Softbank Invests In Bullish, BofA & BTC Futures, Yellen & Stablecoins + 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
- SB Northstar, a unit of SoftBank Group, agreed to invest USD 75m in Bullish, the sponsor of a not-yet-operational crypto exchange, Bloomberg reported, citing documents filed July 9 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. It will also buy 3 million warrants to purchase shares of Far Peak, the SPAC taking Bullish public in a move that could value the combined entity at about USD 9bn, it added. As reported, SoftBank just recently invested USD 200m in 2TM Group, the parent company of Mercado Bitcoin, a Latin America-focused crypto exchange.
- Terraform Labs, the South Korean company behind the Terra (LUNA) public blockchain, said it has settled a USD 150m fund commitment from major investors to drive the growth and development of projects building on its rapidly growing ecosystem of DeFi applications. The ecosystem fund is led by investors such as Arrington Capital, BlockTower Capital, Delphi Digital, Galaxy Digital, Hashed, Lightspeed Ventures, Pantera Capital, Parafi Capital, and SkyVison Capital, they added.
Banking news
- US banking giant Bank of America has approved bitcoin (BTC) trading futures for some clients, Coindesk reported, citing anonymous sources. Some clients are setting up to trade bitcoin futures, and one or two may have already gone live, it added.
Regulation news
- US Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen announced plans to convene the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets (PWG), in addition to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, to discuss interagency work on stablecoins. The group will meet Monday, July 19. The PWG will examine the current regulation of stablecoins, identify risks, and develop recommendations for addressing those risks. The PWG expects to issue written recommendations in the coming months, per the announcement.
- Japan is increasing its diplomatic efforts to regulate digital currencies globally as Japan’s Financial Services Agency established a section to oversee digital currency regulation last week, while the Ministry of Finance is considering increasing staff in order to deepen dialogue with their counterparts, Reuters reported, citing undisclosed sources.
Hack news
- Crypto trading protocol THORChain (RUNE) has suffered an attack that drained around ETH 2,500 (USD 4.76m) from it, the team confirmed. However, they have assured users that they have enough funds in the treasury to cover this loss.
Gaming news
- Axie Infinity, a monster-battling game based on Ethereum (ETH), has announced plans to start supporting esports competitions via funding for community-run events and a dedicated server. They have allotted 5,000 of their native AXS token (worth around USD 145,450) from the play-to-earn allocation pool in prize money for community tournaments taking place this year.
Exchanges news
- Ricardo Da Ros, director of cryptoasset platform Binance’s Brazil arm, has resigned from his position after six months. He said that he made the decision according to his personal values, citing differences in expectations about his role.
Blockchain news
- Cardano (ADA) has announced they have successfully carried out a testnet upgrade, going from the previous version called Alonzo Blue to the new Alonzo White.
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(Updated at 16:39 UTC with announcements by Terra and the US Department of the Treasury.)
