As the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is considering whether to approve or deny asset manager Grayscale’s application for a Bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund (ETF), the firm has called on American investors to submit comments to the regulator. In a Tuesday Twitter thread, Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein announced the launch of an advocacy campaign for…
Crypto finance service provider Amber has landed a valuation of $3 billion following a funding round led by Singaporean state-owned investment firm Temasek Holdings. Amber Group was able to raise $200 million in its Series B+ funding round as revealed in a Feb. 21 announcement. Other participants included Sequoia China, Pantera Capital, Tiger Global Management,…
California State Senator Sydney Kamlager, representing the 30th Senate District, which includes parts of downtown Los Angeles, has introduced a bill that would amend the state’s code to allow for the acceptance of cryptocurrencies for certain payments. According to Senate Bill 1275 introduced in the California Legislature on Feb. 18, Kamlager proposed authorizing a state…
Kookmin Bank is preparing to become the first bank in South Korea to offer crypto investment products to retail investors. KB announced on Feb. 21 that it had formed a Digital Asset Management Preparatory Committee to determine product and strategy capabilities regarding digital assets and artificial intelligence investment funds. The bank expects to launch crypto exchange-traded…
Unlike some of my peers in the technology space, I don’t see the Metaverse as a virtual world in which we work, socialize and shop. Rather, I see it as a point in time, reached in 2020 and into this year because of the global pandemic, when the digital world became as important as the…
Just between July 2020 and June 2021, ransomware activity soared by a whopping 1,070%, according to a recent Fortinet report, with other researchers confirming the proliferation of this mode of extortion. Mimicking the prevalent business model of the legitimate tech world, ransomware-as-a-service portals popped up in the darker corners of the web, institutionalizing the shadow…
If you’re not keen on joining Mark Zuckerberg in the Metaverse, I have bad news for you: You’re already there. You don’t need a virtual reality headset to enter a virtual world. Humans have been representing reality since our distant ancestors first painted on cave walls. If TV, radio, books or newspapers have ever given…
OpenSea, one of the most popular nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace, has rolled out an upgrade to its smart contract, a proactive measure to weed out inactive listings on the platform. As a part of the planned upgrade, all OpenSea users will need to migrate their NFT listings — currently hosted over the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain…
Protesting anti-vax truckers blockading downtown Ottawa, Canada had their fund-raising platform shut down because their host fears the “promotion of violence.” The protesters move to a Bitcoin crowdsourcing funding service. It quickly raised $900,000. Russian troops gather on Ukraine’s borders. Ukrainian NGOs and volunteer groups embrace cryptocurrencies to help defend their country in the event…
Morgan Stanley’s wealth management global investment office has published a report on Ethereum (ETH) arguing that the blockchain’s dominance could dwindle if strong market competition emerges. The investment banking giant’s report is titled “Cryptocurrency 201: What Is Ethereum?” and it provides a detailed rundown of the ecosystem along with its advantages and disadvantages in relation…
