Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
Exchanges news
- Deutsche Boerse said that Coinbase shares (COIN) can continue to be traded on its trading system Xetra and Frankfurt stock exchange after the crypto exchange provided missing data, Reuters reported. Yesterday, Deutsche Boerse said it would de-list COIN by end of Friday’s trading session.
- The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are examining whether Binance has complied with securities rules over its launch of trading in stock tokens, the Financial Times reported. Binance told the outlet that the stock tokens are a regulated Munich-based investment group CM-Equity product that is compliant with the EU’s Mifid II markets rules and German watchdog BaFin’s banking regulations.
- Coinbase will dedicate 10% of its resources to funding crypto moonshots pitched by its employees. Called ‘Project 10 Percent’, this new internal program is designed to manage their disruptive innovation bets, said the announcement.
- The biggest South Korean crypto exchanges appear to be having their most profitable year ever, reported Maeil Shinmun, which calculated, using CoinMarketCap trading records for the past 24 hours as its measuring stick, that Upbit is likely making in the region of USD 8.6m in commission a day, with rival Bithumb making almost USD 10m. The media outlet pointed out that this all bodes well for the future of the exchange giants. The newspaper noted that for Bithumb, last year’s net income was up 873.5% on the previous financial year, with Upbit operator Dunamu seeing growth in net profits of 308% over the same time period.
- BISON, Boerse Stuttgart Group’s crypto app, has exceeded trading volume of EUR 2bn (USD 2.41bn) since the beginning of 2021, said the announcement. In the same period, the number of active users has grown by 83% to around 400,000. On several days in January, BISON set new records for trading volumes exceeding EUR 70m (USD 84.4m).
Investments news
- One of Morgan Stanley’s new bitcoin (BTC)-only private funds raised USD 29.4m from 322 investors in its first 14 days, while the average investment was USD 91,000. Coindesk reported, citing regulatory documents. In 14 days, Morgan Stanley’s FS/NYDIG fund has become one of the most popular private BTC vehicles, beating out far-older industry offerings from Pantera Capital and Galaxy Digital by investor count, it added.
- American investment firm Tiger Global Management invested USD 25m in crypto exchange CoinSwitch Kuber, making its foray into the fast-growing digital currency market in India, Bloomberg reported. The Series B round values the Bangalore-based exchange at more than USD 500m. The platform will use the funds to scale up, hire talent, and grow awareness of cryptocurrencies among Indian retail investors. CoinSwitch Kuber has more than 4.5m users in India and is targeting 10m users by the end of the year.
- Huobi Technology Holdings Ltd.‘s wholly-owned subsidiary Huobi Asset Management has launched four crypto-related funds, including those that will virtually track BTC and ethereum (ETH) prices, as well as a multi-strategy virtual asset fund, said the press release. Per Bloomberg, the firm has already secured USD 50m in commitments across the four funds and it’s targeting USD 100m in total assets by September. The offerings also include an active fund investing in a basket of virtual assets, and a private equity fund dedicated to investment in the crypto mining sector.
- NYDIG, a provider of technology and investment solutions for Bitcoin, said it has acquired Arctos Capital, a commercial lender that provides financing solutions to BTC holders, investors, and mining businesses. Arctos will become part of NYDIG’s Market Solutions business, in which the firm provides access to the bitcoin spot and derivatives markets, data-driven execution strategies, and custom financing solutions, they added.
Adoption news
- Two major independent hotels in Seville are to begin accepting crypto payments, per Diario de Sevilla. The 134-room Hotel Bécquer, built in the former stately home of the Marquises of Las Torres, and the four-star Hotel Kivir – in Seville’s historic Old Town – have both announced that they will accept bookings from customers wishing to pay in crypto after teaming up with the fast-growing, Valencia-based crypto pay and exchange platform Criptan.
- NatWest will refuse to serve business customers who accept payment in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, which the UK lender has categorized as “high risk,” according to The Guardian. Morten Friis, a NatWest board member and head of its risk committee, said the bank was taking a “cautious approach” to crypto, and would closely monitor any change in tone from the UK regulator.
- Major hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger announced a partnership with Boson Protocol, a dCommerce ecosystem using non-fungible tokens (NFTs) encoded with game theory, to safeguard its store of digital assets raised during its private and public investment rounds.
Mining news
- The year-on-year prices of crypto mining equipment have risen by x1.5 in Russia, reported Checkindex, using aggregated data from online banks in its calculations. The report’s authors noted that demand began to spike in spring last year, since when sales began to grow rapidly. There has been a 74% growth in video card sales and a 67% rise in motherboard sales in the past 12 months – all at a time when the demand for mining hardware has been skyrocketing. Miners in the country are reportedly resorting to buying in bulk from manufacturers, with some electronics retailers claiming they are out of stock, with no idea when their warehouses will be replenished.
Altcoins news
- Rebasing crypto protocol Ampleforth (AMPL) is launching a governance token that all past and present users of its AMPL token are able to claim. Any wallet that ever interacted with AMPL, currently 75,743 of them, will be eligible to collect its portion of the new FORTH tokens through the next year. Using the Forth token, holders will be able to vote on changes to the protocol.
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