FTX Europe, Binance’s Crypto Payments, Dogecoin’s Trademark + More News

Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.

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Exchanges news

• Crypto exchange FTX announced its FTX Europe that will establish its presence in Europe and the Middle East, and added that it has secured approval from the Cyprus Financial Market Regulator CySEC through its ftx.com/eu domain. FTX Europe will now start offering FTX’s leading products and services to European clients via a licensed investment firm with passportable licenses across the European economic area, they said.
• Binance announced the launch of Bifinity as its official fiat-to-crypto payments provider. Bifinity supports over 50 cryptoassets globally, all major payment methods, buy to sell crypto service for consumers, and low-cost payment process fees for merchants, they added.

Regulation news

• The Dogecoin Foundation, a community behind the Dogecoin (DOGE) project, has trademarked the Dogecoin name and logo with the European Union Intellectual Property Office. They explained that this is not meant to hinder the use of it in memes, but bad faith representations that may potentially be used to extort the real Dogecoin developers and community.
• Know your customer (KYC) & anti-money laundering (AML) screening software-as-a-service Blockpass and crypto exchange Crypto.com have announced a partnership to ensure identity verification. Crypto.com will display information and updates about Blockpass’ native PASS token, while Blockpass will be building an ‘Identify NFT’ system on the Chronos blockchain (launching PASS on Chronos at the same time) to bring support for compliant transactions to the Chronos ecosystem.

Wallets news

• Ethereum (ETH) smart wallet Argent is officially launching its Layer 2 solution that is supposed to offer cheaper and faster transactions without any compromise on security, per TechCrunch.

Blockchain news

• Digital sports entertainment and gaming company DraftKings announced it has joined the Polygon (MATIC) ecosystem as a validator and node operator, for what they say is the first time a major publicly-traded firm has taken an active role in blockchain governance. DraftKings has teamed up with a B2B digital assets infrastructure provider Zero Hash to become one of Polygon’s 100 validators, they added.

Mining news

• Bitcoin (BTC) miner Cipher Mining abandoned its plan to buy Bitfury rigs this year, saying it aims to be more flexible. The company had previously pre-ordered 28,000 to 56,000 mining rigs from Bitfury at a maximum price of USD 6,250 per machine.
• Malaysian national electric utility Tenaga Nasional Bhd. has proposed a special tariff for bitcoin mining operators in a move to fight electricity theft, per Bloomberg. It has also proposed that the Energy Commission encourage bitcoin mining operators to apply for legal electricity supply.
• HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. has announced a supply agreement with Intel Corporation to purchase new high-performing ASIC chips that will be incorporated into state-of-the-art mining equipment that will be custom-built for HIVE. It has also entered into a letter of intent with Compute North LLC to host 100 megawatts of mining capacity in one of their new Texas renewable energy data center facilities – HIVE’s first mining operation in the United States.

NFTs news

• American healthcare company CVS Health has filed a trademark application that signals potential plans to offer non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and healthcare services in virtual reality and augmented reality. However, this does not necessarily mean that the giant is about to move into the metaverse.
• Trading card company Topps sold the first edition of the company’s “Topps Timeless Series,” an NFT of the storied 1952 baseball card of New York Yankees slugger Mickey Mantle, for ETH 175 (USD 456,500) in an OpenSea auction. “The Mick” collectible is officially licensed by Major League Baseball (MLB) and sold in cooperation with the Mantle Estate.
• Children’s film and television company Dolphin Entertainment is partnering with the Ethereum NFT collection The Flower Girls to make scripted and unscripted television series, books, games, music, events, and merchandise inspired by the NFT collection, per Variety. The NFT collection boasts 10,000 unique works of art by artist Varvara Alay.

Investment news

• Australian NFT startup Immutable said it has raised USD 200m in a Series C funding round led by Singapore’s Temasek at a valuation of USD 2.5bn. They added that the funds will be used to fuel Immutable’s plans for global expansion, accelerate the company’s growth by investing in the Immutable X platform, and scale the Immutable Gaming Studio.
• Celebrity talent manager Scooter Braun has quietly sold a waterfront home in Austin, Texas, for around USD 18m to Wayne Vaughan, CEO of blockchain startup Tierion, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the deal.

Career news

• Security tokens exchange ADDX has appointed investment banking veteran Oi-Yee Choo as their new CEO, pending approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The company is projecting a growth in total transaction volume to USD 1bn by end-2023, from USD 150m at end-2021 as a response to this.