Fed Chair On Higher Inflation, Robinhood’s Million Crypto Wallets, NFT Unicorn + 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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Economics news
- Elevated inflation is “likely to last longer than previously expected and well into next year,” Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Jerome Powell, said today, as reported by Reuters. The bank is also “on track” to begin reducing its purchases of assets and the Fed “would certainly use [its] tools,” if “a risk of inflation moving persistently higher.” (Learn more: Inflation Scares in an Uncharted Recovery)
Investments news
- The waitlist for Robinhood’s crypto wallet is now more than one million customers long, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said at CNBC’s Disruptor 50 summit. He added that “crypto is here to stay” and that its global nature has made it attractive to investors.
- Payments infrastructure builder XanPool has raised USD 27m in a Series A financing round led by Valar Ventures. The company is now looking to consolidate its presence in the Asia Pacific region, and expand its product offerings, they said.
- Blockstream announced the completion of tranche six of the Blockstream Mining Notes (BMN), which was the largest tranche issued to date at EUR 13.9m (USD 16.1m). The BMN provides qualifying investors exposure to bitcoin mining through a security token, where each BMN1 entitles investors to up to 2,000 TH/s of bitcoin mined at Blockstream’s mining facilities.
NFTs news
- Non-fungible token (NFT) company Candy Digital said it has completed a USD 100m Series A financing round, which values the company at USD 1.5bn. The newly raised capital will be used to fund their further expansion, they added.
- The Economist announced they are selling their cover, inspired by Alice in Wonderland, as an NFT. The online auction will run on NFT platform Foundation from October 25th until October 26th, where anyone can bid, and the proceeds will go to The Economist Educational Foundation charity.
- NFT commerce suite Mojito announced it has raised USD 20m in its first funding round with a valuation of USD 100m. The team will leverage its funding to build out a commerce suite that combines Web 3.0 technology with customizable APIs and SDKs, they said.
Mining news
- Bitcoin (BTC) mining company Greenidge Generation said it is considering expansion into Texas and buying a site in South Carolina. The company has reached an agreement with a developer over six sites in Texas as potential locations for data centers, which have 2,000 MW of electrical capacity and some have access to wind and solar power generation.
Banking news
- Banks in Spain are getting ready to offer crypto services to their clients, but are being frustrated by the lack of clarity from their central bank, El Pais reported. The Bank of Spain previously stated that it would provide instructions for entities wishing to register to provide crypto services, but banks are still waiting for instructions.
Crime news
- USD 7m in BTC held by the DarkSide ransomware group is on the move, five months after the attack on Colonial Pipeline that crippled fuel supplies along the US East coast, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic. These funds had remained dormant since the group shut down on May 13.
Regulation news
- Six tech giants: Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Square, and PayPal have been ordered to hand over information relating to payments to the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The CFPB has been tasked by Congress to ensure competition is fair in payments markets, given the immense scale of this group of companies and therefore their ability to monetize data on customer spending habits.
