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Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
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Investments news
- Major startup-investment firm Bain Capital Ventures announced it is launching a USD 560m fund focused exclusively on crypto-related efforts. The fund will support companies it invests in with key economic and technical decisions, participate in on-chain governance, and provide liquidity where appropriate across capital stages, they added.
- Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao discussed buying Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich’s Premier League football club Chelsea but has ruled out any such deal, Reuters reported, citing a spokesperson for Binance.
- The Avalanche Foundation said it has launched Avalanche Multiverse, an up to USD 290m (up to AVAX 4m) incentive program focused on accelerating the adoption and growth of its novel “subnet” functionality, which should enable a rich ecosystem of scalable app-specific blockchains. Initially, the program is focused on supporting new ecosystems including, but not limited to, blockchain-enabled gaming, DeFi, NFTs and institutional use cases, they added.
- Cardano (ADA) native decentralized exchange (DEX) WingRiders announced a seed and private funding round of undisclosed value that included investors Animoca Brands, Matrixport, Spark Digital Capital, Double Peak, and Bitrue.
- Bitcoin mining startup Blockmetrix said it has raised USD 43m in Series B equity, bringing the total venture funding to USD 50m. The funding will be used to expand Blockmetrix’s hyper-growth strategy, primarily through securing digital asset mining rigs, they added.
- VanEck ETF Trust filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for the VanEck Digital Assets Mining ETF that would track the performance of digital assets mining companies. The fund will not invest in digital assets (including cryptocurrencies) either directly or indirectly, through the use of digital asset derivatives, nor in initial coin offerings, they added.
Payments news
- Payment providers Visa and Mastercard are preparing to increase the fees that many large merchants pay when they accept consumers’ credit cards, the Wall Street Journal reported. The fee increases are scheduled to kick in next month, according to people familiar with the matter and a document viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Ukraine war news
- Crypto exchange Currency.com said it is donating USD 1m to support the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. The funds will be distributed to four charities: The Red Cross Society of Ukraine, The Humanitarian Relief Fund under the Ministry of Social Policy for Ukraine, ASAP Rescue, and Global Giving. (Learn more: How to Responsibly Donate to Ukrainian Causes)
- Binance announced it will make Mastercard and Visa cards issued in Russia unavailable on the exchange as of March 9th 2022. The exchange added that all transactions initiated with Mastercard and Visa cards by financial institutions outside of Russia will also be unavailable within the Russian Federation on Binance.
- The Thai Phuket Tourist Association (PTA) is in talks with the central Bank of Thailand to seek alternative payment methods, including cryptocurrency, for Russian tourists in Thailand, per the Nation Thailand, as Visa and Mastercard have suspended use of Russian credit cards abroad.
Tokenization news
- Spanish multinational banking giant Santander Group said it aims to offer loans, backed by agriculture commodities-based tokens, in Argentina. The bank partnered with tokenization startup Agrotoken for this project.
Taxes news
- Thailand’s cabinet has relaxed tax rules for investments in digital assets to help promote and develop the industry, which will allow traders to offset annual losses against gains for taxes due on cryptocurrency investments, and exempt a value-added tax of 7% for cryptoasset trading on authorized exchanges, per Reuters. The tax exemption, effective from April 2022 to December 2023, will also cover trading of retail central bank digital currency to be issued by the central bank, it added.
NFTs news
- The Premier League clubs discussed a major NFT deal on Tuesday morning that would potentially see the 20 clubs of this top English football league launch officially branded digital assets within the year that could be worth hundreds of millions of pounds, The Telegraph reported.
- Non-fungible token (NFT) community World of Women and virtual gaming world The Sandbox announced a partnership in which The Sandbox will give the WoW Foundation funding of USD 25m over 5 years, driving female inclusivity through education and mentorship. The fund will provide business development opportunities across the growing networks of The Sandbox, Animoca Brands, and Brinc.
Regulation news
- The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued a warning to Binance Markets in response to Binance’s payment company Bifinity and investment firm Eqonex entering a strategic partnership. The watchdog reiterated that Binance Markets was not allowed to conduct certain regulated crypto-related activities in the United Kingdom without prior consent due to previous concerns about the company being incapable of “being effectively supervised,” claiming some of its products posed “a significant risk” to investors.
Exchanges news
- Coinbase announced that they’re introducing a new experimental label on asset pages and a disclosure when executing trades for some assets as an attempt at greater transparency. This will include newly created assets or lesser known tokens that could come with additional trading risks, including higher price swings and increased order cancellations, they added.
Mining news
- Core Scientific announced a preliminary 2021 revenue of USD 515m – USD 545m, net income of USD 50m – USD 60m, and adjusted Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation (EBITDA) of USD 225m – USD 235m. The company said it mined BTC 981 last year.
- Argo Blockchain announced it mined BTC 135 during February 2022 compared to BTC 172 in January 2022 and added that the reduction is “due to record high global hashrate and subsequent network difficulty increase.” The company also had issues at their facilities in Mirabel and Baie Comeau, Quebec, as well as North Dakota, which were subject to significant curtailment due to cold winter conditions.
- BitNile said that it plans to expand the power capacity at its Michigan data center to 300 megawatts, which would enable Bitcoin mining operations at the facility to operate approximately 90,000 BTC miners. Upon the installation, the company’s Bitcoin mining production capacity is anticipated to be approximately 12 EH/s, representing an estimated annualized Bitcoin mining production capacity of approximately BTC 19,600.
- TeraWulf started mining operations at its Lake Mariner facility in upstate New York using more than 90% zero-carbon energy, expected to reach over 500 megawatts of capacity once complete. The company also expects to begin mining at its facility in Pennsylvania early in the third quarter of 2022 where it aims to have 300 megawatts of gross mining capacity using 100% zero-carbon energy once complete.
Metaverse news
- Crypto exchange KuCoin is opening the KuCoin Meta Office, designed as a metaverse iteration of the exchange, in the Bloktopia Skyscraper. KuCoin aims to celebrate the opening of the Meta Office by launching Staking and Trading campaigns worth a total of USD 300,000 in BLOK, the native token of the Bloktopia project.
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