Monat: März 2025

• RedotPay announced it secured $40 million in Series A round led by Lightspeed, with HSG, Galaxy Ventures, and others joining.
• The crypo fintech, launched in 2023, plans to use the funds to accelerate the adoption of crypto payment solutions.

RedotPay, a crypto payment platform looking to bridge web3 and traditional finance, announced the completion of a $40 million Series A funding round.

Venture capital platform Lightspeed led the round, with this following their commitment in December 2024. RedotPay also attracted several top VC players for the round, including HSG, Galaxy Ventures, DST Global Partners, Accel, and Temasek-backed Vertex Ventures.

RedotPay eyes crypto payments adoption

Founded in April 2023, RedotPay has swiftly risen as a vital alternative for the unbanked, now serving over 3 million registered users worldwide.

The company aims to forge a borderless payment ecosystem, blending fiat and cryptocurrencies seamlessly. Its innovative approach allows users to spend digital assets with the ease of traditional payment methods, a strategy that has fueled its rapid adoption.

“Our team takes pride in empowering millions globally with financial access while bridging the gap between fiat and crypto,” said Michael Gao, co-founder and chief executive officer of RedotPay. “As we scale our platform capabilities, we look forward to partnering with Lightspeed, HSG, Galaxy, and our other strategic investors to expand our reach and accelerate financial empowerment worldwide.”

Lightspeed’s Pinn Lawjindakul, Partner, expressed enthusiasm for the collaboration:

With the fresh capital, RedotPay plans to enhance its ecosystem, boost compliance, and expand globally. “We don’t just build products. We solve real problems for our users,” Gao added, underscoring the platform’s impactful mission. PwC advised RedotPay on this financing round.

Earlier this year, RedotPay teamed up with Visa and StraitsX to launch a crypto credit card aimed at digital asset payments adoption in Singapore.

This milestone in February 2025 added to the company’s Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) registration in Lithuania. RedotPay’s full registration, obtained from Lithuania’s Financial Crime Investigation Service (FCIS) in December 2024, allowed RedotPay to formally enter the European market.

Notably, Binance Pay recently partnered with xMoney to expand crypto payments across the European Union.

The post RedotPay raises $40m to accelerate crypto payments appeared first on CoinJournal.

• ZKsync has cancelled the second season of its incentive program, Ignite.
• Bearish market conditions among other reasons led to the move.
• ZKSync will distribute all remaining rewards as of March 17, 2025.

ZKsync announced on Friday that it had cancelled the second season of its liquidity program, Ignite.

The zero-knowledge-powered layer 2 protocol revealed that the move comes amid the current bearish market conditions, which have notably annihilated sentiment and seen prices plummet.

Per ZKsync, the decentralised finance incentive program will halt on March 17, 2025.

“After careful consideration, the DeFi Steering Committee (DSC) has decided to not renew Ignite for Season 2 and will be sunsetting the program starting March 17th, 2025 by turning off rewards for period 6,” the ZKSync team noted via a thread on X.

The DeFi Steering Committee (DSC) cited multiple reasons for sunsetting Ignite. It includes the cryptocurrency market’s bearish conditions. This has prompted ZKsync to adopt a more conservative spending approach in the short to medium term, the platform noted.

Why halt Ignite?

Taking a cautious approach aims to ensure the sustainability of the ZKsync and Elastic Network ecosystem. It’s a move that will see protocol avoid unnecessary expenditure against prevailing headwinds.

ZKSync added in the update on X:

“Unfortunately we’re navigating a bearish market right now. In line with many other ecosystems, ZKsync has decided to be more conservative with spend in the short to medium term in response to these evolving conditions. To stay sustainable, we’re tightening our focus and spending smarter, rather than fighting headwinds.”

Focus on Elastic Network

Additionally, ZKsync is redirecting resources toward its long-term vision: the Elastic Network, an expanding verifiable blockchain network powered by zero-knowledge proofs. The team believes that continuing to invest heavily in the single-chain Ignite program no longer aligns with this goal, especially as native interoperability across the Elastic Network—crucial for seamless cross-chain interactions—faces delays.

The Ignite program, launched to boost liquidity on ZKsync Era and position it as a DeFi hub, has served its purpose but is now deemed less critical given these technological and market realities.

ZKSync will distribute all remaining rewards by March 17, 2025, with service provider contracts concluding by March 30, 2025.

The ZKSync token traded slightly higher despite the news, with ZK hovering near $0.06982 at the time of writing on March 14. The altcoin’s price was up nearly 5% in 24 hours. However, after a recent sell-off, it remained 16% down in the past week.

The post ZKsync sunsets liquidity program ‘Ignite’ appeared first on CoinJournal.