Author: The Block
Payment tech company Global Processing Services (GPS) said on Thursday that it had increased its latest fundraise by $100 million, taking the total raised in its latest round to $400 million. New investors included Singapore-based Temasek and US growth equity firm MissionOG. They joined Advent International — through Advent Tech and affiliate Sunley House Capital – and Viking Global Investors. GPS’s technology and partnership approach has helped scale some of the largest fintech firms, including Revolut, Curve, Starling Bank, Zilch, WeLab Bank, and Paidy, among others. The company has issued over 190 million physical and virtual cards, and last year…
Crypto banking firm Xapo is has given up its BitLicense, according to a notice from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). Last year, Xapo announced its intention to discontinue its services to US customers by March of 2021. The handing over of its BitLicense indicates Xapo is ceasing operations in New York. The firm had held a BitLicense since 2018. “Xapo has informed DFS of its business decision to conclude its virtual currency business in New York,” said the notice. The notice recommended New York customers with unclaimed funds in Xapo accounts should refer to the state comptroller’s unclaimed funds website. The NYDFS…
Fashion brand Gap has released its first collection of NFTs in collaboration with Brandon Sines, the artist behind Frank Ape. Through the gamified digital experience, customers can unlock the opportunity to buy digital art by Sines and a limited edition, physical Gap hoodie. “Gap has always been at the intersection of music, art and culture, so we are excited about this growth opportunity in the digital space with artists like Brandon Sines,” said Chris Goble, chief productofficer and general manager of Gap North America, in a statement. The NFT collection was deployed on the proof-of-stake Tezos blockchain, which has recently been…
The soccer team, which counts 98,700 followers on its English-language Twitter account, will work with Bitso to offer crypto education opportunities in Mexico and also develop a series of NFTs that the exchange will distribute. Bitso is not disclosing the sponsorship value, a spokesperson said. “Our soccer team constantly encourages us to dream about reaching new heights, so we could not ask for a better ally to promote access to technology and innovation throughout the region,” Bitso CEO and co-founder Daniel Vogel said in a press release. This marks Bitso’s latest professional sports partnership after a wave of deals in…
A key group of bipartisan lawmakers is calling on Wall Street’s top derivatives regulator to do more to rein in cryptocurrencies, which may be welcomed news for industry executives who prefer the agency to have a bigger role. In a letter to the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the top Democrats and Republicans on the Senate and House Agriculture Committees say the watchdog has a “critical role to play“ in regulating digital assets. “It is imperative that customers are protected from fraud and abuse and that these markets are fair and transparent,” wrote lawmakers including Debbie Stabenow, the…
Ghozali Ghozalu, 22, from Indonesia, has become an overnight celebrity in the non-fungible token (NFT) space after selling pictures of himself on OpenSea. The collection, dubbed “Ghozali Everyday,” features selfies taken by the 22-year old every day from when he was 18 to 22, covering a span of 2017 to 2021. Ghozali sold the pictures at 0.001 ETH ($3.25) and they took a few days to sell out. “It’s really a picture of me standing in front of the computer day by day,” Ghozali described the collection on OpenSea. Yet during the sale a few NFT collectors piled in and it somehow…
SEBA — the Switzerland-based regulated crypto bank founded by former UBS employees — has raised 110 million Swiss francs (around $120 million) in a Series C funding round. The round was co-led by a consortium of three investment firms — Altive, Ordway Selections, and Summer Capital — and DeFi Technologies. Alameda Research and SEBA’s existing investor Julius Baer, a Swiss private bank, also participated in the round, among other investors. The fresh capital will help SEBA expand internationally, increase its headcount and launch new products and services, the bank’s CEO Guido Buehler told The Block in an interview. Buehler was…
Crypto services startup Zero Hash announced on Wednesday it has raised $105 million in a series D fundraising round. The news comes just three months after the company’s series C, which raised $35 million from Point72, NYCA Partners and DriveWealth, as well as a group of angel investors that included Mercury founder Immad Akhund and Deserve founder Kalpesh Kapadia, among others. It has also been backed by Bain Capital in previous rounds. Steve Cohen’s Point72 participated in the latest round. Milan Galik, CEO of Interactive Brokers, was listed on an SEC filing associated with the raise, but the firm declined to comment on its involvement. …
A solo bitcoin (BTC) miner with only 126 terahashes per second (TH/s) of computing power has become the unlikely winner of a block race on the Bitcoin network. By successfully mining block 718,124, the lucky miner secured the 6.25 BTC block reward, which is about $260,000 at the current bitcoin price. With only 126 TH/s in computing power, the lucky miner controlled only 0.000073% of the total bitcoin hash rate, which is over 170 exahashes per second (EH/s). 1 EH/s is equal to 1 million TH/s. As such, the miner only had a 1-in-1.36 million chance of ever successfully finding a block. All…
A big rally in stocks over the course of 2021 did not translate into outsized returns at some of the world’s largest hedge funds. But their crypto counterparts were able to produce returns that beat both stock and digital asset indexes. In aggregate, hedge funds eked out a return of just over 10% last year, underperforming the S&P 500 index’s return of 26.9% as well as the aggregate performance of hedge funds in 2020. The lagging results of hedge fund managers are tied to their underexposure to big tech names like Apple and car-maker Tesla, which clocked in eye-watering returns…