Author: The Block
French DeFi platform Nested has raised a $7.5 million Series A round led by hedge fund heavyweight Alan Howard as the company seeks to expand its offering of social-focused trading tools. The British investor was joined by Republic Capital, Kenetic Capital and CMT Digital, according to a statement today. The former president of Polychain Capital, Joseph Eagen, also took part in the round. This is not the first crypto startup Howard has backed. Last year, he led a $25 million investment into London-based crypto custodian Copper, along with previous investments in payments startup Bottlepay and Canadian lender Ledn, among others. Nested differs from his…
Crypto payments firm MoonPay emerged as the top bidder for a coveted non-fungible token (NFT) at Christie’s on Tuesday — while acting on behalf of a mystery buyer. The startup splashed £567,000 ($754,340) at the London Evening Sale at Christie’s auction house for a rare item in the World of Women (WoW) collection. The price paid by MoonPay — which a source close to the situation confirmed as the buyer — makes #5672 one of the most expensive WoW pieces ever sold. The piece sports rare traits such as a night goddess skin tone and a tuxedo. It was sold among lots by world-renowned…
With its nation laboring under Russian invasion, Ukraine set crypto Twitter abuzz with the promise of an airdrop, a common reward to early investors in new coins and NFTs. “Airdrop confirmed,” Ukraine’s official Twitter account posted today. “Snapshot will be taken tomorrow, on March 3rd, at 6pm Kyiv time. Reward to follow!” It wasn’t clear what “snapshot” referred to and whether any reward would be in tokens, NFTs or some other form. Ukraine’s ministry of digital transformation didn’t immediately respond to an email asking for more details on the airdrop. Since Russia invaded last week, Ukraine’s government has been using memes and…
Bitcoin miners brought in $1.06 billion in revenues during February 2022, according to data compiled by The Block Research. Most of these revenues came from the block subsidy ($1.05 billion) and only a small portion from transaction fees ($12.92 million). Revenue totals have dropped for the fourth consecutive month, with a month-over-month decrease of 12.9% between January and February. Total revenues in October were $1.72 billion and have been falling since. They hit an all-time high in March 2021, with a total of $1.75 billion. Read full story on The Block
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) announced plans to launch micro bitcoin and ether options, opening the crypto derivatives market to smaller investors. These micro BTC and ETH options will have a contract size equivalent to a tenth of their respective underlying tokens and will launch on March 28, according to a statement today. At present, CME offers full-size options trading for bitcoin with a contract size of 5 BTC. These options settle into bitcoin and ether futures contracts, rather than physical crypto. CME is pitching them as allowing “greater precision and flexibility” for both individual and institutional traders. Options give the holder…
VALR, a crypto exchange in South Africa, has raised $50 million in a Series B equity funding round. Pantera Capital led the rough with participation from Alameda Research, Coinbase Ventures and Avon Ventures, among others. Those firms join existing investors including crypto exchange Bittrex and 4Di Capital. The round secures a $240 million valuation for VALR, and marks the largest crypto funding round in Africa to date, according to the exchange. VALR launched bitcoin-rand trading in June of 2019, and since then has posted volumes making it a leading venue for rand-to-crypto transactions. To date, the exchange says it has…
KPMG in Canada, an audit, tax, advisory and other professional services firm, announced Monday that it purchased non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as part of its ‘corporate strategy.’ The firm purchased digital assets from the World of Women (WoW) collection, an NFT project of 10,000 generatively created images of women with a floor price of around $24,000, as of publication. “This acquisition reflects our belief not only in the continued growth of NFTs, but in the value of WoW and its mission. Having now gone through the process, we are well-positioned to guide our clients around building a corporate NFT strategy, including, acquiring and…
Crypto market maker Wintermute has made it onto the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) cryptoasset register. Wintermute has significant heft within crypto markets, with a cumulative trading volume of $1.72 trillion since January 2020, according to its website. It offers more than 5,000 trading pairs. It has taken more than a year and a half of back and forth with the FCA to get the application — which covers the firm’s over-the-counter (OTC) spot business — approved. “Wintermute has always held itself to the highest compliance standards and have built rigorous KYC-AML processes,” said the company’s chief operating officer Marina Gurevich. …
A DAO aiming to buy fast food restaurants and give its community a say in how they’re run has raised $5.4 million in a crypto-backed foray into the world of hospitality. The group – dubbed FriesDAO – raised the funds over the week ended February 20 and has given out FRIES tokens to those who participated. These tokens will not confer any ownership of the restaurants or give holders any share of profits, but they will be used to vote on proposals with regards to how they operate. Starting this week, token holders can stake their FRIES to receive KCHUP tokens, which can then…
The United States and the European Union have announced a plan to cut out a group of as-yet-to-be-named Russian banks from the international payments messaging system SWIFT. The group — comprised of “the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States” according to a Saturday statement — announced the move after days of growing speculation that such a move was in play amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In a sign of the fast-evolving situation, even two days ago sources were telling major newswires that such a move was unlikely. Yet reports in the past day…