Crypto Market Highlights on February 11, 2022

EOS Foundation sues Block.one, Crypto M&A value surges 4,846%, Manchester United partnership with Tezos and many other crypto market highlights compiled in the last 24 hours.

Crypto Market Highlights: Investment News

• According to a new PwC report, the total value of cryptocurrency mergers and acquisitions (M&A) will grow 4,846% in 2021, while the average transaction size will also triple from $52.7 million to $179.7 million, driven by several large SPAC of >$1 billion deals.

51% of all transactions take place in the Americas, but in terms of transaction value, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) slightly surpasses the region at $25.5 billion.

• The world’s largest known cut diamond, a rare 555.55-carat black diamond, was bought by Richard Heart, founder of the Hex.com exchange, in an auction for £3.16 million ($4.28 million). Heart renames the diamond from “The Enigma” to “Hex.com Diamond”.
• The Philippine Digital Asset Exchange (PDAX) announced that it has raised over $50 million in funding led by Tiger Global, according to Fintech Philippines. The exchange, which is licensed by the Philippine central bank Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, said the funds will go toward building a secure and accessible infrastructure for the digital asset economy.
• Ethernity, an Ethereum (ETH) non-fungible token market (NFT) focused on celebrity and athlete drops, has announced that it has raised $20 million in funding to launch Ethernal Labs founding, a new automotive company that will expand Ethernity’s team to help celebrities and brands join the NFT space and expand in initiatives. Play cash games and Metaverse games.
• Bitcoin (BTC) payments provider OpenNode has closed a $20 million Series A funding round led by UK-based Kingsway valued at $220 million to fuel global expansion. The company states that its enterprise systems and platforms include payment buttons, hosted payments, e-commerce plugins and streamlined application programming interfaces (APIs).
• XYO, a technology startup that manufactures location data devices and software, has announced a strategic co-investment with the blockchain ecosystem with the Outlier Fund, a series of joint research initiatives and venture funds, to develop blockchain ecosystem building projects and speed up XYO network. Both partners will invest up to $10 million in stocks and tokens built around the XYO ecosystem, totaling up to $20 million.
• Web-3 building platform Kyro Digital has raised $10 million in Series A and SaaS revenue from multiple blockchain companies and crypto venture funds. Kyro works with multiple chains, marketplaces and individual IP holders to facilitate the minting, launching and scaling of storefronts, marketplaces and DAOs, creating value across the chain through Kyro’s applications for the origin and resale of all crypto assets .
• According to Bloomberg, rating agency Fitch Ratings further downgraded El Salvador, citing risks from the introduction of Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender last year. Fitch also said that “increased financial risks stemming from greater reliance on short-term debt” before the $800 million global bond payment due in January also influenced the decision to upgrade the country’s CCC rating from B – to lower.

Crypto Market Highlights: Stock Market News

Binance has announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a strategic partnership with decentralized gaming company Netmarble F&C to build a global play-to-earn (P2E) ecosystem and deliver NFTs. The two teams will develop and contribute to the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) infrastructure via the BSC Application Side Chain (BAS).

Crypto.com has signed a nine-year deal to become an official partner of the Miami Grand Prix, the latest race on the Formula 1 calendar. The Crypto.com logo will appear on the podium and winner’s trophy, and the exchange’s branding is on display the Crypto.com Terrace, with track views and an exclusive observatory on the fourth turn of the race.

Trading app Robinhood is turning its attention to its international expansion, a strategy that will also see the San Francisco-based company shift most of its focus to crypto, Steve Quirk, the firm’s brokerage director, told CNBC. Quirk says that “the way to [Robinhood] Going global and gaining traction is likely through cryptocurrency.”

Crypto Market Highlights: Legal & Regulatory News

New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu has announced a new state commission focused on investigating cryptocurrencies, their impact and the types of laws the state can pursue. By order of the Executive, the Committee will, among other things, “[m] Make insights and decisions regarding the role and effectiveness of applicable governmental laws and regulations applicable to cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, and why they should be changed, and make necessary improvements to those laws and regulations.”

The EOS Network Foundation, an organization established to support the development of the EOS ecosystem (EOS), is considering legal action against Block.one, seeking $4.1 billion in damages. CEO Yves La Rose tweeted that the platform was taking steps to hold Block.one “accountable for past actions and broken promises.”

The couple, who are accused of trying to launder billions of dollars in Bitcoin stolen from crypto exchange Bitfinex in a 2016 hack, have asked a Washington judge to restore their bail, according to Bloomberg. Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan have revealed they will be involved in the case by staying there even after discovering they were under investigation a few months ago and despite allegedly having access to hundreds of millions of dollars in BTC her attorney said in a lawsuit requesting that the U.S. Department of Justice keep her incarcerated.

Crypto Market Highlights: Crypto and Sports News

Soccer giant Manchester United has announced that it has signed a multi-year partnership with blockchain platform Tezos (XTZ), confirming a previous report stating the same thing. The Tezos-branded training kit will be worn for the first time by the first-team ahead of this weekend’s game against Southampton.

The Washington Nationals baseball team says it will “explore” stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) stadium payments as part of a nearly $40 million funding round with Terra. In addition, over the next 5 years, the VIP lounge on the home plate of the soccer field will be named “Club Terra” and feature prominent crypto branding.

Crypto Market Highlights: General Banking and CBDC News

Wyoming-based cryptobank Avanti now has a routing number assigned by the American Bankers Association (ABA) and is one step closer to potentially obtaining a master account with the Federal Reserve (Fed), the central bank of the United States. Sort codes are used to identify banks for checks and other transactional purposes, and are only issued to federal or state financial institutions that are also eligible for a Fed account.

Zambia is exploring a potential central bank digital currency (CBDC) and is expected to complete its research by the end of the year, Bloomberg reports. They added that the Bank of Zambia aims to reduce transaction costs and increase people’s participation in the formal financial system.

According to Reuters. The bank said that a digital currency could limit the effectiveness of monetary policy and increase the risk of money laundering, but added that it could also offer a range of benefits, particularly in terms of lowering the cost of cross-border payments.

Crypto Market Highlights: NFT News

The Independent reports that the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), an international NGO, has quietly withdrawn a number of NFTs it plans to sell to raise funds for its conservation work. The decision comes after a backlash over the technology’s environmental impact, it said.

Luxury brand Gucci announced that it has bought an undisclosed amount of virtual land on decentralized blockchain game The Sandbox (SAND). Gucci will create themed experiences on The Sandbox inspired by the “Gucci Vault” platform, which lists Gucci-themed items such as NFTs and vintage bags.

Crypto Market Highlights: Mining News

Cryptocurrency mining company Iris Energy reported mining 364 BTC for its second fiscal quarter (ended December 31), a 51% increase over the previous three months. Its revenue of $20 million was about 93% higher sequentially, and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, and amortization (EBITDA) of $14.3 million were up more than 156%.

Bitcoin mining company CleanSpark is considering strategic alternatives to its legacy energy business, which plans to focus solely on its bitcoin mining segment, adding that it has 20,900 running machines with a total hashrate of over 2.1 EH/s operates and produces around 10 BTC per day. The company had net income of $14.5 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $24.1 million for the fiscal first quarter, for a net income margin of approximately 35% and 58%, respectively.

Crypto Market Highlights: Career News

Financial app Revolut is hiring senior engineers to lead the startup’s development of blockchain technology, and stipulates that candidates must be familiar with Solidity, the programming language used to write smart contracts.

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