Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
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Regulation news
- Cryptoassets may pose risks to financial stability if they continue their current trends, the European Central Bank (ECB) said. Systemic risk increases in line with the level of interconnectedness between the financial sector and the crypto market, the use of leverage, and lending activity, they noted, adding that it is important to close regulatory and data gaps in the cryptoasset ecosystem.
Adoption news
- The Central African Republic will launch the continent’s first legal Bitcoin investment hub, the presidency said, per Reuters. The soon-to-be-launched “SANGO” initiative has a website and a waiting list to which interested investors can sign up.
- Fashion brand Balenciaga is accepting payments in crypto, according to Women’s Wear Daily. It is still deciding what payment solutions provider it will use, but it will accept currencies like bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) to begin with, and other currencies will be added in due course, per the report.
- Crypto payments company Wirex integrated layer 2 scaling solution Polygon (MATIC) for Indian customers as another payment method.
- The technology teams behind internet initiative Project Liberty and sharded blockchain protocol Polkadot (DOT) announced a formal agreement to collaborate on the first implementation of the Decentralized Social Networking Protocol (DSNP), which aims to provide a social network in which users own, control, and benefit from their personal data.
Exchange news
- Coinbase entered the Fortune 500, a ranking of the biggest US companies by revenue, after posting revenue of over USD 7.8bn in fiscal 2021 to place 437th in the 2022 list.
- Binance is preparing to launch its payment and trading services in Dubai and Bahrain as early as June, working with local banks and recruiting country managers and compliance officers, the South China Morning Post reported, citing Richard Teng, regional head of the Middle East and North Africa.
- FTX is looking to buy brokerage startups as they expand into stock trading, CNBC reported, citing unnamed sources. The company has approached at least three privately held trading start-ups about an acquisition, but the discussions were still early and did not result in a term sheet.
Investments news
- Climate tech company Flowcarbon announced that it has raised a total of USD 70m in venture capital funding and sale of its carbon-backed token in a round led by a16z crypto. The company offers carbon credits that help businesses offset their carbon emissions.
- Enterprise technology company Fairmint announced the launch of its tokenization platform that allows founders to launch its portal directly on their websites, allowing contributors to receive tokenized equity in exchange for time or money they invest. The company added that they have raised USD 7.2m to date using their own technology.
- Security token exchange ADDX announced that they have raised USD 58m. The funding will help the team with “several strategic initiatives”, including the recent launch of private market services for wealth managers called ADDX Advantage, efforts to bring on board general partners as issuers, as well as other products.
NFTs news
- NFT protocol Rarible is integrating with the layer 2 scaling solution Immutable X to enable projects building upon the protocol to trade NFTs on Ethereum via Immutable X.
- American former professional basketball player Earvin “Magic” Johnson announced a partnership with the NBA Top Shot non-fungible token (NFT) project and game to develop his own series of NFTs.
Legal news
- The House Committee on Ethics belonging to the US House of Representatives announced an investigation into whether Republican congressman Madison Cawthorn “improperly promoted a cryptocurrency in which he may have had an undisclosed financial interest,” referring to the so-called “Let’s Go Brandon” meme coin. The investigation follows reports that Cawthorn had owned and promoted the token one day before it announced a partnership with NASCAR driver Brandon Brow, which ended in an alleged pump-and-dump scheme.