1confirmation Raises USD 125M, Chia – USD 61M, African CBDC + 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

• Crypto venture fund 1confirmation said it closed its new third venture fund worth USD 125m and dubbed 1confirmation fund III. They launched their USD 26m fund at the peak of the last bull market in 2017 while their assets under management now surpassed USD 800m.
• Chia Network, the developer of blockchain and “smart transaction” platform, has raised USD 61m from investors including Richmond Global Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, thus more than doubling its valuation, Bloomberg reported. The company is also looking to launch an initial public offering (IPO) possibly even within this year, it added. (Disclosure: among Chia investors is Cypherpunk Holdings, which is backed and led by Cryptonews.com Founder Antanas “Tony” Guoga.)
• Crypto-native risk monitoring and market surveillance company Solidus Labs said they have raised USD 20m in a Series A funding round led by venture capitalist Evolution Equity Partners. The new funds will be used to expand the company’s reach, which will include opening new offices in East Asia and other in-demand markets.
• Founder of advisory financial services company Guggenheim Partners, Todd Morley, is backing a new blockchain tower in midtown Manhattan, Bloomberg reported. The building will include a wireless network that improves access to blockchains, as well as a museum dedicated to NFTs.

CBDCs news

• The central South African Reserve Bank, said it is looking into the feasibility of creating their own central bank digital currency (CBDC). There is no decision to issue a CBDC, but the feasibility study is expected to end in 2022, potentially bringing more clarity to this matter.

NFTs news

• Professor George Church, Co-founder of Nebula Genomics and Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, will be partnering with artist, producer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, Akon and his NFT platform, AkoinNFT, to auction off Professor George Church’s full genome as the world’s first genomic NFT, according to an emailed announcement. Professor Church, oftentimes referred to as “The Father of Synthetic Biology,” and is best known for being one of the first people to have their genome sequenced, it added.

Exchanges news

• Digital assets financial services company Diginex Limited reached a record high trading volume on May 20th, exceeding USD 200m in both spot and derivatives trading on its EQUOS exchange. Trading volume for the past 30 days has increased more than 40% to USD 2.9bn, three weeks since the company announced a record USD 2bn in 30-day volumes on May 4, 2021.
• European crypto platform Currency.com appointed Steve Gregory as its New York-based chief executive officer to help grow the business in the US and Canada. Most recently, he served as Chief Compliance Officer and Corporate Counsel at the global spot market exchange, CEX.io. Also, the company said that the number of their new clients increased by 250% in Q1 2021 compared to Q4 2020. They did not provide any other numbers.

Staking news

• Blockchain infrastructure platform-as-a-service company Bison Trails is collaborating with early-stage venture firm Volt Capital to enable secure staking on the Celo Network, a mobile-first proof-of-stake blockchain network, according to an emailed statement. At the time of the announcement, Bison Trails’ node infrastructure for Volt Capital’s TD Labs is live and accepting delegations, they added.