Kraken expands in Europe with regulated crypto derivatives

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken announced the launch of regulated derivatives trading on its platform under the European Union’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II). According to a May 20 announcement, Kraken’s perpetual and fixed maturity crypto futures contracts will be available for trading by retail and institutional customers in the European Economic Area (EEA). The … Read more

Adaptation Ventures is a new angel investor group focused on disability and accessibility tech

The global assistive technology market was valued at more than $22 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow substantially by 2030. Despite the potential market size, many founders building tech to help people with disabilities struggle to secure the kind of early funding needed to get their companies off the ground in the first … Read more

CoinDesk 20 Performance Update: Litecoin (LTC) Drops 6.1%, Leading Index Lower

CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index. The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 3147.53, down 0.7% (-22.88) since 4 p.m. ET on Monday. Four of 20 assets are trading higher. Leaders: AAVE (+9.8%) and HBAR (+0.7%). Laggards: LTC (-6.1%) and FIL (-2.9%). … Read more

Circle co-founder to create ‘AI-native’ bank after $18M raise

Circle co-founder and Catena Labs CEO Sean Neville has launched a project that aims to develop a financial institution that natively leverages artificial intelligence.  On May 20, Catena Labs, the company building an “AI-native financial institution,” announced that it secured $18 million in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Crypto, a16z’s crypto and … Read more

German gov’t missed out on $2.3B profit after selling Bitcoin at $57K

The German government missed out on more than $2 billion worth of Bitcoin profit after selling its holdings in 2024, according to blockchain intelligence firm Arkham. A “German Government (BKA)” labeled cryptocurrency wallet sold 49,858 Bitcoin (BTC) worth over $2.89 billion at an average price of $57,900 across multiple transactions during June and July in … Read more

Widening Government Strategy Holdings Suggests Increased Structural Demand for BTC: StanChart

Government entities increased their holdings of Strategy (MSTR), a bitcoin BTC proxy, in the first quarter according to new data from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), investment bank Standard Chartered (STAN) said in a research report on Tuesday. In some cases “MSTR holdings by government entities reflect a desire to gain bitcoin exposure … Read more

Brex partners with former competitor Zip, with an eye on reducing cash burn to get to an IPO

Brex has once again made the surprising, but perhaps realistic, decision to partner with another one-time competitor. This time Zip, the CEOs of both companies told TechCrunch exclusively.  In April 2022, fintech Brex announced it was making “a big push” into both the enterprise and software. The news was notable considering that Brex originally was … Read more

South Loop Ventures closes $21M fund in Houston to build up local tech ecosystem

South Loop Ventures, a Houston-based venture firm, announced a $21 million Fund I, with Rice Management Company and Chevron Technology Ventures serving as anchor investors.  The firm, which launched in 2022, focuses on seed and pre-seed companies, with $400,000 as the average check size. It also primarily hopes to focus on backing founders of color.  … Read more

Avalanche-backed Fusion launches with $100M to boost blockchain adoption

Avalanche, Helix and Faculty Group have launched Fusion, a new blockchain ecosystem aimed at driving real-world adoption through modular infrastructure tailored to specific industries. Built on Avalanche, Fusion features a two-layer architecture that includes composers, customizable layer-1 networks and modules, which offer plug-and-play services like compute, identity and data oracles.  The team said this approach … Read more

OpenAI’s Codex is part of a new cohort of agentic coding tools

Last Friday, OpenAI introduced a new coding system called Codex, designed to perform complex programming tasks from natural language commands. Codex moves OpenAI into a new cohort of agentic coding tools that is just beginning to take shape. From GitHub’s early Copilot to contemporary tools like Cursor and Windsurf, most AI coding assistants operate as … Read more

India’s Supreme Court urges government to regulate cryptocurrency

India’s Supreme Court has questioned the government’s lack of regulatory clarity on cryptocurrencies despite imposing taxes on digital assets like Bitcoin. According to Indian legal news outlet LawChakra, the country’s Supreme Court expressed concern over the growing use of Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies while remaining largely unregulated. “This is a whole parallel economy running … Read more

Strategy’s STRK Hits Record Proceeds, Has Outperformed Bitcoin, S&P 500 Since Debut

Disclaimer: The analyst who wrote this report owns shares of Strategy (MSTR). Strategy’s (MSTR) perpetual preferred stock, STRK, achieved the largest proceeds from its weekly at-the-market (ATM) issuance since the program started in February, according to X account DogCandles, raising $59.7 million that was used to buy more bitcoin BTC, according to a Monday SEC … Read more

Kraken Rolls Out Regulated Crypto Derivatives in Europe

Kraken is rolling out regulated crypto derivatives trading in Europe, compliant with the European Union’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II). The crypto exchange’s perpetual and fixed maturity futures contracts will now be available for retail and institutional customers in the European Economic Area (EEA), the firm said on Tuesday. Permission to trade crypto … Read more