Today, President Biden issued an “Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets.” The order calls for a holistic approach to crypto across government branches, while also protecting consumers, minimizing volatility, safeguarding national security, and expanding financial inclusion efforts.
Read MoreAgrotoken, an Argentinian startup tokenizing grain by the ton through cryptocurrency, announced that its soy-, corn- and wheat-backed coins will be accepted as collateral by Santander. Agrotoken has also launched a 1,000-farmer test with Santander.
Read MoreBinance announced this morning that it would launch Bifinity, a payments technology company and fiat-to-crypto payments provider. Bifinity will partner with payments platform Paysafe as well as Checkout.com to scale its operations.
Read MoreThe U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into fractional NFTs, in which assets are broken down into tradable pieces. Such NFTs may qualify as securities under the Howey test; investors fund these NFTs with the intention of making a profit.
Read MoreMykhailo Fedorov, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, called on crypto exchanges to block Russian and Belarusian accounts following the invasion of Ukraine. Exchanges like Kraken and Binance pushed back at the demand.
Read MoreThe National Bank of Ukraine imposed several temporary restrictions to avoid economic panic and collapse. The PFTS Stock Exchange also suspended trading on Thursday.
Read MoreThrough a partnership with DiversiFi, Opera users on Android will be able to make cheap and instant crypto transactions within their mobile browser wallet. The Layer 2 swapping feature is 100 times cheaper than Ethereum Layer 1.
Read MoreThe crypto exchange announced that it has hired Lauren Remington Platt, a beauty entrepreneur, to spearhead partnerships with luxury brands. The move hopes to capture the wealth of the crypto class.
Read MoreIn a settlement with regulators, BlockFi agreed to register with the SEC and pay $100M in federal and state fines. It plans to launch an SEC-approved crypto interest-bearing security.
Read MoreState representative Jason Powell introduced a bill to Tennessee’s state legislature that, if passed, would allow the state to invest in crypto and NFTs. It would do so by amending the state government’s list of “permissible investments.”
Read MoreThe London-based crypto payments platform has officially launched in the U.S. Wirex was the first to let customers make payments through prepaid Visa debit cards that are linked to crypto wallets.
Read MoreStartup Yuga Labs, which minted the Bored Ape Yacht Club series of NFTs, is in financing talks with Andreessen Horowitz at a valuation between $4B and $5B. If it goes through, the deal would be the first institutional investment into the company.
Read MoreMeta, the company formerly known as Facebook, reported disappointing fourth-quarter earnings as well as its first-ever decline in users. The company’s market capitalization tanked—sliding from $898.5B to $668.4B.
Read MoreOn Saturday, Vancouver-based TerraZero completed a “metabase mortgage” transaction with a client buying virtual real estate. The “land” purchased was in Ethereum-based metaverse Decentraland.
Read MoreYouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki announced that the video platform is looking into NFT features for its creators. The Google-owned company joins Twitter and Instagram in exploring services related to the crypto-based financial system.
Read MoreThe Financial Revolutionist is weekly newsletter and blog focused on the torrid pace of financial innovation. Today, thanks to the exponential rate of technological change, explosion in global trade and new regulations ushered in by the Great Financial Crisis, a new financial revolution is under way. In this battle, virtually every aspect of the greater financial services sector is subject to rigorous challenge. With the Financial Revolutionist, we are aspiring to create a boots-on-the-ground and highly opinionated assessment of important financial innovation developments in the past week.
