Traditional funding in the crypto space was once considered useless. After all, the industry itself offers different, controversial, but nonetheless, ways to fund a project – initial coin offering (ICO), initial exchange offering (IEO) and the current darlings of offerings – launchpads and initial decentralized exchange (DEX) offerings. But with the industry maturing and more startups wanting not only the capital but mentorship to build a working and valuable product, venture capital has emerged as one of the most attractive options. Cointelegraph talked to Li Rongbin, founding partner of SevenX, about why venture capital funding is the next big thing …

Cryptocurrency has evolved into a $2 trillion-dollar asset class and users in the industry now have a plethora of choices when it comes to choosing an exchange to buy and sell digital assets. As such, customer retention is no longer a given for digital asset businesses and crypto exchanges. Banxa is a payments infrastructure platform that aims to help digital asset businesses improve their retention through compliance, regulation and user experience. With its leading-edge crypto payment solutions, Banxa has helped several prominent crypto exchanges implement infrastructure to build globally renowned trading platforms. Included in this list are crypto exchanges Binance, …

DeFi banking protocol MELD recently made headlines for attracting more than $1 billion worth of staked Cardano (ADA) to its protocol through a novel funding mechanism called an initial stake pool offering, or ISPO, marking an important innovation in how early adopters support blockchain startups. Cointelegraph had the opportunity to connect with MELD CEO Ken Olling to discuss the significance of the ISPO as well as Cardano’s role in facilitating widescale participation in the stake pools. ISPO: An overview The ISPO is a novel way for investors and other early adopters to support a project by delegating cryptocurrency to public …

Subsquid, a query node framework for Substrate-based blockchains, announced Thursday that it has closed a $3.8-million seed round led by Hypersphere Ventures. The company said that it expects to use this seed capital for developing the first blockchain indexing solution. The new data query technology, as per the announcement, will tap into a network of indexers and allow anyone to join and contribute data to Subsquid data users. While commenting on the successful seed closure, Subsquid’s technical founder, Dmitry Zhelezov, stated that: “We are looking forward to rolling out more functionalities in the coming weeks, allowing blockchain developers to harness …

Decentralized finance protocol Acala announced Monday that they have raised 8.5 million DOT (worth $451.8 million USD at time of publication) from over 53,000 participants. The protocol is also set to win the first parachain auction on Polkadot. Unlike typical crowdfunding rounds, Acala's financing mechanism is a crowdloan, which means it will eventually need to pay back the "crypto debt" it has solicited from investors. On Nov. 5, Polkadot developers added the first parachain onto its network. Parachains are custom, project-specific blockchains that can be integrated into a main blockchain. The distinguishing feature of Polkadot is its Cross-Consensus Message Format. …

Members of the EOS ecosystem, a blockchain designed to power decentralized applications, or dApps, are voicing their dissatisfaction with former developer Block.one. As a result, they have formed their own organization and elected new leadership in an effort to revamp the network. As accessed by Cointelegraph, Yves La Rose, the "community-elected CEO" of the novel EOS Foundation, gave the following prepared statement during a virtual conference: “There's no sugar-coating it, EOS as it stands is a failure. The last three years or so have been nothing but dwindling in terms of market cap and in terms of token value. When …

Caroline Crenshaw, a commissioner at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, has said the “safe harbor” proposal would have exacerbated the problems seen during the initial coin offering (ICO) boom of 2017 and 2018. Crenshaw made the remarks during the annual “SEC Speaks” event this month and posted her speech to the SEC website on Tuesday. The commissioner argues that the impact on investors and markets would have been far greater if safe harbor provisions were in place at the time: “I think the results would have been even worse for investors and the markets. ICOs and other digital …

Bill Miller, a seasoned Wall Street investor and founder of Miller Value Partners, advocated for the rise of Bitcoin (BTC) during a recent conversation with author William Green but voiced skepticism around many of the altcoins birthed during 2017. Miller subscribes to the well-documented thesis that Bitcoin portrays digital gold, and unlike many of his financial contemporaries — Warren Buffet being the most prominent — he has been a keen investor in the digital asset space. Back in early 2016, Miller dedicated 30% of his portfolio to the leading crypto asset Bitcoin at an average value of $500 and has …

As the crypto landscape continues to evolve, one clear theme has emerged as a constant – the need to shift towards a world with renewable energy. Green Life Energy Global (GNL) is a project that envisions a future where crypto can be part of the solution. “GNL is about bringing the blockchain a bit further not just only creating the next big crypto asset, but also changing the whole financial sector on energy and recycling payments,” said the project. To execute this vision, GNL wants to start with the proceeds from its initial coin offering (ICO). The project claims that …

The Securities Exchange and Commission of Thailand has a license to an asset-backed token offering service based on the Ethereum blockchain. Fraction, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based fintech firm Fraction Group, has received a license allowing it to list and trade tokens for fractional ownership of physical or digital assets, the firm announced Thursday. The license was granted through the Thai SEC’s official portal for initial coin offering established back in 2018. The license lays out the foundation for Fraction’s upcoming service for asset digitization and fractionalization, referred to as an initial fraction offering (IFO). The firm …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission has charged three of Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui’s companies over an initial coin offering (ICO) and initial public offering (IPO) that fetched around $487 million combined. The infamous Guo, also known as Miles Kwok or Miles Guo, is an exiled Chinese businessman who currently resides in New York. Wengui is known for his controversial political takes and his ties to Donald Trump confidant Steve Bannon. The SEC submitted a cease and desist order on Monday, with the documents showing that Guo’s companies have agreed to pay a settlement with the SEC within 14 …

The concept of decentralized digital money has raised significant curiosity among investors and individuals alike, as alternatives to conventional currencies have proposed benefits such as the ability to provide a safe haven against uncertainty in traditional markets. Unfortunately, before cryptocurrencies gain widespread adoption, investors need a method for simple transactions, one that can support the sudden rise of new cryptocurrency enthusiasts. Additionally, enterprise adoption has also been an obstacle for cryptocurrencies due to the current lack of infrastructure. To address these concerns, Bit2Me created a platform with the ultimate goal, “to become a frictionless gateway into the cryptocurrency world.” As …