Latest DeFi News: Finextra Research

Crypto remains divisive amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine

While the long-lasting effects of the war in Ukraine on cryptocurrency remain unknown, drastic changes across the crypto industry have been felt since Russia’s invasion began eight days ago.

04 March 2022

News/sustainable

Climate fintech funding 3x higher than all previous years combined - CommerzVentures

According to CommerzVentures’ second report on climate fintech, venture capital (VC) funding for fintechs driving net-zero economies hit a record high in 2021.

04 February 2022

News/cloud

Google Cloud reveals DeFi ambitions with new Digital Assets Team

The cloud provider has announced that it is launching a dedicated Digital Assets Team to explore the potential of blockchain-based platforms.

28 January 2022

News/crypto

Walmart prepares to step into the metaverse

Trademark filings reveal Walmart’s plans to create its own cryptocurrency and a collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), suggesting the retailer’s appetite to make and sell virtual goods in the metaverse.

17 January 2022

News/crypto

US banks form stablecoin consortium

Five US banks have come together to launch a bank-minted alternative to non-bank-issued stablecoins.

12 January 2022

News/crypto

eToro expands crypto offering with Celo and The Sandbox

Social investment platform, eToro, has just announced the addition of two assets to its crypto offering: The Sandbox and Celo. This brings eToro’s offering to 42 cryptoassets.

29 December 2021

News/crypto

Benoît Cœuré: regulators likely to agree on crypto framework in 2022 – FT

In a conversation with the Financial Times, chief of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub, Benoît Cœuré, stated that a global framework for cryptocurrency should be agreed to in 2022.

20 December 2021

News/security

Bitmart loses $100 million in DeFi hack

Crypto exchange Bitmart has become the latest DeFi firm to fall victim to a large-sacle security breach, losing an estimated $100 million and suspending all withdrawals.

06 December 2021

News/crypto

HSBC joins $200m funding round for ConsenSys

HSBC has joined a $200 million funding round for ConsenSys that values the blockchain software engineering firm at $3.2 billion.

18 November 2021

News/crypto

Singapore Fintech Festival 2021: MAS global CBDC challenge winners revealed

Concluding Singapore Fintech Festival for another year, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has announced the three winners of the global CBDC challenge after five months of competition among more than 300 submissions from over 50 countries.

12 November 2021

News/crypto

Binance legal action sees thousands of claimants join ‘landmark’ proceedings

Thousands of disgruntled Binance customers have registered claims against the trading platform following the outages it faced in May 2021. Earlier this year, Liti Capital announced it is financing the proceedings to be brought in the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, with claimants being represented by White & Case LLP.

08 November 2021

News/crypto

Singapore Fintech Festival 2021: ‘We haven’t even fuelled the DeFi rocket’

During Singapore Fintech Festival’s panel session ‘Decentralised Finance: Redefining the Architecture’, ChainLink co-founder Sergey Nazarov and Celo CEO and co-founder Rene Reinsberg examine the forces currently driving the decentralised finance (DeFi) sector and how financial institutions should be approaching their DeFi and cryptocurrency strategy.

08 November 2021

News/crypto

Former AliPay UK CEO Rita Liu on how regulators are boosting crypto literacy

Finextra sat down with Mode’s chief commercial officer Rita Liu – also former CEO of AliPay UK, to discuss Mode’s recent partnership with trade association CryptoUK, and how market players and regulators are boosting adoption and education around crypto.

03 November 2021

News/crypto

Kasikorn Bank tech arm launches DeFi incubator and NFT marketplace

The technology arm of Thailand's Kasikorn Bank. KBTG, has established an incubator and venture builder to create new decentralised finance businesses.

18 October 2021

News/regulation

Bank of England peers into the opaque world of DeFi

The Bank of England has begun to explore how to manage risks generated by the rapid initial growth of decentralised finance, or ‘DeFi’ applications.

14 October 2021

News/Sibos

Sibos 2021: Why ‘desirability’ of CBDC is just as important as ‘feasibility’

Following moderator Dr Leda Glyptis of 10x Future Technologies’ introduction surrounding ‘The Future of Money’ with digital currency and tokenisation at the heart, John Egan, CEO of L’Atelier BNP Paribas, stated that a key problem in the conversation around CBDC is that we’ve discussed it from the perspective of what is feasible, rather than what would be technologically desirable.

13 October 2021

News/Sibos

McKinsey: Firms should prepare for the ‘inevitable changes’ of CBDC

McKinsey’s annual Global Payments Report released on day one of Sibos 2021, outlines a positive, albeit unbalanced, return to growth across the sector after Covid-19, underscoring the action firms should take in anticipation of widespread digital currency adoption.

11 October 2021

News/crypto

China cracks down on crypto transactions

China’s central bank announced a clampdown on cryptocurrency trading on Friday, calling all digital currency activities illegal, and vowed to crack down on the sector.

24 September 2021

News/payments

Money 20/20 EU: Will Europe prevail in the new dawn of payments?

Amsterdam: Finextra is on the ground at Money 20/20 Europe, attending a host of sessions to provide you with key highlights from the most popular sessions throughout the conference.

21 September 2021

News/sustainable

Hedera Hashgraph beats DLT competitors on energy consumption

A research report by University College London (UCL) has examined the varying environmental impacts of six different distributed ledger technologies (DLT), finding that Hedera Hashgraph boasts the lowest overall energy consumption of the group.

08 September 2021