Investments news-Page 67
Cathie Wood's ARK snaps up $80M Robinhood shares after crypto led price dip
ARK Invest, the investment management firm focused on innovative tech led by Cathie Wood, took advantage of a dip in the price on Wednesday to buy nearly $80 million worth of Robinhood stock. As per daily trading data, Wood’s ARK purchased a total of 2.24 million shares of Robinhood across three of Ark’s ETF funds, with the majority of shares going to the flagship fund ARK Innovation ETF. Robinhood now accounts for 1.33% of the Innovation ETF. On Oct. 27, the trading platform had declared a 78% decline in crypto revenue — from $233 million in Q2 to $51 million …
Adoption / Oct. 29, 2021
Decentralized design platform Moralis raises $13.4M in seed funding from EQT Ventures
Moralis, a platform that powers decentralized applications, or dApps, announced Thursday that it has received a $13.4 million investment from EQT ventures. The company said that it expects to use this seed capital for product development and corporate expansion. Moralis seeks to provide the blockchain space with a unique user-friendly interface solely for front-end development, while the company and its developers handle the entire back-end. The software can also provide complex services such as node management, authentication, and transaction indexing — which are needed for cross-chain networks, layer two solutions, and Web 3.0 applications. Moralis, which has been active since …
Adoption / Oct. 28, 2021
Voyager Digital announces $75M strategic investment from Alameda Research
U.S.-based cryptocurrency brokerage firm Voyager Digital announced a $75 million investment from cryptocurrency quantitative trading firm and liquidity provider Alameda Research on Thursday. Founded in 2018, Voyager Digital offers more than 60 digital currencies for trade on its mobile app, which also includes services such as yield farming. According to the company’s website, Alameda Research was founded in 2017 and now manages $1 billion in digital assets. In addition, the firm claims to trade anywhere between $1 billion to $10 billion worth of major cryptocurrencies, altcoins, and crypto-derivatives each day. The company has taken an active interest in decentralized finance, …
Adoption / Oct. 28, 2021
Biconomy raises $11.5M through CoinList token sale
Multichain transaction network Biconomy has concluded a public token sale of its BICO cryptocurrency, onboarding more than 12,500 new tokenholders in the process, the company announced Thursday. The public sale, which was facilitated by token listing platform CoinList, raised a cumulative $11.5 million. More than 850,000 people registered for the sale, which was the largest waitlist on CoinList to date. The sale took place on Oct. 14 via two options of 40 million and 10 million BICO tokens. BICO will be used to power Biconomy’s ecosystem as it vies to attract more developers to the community. The so-called multichain relayer …
Business / Oct. 28, 2021
Infrastructure platform Quicknode raises $35M in Series A financing
Quicknode, a Miami based blockchain infrastructure platform, announced the completion of a $35 million Series A round of financing on Wednesday, led by Venture Capital firm Tiger Global. Seven Seven Six, Soma Capital, Arrington XRP Capital, Crossbeam and Anthony Pompliano also participated in the round. This follows a $5.3 million seed round back in March, and brings the total investment in the company to just north of $45 Million. Quicknode was founded by Dmitry Shklovsky, Manuel Kreutz, Auston Bunsen and Alexander Nabutovsky and graduated from Y Combinator in March of 2021. The platform currently supports ten blockchains, including ethereum, bitcoin …
Technology / Oct. 27, 2021
Putin’s internet ombudsman pessimistic about crypto regulation
Despite Russian officials' increased interest in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), Russia’s internet ombudsman expressed confidence that local crypto regulations will remain largely prohibitive. Dmitry Marinichev, Russia’s ombudsman for the protection of entrepreneurs' rights under Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Wednesday discussed Russia’s approach to cryptocurrency regulations at a panel of a major local industry event, Blockchain Life 2021. Russia will continue taking a restrictive stance on crypto because the Russian government doesn’t want Russian people to make money with Bitcoin, Marinichev said: “I’m sure that Russian crypto policies will always be prohibitive because no one is looking to allow Russian …
Bitcoin / Oct. 27, 2021
Putting a cap on decentralization: How regulation impacts DeFi adoption
Decentralized finance (DeFi) is shaping up to be one of the most important sectors within the blockchain industry. In just the last two years, DeFi's total value locked (TVL) — the total value of assets locked into various DeFi platforms — has steadily increased from $21 billion at the start of the year to over $100 billion today. DeFi represents a wide range of financial products and services, including the all too popular decentralized exchanges (DEX). Despite the explosive growth of DeFi's lending and borrowing products, insurance and even decentralized derivatives trading, however, regulation on a global scale still appears …
Technology / Oct. 27, 2021
Dubai finance watchdog approves listing of Bitcoin fund
The Bitcoin Fund (QBTCu.TO), a closed-end investment vehicle based in Canada, has received regulatory approval from the Dubai Financial Services Authority. The fund debuted on Nasdaq on June 23, 2021 and became the first listed digital asset fund in the Middle East. The fund's goal is to provide investors in the shares of the fund with exposure to Bitcoin (BTC) and the daily price changes of the U.S. dollar price of Bitcoin, as well as long-term capital appreciation. The fund is a diversified portfolio of digital assets that invests in Bitcoin and U.S. dollar-denominated money market instruments. A report by …
Bitcoin / Oct. 27, 2021
Puerto Rico sees resurgence of interest among crypto rich
The United States territory of Puerto Rico is seeing a resurgence of interest among crypto investors attracted by the fact it doesn’t charge federal income tax and eligible investors can pay zero taxes on their crypto gains. Under local law Act 22, those who live in Puerto Rico for at least half of the year are exempt from taxes on interest, dividends and capital gains — meaning they can keep most or all of the profits from crypto or other investments without having to renounce U.S. residency. The popularity of the territory as crypto tax haven was highlighted when news …
Regulation / Oct. 27, 2021
FTX buys Super Bowl ad slot to promote crypto to a TV audience of 92M
Cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has secured an advertisement spot in one of the most watched events in America — the championship game of the National Football League, to be held in Feb. 2022 According to a report in Bloomberg, FTX purchased an ad in this year’s Super Bowl LVI motivated by the wide reach of the audience. The Super Bowl is invariably the top rating TV program of the year, and accounts for 28 of the 30 highest rating broadcasts in U.S. TV history. Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and CEO of FTX exchange, has made football one of the priorities within a …
Adoption / Oct. 27, 2021
South Korean pension fund to invest in Bitcoin ETF: Report
South Korea’s public pension fund, the Korean Teachers’ Credit Union (KTCU), is reportedly looking to gain exposure to Bitcoin (BTC) via a crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF). KTCU, one of the largest institutional investors in South Korea, is considering investing in a pure Bitcoin ETF or Bitcoin-linked ETFs in the first half of 2022, local news agency The Korea Economic Daily reported Monday. According to the report, KTCU is considering investing in several Bitcoin ETF products, including those by South Korean asset management firm Mirae Asset Global Investments. The company launched two ETFs tracking the value of Bitcoin futures via its …
Adoption / Oct. 26, 2021
Dubai regulator announces new regulations for investment tokens
The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) has established a regulatory framework for investment tokens as part of its efforts to stimulate the digital financial and technological environment while also meeting market players' demands and requirements. The DFSA is an independent regulatory body in Dubai that is in charge of monitoring and regulating financial services companies wanting to operate there. It also licenses and regulates their products and services. According to a report by Emirates news agency WAM, the DFSA's regulatory framework defines investment tokens as either "a Security Token or Derivative Token." The report notes that the creation of a …
Adoption / Oct. 26, 2021