Author: The Block
Collaborators at Stanford University have raised $32 million in funding for Espresso, a new layer-one blockchain focused on privacy and decentralization. “This funding will provide the resources necessary to grow the team researching, building, and implementing the infrastructure and products that will make Web3 ready for broad adoption,” says a blog post on Espresso’s website. “The funds will also go towards bringing these products to market through a range of channels: distribution of native end-user products, developer adoption, and partnerships with entrepreneurs, startups, and enterprises.” The company behind Espresso, called Espresso Systems, is led by four co-founders. The latest funding round was…
Bitcoin mining firm Hive announced plans to buy Intel’s new ASIC chip. The deal, coupled with a manufacturing agreement with an original design manufacturer (ODM), is expected to increase Hive’s aggregate Bitcoin mining hashrate by up to 95%, from 1.9 exahashes per second (EH/s), according to a statement from the company issued Monday. Hive, a publicly-traded company based in Vancouver, Canada, also laid out its plans to host 100 megawatts of mining capacity in one of Compute North’s Texas renewable energy data center facilities. This will be their first foray into the U.S. Last year, Hive ordered a total of 4,000 machines from…
Crypto exchange Binance announced a partnership with the Nasdaq-listed crypto firm Eqonex on Monday, but the UK’s financial regulator doesn’t seem too happy about it. The deal appears to give Binance control of Eqonex through a convertible loan worth $36 million. Binance is providing the loan via its newly launched payments technology company Bifinity, also announced today. The loan has an 18-month maturity, and its initial conversion price is $1.89 per share, about 16 cents above Eqonex’s current share price. While Binance doesn’t say the loan gives it — or Bifinity — control of Eqonex, Eqonex’s own announcement says Bifinity will have the right to…
Space Runners, a company focused on creating NFTs and digital wearables, has raised $10 million in a round co-led by Pantera Capital and Polychain Capital. The company will work with artists and brands to create items to bring into games. In some cases, these NFTs can be redeemed for real-life access to events or meet-and-greets with celebrities and athletes. “Our goal is to build the first end-to-end Fashion ecosystem on the blockchain with the newly secured financing,” says Won Soh, co-founder of Space Runners, in a statement. In its first collection with former NBA Champions Kyle Kumza and Nick Young,…
The EU’s Markets in Digital Assets, or MiCA, regulation is scheduled for a key committee vote next week following delays last week. On March 7, Stefan Berger, who heads the European Parliament’s ECON Committee and is the rapporteur for MiCA, announced that the committee will vote on its finalized version of the bill on March 14. At the end of February, a provision that resembled a ban on proof-of-work tokens — most notably, Bitcoin — stirred up a controversy that ended up delaying the bill’s votes, which Berger had set for February 28. The coalition that had assembled to pass the bill through the committee…
Immutable, the startup behind the NFT-focused scaling network Immutable X, has raised $200 million in a Series C funding round and is now valued at $2.5 billion. Temasek, a Singapore government-owned investment company, led Immutable’s funding round. Animoca Brands, Tencent, ParaFi Capital, Arrington Capital, Mirae Asset, and Liberty Global also backed the round as new investors. Previous investors, including Alameda Research, AirTree Ventures, Declaration Partners, and Fabric Ventures, also participated. With fresh capital in hand, the Australia-based Immutable plans to expand globally, scale its team and explore M&A opportunities. The firm’s current headcount is 165 people, and it plans to…
Argent, a London-based startup, launched a new crypto wallet that aims to cut down the costs and environmental impact of interacting with DeFi systems. In an emailed statement today, Argent said that more than 500,000 people had signed up to a waitlist to use the layer 2 account built on zkSync, an Ethereum-focused scaling solution. It began giving customers early access to the layer 2 account in October, according to a blog post last month. The original Argent wallet, which is built directly on Ethereum and launched in 2018, will remain open for longstanding customers — but layer 2 accounts will become the…
Trading giant FTX announced on Monday it would expand its empire with a push into Europe after securing approval from financial regulators in Cyprus. According to a press release, the company will start offering its products to European clients via a licensed investment firm with passportable licenses across the European economic area. The new entity will be headquartered in Switzerland. “As we continue to grow, we are constantly looking at opportunities to become appropriately licensed and regulated in every market we enter,” said CEO and founder Sam Bankman-Fried. “We’ll be interacting with regulators in various countries across Europe to continue…
Binance said it has now fully resumed bank transfers for account holders in Europe, eight months after suspending the service following pressure from regulators. According to an announcement today, Binance’s European users — except those in Switzerland and The Netherlands — now have access to both euro and British pound deposits and withdrawals via the Single Euro Payment Area (SEPA) and Faster Payment Services (FPS) rails. SEPA and FPS allow users in Europe to make euro and pound transfers via their bank accounts. Binance said new deposits and withdrawals will take place via a partnership with UK payments company Paysafe. Binance also said it has plans…
“So much misinformation out there.” That’s one crypto exchange executive, speaking in a message to The Block, amid a heightened focus on cryptocurrencies in the context of Russian economic sanctions amid the invasion of Ukraine. “There’s this general elision of ‘not blocking sanction individuals’ with ‘not blocking every Russian citizen,'” the exec continued. Crypto exchanges are required by the Office of Foreign Assets Control to blacklist certain Russian individuals and entities that include a group of known oligarchs. But they haven’t gone as far as completely shutting off all Russian clients, which experts say is not a requirement but has become a…