😯 no joke
Robinhood lists four new tokens, Indian crypto exchanges halt deposits, Circle raises $400 million and more.
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Crypto Market Update 📈
The global cryptocurrency market cap rose to the $1.91 trillion mark, rising 2.59% over the last 24 hours. The total crypto market volume dropped 8.80% to $81.88 billion during the same period.
Bitcoin (BTC): $41,170.10 (↑2.67%)
Ethereum (ETH): $3,091.66 (↑1.66%)
Tether (USDT) : $1 (↓0.01%)
Binance Coin (BNB): $419.50 (↑0.71%)
Top Stories 📰
1. Shiba Inu is now listed on Robinhood
The day has finally arrived when Robinhood listed the dog-themed meme-token Shiba Inu on its trading platform. In addition, the crypto exchange also added three other tokens: Ethereum scaling technology Polygon (MATIC), the original decentralized finance token Compound (COMP), and Ethereum competitor Solana (SOL).
“As a safety-first company, we have a rigorous framework in place to help us evaluate assets for listing, and we remain committed to providing a safe and educational crypto platform,” Robinhood's Chief Brokerage Officer Steve Quirk said in a blog post.
How did it happen? It all started last year when Shiba Inu fans launched a Change.org petition and urged Robinhood to list the token after seeing the surging popularity of Dogecoin—another meme-based token—on its platform, saying that it had similar potential. Since then, the petition has garnered over 559,000 signatories supporting the move.
Prices of all cryptocurrencies rose on the news, with SHIB rising as much as 25%. Even Robinhood's shares were up 4.6%. But there's another reason for that.
Last month, the company announced that it's adding four extra hours to the trading day to compete against rivals like Charles Schwab and Fidelity and further stimulate its slow growth.
Why it matters? Despite primarily operating as a stock trading platform, Robinhood has been making great strides in its crypto offerings. Recently, its crypto wallet went live to 2 million users, allowing them to buy NFTs and access crypto outside its trading platform.
2. Indian crypto exchanges halt deposits
WazirX and CoinSwitch Kuber, two of India's popular crypto trading platforms, temporarily halted rupee deposits for purchasing crypto via the United Payments Interface (UPI), a popular state-backed transfer network.
The suspension comes after the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the organization that oversees UPI, released a statement last week saying that it wasn't "aware" of any crypto exchange using UPI.
Shortly after, two other crypto exchanges—MobiKwik and recently-launched Coinbase—also disabled crypto purchases amid "regulatory uncertainty." None of them clarified the estimated time it would require to fix the issue.
For years, India's central bank has been working on legislation to ban or regulate crypto. In February, India decided to impose a 30% tax on "virtual digital assets" but hasn't provided any clarity on their legal status. On top of that, the Indian government said that investors won't be able to set off losses from trading such assets, a move heavily disliked by the industry, and which CoinDesk is planning to address soon.
While there aren’t any official figures yet, industry estimates suggest that India's crypto market has over 20 million investors, with total holdings of more than $5.3 billion.
Why it matters? The NPCI holds a lot of sway among public and private banks in India. So naturally, after seeing exchanges halt payments, big banks like HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank—which have, so far, remained hesitant to be associated with crypto firms—disabled their payment support.
Deal Street 🤑
Ubisoft backs White Star's second Web3 fund
White Star Capital, a New-York based global multi-stage tech investment platform, announced the first close of its second crypto-focused funding round, raising $120 million. Called the Digital Asset Fund (DAF II), the company received backing from several investors, including gaming giant Ubisoft, which invested as the anchor limited partner. The new fund will deploy anywhere between $1 million to $7 million in token and equity investments into 20-25 companies with a core focus in North America, Europe, and Asia. Last year, White Star Capital raised $50 million for its debut crypto and blockchain fund, which it used to invest in 20 companies across seven nations. With DAF II, White Start Capital aims to focus on startups working towards the “mass adoption cycle” of crypto technologies, especially in DeFi and gaming.
USDC issuer Circle raises $400 million
Circle Internet Financial, a Boston-based crypto firm that issues the stablecoin USD Coin (USDC), announced that it raised a $400 million funding round from investors including Fidelity Management and Research, BlackRock, Fin Capital and Marshall Wace. In addition, the firm has also entered into a strategic partnership with BlackRock to help Circle explore USDC's capital market applications. The world's largest asset manager will also function "as a primary asset manager of USDC cash reserves." Circle had previously raised $440 million in May. In February, the company closed a new SPAC deal that upped its valuation from $4.5 billion to $9 billion. USDC is the second-largest stablecoin after Tether, with a market cap of over $50.83 billion. The new funding will go towards promoting Circle's strategic growth “as demand for dollar digital currency and related financial services continues to scale globally."
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