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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DeFi news
- DeFi lending protocol bZx (BZRX) once again lost its funds. The team confirmed that, on Friday, “it appears that the private key controlling the Polygon and BSC deployments was compromised, leading to loss of funds” of more than USD 55m.
Gaming news
- FTX, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Solana Ventures announced they are investing USD 100m in Web 3.0 gaming development. The funding will support gaming studios and tech that integrate the Solana (SOL) blockchain into video games on desktop and mobile platforms.
Regulation news
- The Bank of Spain is asking the country’s leading financial institutions to provide information on their crypto-related plans for the next three years, El Pais reported. It has asked banks whether they plan to issue tokens or provide custody, trading, or payment services for crypto, and to outline any initiatives to market products or offer services to customers through a digital platform over the next three years.
- US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler has denied that new technological labels alter the realities of securities definitions, specifically calling out decentralized finance (DeFi) and crypto products. He explained that no matter what the assets are called or what their purported mission is, the watchdog “will be looking at the economic realities of a given product or arrangement to determine whether it complies with the securities laws.”
Investments news
- Singapore-based macro alternative hedge fund manager Modular Asset Management is developing an environmental, social, and governance framework for investing in cryptocurrencies, per Bloomberg. Modular’s partners have started deploying their personal capital into the portfolio, which may open to external investors next year.
- Crypto exchange AscendEX announced the close of a USD 50m Series B raise led by Polychain Capital and Hack VC. The company plans to use the funds to accelerate international market entry, and catalyze further product innovation, specifically focused on blockchain-based yield generating protocols.
- Mobile payments service Cash App has generated USD 1.82bn of bitcoin (BTC) revenue and USD 42m of BTC gross profit during Q3 2021, up 11% and 29% year over year respectively, according to a shareholder letter. The increases are due to the positive price changes for BTC, while these numbers have decreased compared to Q2 this year because of the asset’s relative stability.
Blockchain news
- An asset tokenization and compliance infrastructure provider Tokeny has helped Enegra Group Ltd, a commodities trading firm with approximately USD 28bn in net asset value (NAV), migrate its equity-tied EGX security tokens from Ethereum (ETH) to Polygon (MATIC). Per the press release, the migration enables “faster end-to-end transfers of EGX security tokens with near-zero transaction fees.”
- Blockchain oracle solution Chainlink (LINK) announced it has crossed USD 75bn in Total Value Secured (TVS). According to the team, this makes the Chainlink network one of the most value-securing forms of decentralized consensus.
- Italian central bank Banca d’Italia and German central bank Deutsche Bundesbank have announced they have participated in a joint workshop to share experiences on the settlement in central bank money of assets exchanged on blockchain. The initiative focused on the possibility of complementing established means of central bank money settlement with a programmable trigger mechanism connecting the blockchain-based asset and the cash to be settled by means of conventional payment systems.
Adoption news
- Major US retailer Kroger said that the claims it will accept bitcoin cash (BCH) as a payment method this holiday season are fraudulent, per Reuters. However, they did not clarify how the initial announcement appeared on their website, nor on news release distributor PR Newswire.
Exchanges news
- Ethereum (ETH)-based play-to-earn game Axie Infinity rolled out the Katana decentralized exchange (DEX) on its custom sidechain Ronin. The RON ecosystem, to be used for Ronin transactions, has also been launched, and users are allowed 100 free Ronin transactions per day, but eventually the network will transition to using RON for Ronin fees.
- Binance announced the appointment of Amjad Qaqish, former Criminal Investigation veteran at the US Internal Revenue Service, who joins the organization’s compliance department as Director of Global Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) Reporting.
Scam news
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation warned the public of fraudulent schemes leveraging cryptocurrency ATMs and Quick Response (QR) codes to facilitate payment. The scammer often requests payment from the victim and provides a QR code associated with the scammer’s crypto wallet for the victim to use during the transaction, and then directs the victim to a physical cryptocurrency ATM to insert their money, purchase crypto, and use the provided QR code to auto-populate the recipient address.
Mining news
Crypto miner Argo Blockchain estimates that the cost of building and kitting out its proposed 800-megawatt mining facility in Texas could be USD 1.5bn – USD 2bn, according to a regulatory filing.
