Adoption news
NYDIG, a Bitcoin-focused financial services company, and Q2 Holdings (a provider of digital transformation strategies for banking and lending), announced today that they will work together to offer the 18.3 million Q2 users the opportunity to purchase, sell, and hold BTC. Q2’s digital banking platform currently powers nearly 30% of the top 100 banks in the US, they added.
Unstoppable Domains allows crypto users to personalize their wallet addresses to make them easily readable. It is now integrated into all Blockchain.com products which include a wallet, exchange and a blockchain explorer. For a one-time fee users can register for a unique username. They also have the option to choose between a.crypto or.zil domains. This will make it easier to send funds and reduce errors due to unreadable addresses.
News about investments
According to Bloomberg, the billionaire-backed crypto exchange Bullish has been reported to be in discussions to merge with Far Peak Acquisition Corp. The exchange could be valued at USD 12bn. However, the price of Bitcoin will impact the final valuation. According to Bloomberg, the agreement may be reached in the next few weeks.
Chainalysis, a blockchain data platform, announced that it received a Series E financing of USD 100m from Coatue. This brings its value to USD 4.2bn. Participated were also previous investors. Chainalysis’s Series E financing comes after its USD 100m Series D round, which was completed in March 2021. This brings the total raised to USD 356m.
Although bitcoin’s recent falls were fueled by weak flows and price dynamics due to last month’s selloff, JPMorgan strategists Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou suggested Wednesday that possible sales of shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust after the expiration of the six-month lockup period could be a headwind.
Cryptology Asset Group, an investment company that invests in crypto- and blockchain-related businesses, announced it had purchased additional Block.one shares worth USD 49m in a private transaction.
News from the Exchanges
BTCChina, which once ran the country’s largest crypto exchange, said it has ‘completely exited from bitcoin-related businesses’ amid Beijing’s extensive crackdown on BTC mining that has firms across the country trying to distance themselves from the industry, the South China Morning Post reported. It also stated that BTCChina sold its stake in the Singapore-registered Bitcoin exchange ZG.com in May 2020 to an unidentified foundation.
Gemini, a crypto exchange that was founded by Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss in 2015, donated USD 4m to Climate Vault to offset its carbon emissions from BTC it has in custody. Gemini has both cold and hot wallets and will continue to offset its carbon footprint until renewable energy is used to secure the Bitcoin network.
News about payments
Standard Chartered, Bank of China and Bank of New York Mellon have all announced their endorsement of SWIFT’s new platform for transaction management. The platform boasts many enhancements that will be available over the next 18-months. These enhancements include central management of exceptions and upfront validation of beneficiary information. They also extend SWIFT’s high speed gpi rails for lower-value payments. This is all to enable frictionless, instant end-to-end transactions around the globe.
Cryptoasset platform Crypto.com announced today that Crypto.com Pay, its online payment solution, will now accept BTC payments from all wallets.
Privacy news
Brave, a privacy-centric browser that uses their native token, BAT (Breve), announced it had released beta versions of Brave Search, their brand new search engine. It has been integrated into the browser, and will be the default search engine for the browser later in the year. However, users of other browsers may also use it because it offers privacy-preserving features that do not track searches or clicks.
News about NFTs
China’s Fintech Group Ant Group has attempted to define the boundary between cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens. It sold two NFT-backed images of apps, raising concerns about whether such transactions are legal in China. A spokesperson for AntChain said that NFT cannot be interchangeable or divisible, which makes it different from cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.
CBDC news
The Palestinian Monetary Authority is looking into the possibility of issuing digital currency. Bloomberg TV interview with Feras Milhem, PMA Governor discusses the possibility of digital currency issuing and the USD 425m assistance package from the European Investment Bank.
DeFi news
Circle said it will soon launch its DeFi API that should help businesses to access various DeFi protocols. “Businesses will soon be able to automate USDC flows into DeFi lending markets by leveraging Circle’s powerful DeFi API,” they added.
bestadmin
