NFTgators

Quick take:

The company started raising the funds in 2024, announcing an initial close of $113 million last July.

The names of participating investors have not been disclosed, but general partner Mike Giampapa said there were institutional investors and family offices.

Galaxy will serve as a limited partner in the fund, whilst also owning a general partner stake.

Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital has launched its first venture fund, anchoring a $175 million funding that also attracted participation from undisclosed institutional investors and family offices.

The crypto conglomerate initially planned to raise $150 million, but was oversubscribed as it seeks to expand its investments in crypto startups. The company started raising the funds in 2024, announcing an initial close of $113 million last July.

Galaxy will serve as a limited partner in the fund, whilst also owning a general partner stake. Commenting on the firm’s decision to launch its first venture fund, general partner Mike Giampapa told Fortune: “You’re seeing this fundamental shift from more speculative use cases of blockchains to something that’s much more…tangible.” Galaxy is targeting startups working at the intersection of traditional finance and blockchain technology.

Recently, there has been a great shift towards the tried and proven digital payments space, with traditional financial services companies tapping crypto startups to integrate blockchain payments.

“Quietly, we had this stablecoin revolution,” he told Fortune. “While the industry was getting our feet underneath us again, it became obvious that we wanted to take our venture franchise to the next level,” Giampapa said.

According to Giampapa, Galaxy takes a more unique approach to investing in startups. Rather than targeting those that are synergistic to its operations, the company follows a more traditional strategy of focusing on returns and plans to continue with the same approach for the new fund.

Galaxy has already deployed $50 million of the new fund to crypto startups, including trading-focused blockchain Monad and the synthetic dollar protocol Ethena, Fortune reported.

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Quick take:

The fundraising effort also attracted participation from Multicoin Capital, Neo and Sequoia, with Peng Zhao, CEO of Citadel Securities, joining as an angel investor.

The funding brings the total raised to $415 million, valuing the U.S.-regulated prediction market startup at $2 billion.

The announcement also comes on the heels of rival predictions market startup Polymarket’s announcement of a $200 million funding round that values it at $1 billion.

Kalshi, a prediction market company regulated by the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has raised $185 million in a funding round led by Paradigm. The fundraising effort also attracted participation from Multicoin Capital, Bond Capital, Neo and Sequoia, with Peng Zhao, CEO of Citadel Securities, joining as an angel investor.

The Series C round brings the total raised to $415 million, valuing the U.S.-regulated prediction market startup at $2 billion. Kalshi co-founder and CEO Tarek Mansour told the Wall Street Journal that part of the new capital would go towards scaling up the startup’s engineering team amid efforts to integrate with more brokers.

People choose to work at Kalshi not because of the money we’ve raised, but because of our ambition: build the most important financial market on the planet,” Mansour shared via a post on the X platform. “Today, we celebrate our team and community who have taken prediction markets mainstream and made Kalshi one of the fastest-growing companies in America.”

“What once felt impossible now looks inevitable,” he wrote.

Kalshi’s announcement came on the heels of rival predictions market startup Polymarket’s announcement of a $200 million funding round that values it at $1 billion. However, while Kalshi is allowed to operate in the U.S., Polymarket is not.

According to Kalshi, the new capital arrives at an opportune time, following the company’s rapid growth. Founded in 2019, the company claims platform activity increased 100X in the past year, while users are up by 10X and active markets by 5X. 

The company also managed to secure “multiple important licenses and legal victories” during this time of growth, including “a historic victory in federal court that enabled Americans to trade on the outcome of elections for the first time in over 100 years,” the company wrote.

Commenting on his firm’s leading role in the fundraising, Paradigm founder Matt Huang said in a statement: “Prediction markets remind me of crypto 15 years ago: a new asset class on a path to trillions. There’s no better team than Kalshi to scale prediction markets and reshape how people think about everything from elections and economic markets to weather and sports.”

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Quick take:

The fundraising pushed the total raised by Zama to over $150 million and values the FHE blockchain pioneer at over $1 billion, according to reports on Wednesday.

Fully homomorphic encryption secures sensitive data even when being used, making the technology highly applicable in blockchain and AI apps.

The company plans to use the fresh capital to accelerate the mainnet launch and efforts towards ecosystem adoption and research.

Zama, the crypto startup pioneering fully homomorphic encryption technology, has raised $57 million in a Series B round co-led by Blockchange Ventures and Pantera Capital. 

The fundraising brings the total raised to $150 million, valuing the startup at over $1 billion, according to reports on Wednesday. The company raised $73 million in a Series A funding led by Multicoin Capital and Protocol Labs in March last year.

The company plans to use the fresh capital to accelerate the mainnet launch and efforts towards ecosystem adoption and research. The company also announced that its testnet will open on July 1, with the mainnet planned in the coming months.

FHE technology is used in highly sensitive applications, such as those utilising blockchain technology and AI, to secure data even while it is in use. The Zama protocol allows developers to build secure, decentralised applications without requiring expertise in cryptographic coding.

Some of the applicable use cases in crypto include confidential stablecoin issuance, asset tokenisation, private identity verification and governance. It can also be used outside of blockchain applications where computation on encrypted data is increasingly crucial, such as healthcare and defence.

Commenting on the announcement, Ken Seiff, co-managing partner of Blockchange Ventures, said in a statement: “Zama is commercialising an entirely new generational technology that could redefine how confidentiality is handled in the blockchain and, ultimately, in all of cloud computing.”

“This is our third and largest investment in Zama. Not since I first saw Ethereum in 2014 have I seen a company commercialising an entirely new technology that could be as foundational to our global technology infrastructure.”

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Quick take:

Shares of the Norway-listed company spiked more than 350% after the announcement on Monday, but have since pulled back nearly 50%.

The company said it will introduce a new KPI BTC/share to provide shareholders with clear insights into the digital asset value attributable to each share..

Green Minerals’ executive chairman Ståle Rodahl, sees Bitcoin as a hedging instrument against inflation and fiat debasement.

Green Minerals, a deep-sea mining company publicly traded on the Norwegian stock exchange, has become the latest non-crypto native company to launch a digital asset treasury strategy.

The Norway-based company announced on Monday plans for a $1.2 billion crypto strategy focused on Bitcoin, sparking a 350% rally in its stock price. However, the stock pulled back 50% on Wednesday after revealing in another announcement that it had already acquired 4 bitcoins for a total of 4.25 million Norwegian kroner (approximately $420,000), implying an average purchase price of $105,000 per BTC.

Commenting on the company’s new hedging strategy on Monday, Executive Chairman Ståle Rodahl of Green Minerals said in a statement: “Bitcoin’s decentralised, non-inflationary properties make it an attractive alternative to traditional fiat. By integrating a Bitcoin Treasury Strategy, we are not only mitigating fiat risks but also reaffirming our commitment to financial innovation and the sustainable creation of long-term value.”

According to Rodahl, the new strategy aligns well with Green Minerals’ long-term planning, which includes significant future expenditures on plant equipment. Bitcoin “offers a robust hedge against currency debasement,” he said.

The announcement follows a growing trend where traditional companies from various sectors have been exploring plans to establish digital asset treasuries.

While most, like Green Minerals, including Semlar Scientific, GameStop and KindlyMD has decided to follow the tried and proven BTC vault strategy established by Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy, Inc. (NASDAQ: MSTR), others like SharpLink chose to focus on Ethereum (ETH), while SOL Strategies has been building its crypto portfolio around Solana.

More recently, Chinese automotive and hospitality company Webus said it is establishing a digital asset strategy focused on Ripple (XRP).

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Quick take:

Mastercard also announced partnerships with Fiserv, PayPal and Paxos’ Global Dollar Network as part of the Mastercard Move and the Mastercard Multi-Token Network.

The company will now support FIUSD through Mastercard products and services, including on/off-ramping, merchant settlement, and stablecoin-powered card issuance.

The partnerships enable the company to expand how 3.5 billion cards around the world can engage with crypto.

Mastercard, Inc. (NYSE: MA) has announced multiple partnerships with some of the leading players in the crypto industry. The global payments giant announced a partnership with the blockchain interoperability platform Chainlink, enabling more than 3 billion Mastercard holders around the world to purchase cryptocurrencies directly on-chain.

The announcement comes hot on the heels of Mastercard’s partnership with MoonPay, a leading crypto payments infrastructure provider and Kraken, one of the leading crypto exchange platforms. 

This partnership integrates multiple services, including Shift4, ZeroHash, XSwap and Uniswap into Chainlink’s interoperability protocol, which facilitates data exchange between the Mastercard network and multiple blockchains.

Shift4 takes care of card payment processing, while ZeroHash custodies fiat currency, whilst also providing liquidity. On the other hand, Xswap and Uniswap execute the final token exchange on decentralised marketplaces.

This news was shortly followed by Mastercard’s announcement of its expansion of stablecoin support, partnering with Fiserv, the organisation behind the FIUSD stablecoin. This partnership integrates FIUSD across Mastercard products, enabling on/off-ramping, merchant settlement, and stablecoin-powered card issuance.

The company also joined the Paxos Global Dollar Network, allowing Paxos to enable any Mastercard institution to mint, distribute and redeem USDG to their customers.

The global card services company also said it continued to work with PYUSD through its partnership with PayPal to enable future network settlement capabilities with PYUSD.

These integrations follow Mastercard’s ongoing partnership with Circle for USDC settlements.

“We expect that consumers and businesses will continue to use fiat currency with their Mastercard cards for most use cases — it just works,” Mastercard said in a statement about its expanded stablecoin support, adding that regulated stablecoins are undoubtedly part of the evolution of digital payments.

“At Mastercard, we’re not waiting for the future — we’re building it. From tokenised deposits to programmable money, we’re investing in the infrastructure, interfaces, partnerships and protections that will define the next generation of payments.”

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Quick take:

There is no interest charge on the principal amount, which is payable on the maturity date.

In the initial phase, Nano Labs plans to acquire $1 billion worth of BNB via convertible notes and private placements.

The placement agreement is part of the company’s long-term strategy of holding 5% to 10% of BNB’s total circulating supply.

Nano Labs Ltd (Nasdaq: NA), a Web3 infrastructure and product solution provider, has announced plans to raise $500 million from the issuance of zero-coupon convertible promissory notes, with several investors agreeing to subscribe to the offer. The shall be an unsecured general obligation of the company, upon satisfying customary closing conditions. 

According to the announcement, the notes mature within 360 days and can be converted into Class A common shares for $20.00 each. There is no interest charge on the principal amount, which is payable on the maturity date, Nano Labs wrote in a press release on Tuesday.

The company plans to acquire $1 billion worth of BNB via convertible notes and private placements in the initial phase as part of a long-term strategy of holding 5% to 10% of BNB’s total circulating supply.

“The Agreement marks an important step in the Company’s strategic growth. As part of this initiative, Nano Labs will conduct a thorough assessment of the security and value of BNB,” Nano Labs wrote.

This announcement comes amid growing interest in establishing digital asset treasuries. Most of the companies, including Trump Media and Technology, Metaplanet, Semler Scientific and Gamestop, among others, have focused on Bitcoin.

However, some like SharpLink have opted to build the crypto treasury using Ether (ETH), while SOL Strategies, which recently revealed plans to list in the U.S., has focused on building a Solana-driven treasury.

Earlier this month, Chinese automotive and hospitality company Webus announced plans to establish a $300 million crypto treasury focused on Ripple (XRP).

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Quick take:

Built by Digital Asset Holdings, Canton is a privacy-focused blockchain for the tokenisation of real-world assets.

The company plans to use the fresh capital to expand RWA support on Canton, which currently includes bonds, MMFs, commodities, repos, mortgages, life insurance and annuities.

Last year, Canton Network tested out its tokenisation platform with the likes of Goldman Sachs and BNY Mellon.

Digital Asset Holdings, the company building Canton Network, a privacy-focused blockchain for the tokenisation of real-world assets, has raised $135 million in a strategic funding round led by DRW Venture Capital and Tradeweb Markets.

The fundraising effort also attracted participation from notable companies, including BNP Paribas, Circle Ventures, Citadel Securities, Digital Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), Virtu Financial, Paxos and others. 

The company plans to use the fresh capital to expand RWA support on Canton, which currently includes bonds, MMFs, commodities, repos, mortgages, life insurance and annuities.

The fundraising follows Canot Network’s RWA tokenisation testing last year, which included notable global financial powerhouses Goldman Sachs and BNY Mellon.

According to Canton CEO Yuval Rooz, Canton allows users to choose the privacy settings of the assets they wish to issue. “So I can have an asset on Canton with no privacy. That would look like Ethereum. On the same network, I can have an asset with full privacy that you wouldn’t even know exists. These can all coexist on the network, and I can even compose a transaction across these two types of assets,” Rooz reportedly said in an Interview.

Don Wilson, the founder and CEO of DRW, in a statement, said. “Today, major players from crypto and traditional finance have joined Digital Asset on its mission to catalyse the next evolution in markets. With trillions of dollars’ worth of real-world assets already leveraging the Canton Blockchain, this next round of funding creates significant momentum for the company and cements Canton as the de facto protocol for global collateral mobility.”

The real-world asset tokenisation sector has been one of the fastest-growing segments of the crypto markets, growing to $24.3 billion from about $10 billion over the past 14 months.

According to RWA tokenisation tracking platform RWA.xyz, private credit accounts for a majority of on-chain RWA tokenised assets with $14.2 billion, while U.S. treasuries account for $7.4 billion, and commodities now have $1.6 billion.

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Quick take:

Built on MegaETH, an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible blockchain, GTE follows a concept more akin to the NYSE than its fellow blockchain-based exchanges.

Its platform uses a central order book (CLOB) to match buy and sell orders based on price and time priority.

GTE seeks to fix two major issues found on DEXes: blind trust and high-order latency that is accompanied by unfeasible transaction costs.

GTE, a decentralised crypto exchange (DEX) platform, is seeking to become the “ world’s fastest DEX, hand as raised $15 million in a Series A funding round solely anchored by Paradigm, according to reports on Monday.

Built on MegaETH, an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible blockchain, GTE follows a concept more akin to the NYSE than its fellow blockchain-based exchanges. The platform uses a central order book (CLOB) to match buy and sell orders based on price and time priority.

According to co-founder Matteo Lunghi, the company’s main target is retail traders who want to trade “anything from anywhere at any time.” GTE claims its platform addresses two major issues with crypto blind trust and high-order latency that is accompanied by unfeasible transaction costs.

“We saw generally that the current architecture of these, like legacy blockchains, required users to fragment their behaviour across apps and venues,” GTE co-founder Enzo Coglitore said in a statement. “What we did is kind of like reinvent a lot of the stock from the ground up to create a really good and seamless trading experience.”

According to Coglitore, GTE has developed a central limit order book that updates at the exact same latency as Binance or Coinbase without sacrificing core properties of a decentralised exchange, including non-custodial control of assets, composability, and permissionlessness.

Paradigm’s Charlie Noyes and Caitlin Pintavorn hailed GTE’s “right mix of team and technology” as key to competing with centralised exchanges and AMMs like Uniswap and PancakeSwap.

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Quick take:

It follows OKX’s recent relaunch in the country in April, which also saw the crypto company hire Roshan Robert as U.S. CEO.

OKX follows multiple companies that have also revealed plans to list on the U.S. stock exchange, including Kraken and Gemini.

The IPO craze seems to have been sparked by Circle Internet’s successful listing, which has seen its stock price rally to $280 per share, up from a listing price of $31.

Crypto exchange company OKX is reportedly exploring an initial public offering in the U.S., potentially becoming the latest cryptocurrency company to list in the country. The report by The Information comes amid a growing flurry of crypto companies that are pursuing U.S. listing amid the hope of a better regulatory framework for digital assets.

The report follows OKX’s recent relaunch in the country, which also saw the crypto company hire Roshan Robert as U.S. CEO in April.

More recently, Kraken and Gemini filed to list in the U.S. via an initial public offering, while online trading company eToro debuted on Nasdaq in an upsized IPO valued at $5.4 billion.

While eToro did spike some interest in IPOs, it is Circle Internet Group’s (NYSE: CRCL) IPO that really got things going.

The USDC stablecoin issuer debuted at a stock price of $31 per share, raising $1.1 billion. However, the company’s share price has now rallied closer to $280, valuing the entity at a whopping $66 billion. 

Since then, several companies have sought to go public in the U.S., with some like Anthony Pompliano’s ProCap BTC opting for a SPAC with Columbus Circle Capital (NASDAQ: CCCM), while Justin Sun’s Tron is pursuing a reverse merger with SRM Entertainment.

According to the report by The Information, OKX would “absolutely consider an IPO in the future,” and if it does go public, it would “likely be in the U.S.,” Haider Rafique, chief marketing officer at OKX, said in an interview.

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Quick take:

The fundraising attracted participation from Magnetar Capital, Woodline Partners LP, Anson Funds, RK Capital, Off the Chain Capital, Parafi, Blockchain.com, Arrington Capital, BSQ Capital Partners, and FalconX.

The two companies have formed a new entity, ProCap Financial, focused on establishing a public Bitcoin treasury with up to $1 billion in BTC.

The new company aims to use its bitcoin balance sheet to generate revenue and profit through a variety of strategies.

Anthony Pompliano has raised more than $750 million in a funding round backed by Magnetar Capital, Woodline Partners LP, Anson Funds, RK Capital, Off the Chain Capital, Parafi, Blockchain.com, Arrington Capital, BSQ Capital Partners, and FalconX.

The fundraising is part of a SPAC merger between his bitcoin treasury firm, ProCap BTC and Nasdaq-listed investment firm Columbus Circle Capital (NASDAQ: CCCM). Industry veterans Mark Yusko, Jason Williams, Eric Semler, Tony Guoga, and Matteo Franceschetti also joined as angel investors. The fundraising comprised $516.5 million in equity and $235 million in convertible notes.

The two entities have formed a new company, ProCap Financial, focused on establishing a public Bitcoin treasury with up to $1 billion BTC in its balance sheet. According to a press release seen by NFTgators, the new company plans to use the bitcoin balance sheet to generate revenue and profit through a variety of strategies.

Commenting on the announcement, Anthony Pompliano, who will lead ProCap Financial, said in a statement: “ProCap Financial represents our solution to the increasing demand for bitcoin-native financial services among sophisticated investors. Our objective is to develop a platform that will not only acquire bitcoin for our balance sheet, but will also implement risk-mitigated solutions to generate revenue and profits from our bitcoin holdings.”

Gary Quin, CEO of CCCM, commented: “From day one, we sought to partner with a platform and a leader that could develop a transformative organisation – and we found that in ProCap BTC and Anthony Pompliano. Anthony’s track record as an innovative investor, operator, and early advocate in the bitcoin ecosystem speaks for itself. We believe his deep expertise and relentless conviction will help continue to transform an industry undergoing rapid evolution.”

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Quick take:

Veda offers a DeFi vault infrastructure platform that abstracts the complexities of DeFi transactions.

The platform allows developers and institutions to create vaults for different DeFi use cases, including restaking tokens, yield-generating products, and savings accounts, among others.

Since launching in March 2024, Veda claims to have amassed over 100,000 users, while its TVL stands at $3.38 billion, according to DeFiLlama.

Veda, a decentralised finance (DeFi) vault infrastructure layer, has raised $18 million in a funding round led by CoinFund, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, GSR, Maelstrom, Animoca Ventures, Mantle EcoFund, BitGo, Credibly Neutral, Draper Dragon, Heartcore, PEER VC, and Relayer Capital, according to a press release shared with NFTgators.

Anchorage Co-Founder and CEO Nathan McCauley, Ether.Fi Co-Founder and CEO Mike Silagadze and Polygon Co-Founder and COO Sandeep Nailwal joined as angel investors.

Veda believes that to bring DeFi to the mainstream, financial applications must remove this complexity and manage risk on behalf of users, while preserving self-custody, transparency and security.

“The best infrastructure is invisible — it just works. That’s what we’ve built with Veda,” said Sun Raghupathi, Co-Founder and CEO of Veda. “We enable any platform to offer on-chain yield without exposing the complexity of DeFi, while preserving what makes it powerful: self-custody, transparency, and control. ”

Veda’s platform abstracts the way users interact with decentralised finance applications, enabling a seamless transactional experience. The platform allows developers and institutions to create vaults for different DeFi use cases, including restaking tokens, yield-generating products, and savings accounts, among others.

Founded in 2024 by CEO Sun Raghupathi, CTO Joe Terrigno, and COO Stephanie Vaughan, Veda claims to have amassed over 100,000 users, while its TVL stands at $3.38 billion, according to DeFiLlama.

The platform is used to power different products, including yield strategies, liquid restaking tokens, and native yield chains. Some of the notable products leveraging Veda’s DeFi vault infrastructure include Plasma’s Vault, ether.fi Liquid, Lombard’s DeFi Vault and LRTs like ether.fi’s eBTC and weETHs, native yield for chains including Sonic Rings and Corn’s sBTCN, pre-deposit campaigns for Berachain and TAC, and wallets including Binance Wallet and Bybit Web3. 

The company plans to use the fresh capital to expand its partnerships as it seeks to “accelerate the next wave of DeFi adoption across established financial platforms,” said Stephanie Vaughan, Co-Founder and COO of Veda.

Commenting on his firm’s leading role in the funding, David Pakman, Head of Venture Investments and Managing Partner at CoinFund, said in a statement: “Veda solves an unmet and growing need in the DeFi ecosystem—as more wealth comes on chain, infrastructure for the on-chain equivalent of traditional ‘funds’ must exist, and Veda is the leader in providing these vaults.”

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Quick take:

Stackup co-founder and CEO John Rising believes his company can help businesses avoid “catastrophic failures”.

The company aims to give businesses centralised control using “account abstraction”.

Based in Los Angeles, Stackup previously built “account abstraction” technology for the likes of Coinbase and Trust Wallet. 

Stackup, a business operations platform for crypto companies, has raised $4.2 million in a seed round led by 1kx, with participation from Y Combinator, Digital Currency Group and others. The announcement comes just weeks after Stackup launched on Avalanche. 

Founded by CEO John Rising, a former SpaceX manager and CTO Hazim Jumali, an Ethereum Foundation grantee, Stackup aims to help on-chain businesses avoid “catastrophic failures” through account abstraction.

Account abstraction allows users to create self-custody wallets as programmable smart contracts on Ethereum. Stackup is leveraging the technology to give businesses “centralised control of decentralised assets.”

Stackup plans to use the fresh capital to further develop its platform, having already built account abstraction technology for leading crypto companies Coinbase and Trust Wallet.

According to Rising, Stackup supports a variety of features needed in business operations, including spending limits for accounts, the ability to specify who can receive funds, and reviewing transactions in bulk before clicking to send.

The platform also supports connecting bank accounts with wallets, enabling seamless transfers, with the main goal being to prevent catastrophic on-chain failures, Rising said.

Stackup chose to build on Avalanche because of the layer-1 blockchain’s popularity among businesses.

“Avalanche has become the go-to blockchain for businesses that need fast, reliable, and cost-effective operations. Now, those businesses can manage their on-chain operations with the same level of sophistication they expect from traditional finance,” the Stackup team wrote in a statement when announcing the launch on June 9.

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Quick take:

Coinbase announced Friday that it has received the MiCA license from Luxembourg’s Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF).

The crypto exchange company will now move its EU headquarters from Ireland to Luxembourg.

Coinbase becomes the first U.S. crypto exchange to receive the MiCA license.

Coinbase on Friday announced it received the EU’s highly coveted crypto license, the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA). MiCA is the EU’s umbrella regulation that aims to create a harmonised legal framework for digital assets across all 27 EU member states.

The crypto exchange company said it received the license from Luxembourg’s Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF). As part of the company’s strategic move into Europe, Coinbase will now migrate its EU headquarters from Ireland to Luxembourg. It becomes the first U.S. crypto exchange to receive the MiCA license.

“Coinbase is all in on Europe, and we’re advocating for crypto’s future across the continent,” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong told CNBC. “MiCA has set the standard, and Luxembourg is leading the way with its pro-business climate and thoughtful approach to regulation.”

Coinbase will likely be followed up quickly by the Winklevoss brothers’ Gemini crypto exchange platform, which is set to receive a MiCA license from the Maltese authorities after choosing Malta to be its EU crypto hub.

Globally, Coinbase joins the likes of Bybit, OKX, and BitGo, which have all secured their own respective MiCA licenses.

Despite Coinbase’s change of its crypto hub, the company plans to continue investing in Ireland, as it aims to add 50 jobs in its Dublin-based office.

“The decision was made less-so due to Ireland, but rather for the reasons that Luxembourg presented a highly compelling option,” Daniel Seifert, vice president and regional managing director of EMEA at Coinbase, told CNBC.

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Quick take:

Coinbase announced Friday that it has received the MiCA license from Luxembourg’s Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF).

The crypto exchange company will now move its EU headquarters from Ireland to Luxembourg.

Coinbase becomes the first U.S. crypto exchange to receive the MiCA license.

Coinbase on Friday announced it received the EU’s highly coveted crypto license, the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA). MiCA is the EU’s umbrella regulation that aims to create a harmonised legal framework for digital assets across all 27 EU member states.

The crypto exchange company said it received the license from Luxembourg’s Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF). As part of the company’s strategic move into Europe, Coinbase will now migrate its EU headquarters from Ireland to Luxembourg. It becomes the first U.S. crypto exchange to receive the MiCA license.

“Coinbase is all in on Europe, and we’re advocating for crypto’s future across the continent,” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong told CNBC. “MiCA has set the standard, and Luxembourg is leading the way with its pro-business climate and thoughtful approach to regulation.”

Coinbase will likely be followed up quickly by the Winklevoss brothers’ Gemini crypto exchange platform, which is set to receive a MiCA license from the Maltese authorities after choosing Malta to be its EU crypto hub.

Globally, Coinbase joins the likes of Bybit, OKX, and BitGo, which have all secured their own respective MiCA licenses.

Despite Coinbase’s change of its crypto hub, the company plans to continue investing in Ireland, as it aims to add 50 jobs in its Dublin-based office.

“The decision was made less-so due to Ireland, but rather for the reasons that Luxembourg presented a highly compelling option,” Daniel Seifert, vice president and regional managing director of EMEA at Coinbase, told CNBC.

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Quick take:

Project Eleven says it has been working on its technology for the past 10 years to create trust in digital interactions.

The company seeks to apply post-quantum cryptography (PQC) to existing protocols, starting with Bitcoin.

Every wallet, account holder, and private key will be required to upgrade to a new quantum-safe cryptocurrency to protect it from quantum attacks.

Project Eleven, the crypto project building at the intersection of quantum computing and cryptocurrencies, has raised $6 million in a seed round co-led by Variant and Quantonation, with participation from Castle Island Ventures, Nebular, and Formation.

The company said the funding will help it advance its mission of preparing for the quantum era “by future-proofing what exists and future-building what comes next.”

“Thirty years ago, Netscape laid the foundation for the modern web with the invention of SSL. As we enter the quantum era, Project Eleven aims to do the same: to secure today’s digital infrastructure–and to design new products and protocols for what comes next,” the Project Eleven team wrote in a blog post on the company’s website.

According to Project Eleven, every bit of data and information ever uploaded online will be under threat in the age of quantum computing, and there is not enough time to prepare. 

“​​In the coming decade, everything we trust online: your bank account, your identity, could be compromised in seconds”, adding that quantum computing will make today’s cryptography obsolete.

The company believes Bitcoin and the $3 trillion digital asset industry are most threatened by that future. “A cryptographically relevant quantum computer (CRQC) will break the foundational security assumptions of Bitcoin and nearly every digital asset,” Alex Pruden and Conor Deegan of Project Eleven wrote.

Project Eleven believes that the time could arrive sooner than most expect due to the rapid progress made by companies like IBM and Google.

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Quick take:

X users will be able to trade and invest within the social media app.

The new services are part of Musk’s plan to turn the X platform into a WeChat-like super app that supersedes traditional social media.

The company already has money-transmitter licenses in several U.S. states and is eyeing approval in all 50 states.

Elon Musk’s X platform is advancing plans to become “The Everything App” that the Tesla CEO envisioned when he bought the social media platform in 2022. The announcement comes as the race to become the first super app heats up. Recently, reports emerged that Apple, Google and X were planning to integrate stablecoins as part of their strategies of evolving into a super app.

According to a Financial Times report, Musk is reportedly aiming to turn the X platform into a WeChat-like super app that supersedes traditional social media.

The company plans to roll out investing and trading features integrated into the X platform. The services will be offered via the X Money brand, announced in January following X’s partnership with Visa. They will initially be available to users in the United States.

In the FT article, there was no mention of the asset classes the new services are targeting. However, the company already supports a variety of financial services as part of its partnership with Visa. The X Money wallet enables real-time transfers between bank accounts and in-app digital wallets.

The X platform also allows fans to tip creators through Bitcoin’s Lightning Network and displays real-time crypto prices via $Cashtags.

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The post Musk’s X Platform to Integrate Investing and Trading Features in Super App Push appeared first on NFTgators .

Quick take:

The hacker used politically charged usernames on the Tron network and EVM-compatible chains.

Blockchain security firm Cyvers said the stolen assets included $49.3 million on Tron, $24.3 million on EVM-compatible chains, $2 million in Bitcoin, and $6.7 million in Dogecoin.

The funds were essentially burned permanently, making them inaccessible unless the stablecoin firms reissue centralised stablecoins, crypto researcher ZachXBT shared on X.

Pro-Israeli hacker group Gonjeshke Darande, also known as Predatory Sparrow, on Wednesday claimed responsibility for a $90 million exploit of Iran’s largest crypto exchange platform, Nobitex.

The hacker used politically charged usernames on the Tron network and EVM-compatible chains, stealing more than $85 million worth of digital assets, including $49.3 million on Tron, $24.3 million on EVM-compatible chains, $2 million in Bitcoin, and $6.7 million in Dogecoin, blockchain security firm Cyvers shared on X.

According to crypto researcher ZackXBT, the funds were essentially burned permanently, making them inaccessible unless the stablecoin firms reissue centralised stablecoins.

Posting on X, the hacker group warned of further attacks, describing Nobitex crypto exchange as a tool for the Iranian regime.

“In 24 hours, we will release Nobitex’s source code and internal information from their internal network. Any assets that remain there after that point will be at risk! The Nobitex exchange is at the heart of the regime’s efforts to finance terror worldwide, as well as being the regime’s favourite sanctions violation tool, the group wrote.

Confirming the breach in an official statement shared on the X platform, Nobitex assured users of the safety of their funds, adding that a majority of the funds are stored in cold wallets.

“The breach was limited to a portion of our hot wallet, which is used for day-to-day liquidity,” the crypto exchange said. “All potential user losses will be fully covered through our insurance fund and internal reserves.”

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Quick take:

The investment will go towards the launch of Eigen Labs’ new developer platform EigenCloud.

EigenCloud is a unified verifiable programmable environment powered by the Ethereum restaking platform’s core services EigenDA, EigenVerify and EigenCompute.

The platform leverages EigenLayer’s crypto-economic security to extend verifiability to other sectors including AI, healthcare and media.

Andreessen Horowitz’s digital asset investment arm, A16z has invested an additional $70 via a token acquisition of the EigenLayer (EIGEN) token. The firm also led a $100 million Series B round for Eigen Labs, the developers of EigenLayer in February 2024.

The investment will go towards the launch of Eigen Labs’ new developer platform EigenCloud. EigenCloud is a unified verifiable programmable environment powered by the Ethereum restaking platform’s core services EigenDA for data, EigenVerify for dispute resolution, and EigenCompute for execution. 

The platform leverages EigenLayer’s crypto-economic security to extend verifiability to other sectors including AI, healthcare and media, enabling off-chain computation with an on-chain trust guarantee.

Commenting on the announcement, Eigen Labs CEO Sreeram Kannan said in a statement: “EigenCloud will enable the next generation of disruptive, mass-market crypto apps, closing the gap between what developers want to build on-chain and what blockchains allow them to build.”

According to Kannan, EigenCloud is expanding crypto programmability making it possible to virtually verify anything on-chain.

“It opens up the opportunity for developers to build highly ambitious products like disintermediated digital marketplaces, on-chain insurance, fully on-chain games, automated adjudication, powerful prediction markets, and verifiable AI,” added Kannan.

The fundraising comes as Eigen Labs prepares to release the alpha version of EigenCloud this week. The new version includes major upgrades to EigenDA and a preview of EigenVerify.

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The post A16z Crypto Buys $70M Worth of EigenLayer Tokens for Eigen Labs’ EigenCloud Launch appeared first on NFTgators .

Quick take:

All of the capital raised will go towards expanding DDC’s Bitcoin treasury, with $200 million raised via an equity line of credit.

Approximately $26 million will be raised via an equity PIPE with DDC issuing 2,435,169 Class A Ordinary shares at an average price of $10.30 per share.

An additional $300 million will be raised via the issuance of a convertible note and a $2 million equity placement.

DDC Enterprise Ltd. (NYSE: DDC) has secured a $528 million securities purchase agreement to advance the company’s mission of “establishing one of the most valuable bitcoin holdings.”

The fundraising has attracted interest from Anson Funds, Animoca Brands, Kenetic Capital, QCP Capital, and a network of leading institutional funds and individual Bitcoin investors.

Approximately $26 million will be raised via an equity PIPE with DDC issuing 2,435,169 Class A Ordinary shares at an average price of $10.30 per share, with an additional $200 million raised via an equity line of credit, secured with Anson Funds. The $200 million is designed to offer DDC maximum flexibility in accessing capital for dedicated BTC stacking, according to a press release seen by NFTgators.

The company also said $300 million will be raised via the issuance of a convertible note and a $2 million equity placement.

All of the capital raised will go towards expanding DDC’s Bitcoin treasury. “Our vision is unequivocal: we are building the world’s most valuable Bitcoin treasury.” — Norma Chu, Founder, Chairwoman, and CEO of DDC Enterprise.

“This investment by Anson Funds and the group of PIPE investors is a resounding validation of Bitcoin’s important role in future corporate balance sheets,” added Chu.

The announcement comes at a time when several publicly listed companies are looking to build digital asset treasuries amid anticipation of clear regulations for the industry in the U.S.

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The post DDC Enterprise Secures $528M Securities Purchase Agreement to Expand Bitcoin Treasury appeared first on NFTgators .

Quick take:

The joint venture Tron, Inc. will establish a digital asset treasury focused on buying and holding Tron blockchain’s native cryptocurrency (TRX).

The new company will start with the acquisition of $210 million in TRX, with Eric Trump expected to join the leadership team, FT reported.

The decision to go publicly has reportedly been accelerated after the SEC dropped charges against Sun related to selling unregistered securities and market manipulation.

Tron has initiated plans to go public in a reverse merger with Nasdaq-listed SRM Entertainment. The merger has reportedly been arranged by Dominari Securities, a New York-based boutique investment bank linked to Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.

It comes after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ended its investigations into Justin Sun and three of his companies for allegedly selling unregistered securities and market manipulation.

According to the Financial Times on Monday, the new company Tron, Inc. will establish a digital asset treasury focused on buying and holding Tron blockchain’s native cryptocurrency (TRX).

The company will start with the acquisition of $210 million in TRX, with Eric Trump expected to join the leadership team, FT reported.

The announcement comes as more companies look to emulate Michael Saylor’s strategy of building a crypto treasury.

The likes of Metaplanet, Semler Scientific, GameStop, Trump Media and Technology, Roxom Global, KindlyMD, Cantor Fitzgerald and Strive are among those targeting Bitcoin for their cryptocurrency treasuries.

On the other hand, SOL Strategies has chosen to build a crypto treasury focused on Solana, while SharpLink is targeting Ethereum. More recently, Trident Digital Tech Holdings, a Web3 company based in Singapore said it will establish an XRP strategy starting with up to $500 million.

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The post Justin Sun’s Tron Set to Go Public Via a Join Venture with Nasdaq-listed SRM Entertainment appeared first on NFTgators .