Cryptocurrency has seen a rise in mainstream attention starting last fall — before COVID-19 measures took off, according Floating Point Group, or FPG, an algorithmic trading technology startup conceived at MIT. "An increasing portion of our inbound prospects are established industry participants coming from FX, equities and derivatives markets," FPG co-founder Kevin March told Cointelegraph on May 28 after confirming the presence of increased mainstream crypto trading interest. Cryptocurrency opportunity knocking Abiding with U.S. regulation, FPG offers institutional players a number of tools, APIs and other tech for trade automation. March noted similarities among the incoming crypto trading interest. Elaborating, …

London-based financial technology startup Plutus is offering rewards through its debit card when users shop Nike’s online store. Doing so unlocks up to 3% in crypto and 9% cash rewards for those purchases. Rewards are available for British pounds and euros only In order to receive the rewards, customers must use the Plutus Visa Card while shopping online. As Plutus currently operates within the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area, the service is now available for purchase in euros and the British pound, a spokesperson from the firm told Cointelegraph. The rewards are generated in Plutus’s native token, Pluton …

Brett Gibson, a partner at Initialized Capital, has revealed the main criteria used by his venture capital firm to invest in early stage startups and shared his views on the most promising products on the market. Initialized Capital invests in early stage companies before they get to product/market fit, which means they still need to develop a product that meets the needs of the market. In that stage, Initialized Capital looks at the startup founders as the main criteria for investing. “Before you actually know what the product is and what market exactly they're going to be serving, the founders …

This week’s headlines from Japan included GMO Coin exchange polling customers on their view of digital assets, Lisk opening a base in Japan, Bitflyer showing 2019 net losses, blockchain startup LayerX securing significant funding, and two entities reported successful collaborative blockchain-based securities experiments. Check out some of this week’s crypto and blockchain headlines, originally reported by Cointelegraph Japan. GMO Coin users pick Bitcoin over XRP GMO Coin, a crypto exchange under Japanese tech outfit GMO, conducted a poll, asking users which crypto asset they think holds the most promising future. Out of 1,578 polled exchange users, 47% put Bitcoin as …

Floating Point Group, or FPG, a startup delivering institutional crypto traders automation technologies, garnered $2 million of capital from several entities. "It's becoming clear that sophisticated quantitative traders and platform developers are viewing the cryptocurrency markets as an exciting new opportunity," FPG CEO John Peurifoy explained in a May 28 statement. The funding goes toward expansion Algorand CEO Steve Kokinos, Seabury Global Markets, AngelList founder Naval Ravikant, and multiple others invested the money into FPG, receiving company stake in return, the statement said. An outfit operating under U.S. governing bodies, FPG plans on putting the funding toward regulation approvals, as …

Lamborghini, a famous Italian manufacturer of luxury sports cars, continues to utilize the Blockchain in its corporate operations. Among the latest technology developments, the well-known brand is applying blockchain to digitize its collectible stamps. Lamborghini is launching its first collectible digital stamps, the “Automobili Lamborghini Collection.” Powered by blockchain technology, the new collection is a series of collectible digital stamps dedicated to the history of the world’s most iconic luxury brand cars. The first stamp from the Automobili Lamborghini Collection is devoted to the Huracán EVO RWD Spyder, a new model unveiled in May 2020, the firm officially announced on …

As China is moving forward with blockchain projects amid the COVID-19 crisis, the government has tapped another tech partnership to continue the development of China’s digital yuan. Domestic artificial intelligence (AI) startup SenseTime has partnered with the People’s Bank of China’s (PBoC) Digital Currency Research Institute to provide its AI expertise amid the reported trials of the central bank’s digital currency (CBDC). SenseTime to accelerate AI advancement in a joint body with PBoC SenseTime, purportedly the world’s highest-valued AI startup with an over $7.5 billion valuation, will work with the PBoC to improve risk control and operational capabilities across financial …

According to Coinopsy.com, over 1,500 cryptocurrencies have collapsed in the past eight years. With so many failures, what is the best way to determine which projects are worth investing in, and how can these projects be found? CEO of Civic, Vinny Lingham, and co-founder of Multicoin Capital, Kyle Samani, joined the latest episode of Cointelegraph’s crypto markets show to explain how they search for and assess crypto investment opportunities. They also discuss how COVID-19 is shaping the role of crypto in the global economy and why Asia may or may not become the DeFi hub of the world. Watch the …

Crypto startup, Mudrex, has come out with a new platform called Mudrex Invest. The new product allows average users to profit from expert-built automated trading accounts. "Sophisticated traders create trading algorithms using Mudrex automated trading platform," a Mudrex CEO Rohit Goyal told Cointelegraph. "Multiple algorithms are merged together to create low-risk/low-reward to high-risk/high-reward portfolios," he added. Trading and investing creates many losers Trading is a zero sum game, creating clear-cut winners and losers. Estimates show the overwhelming majority of traders lose money. Trading is a unique arena. Nothing stands in the way of newbies entering the ring — which is …

Amid the apparent ongoing collapse in decentralized finance (DeFi) lending, a group of major trading and cryptocurrency companies in the United States are launching an alliance to support the sector. Introduced on April 7, the Chicago DeFi Alliance (CDA) aims to provide DeFi-focused startups and entrepreneurs with support and guidance in complying with trading regulations and other applicable requirements. Chicago DeFi Alliance to share its expertise to boost DeFi liquidity and markets According to a blog post by crypto fund Volt Capital, a founding member the CDA initiative, the alliance also includes major brokerage firm TD Ameritrade, crypto investment firms …

Runway Fund — an emergency relief fund assembled by the co-founders of OnChain Capital to help startups impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic — has been “overwhelmed” by the number of applications. Cointelegraph spoke to Ran Neuner, host of CNBC Africa’s Crypto Trader and co-founder of both OnChain Capital and Runway Fund, to find out more about the project's plans to assist struggling start-ups. The fund is open to applications from startups in all jurisdictions and has received 400 submissions from startups worldwide in only two weeks. Neuner states that the fund has received “more requests than we ever could have …

The Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator — an incubator for early stage distributed ledger technology startups at the University of California, Berkeley — recently launched its spring cohort, which includes startups seeking to fight COVID-19, launch a cannabis-themed massively multiplayer online game and create a reverse auction platform for loans. Cointelegraph spoke to Jocelyn Weber, the director of the Xcelerator, to find out more about the resources the program offers to startups, success stories from previous cohorts and advice for startups looking to launch in the crypto space. Cointelegraph: Could you give an overview of the engagement and resources available to startups …