The top daily news from the cryptocurrency and blockchain space:
- Trio of blockchain startups raise $55 million in venture funding.
- Breakthrough for crypto industry as U.S. SEC approves first-ever crypto token offering.
- Binance launches Binance Margin Trading service.
At the time of writing, bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) are trading at $11,396.0 (-12.1%) and $269.3 (-12.8%), respectively. As for the MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 10 Index, it is currently tracking at 4,143.4 (-6.6%).
Trio of Blockchain Startups Raise Over $55 Million in Venture Funding
Symbolic of the immense venture capital-led interest in the blockchain and crypto ecosystem at present, the past day saw three startups announce successful fundraising rounds that closed for more than $55 million combined.
Responsible for the bulk of this total was Anchorage, a cryptocurrency custody provider for institutional investors. It announced a successfully completed series B venture round worth $40 million, which was led by Blockchain Capital and participated in by payments giant Visa and existing investor Andreessen Horowitz, among others.
Near – the creators of NEAR Protocol, a developer-friendly platform for building decentralized applications (DApps) – was another to announce the completion of a venture round. Its round, which was oversubscribed and worth $12.1 million, was led by Metastable and Accomplice. A number of other notable cryptoasset venture funds also participated, such as Multicoin Capital and Coinbase Ventures.
Finally, Nebulous – the entity developing the Sia Network, a leading decentralized cloud storage platform – raised $3.5 million in Bain Capital Ventures-led pre-series A funding round. Announced through CoinDesk, the Boston-based blockchain startup was invested into by other “participants like Bessemer Venture Partners and Dragonfly Capital Partners.”
Breakthrough for Crypto Industry as U.S. SEC Approves First-Ever Token Offering
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved Blockstack’s Reg A+ application to issue an allocation of its so-called Stacks Token (STX) in a public securities offering, the first-ever time the financial watchdog has greenlighted the issuance of a crypto token.
In a blog post commemorating the announcement, Blockstack PBC – the entity stewarding the development of Blockstack, a full-stack solution for DApps – explained the purpose of the STX token offering is to “fuel further growth of the Blockstack decentralized computing network.”
The first-of-its-kind, SEC-qualified token offering is scheduled to open on Thursday the 11th of July at 11:00am (EDT). One STX will cost the general public $0.30. For voucher-holders that partook in Blockstack’s earlier voucher program, one STX will cost $0.12. Purchases may be made using U.S. dollars, bitcoin (BTC), or ether (ETH).
Binance Launches Margin Trading Service
Leading cryptocurrency exchange operator, Binance, publicly launched its margin trading platform. “As part of Binance’s effort to help push the industry forward and freedom of money, the company is expanding its trading possibilities, similarly to existing leveraged trading features on traditional markets,” reads a blog post explaining the margin trading platform.
Thelaunch of Binance Margin Trading comes at a time when Binance is transitioning to “a newly optimized interface,” which it dubs Binance 2.0. The new Binance 2.0 platform – where users can access both Binance’s spot exchange and its margin trading platform – “also features an advanced trading engine for better order matching and press indexes for margin level calculations to enable lower liquidations,” the blog post stated.
Additionally, Binance 2.0 allows users to move funds seamlessly between the Margin Wallet and their primary Binance Wallet without incurring transaction fees. In terms of which marginable assets exist on Binance Margin Trading at launch, they are as follows: bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), Binance Coin (BNB), Tronix (TRX), and tether (USDT).
