Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volumes, is making a strategic investment in the 104-year old magazine Forbes to improve consumer understanding of cryptocurrencies and blockchain. Forbes and Magnum Opus Acquisition Limited, a publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), officially announced Thursday securing a $200 million strategic investment from Binance. Forbes previously announced plans to go public through a business combination with Magnum Opus in August 2021, with the deal expected to close in Q1 of 2022. Binance’s strategic investment will be through Binance’s assumption of subscription agreements representing $200 million of commitments in the $400 million private …

Merger and acquisition deals in the cryptocurrency industry, simply known as M&As, have massively increased in 2021, with associated value jumping nearly 5,000%, according to PwC, one the largest accounting firms in the United States. The total volume of crypto mergers and acquisitions soared 4,846% last year, with the average deal size reaching about $180 million from $53 million in 2020, PwC said in a new study, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. PwC detailed that crypto fundraising deal volumes surged 645% in 2021, with top-five investors by deal count including blockchain investor AU21, Genesis Block Ventures, Genblock Capital, Coinbase Ventures and …

Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) are sure long bets for 2022, prominent investor and commenter Zhu Su says. In a tweet on Feb. 10, Zhu, co-founder of hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), argued that BTC and ETH were the best options for investment this year, along with oil, while the S&P 500 is a no-go. Zhu: 2022 macro trades "pretty clear" Despite concerns that deflationary pressures could take Bitcoin and altcoins down with equities, not everyone believes that 2022 will be a red year for hodlers. The picture is complex — some are eyeing a "melt-up" for stocks and …

The Central Bank of Ireland has stated that it is unlikely to approve investment funds for retail crypto investors because they lack the know-how to navigate the high-risk asset class. The February 2022 report Securities Markets Risk Outlook Report: A Changing Landscape described crypto assets as a new product offering in securities markets that is complex and a “potential threat to investor protection.” Although the bank fielded many queries last year about Alternative Investment Funds (AIF) regarding crypto, it is now not expected to approve an AIF for retail crypto investors. The bank feels that such investments “may be suitable …

Jason Powell, a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives, has introduced a bill proposing counties, municipalities, and the state to invest in cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. According to Tennessee House Bill 2644 introduced on Feb. 2, Powell proposed amending the current state code to add crypto, blockchain, and NFTs to the list of authorized investments for the counties, state, and municipalities to make with idle funds. Lawmakers assigned the bill to the House Finance, Ways, and Means Subcommittee on Feb. 8 for further consideration. The legislation was the second related to crypto and blockchain introduced by Powell. …

The Nasdaq-listed digital assets financial services company Eqonex has launched a new type of Bitcoin (BTC) investment product, a BTC dated futures contract with a physical settlement. Announcing the news on Wednesday, Eqonex explained that its BTC dated futures are denominated in the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin and increase in parallel with the BTC price increase against USDC. In contrast to perpetual futures, which have no maturity limit, dated futures expire at a pre-set date and time frame like each month or each quarter, Eqonex noted. “Any position in a perpetual future stays open until the trader decides to close …

As Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins took a break from reaching new all-time highs, the market sentiment seems gloomy since the start of 2022. However, while the market seems to be sleeping, its trajectory shows that there’s more to look forward to in the coming months. Multinational professional services network KMPG published its biannual Pulse of Fintech report, where the firm tracks and analyzes developments and investments within the financial technology sector. The report highlighted the most notable developments in major regions like the Americas, Asia Pacific and EMEA, and pointed out the “surging interest” in crypto and blockchain in the …

Web3 development platform Alchemy announced a fresh round of $200 million funding, bringing up the company’s valuation to $10.2 billion, just above the decacorn threshold. The latest funding round was led by venture capital firm Lightspeed along with Silver Lake, an American global private equity firm. Alchemy’s funding also saw participation from previous major investors as well. As Cointelegraph previously reported in Oct 2021, Alchemy attained a $3.5 billion valuation following a $250 million Series C fundraising round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Since October, Alchemy reported a three-fold growth in the number of Web3 initiatives being built on their platform. …

Wells Fargo Investment Institute, the research division of Wells Fargo Wealth and Investment Management, has released a report highlighting the potential of cryptocurrencies as an investment opportunity akin to the early days of the internet. In a report today titled Cryptocurrencies — Too early or too late?, the banking giant referred to cryptocurrencies as “viable investments” today, but hinted there was no rush for investors to enter the still maturing market. Wells Fargo’s global investment strategy team said it did not subscribe to the idea that it was “too late to invest” in crypto, given that the space is “relatively …

Crypto asset manager Valkyrie will have an exchange-traded fund with exposure to Bitcoin mining firms available for trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market starting tomorrow. A spokesperson for Valkyrie told Cointelegraph that the firm’s Bitcoin Miners ETF will begin trading on the Nasdaq on Tuesday under the ticker WGMI. According to a Jan. 26 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the investment vehicle will not offer direct exposure to Bitcoin (BTC), but at least 80% of its net assets will be through securities of companies that “derive at least 50% of their revenue or profits” from BTC mining or …

Zero-knowledge applications platform Aleo has raised $200 million in a solid investment round, pushing the company forward and supporting its goals to develop products and services that encourage and assist developers in building applications on top of its decentralized network. The Series B investment round was led by Kora Management LP and SoftBank Vision Fund 2, which invest in fintech projects within emerging digital economies. Samsung Ventures also participated in the raise along with Tiger Global, Sea Capital, Slow Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Aleo is building a network that integrates zero-knowledge proofs, a cryptography technique that lets the platform …

In the past year, we’ve seen the crypto economy undergo exponential expansion as heaps of money poured into various cryptocurrencies, decentralized finance (DeFi), nonfungible tokens (NFT), crypto indices, insurance products and decentralized options markets. The total value locked (TVL) in the DeFi sector across all chains has grown from $18 billion at the beginning of 2021 to $240 billion in January 2022. With so much liquidity in the ecosystem, the crypto lending space has also grown a significant amount, from $60 million at the beginning of 2021 to over $400 million by January 2022. Despite the exponential growth and the …