Blockchain & Digital Assets

December 2, 2021 @ 9:22 pm By JD Alois  |  

Last week, it was widely reported that Yaron Shalem, CFO of Celsius Network,  was allegedly arrested in Israel along with other individuals. Via Twitter, Celsius confirmed that an unnamed employee had been “suspended” while stating they have verified that no assets were misplaced or mishandled. … Read More

December 2, 2021 @ 4:43 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Video games, the Metaverse and NFTs are all becoming increasingly popular in the digital age. Binance NFT claims it has become the largest centralized NFT gaming platform. Since June of this year, Binance NFT has become one of the largest centralized NFT gaming marketplace, onboarding… Read More

December 2, 2021 @ 3:46 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Decentralized application platform Moralis welcomes Craig Hammel to its team as a senior technical advisor. Appointing Craig Hammel, the first engineering hire of Coinbase, should bring his expertise to the Moralis project and improve the initiative’s capacity to “scale and encompass more blockchains.” Hammel will… Read More

December 2, 2021 @ 11:59 am By JD Alois  |  

During the opening comments at the Securities and Exchange Commission’s meeting of the Investor Advisory Committee, SEC Chair Gary Gensler once again rang the warning bell on the need for greater oversight of the fast-growing digital asset/crypto sector. Gensler stated in prepared remarks: “… with… Read More

December 2, 2021 @ 11:02 am By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Ivars Auzins, a citizen of Latvia with crypto asset fraud. The SEC states that the defendant also went under the names of Ron Ramsey and Daniel Gaines. According to a statement by the SEC, Auzins allegedly defrauded… Read More

December 2, 2021 @ 10:27 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Digital assets firm Kraken notes that the beauty of the Bitcoin (BTC) network is that “anyone can participate in it without permission.” However, primarily out of convenience, most Bitcoin users “don’t run nodes and instead trust third parties such as centralized exchanges and wallet providers… Read More

December 2, 2021 @ 10:19 am By JD Alois  |  

Structure, a DeFi trading platform, has raised $20 million in a round led by Polychain Capital. The funding was completed via a sale of its token $STXR. The investment set a valuation of Structure at $150 million. Other investors beyond Polychain, include Bixin Ventures and… Read More

December 2, 2021 @ 9:50 am By JD Alois  |  

Square (NYSE:SQ) is now Block. The name change and rebranding were announced yesterday in a statement that highlighted Square’s ongoing transition from payments to multi-faceted Fintech. Square/Block was founded by Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter who just recently exited his CEO role at the… Read More

December 2, 2021 @ 7:58 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Payments are faster and easier than ever before, the Chainalysis team writes in a blog post. As taps and texts continue to overtake cash and checks, they’re “increasingly digital, too,” the Chainalysis team adds while noting that thanks to the blockchain or distributed ledger tech… Read More

December 2, 2021 @ 7:56 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Mintable, the next-gen NFT minting platform and marketplace, has confirmed the launch of Mintable Go!, which serves as an international fund that aims to “enable novel newcomers to the NFT space to better serve the market for mass adoption.” Amid the rising interest in the… Read More

December 2, 2021 @ 12:01 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Global crypto trading platform BitMEX. which was hit earlier this year with a $100 milllion penalty pertaining to CFTC action claiming illegal trading, AML violations and other charges, has announced the launch of BitMEX EARN. This interest-bearing product “offers the highest annual percentage rate (APR)… Read More

December 1, 2021 @ 8:37 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Axletree Solutions, an international provider of bank connectivity and financial integration solutions that power more than $50 billion in daily transaction volumes, announced that it has entered into a partnership with Roxe, the open global payment network. As mentioned in the announcement, Roxe’s solutions power… Read More

December 1, 2021 @ 8:04 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

Asian cryptocurrency payments company TripleA has been granted a digital payment token license by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). TripleA is the first standard payment institution to receive this license, the company said. The designation allows TripleA to provide end-to-end cryptocurrency payment services for… Read More

December 1, 2021 @ 3:36 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has consistently denied aspiring exchange-traded products that aim to offer a Bitcoin ETF based on the spot price of the world’s most popular digital asset. Recently, a Bitcoin ETF based on Bitcoin futures was approved but this was effectively… Read More

December 1, 2021 @ 2:44 pm By JD Alois  |  

The House Financial Services Committee has announced the list of witnesses scheduled to testify at a hearing entitled “Digital Assets and the Future of Finance: Understanding the Challenges and Benefits of Financial Innovation in the United States.”  The witnesses include many of the biggest names… Read More

December 1, 2021 @ 2:29 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Crypto.com, which claims to be one of the fastest-growing cryptocurrency and financial services platforms, has announced that it has executed a sale and purchase agreement to acquire the North American Derivatives Exchange (Nadex) — a US-headquartered retail-focused, regulated online exchange and clearinghouse offering derivative products… Read More

December 1, 2021 @ 10:53 am By JD Alois  |  

Bitcoin, the world’s most popular crypto, is always a bit of a roller-coaster ride. Rocketing higher one week, only to tank the next, Bitcoin is not an asset for the faint of heart. Recently, Bitcoin hit an all-time high of almost $69,000. Within a few… Read More

December 1, 2021 @ 8:05 am By Omar Faridi  |  

From its earliest days, Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) says that it has sharply focused on protecting their clients’ assets with the strongest, most robust security tech available in the markets. Over time, Coinbase‘s approaches have evolved, but their objective has always been the same: “to provide the… Read More

November 30, 2021 @ 6:48 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

South Korea’s Shinhan Bank today announced it has completed the development of a proof-of-concept, with a global megabank outside of Korea, to improve the remittance process through the use of stablecoins. It is built on the Hedera network, leveraging stablecoins and focused on international remittances…. Read More

November 30, 2021 @ 4:34 pm By JD Alois  |  

David Marcus, the lead executive at Facebook / Meta (NASDAQ:FB) heading the charge for Facebook’s botched attempt to create a digital currency is exiting the firm to “pursue other projects,” according to a report in Bloomberg. Marcus joined Facebook from PayPal in 2014. According to… Read More