FreeCryptoCurrency.Me

Two juggernauts of the financial services industry are backing crypto startup Lukka as it vies to equip traditional Wall Street firms with its suite of data products. 

In an announcement Thursday, Lukka — known for its crypto tax service LukkaTax — said that it closed a Series C fundraising round. Participants in the round included S&P Global, the firm behind Wall Street’s ubiquitous indexes, and custodial bank State Street. CPA.com, which is affiliated with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), also participated in the round.

CEO Robert Materazzi told The Block that the round was “very strategic in nature” with the participants all having existing commercial relationships with the firm. Already, more than 160 crypto-native hedge fund clients use Lukka’s software and data products. The startup now wants to target more traditional funds through these relationships with large financial services firms. 

“First step in giving them capabilities is doing so through the logos they’re already customers with,” he said. 

Lukka did not share how much it raised, but a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows it raised $15 million. The firm declined to comment on the valuation at which it raised the round as well as recent revenue figures. 

The funding announcement follows news that data providers IHS Markit and S&P Dow Jones Indices would work with the firm as they move into the market for digital assets. As for S&P DJI, the firm plans to launch in 2021 its own branded index — essentially, an S&P 500-like index but for the crypto market — that uses Lukka’s tools. 

© 2020 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

YIELD sets out to simplify the process of investing in DeFi products.

Lukka is looking to go mainstream with a strategic investment from three stalwarts of traditional finance.

Paxful has partnered with Kenya-based remittance network BitLipa to allow users to buy and sell bitcoin and the tether stablecoin.

The ECB says the additional monetary policy actions were needed because of a resurgence in coronavirus cases.

Financial data records collected by FinCEN are a valuable tool for law enforcement. They’re also a trove of personal data on people who have not committed a crime.

Quick Take

•  Yearn.Finance has recently announced a series of “mergers” with other DeFi protocols — namely Pickle.Finance, Cover, Akropolis, and Cream
• For now, these are simple partnership announcements. Resources are shared, but they are not mergers enforced by smart contracts
• Still, they are the first steps to what could be real M&A activity between protocols. Whether those are a good idea depends on your view of how protocols should be governed

This research piece is available to
members of The Block Genesis.
You can continue reading
this Genesis research on The Block.

U.K.-based SpaceChain beat 13 other national applicants to secure the funding.

The city council member in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, bought 185,000 XMR in 2015 when the cryptocurrency’s price was well below $1.

Singapore’s largest bank DBS has officially announced it will set up a digital asset exchange and the country’s stock exchange will take 10% stake in the new trading platform.

In a release on Thursday, DBS confirmed it will set up a digital exchange that opens to only institutional and accredited investors.

The platform, called DBS Digital Exchange, will be a regulated venue for the issuance and trading of security tokens. Further, DBS Digital Exchange will support crypto asset trading pairs for fiat currencies including SGD, USD, HKD and JPY against four crypto assets: BTC, ETH, BCH and XRP, which can begin as early as next week.

“The exponential pace of asset digitalization provides immense opportunities to reshape capital markets. For Singapore to become even more competitive as a global financial hub, we have to prepare ourselves to welcome the mainstream adoption of digital assets and currency trading,” Piyush Gupta, Group CEO of DBS, said in the announcement.

In addition, the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX) will take a 10% stake in DBS Digital Exchange. The two entities will work together to deepen the liquidity and grow Singapore’s capital markets in the developing space of digital assets and cryptocurrencies.

“We are excited to apply our strengths in market infrastructure and risk management to this venture. There are significant opportunities to bring trust and efficiency in price discovery to the global digital assets space,” said Loh Boon Chye, CEO of SGX.

The announcement follows reports in October that DBS is launching a digital asset exchange. The banking giant made public a webpage with details about the digital exchange offerings but deleted it shortly after the page drew wide public attention.

The two parties said in the Thursday release that the plan follows the in-principle approval by the Monetary Authority of Singapore for DBS Digital Exchange to be a Recognized Market Operator. 

In addition to crypto trading, DBS will offer digital asset custody under regulatory standards to meet the increasing demand for secure digital assets custodial services.

© 2020 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.