On Thursday, Stader Labs, a crypto firm building decentralized finance, or DeFi, products for proof-of-stake blockchain networks, announced that it raised $12.5 million in a private sale. The funding round was led by Three Arrows Capital with additional participation from Blockchain.com, Accomplice, DACM, GoldenTree Asset Management, Accel, Amber, 4RC, Figment, and anger investors. This puts Staber Labs at a valuation of $450 million. Amitej Gajjala, CEO of Stader Labs, issued the following comment regarding the development: This capital will be strategically deployed to accelerate our cross-chain expansion, as well as to nurture our growing ecosystem of third-parties developing staking applications …

On Thursday, Metaco, an enterprise cryptocurrency platform for securing, trading, issuing, and managing digital assets, announced the addition of UnionBank as its latest client. Founded in 1982, UnionBank is one of the largest banks in the Philippines, with a collective $15 billion in assets under management. UnionBank will be also be deploying its digital asset management services on the IBM Cloud, which are fully integrated with Metaco's solutions. Through the integration, UnionBank will be able to improve the insurability of assets with FIPS 140-2 Level 4 certified controls for managing and migrating keys. FIPS 140-2 is the highest level of …

With so many blockchain networks appearing all the time, new or even experienced crypto enthusiasts may feel overwhelmed when it comes to deciding which are the best to invest in. In this guide, we’ll outline the most important aspects of any blockchain project, and why one should pay close attention to such details when assessing the different chains on the crypto market. Use case Arguably the most important part of any blockchain project is its use case. What is the project’s reason for existing? Is the project here to enhance payment processing? To improve on a business supply chain or …

It wasn’t just a bull run for prices last year. Careers in crypto outstripped price action in 2021, as crypto job searches soared by 395% in the United States alone according to LinkedIn. Crucially, the crypto industry outpaced the wider tech industry, which also saw remarkable development, almost doubling its number of job listings. However, at 98% growth, the tech industry dwindles in comparison to crypto jobs, which gained by a whopping 395%. Furthermore, no industry was safe from “crypto-ization” in 2021. The LinkedIn News post offered valuable insight into crypto influencing other industries: While most of the job postings …

Cathie Wood's Ark Invest has reportedly purchased 6.93 million shares of the special purchase acquisition company, or SPAC, that is merging with Circle, for $70.6 million through the company’s ARK Fintech Innovation exchange-traded fund (ETF). This purchase would represent a new position for the ETF, according to MarketWatch. Ark Invest's ETFs have a history of bold purchases within the tech industry as indicated by their move to buy $80 million in Robinhood shares after the prices dipped back in October 2021. Wood is also bullish on crypto despite passing on buying the first Bitcoin futures ETF that same month. Circle …

On Thursday, the Iota Foundation, which oversees developments in the namesake Internet-of-Things transactions blockchain (IOTA), announced that it had been selected as one of five contractors by the European Commission to develop blockchain and distributed ledger technology in the region. According to the announcement, phase 2A aims to advance European Blockchain Services Infrastructure, or EBSI, in five areas: It will investigate the feasibility of sharding as to exponentially scale the Iota network on EBSI. Develop an approval weight consensus mechanism that will be highly flexible and allow both permissionless and permissioned use cases. Ensure any Iota-based solution for cross-border transfers …

There are many advantages to automating one's trading tactics instead of pointing and clicking with a mouse. For starters, bots can execute trading decisions free of emotion, are lighting fast, and have far fewer margins of error. According to CNBC estimates, crypto trading bots account for 70% to 80% of the overall trading volume. TokenBot is an automated copy-trading platform designed for social trading groups and communities within messaging apps such as Discord, Telegram, and Slack. Once added to a social media group, TokenBot monitors the admin's account on an exchange and automatically notifies members of their trading activity details …

Global payments processor Checkout.com announced a $1 billion Series D funding round on Wednesday, which marks a total of $1.8 billion raised to date and a $40 billion company valuation. Among the primary investors in the latest round are Altimeter, Dragoneer, Franklin Templeton, GIC, Insight Partners, the Qatar Investment Authority, the Oxford Endowment Fund, and more. Big news We've just closed our $1bn Series D funding round at a $40 billion valuation. It will help drive our US growth, our platform evolution, and exciting work in Web3 Read more from our founder and CEO, @GuillaumePousaz https://t.co/KiqE2Q5NGD pic.twitter.com/PEXmtN2Xkv — Checkout.com (@Checkout) …

Seba Bank, a Swiss-based digital assets banking platform regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, announced on Wednesday that it had completed a successful Series C funding round of 110 million Swiss franc, or $119 million U.S. dollars. Notable investors in the round included cryptocurrency exchange FTX, quantitative digital currency trading firm Alameda Research, decentralized finance asset management firm DeFi Technologies, and venture capital entities such as Altive, Ordway Selections and Summer Capital. The bank said it plans to use the funds to fuel international growth and drive demand from institutional investors in the digital assets industry. Seba has …

On Tuesday, crypto-fiat gateway payments platform Ramp announced that its U.S. subsidiary Ramp Swaps LLC hadreceived its registration as a Money Service Business with the Department of Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. The regulatory greenlight enables Ramp to do business in 38 states across the U.S. Besides the development, Ramp also has regulatory clearance with the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority and Poland's Financial Supervision Authority. Ramp allows users to buy crypto directly in their wallets and decentralized applications, or dApps. Last year, the company grew its transaction volume by approximately 30x. It has partnerships with over 400 blockchain entities worldwide, …

German neobank N26, one of the biggest European fintechs with over $9 billion in valuation, is finally ready to tackle crypto and equities trading after striving for a global expansion. Despite being an early player in the financial technology boom across Europe, the Berlin-based online bank N26’s global ambitions induced a setback in its diversification of services, N26 co-founder and co-CEO Max Tayenthal said in an FT interview. After exiting two critical fintech markets, the United States and the United Kingdom, N26 plans to “sharpen its focus on its European business” by introducing new products and services to its 7 …

Evedo, a platform consisting of business-to-business, or B2B, & business to consumer, or B2C, marketplaces, seeks to provide blockchain solutions for businesses and participants involved in organizing events. In an exclusive ask-me-anything, or AMA, session with Cointelegraph Markets Pro, Stoyan Angelov, Founder & CEO of Evedo & Fragmint, discussed the business dynamics and tokenomics of Evedo. Evedo tokenomics | Source: Evedo Technical Deck CT Markets Pro User: How does Evedo use blockchain technology for the events sector? Will the ecosystem be available for everyone or just artists and big events organizers? Stoyan Angelov: The EVED token is a utility token …