Bank of Canada and MIT kick off central bank digital currency research project
The one-year initiative will form part of the central bank’s research into digital currencies and fintech.
Blockchain
FinTech Futures: Top five stories of the week – 18 March 2022
Our pick of the top news stories from the world of finance and tech this week.
Citibank’s digital asset group leaders quit to set up new crypto venture
Alex Kriete and Greg Girasole say more details will follow in the coming weeks.
Blockchain firm ConsenSys lands $450m Series D funding
Temasek, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Microsoft all contributed to the latest funding round.
Payments for good – promoting financial inclusion
Vijay Oddiraju, CEO of Volante Technologies, looks at ways the payments industry can provide the rails for inclusiveness.
Unbanked goes crowdfunding to build global bank on blockchain
Unbanked has attracted nearly $1.5 million from 1,500+ investors so far. The round closes on 26 April.
State of play: fintech and telco
How we pay, what we pay, and who we pay is changing, and telco firms are well positioned to take advantage.
Can carbon coins help reduce your carbon footprint?
Connecting government accreditation and crypto can provide a viable alternative to carbon offsetting.
Broaden your horizons – cryptocurrency payments will be in high demand
Online merchants will soon need to offer crypto as a standard – how to choose the right platform for this?
BNY Mellon first GSIB to integrate Chainalysis crypto compliance software
BNY Mellon is building a multi-asset digital custody and admin platform for traditional and digital assets.
ICYMI fintech funding round-up: Blend, Canza, IMAN, NayaPay, NymCard, Plinqit, & Tiiik
Our weekly fintech round-up for you to get the latest funding news.
Crypto firm Bitpanda acquires Trustology to launch custody service
Trustology will be rebranded as Bitpanda Custody, providing an institutional-grade crypto custody platform.
Digital asset platform Amber Group valued at $3bn following $200m Series B+ round
The total investment to date in the company now stands at $328 million.
US fintech start-ups Airbase, Genesis Volatility, and Tilled raise funds
A handy round-up of the recent funding endeavours of three US start-ups in the fintech space.
UK fintechs conduct blockchain settlement test with NatWest and Santander
Fnality, Nivaura and Adhara teamed up with NatWest and Santander for the proof-of-concept pilot.
ICYMI fintech funding round-up: Brick, Cynomi, Infina, Fintern, Pyypl, Streetbeat, Tiba, & more
Our weekly round-up for you to get the latest fintech funding news.
Open Banking Expo’s CBDC conference to return for a second year
The virtual conference will be held on 10 March 2022.
India confirms digital rupee CBDC to debut by 2023
The finance minister announced a raft of digital economy support measures in her Union Budget 2022-23 speech.
Asian Development Bank and R3 team for cross-border securities transaction system
The cross-border multi-currency securities settlement system will be based on distributed ledger tech.
FinTech Australia appoints paytech veteran Andrew Porter as CEO
Porter previously held senior roles at OFX, World First and TransferMate.
Fintech funding deals globally 31 January – 6 February 2022
Featuring FTX, Chargebee, Koho, Phantom and League.
Video: fintech news pick of the week – Diem, SAP & FTX
Our top pick of news from the world of finance and tech in bitesize video format, every week.
Crypto wallet Phantom launches app following $109m Series B raise
Phantom claims to be “the fastest growing crypto wallet”.
Meta drops crypto project Diem due to regulatory roadblocks
The Diem Association has sold its intellectual property and tech assets to Silvergate Capital in a $182m deal.
Crypto platform Rain rakes in $100m in Series B funding
Rain’s $110m Series B funding round was co-led by Paradigm and Kleiner Perkins.
FTX Trading secures $400m Series C funding at $32bn valuation
The firm now claims to be the third-largest crypto exchange in the world.
Crypto paytech BCB Group acquires software firm LAB577, gains new CTO and COO
LAB577 founder Richard Crook and Farzad Pezeshkpour join BCB Group as COO and CTO, respectively.
CoinTracker lands unicorn status with $100m Series A round
Users collectively track over $50 billion in crypto assets on CoinTracker.
Digital acceleration shines a light on new challenges facing small businesses
The search for adequate SME funding and opportunities to minimise costs are at an all-time high.
Digital asset custody platform Fireblocks worth $8bn following $550m Series E
The round makes Fireblocks the highest-valued digital asset infrastructure provider in the world.
Fintech start-up destream to launch bank card aimed at internet content creators
Destream says banks often block large payments from donations and platform subscriptions.
The proliferation of digital transformation: from ‘nice to have’ to a necessity for success
Digital transformation has become the benchmark for survival in the financial market.
Baton Systems appoints ex-Barclays exec as its first COO
David Ornstein steps into a newly-created role of chief operating officer (COO) at Baton.
Crypto asset software and data provider Lukka lands $110m in Series E
New York-based Lukka is now valued at $1.3 billion.
Crypto IRA software platform iTrustCapital secures $125m in growth equity
The growth equity investment round values the company at more than $1.3bn.
EU’s first blockchain financial institution BENKER receives EMI licence
BENKER CEO sees the introduction of blockchain to banking as the beginning of a “New World Order”.
BitPay hires payments veteran Jim Lester as first COO
BitPay CEO says appointment of COO was necessary as more payments move to the blockchain.
House of Lords committee says UK digital pound is “solution in search of a problem”
The Economic Affairs Committee cited financial, privacy and data concerns over UK CBDC.
USDF Consortium launches to develop and promote bank-minted stablecoin
The FDIC-insured banks want to “unlock the financial opportunities” of blockchain technology.
SIX, BIS and SNB conduct CBDC core banking integration test
Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Hypothekarbank Lenzburg and UBS also took part in the experiment.
