Global climate change continues to challenge the world's productivity and has already badly impacted the overall ability to maintain minimum sustainable goods production in Nigeria, as well as impacting overall food security for much of the population. Today, 100 million people in Africa face multiple crises, emergencies and catastrophic levels of food insecurity - with an increase of more than 60% between 2019 and 2020. As a result, social uplift has become a key goal for Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) impact investing and global interest under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNDP). As concerns around climate change …

The news about crypto derivatives exchange Bybit was two-fold Thursday, as the company announced via Twitter its $134 million contribution to the BitDAO Treasury in the form of Ether (ETH), Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC), as well as the completion of the integration of Ethereum layer-2 solution Arbitrum. BitDAO currently has one of the largest decentralized treasuries and it recently funded a $200M zkDAO to further build on zkSync and scale Ethereum. Bybit's investment attests to its confidence in BitDAO to lead and support DeFi projects. Bybit joins other backers such as Peter Thiel, Founders Fund, Pantera, Dragonfly and …

An exchange-traded fund linked to companies involved with the Metaverse launched on the Cboe BZX Exchange — shorting shares of Facebook’s parent company, Meta. The Subversive Metaverse ETF, listed under the ticker PUNK, opened for trading at $25.15 on Thursday. The fund’s holdings include shares of Block — formerly Square — Google’s parent company Alphabet, Microsoft, Sony, GPU manufacturer Nvidia, Coinbase Global, Galaxy Digital and online gaming platform Roblox. However, exposure to Meta — one of the largest tech firms in the world, with a $837 market capitalization — was conspicuously absent from PUNK’s top holdings. $PUNK https://t.co/nBYPFrIKo8 pic.twitter.com/jAB2APsML9 — …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission has disapproved asset manager Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust spot exchange-traded fund application. According to a Thursday filing, the SEC rejected a proposed rule change from the Cboe BZX Exchange to list and trade shares of Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin (BTC) Trust. The regulatory body said any rule change in favor of approving the ETF would not be aimed at preventing “fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices” nor would it necessarily “protect investors and the public interest.” The SEC extended its deliberation window to approve or deny the offering in July and November …

Virtual world project The Sandbox announced its metaverse accelerator program that will push the development of the open metaverse by investing $50 million in startups. The Animoca Brands subsidiary is partnering with the venture accelerator firm Brinc to target 30 to 40 blockchain startups a year for the program. The Sandbox Metaverse Accelerator Program will allocate up to $250,000 in investment to each potential project and will give additional incentives to top-performing projects. The bonuses include The Sandbox (SAND) digital asset and LAND, digital real estate within The Sandbox’s metaverse. Apart from this, the best-performing startups will also have access …

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has extended its window to approve the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin exchange-traded fund originally proposed in July 2021. According to a Tuesday filing from the SEC, the regulatory body will push the deadline for approving or disapproving the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF from Feb. 2 for an additional 60 days, to April 3. SEC assistant secretary J. Matthew DeLesDernier noted in the filing that it was “appropriate to designate a longer period” for the regulatory body to consider the proposed rule change allowing the ETF to be listed on the Cboe BZX Exchange. The exchange …

Crypto asset manager Valkyrie has filed an application with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to trade an exchange-traded fund with exposure to Bitcoin mining firms on the Nasdaq Stock Market. In a Wednesday SEC filing, Valkyrie said its Bitcoin Miners ETF will not invest directly in Bitcoin (BTC) but at least 80% of its net assets would offer exposure to the crypto asset through securities of companies that “derive at least 50% of their revenue or profits” from BTC mining or providing hardware or software related to mining. The filing added Valkyrie would invest up to 20% of …

Chicago-based crypto exchange FTX US has reached an $8 billion valuation following new funding. According to Reuters on Wednesday, the American affiliate of FTX closed a $400 million funding round led by SoftBank Group Corp, Temasek Holdings, Paradigm and Multicoin Capital. FTX US president Brett Harrison said that this development puts their firm as one of the largest crypto exchanges in the United States, and sends a message to the world that they are growing very rapidly. Harrison indicated that the firm will use the funds to further its offerings as well as to grow and expand its workforce. Back …

Grayscale, the world’s largest crypto asset manager, has added 25 coins to the list of assets it is considering adding to its investment products including VeChain, Iota, Monero and Axie Infinity. Other assets are consideration are: Algorand (ALGO), Arweave (AR), Bancor (BNT), BitTorrent (BTT), BORA (BORA), Convex (CVX), Cosmos (ATOM), Decred (DCR), Elrond (EGLD), Enjin (ENJ), Fantom (FTM), Gala (GALA), Gelato (GEL), Helium (HNT), Holo (HOT), Oasis Network (ROSE), Secret (SCRT), Spell (SPELL), Stacks (STX), The Sandbox (SAND), Universal Market Access (UMA), and Yield Guild Games (YGG). In addition to the 25 coins added to its assets under consideration, Grayscale …

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 …

Even though the digital asset market seems to be witnessing a bit of a lull at the moment, the adoption of crypto-centric tech has continued to move forward with a full head of steam globally. Africa, in particular, is a continent where a growing list of mainstream financial entities have continued to make their presence felt, as they have begun to realize that the economic opportunities presented by the region are immense. To put things into perspective, a recent report released by Singapore-based crypto data provider Triple A shows that the North African country of Morocco currently boasts one of …

There is still room for humility and humor amidst a gloomy January for Bitcoin (BTC). A former outspoken Bitcoin critic has flipped bullish on Bitcoin after conversations with Michael Saylor, CEO of Microstrategy. What’s more, Sven Henrich, the CEO of market analysis firm NorthManTrader, made light of his change of heart retweeting a jibe from Twitter account Documenting Bitcoin. Excellent https://t.co/tAIwLWJfKv — Sven Henrich (@NorthmanTrader) January 24, 2022 Despite his previous comments that Bitcoin “fixes nothing”, Henrich has followed the crypto markets for three years. He tweeted regularly about Bitcoin price action, offering market analysis as reported by Cointelegraph. However, …