Schlagwort: crypto business

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Y Combinator joins crypto app Pebble’s $6.2 million seed round

Pebble, a fintech startup whose crypto app seeks to bring about a “money revolution” by paying its users to save, spend and send money, has announced a $6.2 million seed funding round.

The platform’s financing round attracted investments from leading venture firms, including Y Combinator, the financial startup said on Monday.

Others to back Pebble’s mission are Lightshed Ventures, Soma Capital, Montage Ventures, Eniac Ventures, Global Founders Capital, and East Ventures.

Angel investors who joined the round included National Football League (NFL) star Odell Beckham Jr, Quantstamp CEO Richard Ma and Muse band’s lead singer Matthew Bellamy.

5% APY interest and 5% cashback

Pebble offers its customers a savings account through which they can earn 5% in interest. What happens is that the app converts users’ fiat deposits into the stablecoin USD Coin (USDC) and then lends the funds to regulated institutions. 

The borrowers pay a commission to access the loans, which are over-collateralized by 150% and according to the startup, all the processes are off-chain.

Apart from the 5% APY rewards, Pebble customers also have the benefit of a 5% cashback program, which is open to all transactions recorded across 56 partner merchants. Some of the big names in this program include Amazon, Uber, Chipotle, and Airbnb.

Other features available with the app include payroll connection and bill management. Users also benefit from flexible and seamless functionality via mobile access.

The post Y Combinator joins crypto app Pebble’s $6.2 million seed round appeared first on Coin Journal.

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Top Blockchain Infrastructure Projects to watch out for

Blockchain infrastructure is the foundation of the decentralized revolution. Ever since the Bitcoin chain launched, more and more projects have been established, each offering something unique. But why would investors be interested in these ecosystems?

  • Demand for blockchain ecosystems is always going to be high

  • Innovations in blockchains are making decentralization cheaper

  • The long-term value of blockchain infrastructure projects will always be very attractive.

If you are keen on putting your money on promising blockchain infrastructure, we have three projects here below to watch.

Callisto Network (CLO)

The Callisto Network is a smart contractS platform designed to offer efficient blockchain infrastructure. The chain is known for its low fees and fast transactions. Although the concept behind Callisto was launched in 2018, it’s only recently that the project has been getting some mainstream attention. 

Data Source: TradingView 

With a market cap of around $11 million, there is still quite a lot this project can offer. Also, Callisto has been attracting many decent P2E and NFT projects. It has also launched a few DEXs and DeFi apps as well. As long as the ecosystem is growing, better days will come.

Celo (CELO)

Unlike Callisto, Celo is more of a known project. But it’s actually relatively newer. Its MainNet came online for the first time in 2020. Celo’s main goal is to accelerate the adoption of cryptocurrencies by providing an integrated ecosystem. 

So far, the project has seen the addition of innovative crypto payment apps and DeFi protocols. It has a market cap of around $600 million too. CELO could realistically grow 10x in a few years.

Helium (HNT)

A lot has been said about Helium (HNT), and for good reason. It is one project that is working to decentralize access to the internet. So far, helium has received a lot of investments and it seems to be laying the groundwork for massive growth. It’s definitely worth watching it.

The post Top Blockchain Infrastructure Projects to watch out for appeared first on Coin Journal.

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PayPal plans to integrate all crypto and blockchain services, the firm’s VP says

PayPal has its eyes set on an eventual integration of everything crypto and blockchain across its services, the payment giant’s Vice President Richard Nash has hinted.

In an interview with Cointelegraph at the World Economic Forum (WEF 2022) in Davos, Switzerland on Monday, May 23, Nash revealed that the company has plans to embrace every possible service related to cryptocurrency and blockchain.

According to the PayPal VP, the company is working with others within the space to offer customers all that is possible – including digital wallets and CBDCs.

Also speaking at the event, Nash urged governments and regulators to look at policies and regulations that will help the crypto sector. A tweet by HCL Technologies summarized his take:

PayPal launched its crypto buy, hold and sell feature for Bitcoin (BTC) in the US in 2020, indicating at the time that the service would be progressively rolled out across the globe.

In March 2021, the payments giant announced a check-out feature that allows customers to pay merchants using cryptocurrencies.

The post PayPal plans to integrate all crypto and blockchain services, the firm’s VP says appeared first on Coin Journal.

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GameStop launches a non-custodial crypto wallet compatible with NFTs

GameStop, a video game retailer, has announced today the launching of its cryptocurrency and non-fungible token (NFT) wallet as it ventures into the world of digital assets.

GameStop said in a press release that the wallet is a self-custodial Ethereum wallet that will enable gamers and other users to send, store, receive and use NFTs and cryptos across the decentralized apps without the need of leaving their web browsers.

The company also noted that the web browser extension for the wallet is available on Chrome Web Store for download.

 The newly launched digital asset wallet will also allow transactions on the GameStop NFT marketplace; however, this is expected to launch in the second quarter (Q2) of the GameStop fiscal year which will be in early July.

GameStop popularity

GameStop’s popularity grew during the pandemic as an outstanding meme stock and earlier this year, in January, it partnered with immutable X to create the NFT marketplace. Immutable X, an Ethereum Layer 2 for NFTs created with StarkWare’s ZK-rollup technology, helps to lower gas fees as well as increase scalability.

According to the deal terms, Digital Worlds plans to give about $100 million IMX tokens to NFT developers and about $150 million to GameStop as it encounters certain milestones.

The post GameStop launches a non-custodial crypto wallet compatible with NFTs appeared first on Coin Journal.

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This is the reason Terra (LUNA) price jumped by over 50% over the weekend

Terra (LUNA) price has experienced a significant price hike over the weekend and into the early hours of Monday morning after holders burnt millions of LUNA tokens after Do Kwon, Terra Labs founder, sent a link address on May 21 to burn the LUNA tokens. 

However, Kwon later explained via a tweet that he was not for the idea of burning LUNA tokens.

Earlier today, May 23, Do Kwon clarified the confusion brought about by the address he shared and as more people rushed to send their tokens to the address. He warned people against sending their tokens via the link address to avoid tokens loss.

He added that he shared the link unwillingly as people kept on asking for the link address. He also noted that people can continue to send LUNA tokens of their own free will but he does not see any benefit in doing that.

Do Kwon said:

“People kept asking for the burn address – happy to provide for information purposes but want to clarify that you should not burn tokens unless you know what you are doing – i for one cannot understand.”

However, following the announcement, the price of LUNA has indicated some drop, and its currently trading at $0.0001997, up 18.46% from a daily high of $0.0002165. Terra UST is also trading at $0.07407, up 15.46% after it de-pegged from the $1 peg on May 9.

Meanwhile, the Terra community is still sending LUNA to the link address shared by Kwon as they believe that with a combined effort and support, they can push the price of LUNA to over $1.

Terraform Labs Revival Plan

Terraform Labs is carrying on with forking Terra after 66% of people voted for the plan. They believe that most validators are not interested in community opinion but in the fork. In this plan, there will be a new Terra blockchain without the UST stablecoin while the old chain will be called Terra Classic (LUNC). 

According to the proposal:

“Luna to be airdropped across Luna Classic stakers, Luna Classic holders, residual UST holders, and essential app developers of Terra Classic. * TFL’s wallet 

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