships to crypto trading firms, for the time being, The Athletic reported. Teams also cannot sell non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as the league develops a strategy for sports digital trading cards and art.
• Crypto exchange FTX has launched a minting platform for NFTs on its US version, the exchange’s founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried tweeted, adding that the NFTs will be cross-chain on Solana (SOL) and Ethereum (ETH).

Investments news

• Digital asset investment products saw inflows totaling USD 98m last week, per CoinShares. Inflows were seen across all digital assets although altcoins, on an assets under management weighted basis, remain the favourite amongst investors, they said, adding that altcoin market share is now a record 35% of investment products.
   

• OP Crypto Capital Management Ltd, a new crypto venture capital firm backed by Huobi Ventures, Galaxy Digital’s Vision Hill FoF Platform, Digital Currency Group, Mirana Ventures (Bybit), and The Brooker Group, announced its launch. “The firm will focus on bridging the gap between [Centralized finance], DeFi and the Metaverse through investing in projects looking to shape the future of corporate governance and transfer power from centralized entities in the Web 2.0 world to content creators/users in the upcoming Web 3.0 world,” the company said.
• Korean investment company KB Asset Management has launched a blockchain-focused mutual investment fund called the “KB Global Digital Chain Economy” fund, according to The Korea Times. The fund will be focusing on three investment areas: companies that produce blockchain-related hardware, those that provide blockchain-based services to customers, and those that actively use blockchain in their current business model.

Exchanges news

• Binance has announced it has removed all trading pairs with the Singaporean Dollar (SGD) in an effort to remain compliant with local regulations. They have also removed their trading app from Google and iOS play stores in the area, and shut down all online communications channels in Singapore.
• Australian bank Volt has partnered with crypto exchange BTC Markets to provide integrated banking capabilities to the exchange, according to Reuters. The deal will provide BTCM, which has around 325,000 Australian customers, access to a corporate cash management account with real-time notifications and payment automation, the companies said.
• The South Korean crypto exchange Gopax has announced the development of a new “cryptocurrency monitoring and market alert system” to provide health checks on the individual tokens it lists. Per EBN, the system will allow the exchange to provide health checks in six categories, namely: compliance, development continuity, development progress, user protection protocols, potential ethical “hazards” and financial stability. The timing of the development is somewhat unusual, with most of South Korean exchanges – Gopax included – currently racing against time in a bid to gain operating permits from the regulatory authorities and avoid closure.
• Indeed, the South Korean regulatory Financial Services Commission (FSC) has moved to address this very issue with the creation of new guidelines and protocols for exchanges that will close or suspend their business operations on September 24, the deadline for application submissions. Per EDaily, the FSC has told trading platforms to “prepare user support procedures” and inform customers that they will be winding up their services no less than seven days in advance. The FSC added that platforms should allow their customers to withdraw fiat and tokens for a minimum of 30 days after closure and noted that “customers must be notified of business closures and transaction suspensions by September 17.”
• Spain’s Bit2Me exchange has begun its Latin American expansion, with a focus on Colombia, Uruguay, Panama, Costa Rica, and Ecuador, El Español reported. The company claimed that Latin America was “undoubtedly one of the areas with the greatest expansion and adoption potential in the world,” and an executive claimed that banks were training staff in crypto-related matters “behind closed doors.”
• Bitfinex Securities Ltd. said it has launched its regulated investment exchange, Bitfinex Securities, in the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), Kazakhstan.
   

Regulation news

• Chair of the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Charles Randell said in a speech to the Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime that crypto firms issuing digital tokens need to be brought “firmly within our reach.” He also suggested, however, that greater regulatory oversight might be harmful, creating a “halo effect,” whereby unrealistic expectations are raised around consumer protection.

Defi news

• Decentralized finance (DeFi) project COVER and its smaller lending sibling RULER are shutting down after the development team that serviced them both abandoned the projects, their community manager announced, without elaborating. The remaining treasury funds will be evenly dispersed to token holders, per the post.