KuCoin Valued at USD 10B, Three New Crypto ETFs, Circle’s ‘Decentralized Identity’ + 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 exchange KuCoin raised USD 150m in a pre-Series B funding round led by Jump Crypto, bringing its valuation to USD 10bn. They added that the new funds will help them expand into the Web3 space, including crypto wallets, GameFi, decentralized finance (DeFi), and non-fungible token (NFT) platforms.
• Three new crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are expected to start trading on May 12 in Australia on the Cboe exchange: a bitcoin ETF from Cosmos Asset Management, as well as BTC and ethereum (ETH) spot ETFs from 21Shares.
• Digital investment management company Wave Financial launched its eighth digital asset fund with over USD 60m in committed seed capital, which is designed to deploy capital via stablecoins into DeFi platforms to generate a target yield of 8%-12% per annum.
• Crypto trading technology developer Talos raised USD 105m in a Series B funding round that was joined by global banks Citigroup, BNY Mellon, and Wells Fargo among other investors, valuing the company at USD 1.25bn. The company will use this capital to scale and diversify its digital asset platform and accelerate its expansion into Asia-Pacific and Europe, it added.
• African Web3 project Jambo announced it raised USD 30m in a Series A funding round led by Paradigm. The funds will be used for doubling the team across Africa by the end of 2022, expanding to more than 15 cities on the continent, and hiring additional engineers, they added.
• Play-to-earn game Nyan Heroes raised USD 7.5m in a strategic round to fund game development at a valuation of USD 100m. The company will use the money to hire more people and for community outreach, they added.
• Entertainment newsletter Dirt raised USD 1.2m in a seed funding round led by crypto investment fund Collab + Currency to build out its Web3 infrastructure.
• Metaverse co-creation platform StarryNift confirmed that it raised USD 10m in a funding round led by Susquehanna International Group.

Decentralized identity news

• Financial technology firm Circle introduced a decentralized identity framework called Verite. The credentials are stored in crypto wallets and not stored on-chain, and serve to enable KYC (know your customer), credit scoring, accreditation, and more, they added.

Wallets news

• Bitcoin (BTC) security specialist Casa announced a new public application programming interface (API) for businesses to integrate multisignature wallets within their services. The company has also raised USD 21m in a Series A funding round, they added.

Tax news

• The Indian Goods and Service Tax (GST) Council might consider levying 28% GST on cryptoassets, CNBC-TV18 reported, citing unnamed sources. The matter is up for consideration by the GST Council’s nominated law committee, before it puts forward the suggestions to the fitment committee and to the GST Council for a formal nod, it added.

Adoption news

• iGaming token project Crypto Snack announced a partnership with football club RCD Espanyol, which will accept crypto payments starting next season.

CBDCs news

• The Central Bank of Nigeria will launch an upgrade for its eNaira next week to allow the digital currency to be used on a wider range of goods and services, including bill payments, per Vanguard.

Exchanges news

• Bitpanda announced it has added staking to its platform, available for 11 cryptoassets, with profits paid out on a weekly basis.

Security news

• Blockchain infrastructure developer Elrond Network (EGLD) announced their integration with blockchain analytics platform Anchain.AI. The platform’s analytics suite will help Elrond make sense of large data sets pertaining to on-chain transactions, in order to avoid interactions with addresses flagged for illicit activities, prevent fraud attempts, and help with the tracking and recovery of misappropriated digital assets, they added.

Web3 news

• The Board of the Global Esports Federation established the GEF Metaverse Council, aimed at convening thought leaders and creators around the Web3 space. The Council will also focus on shaping “tangible metaverse development initiatives” for their community, blockchain technologies, NFTs, and more, they added.
• NFT blockchain Flow is making a USD 725m push to attract more projects under the name of Flow Ecosystem Fund. It will focus on enabling “more distributed and equitable Web3 opportunities” and support existing and future developers in the ecosystem, they added.

NFTs news

• American singer Madonna and digital artist Beeple announced a three-video NFT collaboration featuring a CGI Madonna giving birth, which they dubbed “Mother of Creation.” The NFTs will be available on the SuperRare marketplace and proceeds are going to charity organizations, they added.

Career news

• Terry Angelos, payments giant Visa’s global head of fintech and crypto, will take over as chief executive officer of broker-dealer DriveWealth next week, CNBC reported.