New Bitcoin & Ethereum ETFs, Ukrainian NFT Cossacks Club, Snoop Dogg Brings Weed to Metaverse + 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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Investments news

• Swiss-based issuer of crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) 21Shares and exchange-traded fund (ETF) provider ETF Securities launched two funds that will go live on April 27th on the Cboe platform. The ETFS 21Shares Bitcoin ETF is the first Australian ETF to invest directly in bitcoin (BTC), and ETFS 21Shares Ethereum ETF is the first to invest directly in ethereum (ETH).
• Crypto investment firm Framework Ventures said it has reached USD 1.4bn in total assets under management after securing USD 400m for its third venture capital fund. Around half of the fund, USD 200m, will be allocated to the blockchain gaming space, they added.
• Blockchain analytics company Flipside said it has raised USD 50m in a round led by Republic Capital.
• Switzerland’s SIX Digital Exchange announced a partnership with Swiss equity tokenization platform daura to issue digital equity securities in SDX’s regulated Central Securities Depository (CSD).

NFTs news

• Ukrainian software firm WeSoftYou launched an NFT collection consisting of 5,000 avatars called Crypto Cossacks Club which is meant to support Ukraine in its resistance to Russian aggression. The price of one avatar is ETH 0.15 (USD 500), along with a minting fee of around USD 50.
• Crypto exchange Okcoin announced an NFT marketplace that will launch sometime during 2022. A waitlist is now open.

Metaverse news

• Rap superstar Snoop Dogg has partnered with mafia-themed metaverse MOBLAND to bring “digital weed farms” to the metaverse. The metaverse will have a Grow-and-Earn feature through several utilities for business buildings and land, they added.

Exchanges news

• Binance.US announced that it has received its Money Transmitter License from the Puerto Rico Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions.
• Nischal Shetty and Siddharth Menon, co-founders of Indian crypto exchange WazirX, have left India and moved with their families to Dubai, Business Today reported, citing multiple unnamed sources. WazirX still has an office in Mumbai and Bengaluru, it added.

Regulation news

• Decentralized finance (DeFi) developer Andre Cronje is rejoining the crypto space with an interest in regulated crypto, stating that he and his unnamed collaborators were working on several projects focused on crypto compliance and regulation. The list includes areas such as compliant custody products, risk reporting, and state-supported national blockchains. (Learn more: ‘Crypto is Dead. Long live Crypto’: Veteran DeFi Developer Andre Cronje Urges More Regulation)

Mining news

• Bitcoin mining company Hut 8 said it has entered into an agreement with miner manufacturer TAAL to conclude its hosting relationship and purchase 960 MicroBT Whatsminer M31S+ effective May 1st, 2022. Once the acquisition is complete, Hut 8’s operations at all mining sites will be 100% allocated to self-mining, they added.

Adoption news

• Ethereum scalability solution Optimism said it has deployed over 6,800 contracts during the past year since its mainnet launch, onboarded more than 300,000 unique addresses, and facilitated over USD 17.4bn in transaction volume. Also, the team said they’re starting “a new chapter” that is “driven by community ownership and governance,” while promising to share more details “soon.”
• A coalition of 22 zero-knowledge technology companies, foundations, and funds joined by tech giant Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announced the launch of ZPrize, an industry-sponsored contest offering USD 7m in prizes to accelerate zero-knowledge cryptography within the blockchain space.

Gaming news

• CoinFund-backed Blockchain game platform Rainmaker Games announced the launch of their Discovery Platform for blockchain games, where each of the games on the platform is rated and reviewed by a team of 50 players and analysts. The beta version of the platform includes over 150 games, reviews, details, and more features, they added.