Schlagwort: crypto business

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FTX US seals four sports-crypto deals in Washington DC

Cryptocurrency exchange FTX has spent a bucket load of cash in sports deals across various leagues

Crypto exchange affliate FXT US has inked a new partnership with four different sports teams as per a Monday announcement from Monumental Sports and Entertainment (MSE). The leading sport and entertainment company based in Washington DC owns five professional teams in the city and manages the Capital One Arena, where its teams play.

Most notable is the deal with National Basketball Association’s team Washington Wizards. Also involved in the agreement are the National Hockey League’s Washington Capitals, the Women NBA’s Washington Mystic, and the Capital City Go-Go basketball team. 

„The integration of blockchain technology with the sports experience has only just begun, and together we are going to advance to an entirely new frontier, which will ignite fans beyond what they can even imagine today,“ MSE president of business operations and chief commercial officer Jim Van Stone said.

Official NFT and cryptocurrency partner

FTX US will be the official cryptocurrency partner for the MSE and its properties, i.e. the four teams, as part of the multi-year deal. The MSE noted in the release that the exchange’s NFT platform also gets the exclusive rights to upcoming token drops by any of the four teams. The exchange will also be a partner for Big Block-Chain the entertainment company’s in-game highlight series. 

„One of our key goals is to continue growing the awareness of digital assets. We are excited to bring the world of crypto to Washington, DC sports fans,“ FTX.US VP of Business Development Avinash Dabir stated. 

The move is one of the exchange’s approaches of extending its presence in the US Capital and wooing legislators. The respective partnerships were completed at undisclosed sums, and other specific terms are yet to be released as of writing. 

FTX’s previous partnerships in sports

This year, the Bankman Fried–led exchange has secured in its basket several mega-deals with different teams as well as sports leagues. Just recently, the cryptocurrency exchange announced a sponsorship deal with the NBA team Golden State Warriors at a reported sum of $10 million. 

In June this year, the National Basketball Association announced that the exchange operator FTX had acquired the Miami Heat’s arena naming rights. The home of the Miami Heat was rebranded to FTX Arena until at least 2040 as part of a $135 million agreement with the NBA outfit.

A similar deal followed this in August, this time involving Cal’s football stadium. UC Berkeley and the US exchange affiliate agreed on a 10-year deal worth $17.5 million, with the latter securing naming rights and taking on other obligations.

The post FTX US seals four sports-crypto deals in Washington DC appeared first on Coin Journal.

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Multichain closes $60 million seed round with participation from Binance Labs

The funding round comes a few days after the protocol rebranded from Anyswap

Newly-rebranded cross-chain protocol today wrapped up its seed round, raising $60 million. The funding featured several names, including Binance Labs, the venture capital subsidiary of cryptocurrency, and NFT marketplace Binance. 

Binance Labs investment director Peter Huo hailed Multichain, describing it as “a key contributor to the multi-chain future for crypto.”

Other venture capital firms that took part in the round include IDG Capital, Primitive Ventures, Three Arrows Capital, DeFiance Capital, and Circle Ventures. China-based capital market company Sequoia China also had a hand in the fundraising.

Multichain was launched mid-last year as a cross-chain decentralised platform called Anyswap. The project has since morphed into a cross-chain router protocol, officially taking the name Multichain last week. At the time of the announcement, the total value locked on the protocol was north of $5 billion. The protocol currently serves about 300,000 users, with this figure projected to continue growing.

Forging closer ties

It is worth noting that Binance’s input into the firm stretches beyond capital injection. The crypto exchange is looking to cultivate a good relationship with the protocol outside the investment. On Monday, the Binance Smart Chain promoted the cross-chain protocol as a recommended tool to move crypto-assets between blockchains.

The capital raised through the seed round will be directed toward developing the ecosystem and helping its teams see more growth through new hires. The firm specifically pinpointed the research and development teams as some of those that will benefit from the acquired funds.

Binance VC arm has incubated more than 100 projects

Binance Labs has made a number of moves to promote blockchain projects over the last few weeks. On November 23, the venture capital arm launched the third season of its incubation program. The program aims to support potential projects from various parts of the world. 

The nine (chosen from the latest edition of the Incubation Program) names involved in the program are play-to-earn game Block Ape Scissors, hedging protocol Tranching, decentralised oracle Bird, bridge protocol Raydius, gaming web GAT Network, Mint Club, DeFi farming protocol Copycat Finance, multi-chain stable swap project Wombat, and blockchain gaming studio SkyArk.

In a December 12th interview with CryptoPotato, Binance Labs director Chase Guo disclosed that the venture capital arm had supported more than 100 projects since it was launched about three years. Outside blockchain, the innovation incubation division spearheaded a $1.5 million seed round for decentralized Web3.0 public network Bulletin Board System (BBS) at the beginning of December. It also joined the League of Kingdoms table as a strategic investor at the end of last week. 

The post Multichain closes $60 million seed round with participation from Binance Labs appeared first on Coin Journal.

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BoE calls for strict crypto regulation on an international level

The Bank of England is pressing for more stringent global policies to regulate the cryptocurrency sector

As per a report featured in the Sunday Times, the Bank of England intends to step up its efforts in setting up more crypto regulations. The bank highlighted slackness in the current pace towards realising this goal and wants global talks on the same to progress faster. The Times reported that apex UK bank was looking to hasten discussions on a regulatory regime for crypto assets.

Sarah Breeden, the bank’s director for financial stability strategy and risk explained that the need to protect the global economy was necessitated by the proliferation of financial institutions providing crypto trading and custodial services. The Central Bank official further revealed that the bank had encountered hitches in securing the relevant data it needed on the adoption of digital assets by institutional investors.

The bank asks for assistance from international bodies

Breeden told the outlet that the UK wasn’t in no position to collect the requisite data unaided and needed external help from international counterparts. She specifically noted that the country was counting on the Financial Stability Board to lend a hand. The board is responsible for making proposals affecting the stability of the global financial system.

„The ability to get data on what institutional investors are [holding] is a challenge. This is not something the UK can solve all on its own,“ she said.

Although the bank has in the past categorically said that it doesn’t consider digital assets a threat to its financial system, it is still wary of them. Earlier this month, the Central Bank held that the rate of growth of the cryptocurrency market was alarming and digital assets could morph into a concern if the sector remains not checked.

„We don’t have a regulatory framework that’s fit for crypto-coins yet, but what we are doing is rolling our sleeves up and getting ready to build it,“ Breeden stated.

The director for financial stability strategy & risk and deputy governor are of one mind

This is not the first time an executive from the bank has warned about cryptocurrencies being a potential trigger for instability. The bank’s Governor for financial stability Jon Cunliffe shares the same view. Cunliffe recently argued that it was imperative to have regulations, especially now that many financial institutions are getting more involved in the market.

As per a statement from Cunliffe to the BBC’s Today program, the proportion of UK household wealth said to be in crypto is only 0.1%. At least 2 million UK residents have an average of £300 in digital assets – a sector whose valuation is currently approaching $3 trillion.  The bank’s Deputy Governor holds that this exponential growth needs to be reviewed as it could harm the world’s economic stability.

„The point, I think, at which one worries is when it becomes integrated into the financial system, when a big price correction could really affect other markets and affect established financial market players,” he remarked.

The post BoE calls for strict crypto regulation on an international level appeared first on Coin Journal.

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BIS Exec Benoît Cœuré says global crypto regulation likely in 2022

  • Benoît Cœuré told Financial Times that exponential growth within the decentralised finance (DeFi) space is a ‚wake-up call‘ to regulators

Bank of International Settlements (BIS) innovation hub executive Benoît Cœuré has said the crypto sector is likely to see a global regulatory framework in place in 2022.

Cœuré says that the last year has provided a “wake-up call” to regulators across the world and that action is needed in the coming year. The BIS innovation hub boss notes that the last few months have seen talk among global regulatory agencies focus more on the need for action.

The ex-European Central Bank council member notes that the cryptocurrency sector has seen significant growth over the past few years and that time has come for a framework that’ll provide the needed regulatory guidelines and oversight of the industry.

Now’s the time for crypto principles framework

The exec says allowing the DeFi to grow as it has done doesn’t mean regulators were wrong. Rather, he believes this is what has provided ‘a wake call’ and how regulatory authorities have been able to understand crypto assets and how they work.

According to him, the fast growth and increasing mainstream adoption of crypto across various sectors of the global economy mean that now is the time for “consistent regulation.”

He said that DeFi offers “interconnectedness with traditional finance” and that this could pose a systemic risk. It’s a scenario that makes for a compelling case for a global crypto regulation framework, he added. 

But the problem, according to the French economist, is that countries and jurisdictions have been slow to take action and that puts regulators on different paths.

Regulation pace ‘slow’ and countries acting on different paths

This year, China has banned crypto trading and mining, while India has a bill looking to regulate the crypto space in the country. In the US, lawmakers recently met several crypto executives with the intention of getting insight into how to best regulate the burgeoning industry.

Cœuré believes a united global approach to the matter will prevent bad actors from exploiting loopholes likely to exist if different approaches are adopted.

“The risk in 2022 is that large jurisdictions like Europe, the UK, the US, China, keep moving on but along different tracks and produce a system which is globally inconsistent,” he told the Financial Times.

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VanEck CEO says firm will continue to push for a spot bitcoin ETF

  • VanEck’s CEO says the rejection of its application is not the end, noting in an interview that the firm “will be back.”

VanEck is not giving up on its push for a spot Bitcoin ETF, according to the firm’s CEO Jan van Eck.

The VanEck chief said this on the podcast Scoop, telling The Block’s Frank Chaparro that, despite a recent disappointment, it’s still all hands on deck as the company looks to put in new crypto funds applications.

In November, the US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) recently rejected VanEck’s application for a spot Bitcoin ETF, a move that sees the US market still waiting for its first exchange-traded fund tracking the current market price of Bitcoin.

Grayscale Investments hit back at the SEC for rejecting the VanEck spot ETF, saying the regulator’s move to approve only futures ETFs showed discrepancies in its approach. The investment manager wants the agency to allow its application for a BTC product to be listed on the NYSE, stating that US investors are missing out on the opportunities that come with investing in funds that track BTC prices.

Vowing to “be back“ with yet another application, van Eck pointed to the potentially helpful responses from two members of the US Congress. He says that the letter by the policymakers to the SEC regarding the Bitcoin ETF was a plus, even if the agency acted as it did.

Notably, van Eck compared the SEC’s rejection of the product to what happened before the regulator finally allowed gold bullion ETFs. He noted that, just like in current scenarios, the US regulator was keen on gold futures ETFs before eventually approving one that tracks spot gold.

Van Eck also talked about the investment firm’s plans in jurisdictions other than the United States.  He said that while the firm remains focused on having spot crypto products launched in the US, there are efforts to expand services and products tailored to the European market.

VanECK’s futures-based Bitcoin ETF is one of three that were recently allowed by the SEC, with the other two from ProShares and Valkyrie.

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