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Ledger hardware wallet expands crypto buying options with Uphold’s Topper

Topper’s on-ramp entrance to Ledger Live comes at a time when Ledger supports only one off-ramp solution.

Ledger, a leading hardware cryptocurrency wallet provider, is expanding its cryptocurrency purchasing options within its app through a new partnership with Uphold’s Topper.

Ledger has integrated the fiat-to-crypto on-ramp Topper by the United States Web3 financial platform Uphold, the firms announced on Sept. 26.

The integration brings a new crypto-buying option to Ledger’s software, Ledger Live. The application currently features 14 providers offering on-ramp services through the Buy section, Ledger’s vice president of international development, Jean-François Rochet, told Cointelegraph.

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Visa and Wirex Partner to Bring Seamless Crypto Payments to Millions of Merchants Globally

Visa and Wirex Partner to Bring Seamless Crypto Payments to Millions of Merchants GloballyWirex and Visa have partnered to launch Wirex Pay, aiming to bring seamless crypto payments to millions of merchants worldwide, enhancing accessibility and convenience. “This partnership is set to revolutionize the way we use digital assets,” said Wirex Pay, emphasizing that Wirex and Visa are teaming up to “drive innovation in web3 payments.” Wirex and […]

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Top Swiss bank launches Bitcoin and Ether trading with SEBA

Switzerland’s St.Galler Kantonalbank has launched Bitcoin and Ether trading for select customers, planning to add more coins in the future.

Switzerland’s St.Galler Kantonalbank (SGKB), one of the largest banks in the country, is moving into cryptocurrency by introducing Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) trading to its customers.

SGKB has partnered with the global cryptocurrency-focused bank SEBA to offer its clients digital asset custody and brokerage services.

Announcing the news on Nov. 1, SGKB and SEBA said that the new crypto service is immediately available to select SGKB customers following a short period of testing earlier this year. Starting off with Bitcoin and Ether support, SGKB plans to expand its offerings to additional cryptocurrencies based on client demand.

Founded back in 1868, St.Galler Kantonalbank is a major Swiss regional bank, offering retail and commercial banking as well as private and institutional banking. SGKB is reportedly the fifth largest bank in Switzerland, managing a total of 53.6 billion Swiss francs ($58.9 million) by the end of 2022.

SGKB’s partnership with SEBA marks the bank’s first step into the digital asset industry, aiming to allow banking customers to seamlessly access cryptocurrencies within their investment portfolios.

Related: Standard Chartered-owned crypto platform Zodia launches in Hong Kong

“We are pleased to offer a select client base access to digital assets and the digital economy,” SGKB head of market services Falk Kohlmann said, adding:

"Thanks to our cooperation with SEBA Bank, we’ve implemented a straightforward initial setup, which allows us to learn and grow well aligned to our clients’ needs. We are confident that our clients' digital assets are protected by the custody of a professional and certified provider with extensive experience in this field."

SGKB’s crypto partner, SEBA, is a global Swiss-regulated bank for managing, investing, storing cryptocurrencies, nonfungible tokens and other assets. After receiving a banking license from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority in 2019, SEBA has been actively onboarding crypto services to major private and retail banks including LGT Bank Liechtenstein and Bank Julius Baer.

The Swiss crypto ecosystem has been rapidly evolving, with many local banks introducing cryptocurrency services. In September 2023, a licensed Swiss bank, Dukascopy Bank, officially launched its crypto-enabled services including marginal trading and online retail banking accounts.

“We believe that cryptocurrencies continue to play a significant role in today's world,” Dukascopy Bank chief brokerage officer told Cointelergraph. “We are confident that offering crypto-related services through a regulated bank adds substantial value to the cryptocurrency industry as a whole,” the executive added.

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XDC Network gets Japanese foothold via partnership with SBI subsidiary

After a fruitful spring season, the XDC Network expands its presence in the Japanese market via SBI VC Trade.

The enterprise hybrid blockchain solution, XDC Network — formerly known as XinFin — has broadened its presence in the Japanese market through a partnership with SBI VC Trade, a cryptocurrency exchange subsidiary of Tokyo-based financial holding company SBI. 

On May 31, the XDC Network announced that it would be added to SBI’s crypto exchange subsidiary. The exchange’s CEO, Fumiki Ozaki, confirmed the news:

“We are delighted to expand our cryptocurrency offerings by adding XDC to our exchange. XDC Network brings a unique value proposition to the trade finance market, and we believe its addition will enhance our customers' trading experience.”

In March 2023, the XDC token became one of the top 5 altcoin gainers, rising 54% in 30 days. The network supports Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible smart contracts, protocols and atomic cross-chain token transfers. It also complies with the ISO-20022 message standard, an internationally accepted standard for electronic data interchange between financial institutions.

Related: Japan launches digital yen pilot project after second successful proof-of-concept

Recently, the XDC Network decided to decentralize the governance of the blockchain by forming a decentralized autonomous organization. After deployment in May, the community will decide on the distribution of ecosystem funds to promote development. XDC Network co-founder Atul Khekade commented on the newest announcement:

“We are thrilled to partner with SBI VC Trade and bring the XDC ecosystem to the Japanese market. Japan is a crucial hub for international trade, and our blockchain platform aims to streamline this sector by improving transparency, traceability and reducing costs.” 

SBI is also raising its presence in key crypto markets. In September 2022, it received a license to operate in Singapore. Earlier, one of its investees, Clear Markets, received approval from the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission to offer over-the-counter crypto derivatives products with a physical settlement.

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Polygon to help fight NFT scams with Web3 infra protocol partnership

Polygon partners with Wakweli, a Web3 infrastructure protocol that issues certificates of authenticity for NFTs to certify originality.

Wakweli, a Web3 infrastructure protocol that issues certificates of authenticity for nonfungible tokens (NFT), has officially partnered with layer-2 scaling platform Polygon to make NFT authentication possible.

The partnership between Polygon and Wakweli means all digital assets on Polygon will be compatible with Wakweli’s certification system. According to the announcement, every NFT project holder on the Polygon chain can request authenticity certificates for each asset. The collaboration generally aims to enhance the security of the digital ecosystem.

In response to the cost of the certificate authentication for users, Antoine Sarraute, co-founder of Wakweli, told Cointelegraph that staking WAKU — Wakweli’s utility token — is necessary to create a certificate request. The amount to stake in a request is dependent on and linked to the level of trust needed for each case.

The partnership agreement negotiations between the two companies began in August 2022, with the final details of the agreement concluded this March.

Wakweli’s testnet will be available in April and can be used with Polygon’s Mumbai testnet. Alpha testing with Polygon’s mainnet will begin in Q2 2023, with general mainnet compatibility is expected to be ready by Q3 2023.

By providing a medium for detecting counterfeit NFTs, the partnership between the two companies has unlocked a definitive way to fight these scam attempts, thereby creating more trust in the thriving ecosystem, Sarraute explained. 

Related: Polygon’s ‘holy grail’ Ethereum-scaling zkEVM beta hits mainnet

The Wakweli platform and application programming interface will offer developers access to advanced use case scenarios, including automatically generating certification requests when minting or accessing more detailed certification information.

In the past month, the Polygon Foundation has also collaborated with the South Korean multinational conglomerate Lotte Group to showcase the company’s NFT projects.

Polygon has gained significant traction through partnerships with major brands such as Starbucks and Adidas, leading to increased adoption of the network among cryptocurrency users. 

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Crunchbase taps AllianceBlock to boost novel applications in DeFi

Crunchbase partners with AllianceBlock to make business data more accessible to blockchain businesses and developers.

AllianceBlock, a decentralized finance solutions provider, has partnered with Crunchbase, a prospecting platform, to make its data available to Data Tunnel users.

This partnership will make Crunchbase’s business data more accessible to blockchain businesses and developers, allowing them to create applications such as default probability models, customer acquisition profiles, maps of untapped markets and more.

Crunchbase’s content includes investment and funding information, founding members and individuals in leadership positions, mergers and acquisitions, news and industry trends.

The Data Tunnel serves as a platform for both conventional institutions and individuals, who typically rely on multiple sources of information to make well-informed decisions pertaining to their assets. With Data Tunnel, they can share, study and combine information without a middleman. The AllianceBlock data tunnel was launched in October 2022 to create a public marketplace for standardized data.

In 2021, AllianceBlock announced its integration with Avalanche, an up-and-coming “Internet of Finance” protocol. The integration allows users to access AllianceBlock’s DeFi Investment Terminal, peer-to-peer financial services, nonfungible token capabilities and Know Your Customer solutions directly on Avalanche. The partnership also includes development work with Ava Labs, the developers behind Avalanche.

Related: Crypto Biz: Mastercard opens network to USDC, OKX departs Canada, Bitcoin climbs

The same year, AllianceBlock combined technologies with Flare, a fellow blockchain tech entity that seeks to enable blockchains to access real-world data in smart contract execution. The two companies sought to improve their blockchains with each other’s tech, from cross-chain bridges to decentralized exchanges to oracle networks.

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Report Claims Visa and Mastercard Plan to Pause New Partnerships, Visa’s Head of Crypto Insists ‘Story Is Inaccurate’

Report Claims Visa and Mastercard Plan to Pause New Partnerships, Visa’s Head of Crypto Insists ‘Story Is Inaccurate’According to a recent report from sources familiar with the matter, Mastercard and Visa, the credit card and payment services giants, are halting new partnerships with cryptocurrency firms. This news comes after the collapse of several cryptocurrency ventures that offered crypto debit cards and failed due to financial difficulties last year. After the report published, […]

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Ava Labs and Amazon’s partnership could “expand the pie” for blockchain

The collaboration will allow both individuals and institutions to launch subnets that can operate as self-sufficient blockchain systems.

The Amazon Web Services (AWS)-Avalanche “cooperation,” as it was carefully described last week, should almost immediately make it easy for developers to establish nodes on the Avalanche blockchain, including via “one-click node deployment.” 

Eventually, too, it might make it simpler for everyday businesses — i.e., non-crypto-related enterprises — and even individuals to establish their own subnets like smaller, private, layer-2 blockchains.

But perhaps the outstanding message from the Jan. 11 announcement is that the blockchain revolution isn’t just about cryptocurrencies. It’s also about things as prosaic as storing documents more securely and sensibly so they can be quickly retrieved during emergencies. It encompasses decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible tokens (NFTs), but it’s also about bringing “scalable blockchain solutions to enterprises and governments,” including such humdrum but important use cases as compliance management, Ava Labs, creator of Avalanche, said last week.

In a webinar on Jan. 12, which included both Ava Labs and Amazon Web Services representatives, Ava Labs vice president John Nahas, explained, “Crypto products or crypto infrastructures have been very geared up until this point to cater to crypto-native people. [...] We need to expand the pie here. We need to expand the developers, the companies, the people who are going to be utilizing this technology in a mass-market way to bring in more people into this ecosystem.”

A ‘fake partnership’?

The Avalanche community generally welcomed the Amazon Web Services news, but others took issue with some of the language and claims, like Ava Labs CEO Emin Gün Sirer’s assertion that “This is a big deal. It's not your grandfather's ‘AWS partnership announcement.’”

Was this really a “partnership,” some questioned, or just a hyped-up “use of services” agreement? Maybe Amazon Web Services was really more “tech aggregator” than collaborator? Hadn’t other layer-1 chain developers, like Casper Labs, already “partnered” with the tech colossus to allow developers to directly deploy node infrastructures or design private networks via Amazon? Indeed, developers had been invited to “set up your own managed Ethereum node” on Amazon Managed Blockchain back in May 2021, no?

In a tweet, Alejandro Pastore, CEO of Pastore Capital, described the announcement as a “fake partnership between @avalancheavax and @amazon” where Ava Labs “sold us a service rental disguised as an association with Amazon.”

Be that as it may, the Jan. 12 webinar presented three Ava Labs managers, including president John Wu, appearing beside AWS global tech lead for Web3 Shai Perednik and Bradley Feinstein, Web3 lead at Amazon Web Services. Feinstein specifically used the word “partnership” to describe the new Ava-AWS association and no one present objected. AWS and Ava Labs will hold another joint webinar together in February and a jointly sponsored hackathon in May, they announced.

More important, perhaps, is a larger question: What, if anything, does this association mean for blockchain evolution generally?

Catalyzing innovation

“It appears that Avalanche will get the best shelf space on AWS among blockchain platforms,” Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets research at VanEck, told Cointelegraph. Businesses looking to launch blockchain-based applications from their AWS environment will get the best support and pricing if they choose Avalanche, Sigel further noted, adding:

“On a Twitter Spaces with AWS and Avalanche reps, AWS committed to marketing, education and discounts for businesses launching Avalanche subnets within AWS.”

The collaboration could have some positive industry spin-offs too, in Sigel’s view, catalyzing “meaningful innovation in the space.” Businesses may now find it easier to launch permissionless blockchains faster and easier if Amazon Web Services becomes an active presence in this market.

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Nor is Amazon the only tech giant moving in this direction. “Recall that, in November, Google Cloud launched what looks like a similar partnership with Solana,” Sigel said. Given that so much computing has moved to the cloud, it’s “positive to see this kind of commitment from the big providers.”

“The main news here is that we are seeing Amazon Web Services supporting the Avalanche blockchain ecosystem,” Sarson Funds analyst Evan LaMontange told Cointelegraph, allowing Avalanche's custom subnets to be integrated into the AWS marketplace. It will be allowing both individuals and institutions to launch subnets that can operate as self-sufficient blockchains. systems. He added:

“This has sparked a new vision of scalability, allowing entities to easily spin up their own standalone blockchain systems.” 

Others doubted the new collaboration rises to industry-level significance, however. “It certainly means that launching/running AVAX nodes is easier on AWS,” Freddy Zwanzger, Ethereum ecosystem lead at Blockdaemon, told Cointelegraph, but “there are already other blockchain nodes/templates available from different cloud or hosting providers.”

Of course, any improvements with regard to running blockchain infrastructure is positive, Zwanzger added, “but our institutional customers expect from us, as an institutional infrastructure provider, best-in-class service” which includes specialized setups.

Elsewhere, Howard Wright, vice president and global head of startups at AWS, called the firm’s teaming up with Ava Labs “a seminal moment,” an inflection point where blockchain technology becomes “commonplace and used in our marketplace by developers.”

Some of the Twitter commentary suggested the announcement was designed principally to pump the price of the AVAX token. “It's not the first time it has happened in this market,” noted Pastore in his 15-part Twitter thread. “This market is full of manipulation,” adding:

On the other hand, almost all coins had a boost after the announcement, and that probably had more to do with favorable interest-rate news than anything specific to the crypto world. Comparing AVAX’s price movement with Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether's (ETH) over the seven-day period of Jan. 10–17, Cointelegraph found that AVAX was +34%, but BTC and ETH weren’t that far behind at +24% and +19%, respectively. 

An unusual tripartite structure

Launched in September 2020, the Avalanche blockchain has some unique elements. It actually consists of three individual blockchains: The X-Chain used exclusively to send and receive funds, the P-Chain for staking and validator activities, and the C-Chain for smart contracts and DeFi applications.

“Avalanche blockchains even use different consensus mechanisms based on their use cases,” notes CoinMarketCap. It's not like BTC or ETH where all nodes validate all transactions. This division of labor arguably boosts transaction speed.

In fact, Avalanche claims to be the fastest smart contracts platform in the industry as measured by time-to-finality. It also has the most validators securing its activity of any proof-of-stake protocol, according to Ava Labs.

Others, too, acknowledge its strengths. “Avalanche offers near-instant finality and penny-per-transaction costs,” commented Sigel. “Ethereum settles much more slowly at a higher cost.” Ease of use could also differentiate Avalanche from other chains moving forward, given that AWS may make it easier to launch an Avalanche subnet, he added.

Working with governments

Ava Labs seems keener on supporting government entities than some other chain developers. In November 2021, it announced a “strategic alliance” with Deloitte to build a blockchain-enabled “disaster recovery platform” to enable state and local governments to more easily demonstrate their eligibility for federal emergency funding.

Government is still an “under the radar” area for blockchain applications, said Ava Labs senior vice president Nick Mussallem at the webinar, while noting Ava Labs’ “partnership” with Deloitte to work with communities and government agencies like FEMA on blockchain applications that reduce administrative costs:

“It [the blockchain] helps accelerate recovery by organizing the documentation that's needed to demonstrate eligibility [for funding]. It simplifies the retention by storing and linking all the related documentation securely on Avalanche.”

‘Subnets serving as appchains’

The blockchain world is changing and Amazon is looking to get on board. At least that’s the signal Ava Labs was sending last week. 

“AWS recognizes how blockchains are evolving, with subnets serving as appchains, and wants to be one of the hosting providers for the many subnets that people are about to launch,” said Sirer.

Recent: App-specific blockchains remain a promising solution for scalability

Maybe Ava Labs went a tad too far in claiming a “partnership” with Amazon — which is like the moon claiming a partnership with the sun. But Ava Labs should be applauded for looking beyond use cases aimed exclusively at crypto natives while drawing on AWS’s flexibility, scale and authority to enable developers to build subnets for use by everyday businesses and government agencies, among others.

If blockchain technology is ever to achieve mainstream status, after all, it will be built subnet by subnet — including use cases as mundane as document retention and the like.

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Crypto firm Juno urges users to withdraw after ‘uncertainty’ with custody partner

Juno recommended users pull their funds from the platform amid "uncertainty" over the fate of its crypto custody provider Wyre.

Fiat-to-crypto on-ramp solution provider Juno has urged its users to sell or self-custody the crypto on its platform citing “uncertainty” with its crypto custodian partner Wyre.

In a Jan. 4 tweet, the platform explained it that it doesn't hold any of its customer's crypto, and relies on its “crypto partner” for those services.

“Due to uncertainty with our crypto partner, we have taken preemptive action in the interest of our customers,” it wrote, adding it’s also actively reaching out to customers to ask them to self-custody.

The "crypto partner" in question is understood to be Wyre, a regulated Money Service Business in the United States.

Earlier this week, Wyre CEO Ioannis Giannaros reportedly told employees that the firm “will need to unwind [...] over the next couple of weeks.”

In the email seen by Axios, Giannaros said the firm was “still operating” but would be “scaling back to plan our next steps."

Juno in its latest Twitter thread said there was still $1.25 million worth of crypto assets held on the platform and it has been reaching out to customers to encourage them to self-custody their holdings

Other safeguards employed by Juno for users include temporarily disabling crypto buying on its platform and converting stablecoins to U.S. dollars into users’ government-insured accounts “which are FDIC Insured up to $250,000 via our partner bank.”

It also increased daily withdrawal limits five-fold for all “metal” account holders, its highest tier account.

Cointelegraph contacted Juno for comment but did not receive an immediate response. Wyre did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

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At the time of writing, Juno users were seemingly able to withdraw funds without issue and the platform claimed its services unrelated to crypto were similarly unaffected.

Juno said it plans to “transition to a new crypto partner” but is yet to release information on what partner and when the transition will be finalized. It added it was working to restart crypto buying and deposits “as soon as possible.”

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Trader Joe takes its first step into the Ethereum ecosystem

Despite the new multi-chain vision, the Trader Joe team confirmed that its “true home” and “top priority for all growth efforts” will continue to be on Avalanche.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Trader Joe has announced its very first expansion from Avalanche and onto the Ethereum ecosystem, as part of its plans to access new markets and drive up user activity.

The decentralized trading platform announced its “multi-chain” expansion into Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution Arbitrum One on Dec. 1 and follows around a month after it stated its intention to expand to additional markets and ink new partnerships amid falling TVL and user activity in the third quarter.

The team stated that they’re working closely with Offchain Labs — the team behind Arbitrum One — to launch a testnet “within the coming days,” before officially deploying it onto the Arbitrum One mainnet in January 2023:

“Deployment to Arbitrum One is the next step in this global expansion effort and we look forward to introducing the innovative AMM built on Avalanche, and also working with new partners to benefit the collective DeFi ecosystems of Arbitrum and Avalanche.”

The deployment comes as Trader Joe has also expanded its ecosystem through partnerships and integrations with wallets, data clients and other vectors” since the second quarter as a means to spread the exposure of Avalanche and the Trader Joe itself.

Among the most notable recent partnerships include that of Trust Wallet and Crypto.com.

Trader Joe added that the protocol’s original AMM — Joe V1 AMM — would also move onto Arbitrum One in addition to the Liquidity Book AMM, which will bring “zero slippage trades and discretized liquidity provisioning to all Arbinauts.”

As for why Trader Joe chose to deploy its AMMs on Arbitrum One, the team said they were impressed by Offchain Labs’ efforts in building an ecosystem of DeFi protocols on the network, which is indicative of its 53.4% market share in total value locked (TVL) across all Ethereum layer-2 scaling solutions.

“Deploying (the) Liquidity Book will be a great addition to the vibrant ecosystem,” the team added.

Image shared by Trader Joe regarding its recent Arbitrum expansion. Source: Joe Content.

Despite announcing that it was “time to go global” on Crypto Twitter, the Trader Joe team confirmed that its “true home” and “top priority for all growth efforts” will continue to be on Avalanche.

Trader Joe also also clarified that its token, JOE, in addition to lending platform Banker Joe, nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace JoePegs and its staking platform would not join Liquidity Book AMM and Joe V1 AMM on Arbitrum “in this initial phase.”

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The announcement appears to have a positive impact on the price of JOE, which increased 13.35% from $0.163 to $0.185 over an eight hour period before cooling off to $0.179, according to data from CoinGecko.

Trader Joe is currently the top-ranked decentralized exchange (DEX) and third-ranked DeFi protocol on Avalanche with $94.13 million in TVL, trailing only Ethereum-native lending platform AAVE and Avalanche-based liquid staking provider Benqi, according to data from DeFi aggregator DefiLlama.

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