Switching to the Satoshi standard and Lightning Network connectivity makes Bitcoin more tangible and easy to use. AAX has made the first move in the crypto space, already providing BTC to SAT
Intel discloses small stake in crypto exchange Coinbase
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Intel Corp (INTC.O) on Friday disclosed a stake worth less than a million dollars in U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc (COIN.O).
The chipmaker held about 3,014 shares of Coinbase’s Class A common stock as of June 30, Intel said in a regulatory filing. The Coinbase shares would be worth around $788,191, based on a trading price of $261.51 at 15:01 pm ET on Friday.
Intel did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment.
Major players have doubled down on crypto holdings including star stock picker Cathie Wood and Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) Chief Elon Musk.
One of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, Coinbase went public through a direct listing in April, which saw its valuation rise to as high as $112 billion on the first day of trading.
SEBA Bank Adds Support for AAVE and Chainlink Tokens to Enable Institutional DeFi Access
SEBA Bank, a FINMA licenced Swiss Bank providing a seamless, secure, and easy-to-use bridge between digital and traditional assets, today announced that it is expanding its comprehensive offering into DeFi with support added for Aave (AAVE) and Chainlink (LINK) tokens.
Aave and Chainlink are pioneers in the DeFi space, with a combined market cap in excess of USD 12 billion. With this integration, institutions will now be able to manage these DeFi tokens across SEBA Bank’s full suite service offering, including investment, custody and trading. The expanded array of tokens will now be available across SEBA Bank’s investment solutions, including tailor-made and actively managed client portfolios in the framework of individualized discretionary mandates.
Alistair Heggie, COO of SEBA Bank, commented, “Investor interest in digital assets is growing rapidly, and many want to go beyond bitcoin. SEBA Bank offers investors bespoke access to the return drivers and diversification benefits of this new asset class. We are pleased to provide our expertise in digital assets to build exposure in this new asset class.”
To support the rapidly accelerating demand for DeFi and other crypto assets, SEBA Bank is integrating a number of ERC-20 tokens supported on its agile hot storage custody solution into its proprietary institutional-grade cold storage custody solution. In addition to existing support for BTC and ETH, institutions will now be able to securely manage and store ERC-20 tokens in a battle-tested cold storage environment including: USD Coin (USDC), Uniswap (UNI), Yearn Finance (YFI), Synthetix (SNX), Chainlink (LINK) and Aave (AAVE).
SEBA Bank’s full suite digital asset banking services are supported by SEBA Research, providing analytics, insights and access to this nascent asset class. SEBA Research applies the highest standards and complies with the Swiss Bankers Association research guidelines. Digital assets are selected according to a rigorous process combining quantitative metrics and in-depth qualitative analysis. The value accrual mechanism, tokenomics and the underlying protocol play a central role in this process.
US-Based Diem Networks Partners with K2 Integrity for Industry-Leading Financial Crime Compliance Framework
K2 Integrity today announced its engagement with Diem Networks US to support, initially lead, and continue to build innovative solutions for the Diem Networks US Financial Intelligence Function (FIF). The FIF is designed to protect the Diem Payment Network (DPN) from illicit financial activity and works in close collaboration with DPN participants who also are required to maintain strong financial crime compliance controls.
Diem Networks US has built a blockchain-based payment system designed to make payments cheaper and faster, while protecting consumers and the integrity of the financial system. It is poised to reshape the payments landscape by bringing the benefits of blockchain technology to consumers, including those who are underserved by the current banking system, and businesses around the world. Diem’s FIF raises the bar for financial crime risk management, marrying K2 Integrity’s world-class talent with Diem’s steadfast dedication to preventing financial crime.
“Designing a framework that sets high financial crime compliance standards has been one of the Diem project’s top priorities, and this is an area where we are continuing to innovate,” said Stuart Levey, Chief Executive Officer of Diem Networks US. “We are excited by this opportunity to partner with K2 Integrity, a team that has a wealth of experience in this space and is respected internationally for their leadership on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) issues.”
Mariano Federici, Managing Director at K2 Integrity, will act as the initial FIF Head, reporting to Sterling Daines, Chief Compliance Officer of Diem Networks US, and working alongside Diem’s experienced compliance team and dedicated K2 Integrity compliance professionals. Mariano is one of the world’s foremost experts in financial intelligence and a respected leader in the Egmont Group, the international body of Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs). Mariano has played a pivotal role in the development of the international AML/CFT framework and is the former Chair of the Egmont Group and Head of Argentina’s FIU.
“We are proud to be partnering with Diem Networks US to continue developing innovative FIF solutions and supporting Diem’s financial crime risk management program,” said Juan Zarate, Global Co-Managing Partner, K2 Integrity, and first-ever Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury for terrorist financing and financial crimes. “Diem’s financial crime compliance framework, which is focused on protecting the integrity of the DPN and the financial system, is setting a high bar for the virtual asset industry. In close collaboration, we are bringing our world-class talent and experts in the field of financial intelligence, virtual assets, and compliance risk management to support Diem Networks US’s efforts to launch and expand its platform with a leading financial crime compliance framework.”
The Diem FIF will provide leadership in detecting and preventing financial crime on the DPN, working with both DPN participants and government authorities to deter misuse of the platform for illicit purposes. The engagement between Diem Networks US and K2 Integrity further enhances and demonstrates the Diem project’s commitment to the highest standards to fight financial crime.
Giles Colwell Joins BlockFi as Head of North America and LATAM Institutional Distribution
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BlockFi, a financial services company dedicated to building a bridge between cryptocurrencies and traditional financial and wealth management products, named Giles Colwell as Head of North America and LATAM Institutional Distribution. BlockFi also announced additional executive appointments in North America, EMEA and APAC regions, maintaining a strong pace of global growth and senior hires. Samia Bayou joins as the Global Head of Private Clients, Rafael Weber serves as the Director of APAC Private Clients, and Paul Howard is an Institutional Sales Director for APAC.
In his role as Head of North America and LATAM Institutional Distribution, Mr. Colwell is responsible for overseeing the Americas distribution team and delivering BlockFi’s innovative cryptocurrency products and services to clients.
Mr. Colwell has more than 30 years of experience as a Wall Street executive at Bank of America, JPMorgan, and UBS. Throughout his career, he has held senior leadership positions across Global Markets and FIG banking, providing insight, advice, and tailored solutions to investment managers, corporations, and individuals. For the last decade, Mr. Colwell has been a Managing Director in the Senior Relationship Management team at Bank of America, responsible for overseeing the entire Bank of America platform and driving strategic dialogue with some of the bank’s largest institutional accounts across global markets, banking, capital markets, and advisory services.
Ms. Bayou joins BlockFi after nearly five years as a Senior Investment Advisor at a private family office in London. In that role, Ms. Bayou managed assets and investments for the family office and was a regular participant in the Davos World Economic Forum. Previously, Ms. Bayou served in senior roles with more than 12 years of experience in large banking groups such as UBS, Merrill Lynch, Citi, and Societe Generale.
Mr. Weber joins BlockFi with more than 12 years of experience in private banking, working with multi-family offices, external asset managers, and fund managers in Asia and Europe. Most recently, he worked for UBS in Singapore and Hong Kong as a Senior Client Advisor and Business Developer.
Mr. Howard brings more than a decade of Institutional Sales and coverage experience in Asia with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. An MBA graduate from the University of Hong Kong, Mr. Howard was also named as one of Asia’s youngest Managing Directors for a Fortune 500 company.
“As we continue to expand relationships with institutional investors around the world, we’re honored to welcome these top-notch professionals who will play an integral role in liaising with clients and external partners,” said David Olsson, Head of Institutional Distribution at BlockFi. “We’re highly committed to institutional business growth and Giles and team will be an instrumental part of this plan. The proven leadership and expertise of each individual will aid our institutional clients as they continue to gain exposure to digital assets.”
IDX Digital Assets Launches First Risk-Managed Bitcoin & Ethereum Trusts
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The IDX Risk-Managed Bitcoin Trust and the IDX Risk-Managed Ethereum Trust are the first-ever investment trusts designed to provide a risk-managed exposure to crypto assets with the ability to go 100% to cash.
“The excitement around the rapid development of blockchain technologies, mixed with the realization of accommodative monetary stimulus policies, increasing geopolitical tensions, and materializing concerns over inflation growth, all have investors seeking exposure to asset classes such as digital assets. Specifically, investors and advisors are expressing a strong appetite for digital assets exposure, but desire a risk-managed approach that focuses on mitigating the inherent volatility and drawdowns common to the emerging asset class; this is what IDX seeks to provide,” says Andrew Swan, co-founder and CEO of IDX.
IDX also launched the first-ever Risk-Managed Crypto Indices priced by S&P Dow Jones in June 2021. These indices are the IDX Risk-Managed Bitcoin Index and the IDX Risk-Managed Ethereum Index, respectively. IDX is also scheduled to launch the first-ever risk-weighted DeFi index with S&P in August 2021.
Ben McMillan, co-founder and CIO of IDX said, “We’ve had a great relationship with S&P Dow Jones Indices over the years and are thrilled to be their first client to use them to calculate our risk-managed crypto indices. Particularly as this asset class gains further adoption, we continue to see increased demand for risk-managed solutions to this space. S&P Dow Jones’ ability to provide real-time calculation of our indices provides a huge leap forward in our ability to deliver products in this space.”
The suite of IDX Risk-Managed Digital Asset Trusts can be found here at their website:
https://idxdigitalassets.com/all-solutions/
The IDX Risk-Managed Bitcoin Index can be found at
https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/custom-indices/idx-insights/idx-risk-managed-bitcoin-index/#overview
The IDX Risk-Managed Ethereum Index can be found at
https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/custom-indices/idx-insights/idx-risk-managed-ethereum-index/#overview
The IDX Risk-Managed Largecap Crytpo Index can be found at
https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/custom-indices/idx-insights/idx-risk-managed-largecap-crypto-index/#overview
Arie Finance Launches Innovative Electronic Kyc Process For Onboarding Clients
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ARIE Finance MEA has announced the launch of a new Electronic KYC process for onboarding and meeting the ongoing compliance needs of its clients. This new process will enable ARIE Finance to provide a more streamlined experience for its clients by speeding up the onboarding and verification processes while complying with the Financial Services Commissions regulations.
ARIE Finance MEA has already significantly improved the holistic business and investment banking experience using multiple state-of-the-art APIs and automated tools, connected to its existing onboarding solution and digital platform. The introduction of this Electronic KYC process is just part of the benefits a native digital bank can offer and a significant shift from the traditional, laborious, paper-based process where clients need to provide original paper documents to complete the verification process.
The Electronic Verification tools that form part of the KYC process include verification of identity and address of natural persons and verification of corporate clients’ details.
“The launch of our new e-verification process is clear evolution for ARIE Finance”, said Aisha Sudally, Managing Director Middle East, Asia, and Africa. “Our new process meets all the local regulatory requirements and have already been communicated to the Financial Services Commission. We believe that this new e-verification process will not only improve the experience of our clients and efficiencies of our processes, but it will also form the industry standard in Mauritius moving forward”.
As part of this new process, ARIE Finance is also implementing electronic signatures for client signed documents moving forward, with multiple authentication methods in place to ensure the documents are being signed by the actual recipient.
Sudally continued, “ARIE Finance strongly believes that independent verifications made through the reputable and reliable service providers go well beyond the requirement for certification and as such provide much more assurance to the Commission of its intent to be a pillar for the new age of compliance in Mauritius. We are looking forward to working closely with them to implement more digital processes into a fast-moving and evolving industry”.
Alchemy Pay to Launch Virtual Crypto Mastercard and Visa Card Services
The virtual cards – which can be linked to digital wallets such as Google Pay and PayPal – support over 40 cryptocurrencies and will be accepted across millions of merchants on the Visa and Mastercard network, including popular eCommerce platforms such as Amazon and eBay.
Development of Alchemy Pay’s virtual card services has since been completed and is currently undergoing beta testing in multiple key markets. The company expects the virtual card services to be fully launched at the end of 2021 or early 2022.
Research shows that over US$1 billion worth of crypto-linked card transactions have been processed and is expected to continue growing rapidly in the near future. In an effort to further drive adoption rates, Alchemy Pay is looking to offer the virtual card services as a full suite white-label service to crypto projects and businesses as well as traditional institutions looking to integrate crypto-related solutions.
Velo Labs, TEMPO Payments, and Bitazza open up a $17Bn remittance corridor between Europe and Thailand with the Stellar blockchain
The cross-border transactions leverage the Velo Protocol, Velo tokens, and Velo digital credits, which are one of the most compliance-friendly and price-stable virtual assets. Plus each transaction settles in seconds, thanks to the speed of the Stellar blockchain. Through this partnership with Velo Labs, TEMPO Payments and Bitazza, both licensed financial institutions, are leading the way in revolutionizing international payments by connecting the ASEAN and EU markets, representing about $17 billion and nearly 600 million customers.
Today’s financial system’s make it slow and costly to send money around the world. The 3 companies are focused on improving these inefficiencies by relying on their respective networks and Velo Labs’ decentralized technology, and offering fast, low-cost, and secure ways to send money between Europe and Thailand.
Mike Kennedy, CEO of Velo Labs on this historic transaction:
“What we’ve launched today is a validation of our core mission: building a global, decentralized, and interoperable network that will allow businesses and individuals alike to securely and instantly transfer value across the globe. Velo Labs wants to make cross-border transactions faster, cheaper, and more reliable for everyone; this first step starts us down the path of that reality.”
Suren Ayriyan, CEO, TEMPO Payments, on this offering:
“This is only the beginning of our vision to service millions of individuals in Asia and beyond. We hope to continue working with Velo Labs to exponentially increase our currency corridors and offerings, providing cheap, secure and fast global money transfers to all TEMPO Payments customers, both existing and new.
Kevin Heng, Chief Strategy Officer of Bitazza, states:
“Bitazza is pleased to work in conjunction with Velo and TEMPO Payments to help facilitate the launch of this Europe to Thailand remittance corridor. This program will contribute towards improving and raising the standard of financial inclusion and mobility for millions of users worldwide, and is another step forward in our shared commitment to fundamentally change the global remittance industry and push Thailand/South East Asia as the global frontier for next-generation financial innovation.”
PayPal’s Venmo allows credit cardholders to buy crypto with cashback
Cardholders will be able to buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash through the “Cash Back to Crypto” feature and will not be charged fees for the transaction, Venmo said in a statement.
The users can at any time hold or sell such assets within the Venmo app and change their choice of cryptocurrency.
The peer-to-peer payment service already allows its more than 70 million users to purchase the four cryptocurrencies through its direct buying option, which was introduced in April and carries a fee.
California-based PayPal has become one of the most active mainstream financial companies in cryptocurrencies.
In October, it began allowing users to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies in its digital wallets and last month it started allowing customers to spend their virtual coins at millions of merchants globally.
In October, it began allowing users to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies in its digital wallets and last month it started allowing customers to spend their virtual coins at millions of merchants globally.
These launches helped to fuel a rally in virtual currencies. Bitcoin has soared nearly 90% since the start of this year, boosted by interest from larger financial firms betting on its greater adoption and use as a hedge against inflation.
Venmo’s crypto launch also coincides with increased competition in the U.S. peer-to-peer payments sector.
Securrency teams up with GK8 for custody and institutional-grade blockchain infrastructure
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Securrency focuses on tokenizing real-world financial assets, such as securities, equities, and commodities, bridging the gap between conventional finance and the world of digital assets. Under the collaboration, GK8’s enterprise-grade end-to-end custodial solution will be made available to Securrency’s clients as Securrency creates a global ecosystem built around a universal, interoperable compliance core, bridging the gap between traditional and new financial markets.
“Banks and other financial institutions are waking up to the fact that blockchain is more than crypto, and that any financial instruments can be tokenized. For institutions looking to offer traditional assets on the blockchain, our enterprise-grade custodial solution, with its unparalleled security and flexibility, is empowering these institutions to build the finance of the future. With its stellar investor support, we are sure that Securrency will lead the way in this transition, and we are thrilled to be part of this transformation,” said Lior Lamesh, CEO and Co-Founder of GK8.
GK8’s proprietary end-to-end custodial solution, designed for banks and other FIs, is set to power Securrency’s services as the company prepares leading banks to digitize traditional assets. Its compliance and regulations-ready platform include a truly offline cold vault and a highly scalable MPC for automatic high-frequency transactions, equipped with a robust API and customer apps to enable enterprises to secure their digital assets with ease and accessibility. Its unique smart contract compatibility allows FIs to process any transactions and build up sophisticated algorithms to power their operations and workflows.
GK8 was recently chosen by Mastercard to engage in defining the future of blockchain finance and payments in its Startup Path program dedicated to facilitating the growth of the most innovative crypto solutions globally
“We are delighted to team up with GK8 and offer the world’s leading banks and other financial institutions the most secure custodial solution in the market. GK8’s design provides all-around protection and functionality for enterprise-grade clients. By adding the GK8 custodial solution to our network, we can now make sure that our customers’ assets are protected to the highest standards,” said Dan Doney, Co-Founder and CEO of Securrency.
