A South Africa and London-based fintech startup, JUMO, recently revealed it has raised $120 million in a funding round led by Fidelity Management & Research Company. AI-Powered Financial Services According to a report by Techcrunch, financial services giant Visa and Kingsway Capital also participated in the funding round, which now sees JUMO valued at $400 million. This latest capital influx…
A long-awaited upgrade to the Bitcoin network is finally here. The new protocol, Taproot, preserves privacy on the Bitcoin blockchain by obscuring complicated transactions. It also makes them cheaper and more lightweight. The upgrade, which was locked in on June 12, is seven years in the making. It combines complex transactions with simple ones without bulking out the blockchain. Taproot…
We have seen a steep adoption of crypto-based systems this year, including decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) such as digital art, crypto-centric gaming, and increased adoption of cryptocurrencies as investment and payment tools. One of the more recent developments is the emergence of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). DAOs have existed since 2016, when The DAO organization, a new…
Santander, a leading financial institution in Spain, is preparing to offer a Bitcoin ETF to its customers in the country. This, while Spanish asset managers have been largely reluctant to embrace crypto products as part of their investment portfolio offerings to customers. Santander Bitcoin ETF in Preparation Santander will be giving the finishing touches to a Bitcoin ETF…
This week Universal Music Group, the Dutch–American multinational music corporation announced the formation of a non-fungible token (NFT) metaverse music group called Kingship, which features four Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs. Following the announcement, the hit record producer Timbaland revealed the creation of a metaverse-based entertainment company called Ape-In Productions (AIP), which will also leverage BAYC NFTs. Universal Music…
press release PRESS RELEASE. The blockchain industry is an ever-evolving world and Litentry is at the forefront of this revolution. Litentry intends to create a truly decentralized identity aggregation solution that will power web 3.0 applications. Its blockchain architecture is advanced and has witnessed massive growth due to its application in different sectors. Litentry has also created a DID Startups…
The Bitcoin (BTC) network successfully activated the Taproot soft fork following a 90% lock-in consensus from miners and mining pools between blocks 709,488 and 709,632. The milestone signifies the first major upgrade for Bitcoin since August 2017, which saw the launch of Bitcoins leading layer-two solution, the Lightning Network and Segregated Witness (SegWit). The Taproot upgrade aims to improve the…
Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris has said he remains bullish on gold and has no intention to invest in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin because such investment is a very risky business. Sawiris Says Gold Still Safe-Haven Asset In his remarks published by The National News, the billionaire reveals he believes it is wrong for people to make comparisons between gold and bitcoin.…
The metaverse (a portmanteau of “meta-” and “universe”) is a hypothesized iteration of the internet, supporting online 3-D virtual environments through conventional personal computing, along with and virtual reality headsets. Metaverses, in some limited form, are currently present on platforms like VRChat or video games like Second Life. Existing metaverse aspirations are fixated addressing technological constraints with modern-day virtual and…
Goldman Sachs’ head of energy research says, “Just like we argue that silver is a poor man’s gold, gold is maybe becoming the poor man’s crypto.” He sees funds starting to flow from gold into bitcoin as inflation fears escalate, noting that “We’ve argued historically that crypto and gold do not have to cannibalize each other.” Goldman Sachs on Gold…
