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Leading Eastern European Exchange Exmo Sells Business in Russia, Belarus

Leading Eastern European Exchange Exmo Sells Business in Russia, BelarusExmo, a U.K.-based crypto exchange with extensive presence in Eastern Europe, is pulling out of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. The trading platform, Exmo.com, says it’s making the move to avoid jeopardizing its expansion in other regions by operating in high-risk markets like these. The business has been sold to a Russian vendor, alongside rights to […]

Cantor Fitzgerald agreed to acquire 5% stake in Tether for up to $600M: Report

Germany Shuts Down Hydra Market, Seizes Servers and Bitcoin

Germany Shuts Down Hydra Market, Seizes Servers and BitcoinLaw enforcement agencies in Germany have targeted Hydra, a leading darknet market (DNM). As part of an operation conducted with U.S. support, the German police were able to establish control over the servers of the Russian-language platform in the country and take down its website. Investigators Hit Hydra in Germany, Confiscate Millions in Crypto Hydra […]

Cantor Fitzgerald agreed to acquire 5% stake in Tether for up to $600M: Report

Motorcycle expert turns passion project into sports analytics platform on blockchain

Scott Robinson, the founder of Apex146, found new opportunities for his sports analytics platform by integrating blockchain technology.

Skill sets gained from working on trading strategies, technology, data science and a personal passion for motorcycle racing made Scott Robinson launch a sports analytics platform. With a bit of blockchain added to the mix, the founder of Apex146 found new ways to proceed in the sports analytics business.

Starting as a passion project, Robinson made an internship program offered to a professor at the University of California Santa Barbara. With the help of students, he developed a framework that looks at athlete performance in Grand Prix motorcycle racing.

Using techniques he acquired working in capital markets and commodity trading at firms McKinsey & Company and Oliver Wyman, Robinson created sports performance analytics that can be applied to motorcycle racing.

Scott Robinson, Founder and CEO of Apex146, casually riding his bike. Source: Apex146

According to Robinson, they combined "proprietary statistical methods to accomplish similar outcomes as was done using the 'Moneyball' theory in baseball." After some time, the team expanded and raised capital through a Series A in 2020 and improved its athlete performance indexing capabilities.

Fast forward into the present, Robinson saw blockchain being applied to sports betting and realized the opportunities in penetrating the market through this emerging technology. “There were two blockchain-based sports betting platforms that we thought had a real chance of penetrating the market and more would follow over the next several years,” says Robinson.

Because of this, the team launched a blockchain oracle through Chainlink that lets decentralized applications (DApps) access sports analytics data from Apex146. Through this, developers can create sports prediction markets using analytics data that are linked on-chain and incorporate statistics that would trigger dynamic interactions within DApps.

Apart from this, boarded the nonfungible token train by offering sports collections for entertainment purposes.

Apex146 head of technology Brian Leitner is accompanying Robinson on the track. Source: Apex146

Related: Red Bull Racing scores $150M sponsorship with Bybit

Meanwhile, venture capitals have also recognized the opportunities that lie within the crypto and blockchain industries. A recent KPMG fintech report shows that over $30 billion in investments has flowed into the industry in the past year, showing that blockchain has an important place within the global financial ecosystem.

Cantor Fitzgerald agreed to acquire 5% stake in Tether for up to $600M: Report

Bank of Russia Sees No Place for Crypto in Financial Market, Finalizes Digital Ruble Prototype

Bank of Russia Sees No Place for Crypto in Financial Market, Finalizes Digital Ruble PrototypeIn advance of presenting its comprehensive view on crypto regulations, the Central Bank of Russia has indicated that it sees no place for cryptocurrencies in the country’s financial market. The monetary authority also announced that the prototype of the platform for its own digital currency is already completed. Bank of Russia to Issue Report on […]

Cantor Fitzgerald agreed to acquire 5% stake in Tether for up to $600M: Report

Crowdfunding Platform Kickstarter Will Shift to Blockchain-Based Model

Crowdfunding Platform Kickstarter Will Shift to Blockchain-Based ModelKickstarter, one of the leading crowdfunding platforms on the market, has decided to abandon its current business model and migrate to a blockchain-based platform. This will be built by an independent organization funded initially by Kickstarter to work on the protocol. The new platform will be built on top of the Celo blockchain. Kick-Starting a […]

Cantor Fitzgerald agreed to acquire 5% stake in Tether for up to $600M: Report

Mercadolibre to Allow Users to Invest in Cryptocurrencies From Its Platform

Mercadolibre to Allow Users to Invest in Cryptocurrencies From Its PlatformMercadolibre, one of the biggest online retailers in Latin America, has started rolling cryptocurrency trading services to a selection of their customers and plans to expand this test in the coming weeks. Mercadopago, the payments service native to the platform, will allow these customers to purchase, hold and sell cryptocurrencies directly from the platform. The […]

Cantor Fitzgerald agreed to acquire 5% stake in Tether for up to $600M: Report

Russians to Pay Fees on Digital Ruble Transactions, Central Bank Says

Russians to Pay Fees on Digital Ruble Transactions, Central Bank SaysUsers of Russia’s central bank digital currency are going to pay a fee for each transaction, a high-ranking representative of Bank of Russia has recently announced. The digital ruble charge, however, is not going to exceed those currently applied to fast payments in the country. Bank of Russia to Charge for Digital Ruble Transfers The […]

Cantor Fitzgerald agreed to acquire 5% stake in Tether for up to $600M: Report

Russia Fails to Act on Request to Help Freeze Millions in Crypto Withdrawn From Wex Wallet

Russia Fails to Act on Request to Help Freeze Millions in Crypto Withdrawn From Wex WalletThe Russian Ministry of Interior has rejected a request filed by clients of Wex to do its part in the blocking of crypto funds removed from a wallet controlled by the now-defunct crypto exchange. Over 10,000 ETH have been recently withdrawn from the wallet and transferred to other platforms. Wex Victims Try to Freeze $46 […]

Cantor Fitzgerald agreed to acquire 5% stake in Tether for up to $600M: Report

TradingView completes new funding round with $3B valuation

Financial charting provider TradingView secured $298 million in a new funding round led by Tiger Global.

TradingView, the price charting platform used as a reference for price movements of cryptocurrencies and other assets, has secured $298 million in a funding round to attain a $3-billion valuation.

Led by TradingView’s new investor, Tiger Global, the funding follows a strong growth of the platform’s user base, mostly retail investors, during the pandemic. According to the announcement, TradingView experienced a 400% increase in new accounts and a 237% increase in visitors in the last 18 months.

TradingView CEO and co-founder Denis Globa highlighted Tiger Global’s expertise in fintech, adding that the partnership would contribute to informed financial trading.

Established in 2011, the platform enables over 30 million monthly users in 180 countries to access price charts of assets such as cryptocurrencies, stocks and futures.

“We built this company with the belief that people everywhere want the same thing: to be in control of their own economic futures,” Globa said, adding, “We work towards this by creating an environment where all traders and investors can look first, then leap.”

Related: Elliptic raises $60M to advance crypto analytics service

The company said that TradingView aims to bolster its broker relationships with partnerships and integrations with major brokerage firms in a bid to enable visitors to trade directly from the platform.

Tiger Global’s Alex Cook said that TradingView’s global standing among retail investors positions the company “to be the default social network and financial analysis platform used by all traders and investors.”

A known investor in crypto, Tiger Global recently led another mega-funding round. Together with Coatue Management, the venture capital has invested $400 million into the crypto payments startup MoonPay. 

Cantor Fitzgerald agreed to acquire 5% stake in Tether for up to $600M: Report