Bitcoin & Gold ETP, Decentralized Autonomous Billions, Bybit’s Options + More News

 

Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.

__________

Investments news

• Exchange-traded note (ETN) issuer 21Shares is partnering with asset manager ByteTree Asset Management to launch a combined bitcoin (BTC) and gold exchange-traded product (ETP) called the 21Shares ByteTree BOLD ETP (BOLD), which is listing on the SIX Swiss Exchange. The weighting at launch is 18.5% bitcoin and 81.5% gold, they added.
• Financing and advisory company Foundry Digital and Web3 software development and consulting company Upstate Interactive jointly announced Foundry’s acquisition of Upstate Interactive for an undisclosed amount. The Upstate team will join Foundry to provide institutional services.
• Non-fungible token (NFT) tech company CXIP Labs announced it has raised a USD 6.5m seed financing round co-led by Courtside Ventures and Wave Financial. The project will use the funding to roll out Holograph, a new suite of NFT products for creators, developers, and enterprises.
• Ola GG, a subDAO of the decentralized gaming guild Yield Guild Games (YGG) focused on the Spanish-speaking market, announced it has raised a seed investment of USD 8m. The funds will be used to acquire yield-generating NFTs, deliver language-specific educational content, and advance the adoption of play-to-earn gaming for Spanish-speaking communities, they said.

DeFi news

• Crypto intelligence provider Messari stated that decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) treasuries cumulatively hold over USD 11bn in value. The top fifteen treasuries hold over USD 7bn together, which is about 60% of all value in DAO treasuries, while the remaining 40% is held by thousands of other DAOs holding small amounts individually.

Exchanges news

• Bybit announced its expansion into crypto options trading, adding to its existing product line of perpetual futures contracts and expiration futures contracts.
• Crypto platform CoinList announced the launch of CoinList Digital Asset Services, which should eventually custody a subset of assets listed on the platform.

Adoption news

• Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, will allow the payment of taxes using cryptoassets, Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta announced. He added that the city government will not receive crypto directly from residents but instead Argentine pesos, via conversions to be carried out by crypto companies.
• The Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) will issue licenses for virtual asset service providers, to be available to both natural persons and legal persons both Cuban and foreign. The approved licenses will be valid for one year and may be extended for a second year, “given the experimental and novel nature of this type of activity,” the BCC said.
• Web3 building platform Kyro Digital and blockchain project Kadena (KDA) announced a partnership that will see Kadena and its new NFT standard and tooling platform, Marmalade, integrated into Kyro’s platform.

Payments news

• Digital payments network Flexa introduced Flexa Payments, a set of tools for merchants to accept crypto from any app or wallet for online, in-store, and mobile app payments.

Career news

• Trading app Robinhood announced that it is letting go of around 9% of its employees due to the need to improve efficiency and increase velocity, they claimed. They cited a period of hypergrowth during 2020 and the first half of 2021, which led to significant growth of headcount, as the reason for the need to scale down.

Mining news

• Bitcoin mining company Blockmetrix announced its partnership with crypto-friendly commercial bank BankProv and crypto exchange CrossTower to supply Blockmetrix with a newly raised USD 20m debt facility to purchase digital asset mining rigs.
• Asset manager Huobi Asset Management launched an InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) infrastructure mining fund, currently available to institutional investors only. The launch is in partnership with the digital asset management platform Top Value which will serve as the technical advisor for the project.
• Bitcoin mining company Riot Blockchain announced it has initiated a large-scale, 1-gigawatt development to expand its Bitcoin mining and hosting capabilities in Navarro County, Texas, USA. The expansion has begun with the development of an initial 400 megawatts of capacity on a 265-acre site, with immersion-cooled mining and hosting operations expected to commence in July 2023, they added.