Blockchain & Digital Assets

December 14, 2023 @ 5:55 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Sygnum launches its inaugural institutional investor crypto survey report, Future Finance 23. The purpose of the research is “to accurately measure institutional crypto adoption, track trends over time, and profile the needs and challenges of future institutional crypto market entrants.” Key themes include: 40% of… Read More

December 14, 2023 @ 5:45 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Approval phishing is a scamming tactic that has existed for many years, the Chainalysis team notes. But whereas approval phishing scammers have historically “targeted wide swaths of crypto users through the proliferation of fake crypto apps, romance scammers (also known as pig butchering scammers) appear… Read More

December 13, 2023 @ 10:08 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Matter Labs, an engineering and cryptography research company working on and developing software in relation to the zkSync protocol, a layer-2 trustless protocol that provides a scaling solution for Ethereum, and Chainlink Labs, the primary contributing developer of Chainlink, the decentralized computing platform powering the… Read More

December 13, 2023 @ 3:07 pm By JD Alois  |  

Latin American Fintech Bitso says it facilitated USD $8 billion in payments during 2023. Bitso said this represents a 60% increase versus 2020. The company claims that it provides services to more than 1700 companies leveraging blockchain technology to provide global transfers, payouts, and other… Read More

December 13, 2023 @ 10:56 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The HBAR Foundation and Archax have shared plans to enhance their partnership by expanding support for HBAR staking, the native cryptocurrency of the Hedera network, as well as the pursuit of further tokenisation projects. Building on the recent addition of HBAR to its crypto spot… Read More

December 13, 2023 @ 9:50 am By Omar Faridi  |  

This past week saw the release of Bitcoin Core 26.0, ushering in a new version of “Bitcoin,” the team at NYDIG noted. While the Bitcoin ecosystem at large consists of numerous pieces of software that interoperate (wallets, mining software, Lightning, alternative implementations of Bitcoin written… Read More

December 13, 2023 @ 9:23 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Elliptic, the global firm focused on crypto-asset risk management, announced a partnership with The Ascent Group, an independent global fund administrator. The Singaporean company will leverage Elliptic’s real-time wallet transaction screening capability, which is “supported by Elliptic’s cross-chain and cross-asset Holistic Screening technology.” This suite… Read More

December 13, 2023 @ 8:37 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Today, less than 0.25% of total global assets are “represented on blockchain infrastructure, leaving massive efficiency gains uncaptured,” according to an update from Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN). Coinbase says that its goal is “to close this gap by enabling institutional use of next-generation financial technology.” Project Diamond… Read More

December 12, 2023 @ 5:00 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Tether, which claims to be the leader in innovative blockchain technology, has announced recently a “significant” collaboration with Bitkub Online Co., Ltd. (Bitkub Exchange), Thailand’s cryptocurrency exchange (reportedly one of the most active in terms of crypto trading volume). This collaboration aims to launch “a… Read More

December 12, 2023 @ 10:07 am By JD Alois  |  

In a settlement with the State of New York, crypto exchange KuCoin has admitted that it operates a crypto trading platform that is effectively providing a service where users can buy or sell securities and commodities as defined by the State of New York. KuCoin… Read More

December 12, 2023 @ 9:44 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision met virtually on 5 and 7 December to discuss a range of policy and supervisory initiatives. The Committee took stock of its review of various elements of “the prudential standard for banks’ exposures to crypto-assets published in December 2022.”… Read More

December 12, 2023 @ 9:39 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The CertiK team has released an update, titled, The Rise of Stablecoins in Unstable Times. As noted in a blog post by CertiK, the total value of circulating stablecoins currently “stands north of $120 billion.” As stated in the CertiK update, they have steadily “grown… Read More

December 12, 2023 @ 8:12 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Crypto exchange Binance, which recently agreed to pay a massive $4.3 billion+ as part of an unprecedented settlement with US regulators, is now preparing to leave the Russian market. The company will also end support for Ruble-based transactions due to regulatory challenges. Binance confirmed that… Read More

December 11, 2023 @ 9:56 pm By JD Alois  |  

Digital asset investment products experienced their 11th straight week of inflows measuring $43 million, according to CoinShares. Blockchain focused equities experienced the largest inflows on record at $126 million. CoinShares added that there was a “notable” increase in short position inflows due to recent price appreciation… Read More

December 11, 2023 @ 8:16 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Animoca Brands Corporation Limited, the company advancing digital property rights for gaming and the open metaverse, announced a second tranche of funding of USD $11,888,888 for Mocaverse, “following a first tranche investment of US$20 million announced previously (see announcement of 11 September 2023).” Participants in… Read More

December 11, 2023 @ 1:07 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

GFO-X announces that M&G Investments has led a $30 million Series B funding round for the company and will join the Board of Global Futures and Options Holdings. The investment will fund GFO-X through its forthcoming launch and “support future innovation in the regulated digital… Read More

December 11, 2023 @ 12:04 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) recently worked with Impact Research to better understand registered voters who own crypto in New Hampshire, home of “the key first-in-the-nation Presidential Primary.” This new research shows Granite Staters agree it’s time “to update the financial system. 88% of crypto owners in New… Read More

December 11, 2023 @ 10:20 am By Omar Faridi  |  

On December 5, 2023, thirdweb, a Web3 foundational development platform, reported security vulnerabilities in its pre-built smart contracts. As noted in a blog post by SlowMist, this issue affects all tokens “deployed using these pre-built smart contracts, including ERC20, ERC721, and ERC1155 tokens.” Based on… Read More

December 11, 2023 @ 10:15 am By Omar Faridi  |  

World Assets, Ltd., (Worldcoin) a wholly owned subsidiary of Worldcoin Foundation and issuer of “WLD”, announced the launch of the Worldcoin Community Grants Program that will be supported by the Worldcoin Foundation in “accordance with its aims and objects, in order to support, grow and… Read More

December 11, 2023 @ 9:45 am By JD Alois  |  

Announced earlier this year DTCC announced the acquisition of Securrency, a blockchain firm that seeks to provide digital security infrastructure. The purchase has now closed, and the subsidiary is now known as DTCC Digital Assets. Securrency was founded as Fintech/Regtech platform designed to pair capital to… Read More