Kategorie: Crypto Business

• Mastercard is looking to help bring defined standards to the blockchain and Web3 ecosystems.
• The company is partnering blockchain platforms Polygon, Solana, Aptos Labs, and Ava Labs, on the common standards program it calls Mastercard Crypto Credential.
• Mastercard will also work with wallet providers Uphold, Bit2Me, Lirium, and Mercado Bitcoin on the program.

Mastercard is partnering with several blockchain platforms in a bid to develop a new set of crypto standards aimed to boost the industry’s overall trust score.

In an announcement at Consensus 2023 on Friday, the payments firms said it was teaming up with Polygon, Aptos Labs, Solana Foundation and Ava Labs, to develop the Crypto Credential.

At #Consensus23, we announced how we are instilling trust in the blockchain ecosystem through Mastercard Crypto Credential. With crypto wallet providers @Bit2Me_Global, @LiriumAG , @MercadoBitcoin and @UpholdInc and public blockchain network organizations @AptosLabs,… pic.twitter.com/P33mtDVAas

— Mastercard News (@MastercardNews) April 28, 2023

According to the company, the Mastercard Crypto Credential is an effort targeted at incorporating the best of common standards into the crypto infrastructure and broader space providers to help instill trust in crypto from consumers, businesses and governments.

Raj Dhamodharan, the head of crypto at Mastercard noted in a statement that building trust is a crucial step for the blockchain ecosystem as it looks towards mainstream adoption. Crypto Credential, he noted, is one way of pushing for “trusted, compliant, and verifiable” blockchain interactions.

“With Mastercard Crypto Credential, we can help ensure that those interested in interacting across Web3 environments are meeting defined standards for the types of activities they’d like to pursue. Mastercard Crypto Credential will not only define verification standards and levels, but also provide necessary enabling technology to help bring more use cases to life” he added.

Standards for verification in NFTs

The common standards being advocated for will also help with instilling trust in NFTs, with the partners collaborating towards enhancing verification in NFTs. Mastercard will also work with blockchain firms around verification in ticketing and other payments solutions.

Solana, Polygon, Aptos Labs and Ava Labs are set to aid in having the new crypto standards available to and applied by developers within their ecosystems.

Other than that, crypto wallet providers Lirium, Uphold, Mercado Bitcoin and Bit2Me will look to tap into the standards for their cross border transfers. The platforms will initially focus on crypto payments and remittances within the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean corridors.

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• Robinhood has announced Robinhood Connect, a new feature that offers seamless crypto integration for dApps and wallets.
• Self-custody wallet Giddy is among the first mobile wallets to integrate the new on-ramp feature.
• Customers can directly and instantly buy or transfer crypto from within the dApps and also fund their Web3 wallets.

Robinhood, a leading online brokerage for stocks and crypto investing, has launched Robinhood Connect, a new product that will allow customers to easily buy and transfer cryptocurrencies as well as fund their Web3 wallets.

In this case, anyone with a Robinhood balance can now buy Bitcoin or other tokens instantly and transfer to their wallet using the new on-ramp.

Robinhood’s new on-ramp to Web3

Robinhood Connect is a new low-cost, on-ramp that will see customers add funds to their wallets from decentralised applications or third party wallets, all without having to leave the dApps or first connect to their Robinhood Crypto account.

“Crypto and Web3 have the potential to change the future of the financial system for the better, but we recognize there are still significant hurdles preventing broader adoption,” Johann Kerbrat, the general manager of Robinhood Crypto, said during the product’s launch at Consensus 2023.

Kerbrat added that Robinhood Connect demonstrates the brokerage platform’s strong commitment to crypto adoption, with the new product set to boost crypto’s accessibility and usability.

With developers able to tap into seamless integration for Connect, embedding the feature will be easy. Developers can make this feature directly available to users from within dApps, according to the announcement. This means that projects will be able to allow their customers to buy tokens via the brokerage platform and send them to self-custody wallets.

Robinhood announced on Thursday that Giddy, a self-custody, recoverable smart wallet app powered by Polygon, was among the first mobile wallets to integrate Robinhood Connect. The program will also be rolled out to other platforms over the next few months.

We’re proud to announce that Giddy is one of the first mobile wallets to integrate Robinhood Connect from @RobinhoodApp 🚀 pic.twitter.com/TbHgA9WPXt

— Giddy (@giddydefi) April 27, 2023

Robinhood seeing new growth momentum

Founded in 2013, Robinhood has seen massive growth across its crypto products since diving into the space in 2018. While the crypto winter saw its crypto trading revenue fall by over 24% at the end of 2022, the online brokerage remains a popular app for traders.

The collapse of crypto exchange FTX in 2022, and a recent investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has cast Robinhood negatively in recent months. Despite this, the platform continues to take major steps to position itself as a leading destination for crypto trading. 

Integration with top crypto platforms and introduction of multiple customer-focused programs are among these steps.

Currently, the platform supports crypto trading and investing for 18 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash. The online brokerage also supports buying and selling of the top meme coins Dogecoin and Shiba Inu.

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• DEX aggregator OpenOcean has launched integration with the zk-rollups platform zkSync Era.
• The move allows the DeFi platform to expand its trading solution to the zkSync Era community.
• Future plans are to add support for limit orders and cross-chain swaps, OpenOcean said in a press release.

OpenOcean, a leading decentralised exchange (DEX) aggregator, has announced integration with Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solution zkSync Era.

zkSync’s ZK-rollup proofs allows for major scaling of the Ethereum network, bumping transaction throughput and cutting gas costs. ZK-rollups also help ensure user privacy and security.

Announcing the integration via a press release on Thursday, OpenOcean said zk-rollups allows it to expand its multichain, Web3-focused trading solution.

The integration also allows OpenOcean’s DEX aggregator to launch on zkSync Era, providing users with access to deep liquidity sources. This will include liquidity from across platforms such as SyncSwap, Velocore, iZiSwap, Mute, SpaceFi and GemSwap.

 “We warmly welcome OpenOcean to the zkSync community. As an established multichain dex aggregator, users will be able to execute trades efficiently across different liquidity pools and reduce slippage,” Sam, a member of the zkSync team, said in a statement.

OpenOcean plans to enhance the integration by supporting limit orders and cross chain swaps aggregation on the zkSync Era.

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Key takeaways

• Crypto storage provider Zodia Custody has raised $36 million in a recent funding round.

• The crypto-focused subsidiary of Standard Chartered will use the funds for international expansion.

• The funding round was led by SBI Holdings and SC Ventures

Zodia Custody raises $36 million

Zodia Custody, a crypto-focused subsidiary of Standard Chartered, has raised $36 million in a funding round. According to the company, the funds would be used to pursue international expansion. 

The funding round was led by SC Ventures, the venture arm of Standard Chartered, and Japanese conglomerate SBI Holdings. Zodia Custody also revealed that there are other unnamed investors. The crypto custody provider also didn’t disclose the valuation of the company following this funding round. 

Zodia Custdoy revealed that the funds would be used to boost geographic expansion and increase the company’s coverage. The firm will also use the funds to improve its interchange and off-exchange settlement services as it seeks to protect client assets that are traded on crypto exchanges. 

While commenting on this latest cryptocurrency news, Julian Sawyer, CEO of Zodia Custody, said;

“The future direction of the digital asset ecosystem is clear. As investors demand greater assurance and rigor, compliance is crucial to the future evolution of our sector.”

Standard Chartered is bullish on Bitcoin

Standard Chartered, the parent company of Zodia Custody, is bullish on Bitcoin. Earlier this week, analysts at the bank said they believe crypto winter is over and Bitcoin could rally towards the $100k mark by next year.

At press time, the price of Bitcoin stands at $29,066, up by more than 50% year-to-date

Zodia Custody was originally launched by Standard Chartered and Northern Trust, the asset servicing firm, in 2021. The firm announced a joint venture with Japanese-based SBI Digital Asset Holdings earlier this year to launch a custody business in Japan. 

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• Celo Network announced on Tuesday that it had joined Chainlink’s SCALE program.
• The mobile-first, EVM compatible blockchain platform will benefit from high-quality, low cost oracle services.
• Chainlink oracle nodes will power Data Feeds on Celo.

Celo (CELO), a mobile-first, EVM compatible blockchain network, has joined the Chainlink SCALE program as it looks to tap into the oracle data and services of Chainlink (LINK) to accelerate Celo ecosystem adoption.

According to a press announcement the Celo Foundation published on Tuesday, the development comes after a community approval of a proposal that outlined the partnership. The Celo governance forum approved the proposal with 99% yes in the on-chain vote in March.

SCALE to boost Web3 mobile applications on Celo

SCALE is a program that seeks to boost sustainable growth for L1 and L2 blockchains by providing developers access to high-quality, but low-cost oracle services.

“Through the strategic deployment of resources, Celo will cover operating costs for Chainlink oracle nodes powering Data Feeds on the Celo Network. As the Celo ecosystem expands, dApp fees can eventually cover the full operating costs of Chainlink nodes,” Chainlink announced via its official Twitter account.

Joining the initiative does not just give Celo developers access to industry-leading oracle services; it means projects can now look to minimized gas fees, with Celo able to support development of next-generation mobile applications.

Xochitl Cazador, Head of Ecosystem Growth at the Celo Foundation, said the collaboration is a key step towards long-term sustainability for the blockchain.

“Developers building on Celo now have access to Chainlink’s oracle services, enabling the next generation of highly scalable Web3 mobile applications. We welcome Chainlink to the Celo community and look forward to the continued growth and collaboration between our communities.”

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