Kategorie: Crypto Business

Crypto.com has followed Binance in launching a headquarters in France in a bid to establish its presence in Europe.

Cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com announced on Wednesday that it had launched its European headquarters in France. 

The company said it spent around $145 million to establish its European headquarters. 

In its blog post, Crypto.com said this latest development comes after it was registered as a Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP) by the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) after clearance with the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR) in September.

Crypto.com added that its investment would help anchor its long-term commitment to France via the hiring of local talent to drive the company’s efforts across the region. The French office will focus on compliance, business development, and product. 

While commenting on this latest development, Eric Anziani, COO of Crypto.com, said;

“We are incredibly excited to cement our commitment to France and Europe through the establishment of our regional headquarters in Paris. Our regulatory approval was the first important step in our journey in France, and we look forward to continuing to engage with stakeholders across sectors to help facilitate the new digital economy in France and providing customers a best-in-class crypto experience.”

Crypto.com has been around since 2016 and has grown to become one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, with more than 50 million users. The platform’s interface is a mobile app that enables users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies with direct fiat onramps easily. 

In addition to its licence in France, Crypto.com also has licences in other countries, including the United Kingdom, Singapore, Italy, Australia, Greece, South Korea, Dubai, the Cayman Islands, and Canada.

During the height of the bull market last year, Crypto.com penned sponsorship deals with several sporting institutions, including the English Premier League, Nascar and Aston Martin’s Formula One division.

Earlier this month, Crypto.com announced that it would be adding Google Pay and Apple Pay support for Crypto.com Visa Card users in Canada.

The post Crypto​.com invests $145M in its new European headquarters appeared first on CoinJournal.

The new spot bitcoin ETP will list and trade on Nasdaq Dubai, 21Shares said in a press release.

21Shares, a leading provider of cryptocurrency exchange traded products (ETPs), has expanded its product range to the Middle East, the company said in a press release on Wednesday.

The ETP issuer’s entry into the fast-growing Middle East market comes with the launch of 21Shares Bitcoin ETP, the region’s first physically-backed Bitcoin ETP.

21Shares continues expansion

21Shares’s new spot BTC exchange traded product will trade on Nasdaq Dubai under the ticker ABTC and will have the same characteristics as the 21Shares Bitcoin ETP Europe, according to the announcement.

“Our expansion into the UAE is a major milestone in 21Shares’ international growth plans. Coming from the Middle East myself, the region is exceptionally important to me and, as a company, we are committed to providing regional investors with safe and secure access to cryptocurrency-backed products,” Hany Rashwan, CEO and co-founder of 21Shares said in a statement.

21Shares’ move into the Middle East comes a few weeks after parent company 21.co launched and raised $25 million at a $2 billion valuation to become the largest crypto unicorn in Switzerland.

“Cryptocurrencies are fast becoming the asset of the future for investors and wealth managers around the world, as global crypto adoption and investment levels continue to accelerate at pace – and the Middle East is a major accelerator of this growth,” said Sherif El-Haddad, the Head of Middle East for 21Shares.

As CoinJournal reported, EL-Haddad joined 21Shares in August as the crypto ETP issuer expanded its reach across Europe and the Middle East.

Over the past year, and despite the crypto winter, 21Shares has expanded its innovative products suite, with launches including the world’s first USD Yield ETP, crypto exchange traded funds (ETFs) in Australia and pioneered the  and the Bitcoin and Gold ETP on the SIX Swiss Exchange.

In June, 21Shares unveiled its Crypto Winter Suite, which as CoinJournal also reported, offered a product set tailored to help investors navigate the bear market.

The post 21shares launches first spot bitcoin ETP in the Middle East appeared first on CoinJournal.

Blockchain.com has received an in-principle regulatory approval from the Singapore Monetary Authority (MAS).

Blockchain.com, a leading cryptocurrency exchange and wallet provider, has received regulatory approval to offer its services in Singapore.

In an announcement on Wednesday, the crypto company said it has secured approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). 

The in-principle approval is for the Major Payment Institution License for Digital Payment Token services, the company noted in a blog post.

Singapore’s growing importance as a crypto hub

The preliminary approval sees Blockchain.com Singapore joins Coinbase that received a similar approval on Tuesday, 11 October, 2022, and Crypto.com as major crypto exchanges to be granted regulatory approval in the country.

Blockchain.com considers Singapore a crucial market, with the city-state offering an attractive ecosystem for advancing the exchange’s institutional customer base. Singapore is SouthEast Asia’s biggest economy and growth within the crypto sector has continued amid a regulatory push from MAS.

In a comment, Blockchain.com CEO and co-founder Peter Smith said the Singaporean authorities’ licensing will help drive further innovation in the crypto sector.

“Blockchain.com commends the Monetary Authority of Singapore on its transparent regulatory process that prioritizes crypto industry oversight while allowing innovation to thrive.”

Blockchain.com plans to continue growing its institutional client base, with the Singapore office a key component going forward.

There are more than 84 million Blockchain.com wallet holders, the exchange’s website shows. The users are spread across 200 countries from where they can buy, sell and earn different types of cryptocurrencies.

The post Blockchain.com secures Singapore license appeared first on CoinJournal.

Asset management giant GoldenTree has taken another leap in the crypto space after investing about $5.2 million in the SushiSwap governance token.

Asset management firm GoldenTree announced via the Sushiswap forum on Wednesday that it has invested $5.2 million in Sushiswap.

GoldenTree, which has around $47 billion in assets under management, revealed that it had been following Sushi for a while. The firm said the launch of its crypto-focused GoldenChain Asset Management arm made it excited to invest in Sushiswap. GoldenTree said;

“We wanted to take a moment to introduce ourselves to the community. We’ve been following Sushi for a while (some of us for several years now), and with the launch of GoldenChain, we are psyched to be more active in all things Sushi. We’re excited about the Sushi 2.0 roadmap, and think upcoming cross-chain integrations for swapping and lending (Sarang is incredibly thoughtful on this front), and updated tokenomics (we’ve been throwing them some ideas around tokenomics) have the potential to be transformative for Sushi.”

SushiSwap, similar to Uniswap, is a decentralised exchange (DEX) that allows people to easily swap one token for another.

Users can buy Sushiswap tokens on a wide range of centralised and decentralised cryptocurrency exchanges.

The GoldenTree team added that it believes Sushi has incredible potential. They added that;

“To GoldenTree, Sushi represents the best of DeFi, both in origin and in community. Sushi is what DeFi is all about: iterating and innovating, without artificial barriers to competition. We love the approach to new, composable products such as Trident and Bento that give developers frameworks on which to layer on complexity has been quite novel. We don’t think the full power of these products has been unlocked yet or appreciated by many devs.”

The Sushiswap vs. Uniswap comparison continues to be present in the crypto space. The Sushiswap decentralised exchange was created as a copy of Uniswap, with added liquidity mining and governance features.

The first ever community/DAO driven election of a Head Chef has been a huge success 🎉

We’re excited to introduce you to Sushi’s Head Chef @jaredgrey:https://t.co/2tRJOaEi4X

💬 Want to ask questions in person? Join our Forum!

📩 RSVP: Oct 6 – 5pm UTC: https://t.co/8F0Qrhf8Rv pic.twitter.com/jpzhPus7wx

— SushiSwap (@SushiSwap) October 4, 2022

The investment comes a few days after Sushi community members elected Jared Grey as CEO. GoldenTree said the community has been through some tough challenges, and it has been amazed at the resilience of both the core team and the community in the face of these speed bumps.

The post Asset management firm GoldenTree invests $5.2 million in Sushiswap appeared first on CoinJournal.

Institutional crypto platform Anchorage Digital is expanding its presence in Asia after announcing five key partnerships. 

Institutional crypto platform Anchorage Digital announced that it has partnered with five new Asia-based institutions. This latest development comes as the company makes a push into Asia. 

Anchorage Digital has partnered with cryptocurrency exchange Bitkub, asset management firm Dream Trade, blockchain investment firm FBG Capital, venture firm IOSG Ventures and digital assets financial services provider Antalpha, 

This isn’t the first time Anchorage Digital is partnering with crypto firms in Asia. The company had previously partnered with internet infrastructure provider GMO-Z.com Trust Company in the region. 

Anchorage Digital has been around since 2017 and was the first crypto bank to receive a federal charter in the United States. 

According to the company, many clients in Asia chose Anchorage because of its strong regulatory status in the United States.

Will Chiu, Antalpha’s chief investment officer, in a statement, commented that;

“We appreciate Anchorage’s attention to regulatory compliance and vetting of the digital assets they support. Through their combination of crypto-native fluency and understanding of traditional finance needs, they continue to support us in expanding the adoption of digital assets.” 

This latest development doesn’t come as a surprise, as institutional investors have been doubling down on the crypto space over the past few years. 

Anchorage provides financial institutions with integrated financial services and infrastructure solutions, including custody, staking and trading services.  

Earlier this year, Anchorage Digital received a consent order from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) after failing to implement the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) requirements

The cryptocurrency startup recently raised $350 million in a Series D funding round. The funding round was led by investment firm KKR and joined by a host of other investors, including Goldman Sachs, Thoma Bravo, Alameda Research and Blockchain Capital. 

Diogo Mónica, Anchorage’s co-founder and president commented that;

“We work with institutions and what we see is that institutions have very long-term horizons, they are not stopping these partnerships.” 

Anchorage recently announced its partnership with Aptos, a layer-1 blockchain. Regarding this partnership, Mónica said;

“By partnering with Aptos, we’re actually helping make sure that the next generation of layer 1 blockchains are taking these proper [security] considerations, and that will only spur future growth in the industry,” 

Institutional investors have been gaining exposure to the major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, in recent years. 

The post Anchorage announces five new partnerships in a move to expand its presence in Asia appeared first on CoinJournal.