Author: The Block

Crypto settlement startup Zebec announced Tuesday that it raised $15 million in a Series A funding round. Zebec, which developed a Solana-based protocol for continuous, real-time settlement of financial transactions, raised the funds in a round led by Solana Ventures and Distributed Global. Other participants in the round included Alameda Research, Circle, Coinbase Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners and DST Global, among others.  The new funding will be used to continue scaling Zebec’s protocol, according to a statement from the company. The idea behind the Zebec protocol is to make it easier for users to send and receive payments on an…

The Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) has raised $1 billion through an over-the-counter sale of LUNA, the native token of the Terra blockchain. The raise, one of the largest in the history of the crypto sector, was led by Jump Crypto and Three Arrows Capital, with Republic Capital, GSR, Tribe Capital, DeFiance Capital, and other unnamed investors participating. The playfully named LFG — a non-profit organization based in Singapore — was set up in January to help grow the Terra ecosystem. Proceeds from the $1 billion sale will go towards establishing a bitcoin-denominated forex reserve for UST, Terra’s biggest stablecoin. UST is a…

Bitpanda, the Austrian investment platform, has acquired British crypto and DeFi custodian Trustology to boost its offering for professional investors. Announced today, the deal will pave the way for Bitpanda Pro — Bitpanda’s platform for experienced traders and institutional investors — to launch its own custody service. While the company did not disclose an exact valuation, a spokesperson confirmed that it had spent a “significant two-digit million” sum in US dollars on the deal. Bitpanda’s maiden acquisition comes after a period of frantic fundraising last year that saw the Vienna-based startup raise around $450 million across multiple rounds. The most…

The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) announced on Tuesday it has struck a deal to acquire trading tech solutions provider TORA for $325 million. The deal includes TORA’s tech for order and execution management systems and portfolio management systems for customers trading equities, as well as infrastructure for fixed income, currencies, derivatives and digital assets. In a release, the exchange said the deal strengthens its presence in a “rapidly expanding asset class, at a time when institutional market participants are increasing exposure to crypto and other digital assets.” Following completion, which is expected in the second half of the year,…

Earlier this month, an artist called Shl0ms, with the help of an explosives expert, blew up a Lamborghini worth just shy of $250,000. They are now turning the charred parts into a collection of 999 NFTs – to protest crypto’s get-rich-quick culture. “This technology is incredibly promising, there are so many good things we could do with it but there are so many terrible things being done with it,” Shl0ms tells The Block by video call. “It’s really extractive, zero-sum practices.” The pseudo-anonymous artist chose a Lamborghini because, “the Lambo is a pretty potent representation of people simply engaging with…

Spotify could be taking its first steps into crypto, according to a job listing posted on Linkedin. The streaming company is hiring a senior backend engineer to explore new technologies such as web3. The job advert says that the engineer will be part of the experimental growth team within Spotify’s freemium offering. They’ll be tasked with utilizing new technologies like web3 to “uncover the next growth opportunity” along with building and running experiments on new and existing products. The job listing also asks for experience leading explorations and prototyping new products.  In addition to a senior backend engineer, the company is also…

A new draft proposal for crypto regulations in Russia could see citizens tasked with taking online tests before being allowed to invest in cryptocurrencies. This stipulation is part of plans to create a legal framework for virtual currencies in the country. According to Russia’s finance ministry on Monday, the testing requirement is to ensure that citizens are acquainted with the risks associated with crypto investing. If the proposal is passed, Russians will have to take an online test before they can buy crypto. Those who pass the test will be able to buy up to 600,000 rubles ($7,500) worth of crypto annually. Conversely, those…

African web3 startup Jambo has raised $7.5 million in a seed funding round that involved notable investors from the crypto space, the company announced on Monday. The company’s mission to build a web3 “superapp” for Africa drew investors like Delphi Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Three Arrows Capital, and Alameda Research. Other participants in the seed funding round included Alliance DAO, Tiger Global, DeFiance Capital, Hashed, Polygon Studios, UOB, Signum Capital, BH Digital, and Yield Guild Games, among others. According to Jambo founder James Zhang, the company aims to lead web3 adoption in Africa. Speaking to The Block, Zhang highlighted mobile phone…

California became the latest state last week of the current legislative cycle to weigh allowing residents to pay for government services in the form of crypto. Senate Bill 1275, filed on February 18, “would authorize a state agency to accept cryptocurrency as a method of payment for the provision of government services,” according to the text. The bill is sponsored by State Senator Sydney Kamlager-Dove, a Democrat. The bill joins a nascent but growing chorus of state efforts to allow people to make such payments. This month, Colorado governor Jared Polis pledged to let residents pay their taxes in crypto by the…

While much ink has been spilled highlighting the accomplishments (and losses) of the crypto market’s trading and investment firms, there remains one group that plays an integral, behind-the-scenes security role: crypto bug sleuths. From white hat hackers to researchers, this group of mostly anonymous coders and analysts scan blockchains and APIs to find possibly harmful gaps in the systems that power the crypto market. The discovery of a bug in a new trading feature by the pseudonymous account Tree of Alpha provides the latest example. They discovered a bug in the beta feature that would let a user to sell crypto in…