Crypto Enforcement Team, Pepsi CFO on Bitcoin, Institutional Metamask + 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.
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Regulation news
- US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced the launch of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, whose goal will be to “strengthen” the Justice Department’s ability to disable financial markets that allow cybercriminals to “flourish,” Reuters reported. The group will include a mix of anti-money laundering and cybersecurity experts, per the report.
- The IOSCO group of securities regulators and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) have stated that the current rules for major clearing, settlement and payments services should also be applied to “systemic” or heavily used stablecoins, according to Reuters. The rules mean a stablecoin operator must set up a legal entity that spells out how it’s governed and manages operational risks like cyber attacks.
Adoption news
- Hugh Johnston, Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer of PepsiCo, told CNBC that bitcoin (BTC) is “still too volatile and still too speculative” to him. He added that it will be “an awfully long time” before BTC becomes a functional currency, but also that he has “learned over time never to say never.”
"I've learned over time never to say never … #bitcoin to me is still too volatile and still too speculative. I think it will be an awfully long time before #bitcoin becomes a functional currency for us," says @PepsiCo CFO @hughjohnston $PEP pic.twitter.com/0JE9TozRZm
— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) October 5, 2021
- MetaMask Institutional, decentralized finance (DeFi) gateway for funds, has announced strategic partnerships with custodians BitGo, Qredo, and Cactus Custody. They said that each of these strategic partnerships responds to different needs of organizations, from small crypto startups and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) to multi-billion dollar crypto funds.
- Digital asset financial service provider Arab Bank Switzerland has announced they have selected Tezos (XTZ) for their on-chain digital financial products. The bank has launched institutional-grade storage, staking, and trading services for XTZ.
- American cinema chain AMC Theatres has announced that it now accepts dogecoin (DOGE) among other selected cryptocurrencies as a payment option for its digital gift cards. They have added that customers can buy up to USD 200 in gift cards per day through their website, mobile app, and in theatres, using a BitPay wallet.
- The Liquid Network has undergone a hard fork and is now fully operational after encountering an issue that set the scheduled fork back a while, Blockstream announced. They added that the patch issued to fix the problem took around 22 hours.
- Financial services provider Tangany has received a license from the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) as the third regulated service provider for the custody of digital assets in Germany to provide crypto custody business. The company also plans to apply for further licenses in Germany and Europe in the future.
- Ethereum (ETH)-based decentralized blogging protocol Mirror has opened its doors to everyone, instead of only to those who would earn enough votes in Mirror’s weekly WRITE Race. The protocol lets users log in and “sign” posts with an Ethereum wallet, plus it uses blockchain-based storage protocol Arweave to “permanently” back up posts and boost their censorship resistance.
Investments news
- Crypto marketplace Easy Crypto has secured NZD 17m (USD 11.7m) from a range of investors in an offer that was oversubscribed, according to RNZ. The team said the funds have given it the necessary firepower to expand the range of products it offers and establish itself in new markets, including the Philippines and Indonesia.
- Asset management firm Arca has announced the launch of its first venture-focused fund, the Arca Endeavor Fund, which will focus on investing in innovative founders across various segments of the digital asset ecosystem. The fund was oversubscribed above its USD 30m cap, and it has already made several initial investments.
- Globant, a digitally native technology services company, said it has acquired Atix Labs, a professional services company specialized in blockchain. Founded in Argentina in 2013, Atix Labs has operations in the United States, Argentina and Uruguay, and a “solid project pipeline” with Fortune 500 clients, global top players in the crypto stage, they said.
Exchanges news
- Binance has registered three more firms in Ireland within the past 10 days, according to Independent. The companies—Binance (APAC) Holdings, Binance (Services) Holdings, and Binance Technologies—were all established on September 27 and list Changpeng Zhao as director.
- Decentralized exchange (DEX) Swarm Markets is now available to the general public, the team announced. Swarm Markets operates under regulatory license from the BaFin in Germany, and both retail and institutional investors will be able to trade securities alongside crypto on the platform.
- Stock exchange Deutsche Börse plans to launch a regulatory compliant, fully digital post-trade platform called D7, anchored in the recently introduced German digital securities law framework, which will enable market participants to digitize their financial products. As of mid-2022, over 80% of German securities will be digitizable via D7, they added.
