NFT Startup Candy Digital Raises $100M
- Candy's Series A funding round was co-led by Softbank Vision Fund 2 and Insight Partners, and valued the company at $1.5 billion.
- The NFT startup has already partnered with sport brands such as Major League Baseball, MLB Players Association, Race Team Alliance, and several college athletes.
FTX Raises $420M From 69 Investors
- The $420 million Series B-1 funding round attracted a total of 69 investors, which valued the company at $25 billion.
- The funds will help FTX make some strategic investments in the future, designed to grow its business and expand its regulatory coverage.
Facebook Launches Novi Pilot Program, Receives Pushback From Senators
- The Novi digital wallet will use Paxos' stablecoin USDP for its services, and will also tap Coinbase for its custodial services.
- The pilot program was launched in the U,S, and Guatemala, where a limited number of people will be able to download Novi from the Apple App and Google Play Store.
France Completes 10-Month CBDC Trial
- Led by Euroclear, the CBDC trial was conducted with the help of Banque de France, BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole CIB, HSBC, and Société Générale.
- As part of the test, almost 500 instructions in both primary and secondary markets were executed.
ProShares BTC ETF to List on NYSE on Tuesday
- Following several years of effort, ProShares will finally be able to list its Bitcoin Strategy ETF on the NYSE under the ticker "BITO".
- Investors in traditional financial markets, who had concerns about investing into BTC, will now have exposure to the largest crypto by market cap.
USDC Launches on Hedera Hashgraph
- The stablecoin will open the door to large scale development in the area of decentralized finance (DeFi) on the network.
- USDC, the second largest stablecoin on the market, is now available on six different blockchains, including Ethereum, Algorand, Solana, Stellar, TRON, and Hedera.
SEC Likely to Approve First Bitcoin Futures ETF
- "People familiar with the matter" told Bloomberg that we could see the first futures-based BTC ETF in the U.S. starting to trade next week.
- There are currently four futures-based BTC ETF applications that are approaching their SEC decision deadlines, with experts predicting ProShares proposal was the most likely to pass.
Charting Platform TradingView Raises $298M
- The funding follows a strong growth in the user base of the platform, which experienced a 400% increase in new accounts and 237% in visitors over the last 18 months.
- TradingView will try to bolster its broker relationships in the next few years, so it can allow investors to trade directly from its platform.
Voyager Digital Receives European Trading License
- Autorité des marchés financiers and Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution have agree that Voyager is "fit and proper" to operate in Europe.
- Voyager expects to launch its trading app in Europe in Q1 2022, and facilitate the trading of 60 digital assets.
SEBA Bank Enables Users to Earn Yields on Crypto
- The new SEBA Earn product will enable customers to earn yields from proof-of-stake protocols such as Polkadot, Tezos and Cardano.
- Institutions will also have access to DeFi programs, in addition to centralized lending and borrowing of BTC and ETH.