Image Source: bee32 from iStock
African Emissions Reduction Platform to Trade
CYNK, Africa’s first verifiable emissions reduction platform, running on Hedera Hashgraph, will begin trading its first tokens this quarter. CYNK will trade credits generated by Tamuwa, Kenya’s largest biomass company.
Mastercard’s Anti Fraud Tool
Payments provider Mastercard launched Crypto Secure, a new fraud detection tool dedicated to identify and block suspicious transactions from crypto exchanges. This new product is powered by the crypto analysis software CipherTrace.
Coorest Carbon Standard
Coorest, a Polygon based project, has become the first blockchain project to have a certified standard for carbon compensation on chain. This new standard would mandate all transactions related to compensating carbon footprint to be conducted on blockchain, thereby making the process transparent and accountable.
SEC Charges Kim Kardashian
The US regulator SEC has charged celebrity Kim Kardashian of allegedly promoting the EthereumMax (EMAX) token, which in the SEC’s view is a “crypto asset security.” Kardashian has reportedly agreed to pay $1.26 million to settle the charges.
BNB Chain Exploited
Binance Chain (BNB) was exploited with hackers attempting to drain over $560 millions worth of BNB tokens from the network’s bridge. They were successfully in stealing more than $100 million. A bug in the bridge’s code allowed attackers to forge security proofs.
Coinbase Outage
Crypto exchange Coinbase users with linked US bank accounts were unable to transact between them earlier this week. Coinbase acknowledged that the problem was with their ACH system.
Do Kwon Vs South Korea
The South Korean prosecutors have reportedly frozen 56.2 billion won allegedly belonging to Do Kwon, the runaway CEO of now collapsed Terra blockchain project. Do Kwon, meanwhile, has denied these reports. Furthermore, South Korean authorities have invalidated Terra creator’s passport.
EU Finalizes MiCA
The EU officials have approved the full legal text of the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA) at a meeting of EU ambassadors this week. It has taken two years to agree on the final wording of this landmark crypto regulation.
UK Investment Giant Joins Hedera
UK’s asset management firm Abrdn has joined the Hedera Governing Council as its 27th member. Abrdn will run a Hedera network node and plans to use the Hedera platform to explore the tokenization of traditional assets.
Interbank Payments Network Goes Live
Tassat Group’s “The Digital Interbank Network,” a real time, no limit, business to business payments network went live this week. Three banks, Cogent Bank, Customers Bank, and Western Alliance Bank, have exchanged over $500 million in 400 transactions.
Germany’s DZ Bank To Offer Crypto Custody
Germany’s second largest bank, DZ Bank, will soon offer digital asset custody services. Bowing to the demand from its clients, DZ Bank is appointing a consultant to help implement custody solutions and with regulatory approvals.
Fintech Unicorn Offers Crypto
Investing and banking unicorn Stash is offering its customers an opportunity to buy eight prominent cryptocurrencies through a separate crypto account. It is collaborating with Apex Crypto to provide this service.
Fidelity’s Ethereum Fund
The asset manager Fidelity has seen $5 million invested in its new Ethereum Index Fund, launched on Sep 26, as per its filings with the US SEC. This fund that tracks Fidelity Ethereum Index has a minimum investment of $50,000 and is available to accredited investors only.
Valkyrie To Offer Crypto SMA
Crypto asset manager Valkyrie Funds plans to offer separately managed accounts (SMA) to enable traditional investors to invest in crypto portfolios. Initially, this service will support investing in bitcoin, bitcoin and ether, and bitcoin, ether, SOL, and Matic tokens.
Argentina to Supply Power for Miners
Argentina’s state owned YPF energy company is supplying 1 megawatt power for mining crypto. It also has plans to launch a second project, which is eight times larger by year end.
NFTs as Toys
Entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk’s hand drawn VeeFriends doodles that became NFTs are now morphing into physical toys and vinyl figures. These toys are coming to Macy’s and Toys ”R” Us stores later this month.
ArDrive Mobile Goes Live
Decentralized data storage platform ArDrive’s mobile version, ArDrive Mobile went live on Google Play Store. It offers users an alternative to centralized storage services such as Google Drive.
VC Investments in Crypto Startups
DeFi risk assessment platform, Exponential, has raised $14 million in a seed funding round led by crypto VC firm Paradigm.
Trade and finance focused blockchain firm XDC has raised $50 million for ecosystem expansion through a partnership with global investment group LDA Capital Ltd.
Blockchain game developer Horizon raised $40 million in Series A funding round led by Brevan Howard Digital and Morgan Creek Digital, with investments from Ubisoft and Take-Two Interactive.
Web3 data protocol Golden has secured $40 million in Series B round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
Stems, a decentralized music platform, raised $4 million in a pre-seed round led by Ideo CoLab, with participation from Merit Circle and Yield Guild Games.
Blackbird, a Web3 hospitality platform founded by restaurant industry veteran Ben Leventhal, has closed an $11 million seed round co-led by Union Square Ventures, Shine Capital, and Multicoin Capital.
Meanwhile in Other Web3 News
DEX Transit Swap has recovered 70% ($18.9 million)of stolen $28.9 million.
A rare NFT of the Bowie Estate’s exclusive collection was sold for 96.5 ether (roughly $127,000) on OpenSea marketplace.
Samsung Latam has a new space in the Decentraland metaverse – House of Sam. Users can virtually try out various Samsung products, play games, and win prizes.
The EU Parliament voted, with an overwhelming majority, to use blockchain technology to modernize EU taxation processes.
Coinbase introduced PayID to enable direct AUD deposits and withdrawals for its Australian customers. Users also get access to over 200+ crypto assets, security features, and 24/7 chat support.
After Alex Mashinsky, another founder of now defunct crypto lender Celsius, Daniel Leon, has also stepped down from his role as Chief Strategy Officer.
Crypto exchange FTX is launching a Visa debit card in 40 countries across Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
Crypto market maker Two Sigma Securities will become a Chainlink data provider giving the crypto oracle access to its proprietary data.
NFTs of Starry Night Capital, insolvent Three Arrows Capital’s NFT fund, have been moved into a new Gnosis Safe wallet.
EU bans crypto payments from Russians to European wallet providers, while Russia blocks access to crypto exchange OKX
Web3, 2, 1...Tech 