Five Star Bank Goes Bitcoin, Picasso NFTs, Binance Unfreezes SEPA Deposits + 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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Adoption news
- US-based community bank Five Star Bank announced a partnership with bitcoin (BTC) company NYDIG. This will allow the bank’s customers to buy, sell, and hold bitcoin, powered by NYDIG.
- If securities company Valereum succeeds in acquiring a majority stake in the Gibraltar Stock Exchange (GSX), the exchange will operate as an ordinary stock exchange, with the sole exception that trades can be paid for in crypto rather than just fiat, Wired reported, citing Valereum executive director Patrick Lyle Young.
NFTs news
- The heirs of Pablo Picasso are selling 1,010 digital art pieces of one of his ceramic works, which has never before been seen publicly, according to AP News. Auction house Sotheby’s is hosting an auction in March that will include a unique non-fungible token (NFT) as well as the actual ceramic bowl.
- American rapper and record producer Kanye West argues he should be paid for the photos paparazzi take of him through the use of NFTs, he told a cameraman who filmed him at the Miami International Airport. He stated that he believes it is not fair that he has no rights to the royalties from paparazzi photos and that he wants to change that.
Exchanges news
- Binance is about to reinstate payments from the European Union’s Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), Bloomberg reported. Payments through the network will resume “in the coming hours,” the outlet said.
- Gemini Galactic Markets, an affiliate of Gemini Trust Company, said it has received approval from Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to operate a broker-dealer registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission and is officially a FINRA member. As a result of this approval, Gemini Galactic is able to operate an alternative trading system, which will facilitate the trading of digital asset securities, they added.
- Coinbase stock was deemed “especially unattractive” at this time by Dan Dolev, senior fintech analyst at investment bank Mizuho Securities, due to renewed signs of a “crypto desert”, per Bloomberg.
Wallets news
- A hardware hacker helped New York-based entrepreneur and crypto enthusiast Dan Reich recover over USD 2m sitting in a Trezor One hardware wallet, per The Verge. However, SatoshiLabs, the creator of the wallet, fixed the security issue found in Reich’s device some time ago, and all new devices are shipped with a fixed bootloader.
Investments news
- Adam Dell, the former Head of Product for Marcus by Goldman Sachs, a brand of the banking giant, launched a crypto investing app called Domain Money, raising USD 33m from investors. The app is targeted at retail users, who will be charged an annual management fee of 1% for actively managed and curated investment plans.
- Justin Muzinich, US deputy Treasury secretary during the Donald Trump administration, holds a minority stake in money manager Road Capital Management, which is raising outside money to invest in blockchain assets and platforms as well as cryptoassets and other digital financial instruments, per Bloomberg.
- Web 3 gaming project BreederDAO raised a Series A of USD 10m, co-led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Delphi Digital. BreederDAO will use the funds to scale its asset generation program, they added.
Regulation news
- Florida’s Office of Financial Regulation (OFR) issued a warning about decentralized finance (DeFi)-based companies, stating that it is important for customers to do due diligence and understand what DeFi is in order to avoid becoming victims of a scam.
- Cryptoassets might get regulated “soon” in the Republic of Srpska, the smaller of two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to local news source Klix. While it was not clear whether the bill would be favorable towards crypto, the local minister of finance said that they were looking at the ways other countries in the region have resolved these issues.
Career news
- Former US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo joined Digital Asset’s board of directors and will advise the smart contracts-focused provider of software for financial services on a range of blockchain issues.
- The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) confirmed Adrienne Harris, a former federal official, and professor, to run the Wall Street regulator. Harris has been serving as the acting Superintendent of NYDFS since her nomination in August 2021.
- Ryan Wyatt, head of gaming at YouTube, announced he would be leaving the video-sharing platform in February to join the gaming and NFT platform Polygon Studios as its CEO. He cited his passion for blockchain and Web 3 development while explaining his resignation.
- Chris Lehane, a top Airbnb exec and former Clinton administration official, told Axios Pro Fintech Deals that he plans to join the leadership team of an undisclosed crypto venture-capital fund next month. Per Lehane, it’s a global fund based in Silicon Valley and it focuses on early-stage and growth-stage startups across all layers of Web 3.
