Author: Bloomberg

Coinbase Global Inc. said it acquired Israel’s Unbound Security, which developed ways to store and transfer crypto tokens more securely and easily. Terms weren’t disclosed. Coinbase has acquired more than 13 companies this year. Earlier in November, the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange purchased India’s Agara, to improve its customer service. It also brought over the team from crypto wallet BRD. Coinbase is seeking to diversify its products and revenue to provide more sustainable growth, while also increasingly focusing on customer service and ease of use. In the third quarter, Coinbase’s retail monthly transacting users dropped to 7.4 million, from 8.8 million in the second…

2TM Participacoes SA, owner of the biggest Brazil-based cryptocurrency brokerage, raised $50 million as it hunts for acquisitions to expand into additional Latin American markets. The company, backed by SoftBank Group Corp., received investments from 10T Holdings, a U.S. private equity firm focused on digital firms, and Tribe Capital, a San Francisco-based venture capital fund. Also participating are the Brazilian venture capital company PIPO Capital Gestao de Investimentos Ltda., the Sao Paulo-based firm TC Traders Club SA and Endeavor Brasil. The proceeds will be used for new products and growth, including expanding into Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Argentina, according to 2TM…

Ether is outperforming Bitcoin by the greatest amount this year since the native token of the Ethereum network was launched in 2015 as an alternative to the original cryptocurrency. While both are down from record highs set earlier this month, Ether has gained about 530% since December, compared with a doubling in value by Bitcoin, widening the performance gap between the two by more than 400 percentage points. Bitcoin’s market value is still almost double that of Ether at about $1.1 trillion, according to data from CoinMarketCap.com. Bloomberg The largest difference between Ether and Bitcoin is that the former is…

What does it mean for crypto to go “mainstream?” Well, obviously, lots of people buying cryptocurrencies is one way to measure it. And, of course, institutional money flowing in is another mark of going mainstream. (And on that point, you should read this story about how former “Odd Lots” guest Aaron Lammer ended up going to work for a new crypto trading venture backed by Steve Cohen). Crypto is also infiltrating commercial culture in various ways, from the renaming of sports stadiums to Budweiser changing its Twitter name to beer.eth. So yeah, crypto is going mainstream by all kinds of measures. There’s another one that’s a bit harder to…

Huobi Group, the operator of China’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has picked Singapore as its regional headquarters while choosing to have another location for Europe, said co-founder Du Jun. Singapore becomes the company’s new base after it recently shifted focus outside its original home of Beijing, Du said in reply to queries from Bloomberg News. He has been based in the city-state since he returned to Huobi at the end of last year. The firm is planning to set up another regional headquarters in either France or the U.K. in 2023, he said. While Huobi has had employees running an exchange…

Cryptocurrency conglomerate Digital Currency Group Inc. and subsidiaries including digital asset manager Grayscale Investments LLC will relocate from New York City to Stamford, Connecticut, as cities compete for blockchain firms. DCG is expected to create more than 300 new jobs in the state over the next five years, according to a statement from the office of Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont. The Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development is backing the transition with a grant in arrears of up to $5.01 million. “It quickly became clear that Connecticut had everything we were looking for in a new headquarters,” DCG Chief Executive Officer Barry Silbert…

Until October, nothing on Aaron Lammer’s resume really screamed Wall Street. There’s the “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” theme song he co-wrote, the music he made with Drake and Kanye West and the Rick Bayless cookbook he helped edit. There’s Longform.org, the website he co-founded that got famous in media circles for showcasing long pieces of good journalism. And there’s the podcasts he has hosted. But here’s the bit that got the 40-year-old Long Island dad noticed by the finance set: For the past half a decade, Lammer has been deeply involved with cryptocurrencies, which in that arena makes him a grizzled veteran. While the world was slowly getting accustomed…

Bitcoin is staging a comeback along with other riskier assets on Monday, bouncing back from its Black-Friday lows. The largest digital asset rose as much as 3.4% during the session to trade around $58,266. Other coins also posted snap-backs, with the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index adding 5.5% at one point. So-called alternative coins like Polkadot and Dogecoin gained too.  A brutal selloff Friday saw investors fleeing a number of riskier assets, including cryptocurrencies, with Bitcoin posting its worst day in roughly two months. The drubbing came after the announcement of a new coronavirus variant named omicron that was identified in southern…

India’s first cryptocurrency unicorn, CoinDCX, plans to pursue an initial public offering as soon as government regulations allow it, according to its co-founder Neeraj Khandelwal. The share sale would be a key vote of confidence for India’s digital asset industry similar to Coinbase Global Inc.’s U.S. listing earlier this year, Khandelwal said in an interview with Bloomberg Television Monday. “As soon as the government or the situations allow us, we will try for an IPO,” he said. “An IPO gives a legitimacy to the industry, just like the Coinbase IPO gave a lot of confidence in the crypto markets. Similarly…

India is one of the world’s fastest-growing markets for cryptocurrency trading, even though the ability to trade Bitcoin and its peers freely and anonymously undermines the country’s limits on the convertibility of its currency, the rupee. The central bank is clear that it wants all private cryptocurrencies banned while it creates an official digital currency. The government, however, is open to exceptions to promote blockchain technology. Amid these competing goals, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration is racing to finalize legislation in time for the last parliament session of the year. 1. How big is crypto in India? It’s one of…