Latest Blockchain News: Finextra Research

Company update/crypto

Pontoro raises $6m

Pontoro, the financial technology company creating the first institutional-grade digital asset securitization and liquidity platform to address the $15 trillion shortfall1 in infrastructure debt finance by enabling broader investor participation, today announced a $6 million preferred seed funding round led by Ulu Ventures, with participation from Franklin Templeton, Neva Sgr. the venture group of Banca Intesa Sanpaolo, Illuminate Financial, Adit Ventures, Fin Venture Capital, Viking Maccabee Ventures, Bloccelerate Ventures, Nevcaut Ventures, Quest Venture Partners, and others.

08 December 2021

Company update/wholesale

Digital Asset and SE2 plan annuity products using DLT

SE2, a leading life and annuities insurance technology and services firm, and Digital Asset, a software and services provider, today announced their strategic collaboration to create products supporting the sales and servicing of life and annuity products, leveraging distributed ledger technology.

08 December 2021

News/crypto

Citi, Visa, AmEx invest in crypto-compliance platform TRM Labs

Blockchain intelligence platform TRM Labs has raised $60 million in a Series B funding round joined by a host of big-name firms, including Visa, Amex Ventures, Citi Ventures, PayPal Ventures, and Block (formerly Square).

07 December 2021

News/cloud

SETL demonstrates 1m transactions a second on blockchain

Blockchain settlement and payment infrastructure provider SETL is claiming a "breakthrough moment" after its Regulated Liability Network (RLN) demonstrated that it can process one million transactions per second (tps).

07 December 2021

Company update/markets

State Street, Vanguard and Symbiont complete live trade for FX forward contracts using blockchain

State Street Corporation (NYSE:STT), in collaboration with Vanguard and Symbiont, announced today that the firms have jointly completed the margin calculation process for a live trade of a 30-day foreign exchange forward contract through the use of Assembly, Symbiont’s distributed ledger technology .

06 December 2021

News/crypto

Square changes name to Block

Payments company Square has changed its name to Block two days after CEO Jack Dorsey left his other company, Twitter.

01 December 2021

Company update/retail

Fragma launches blockchain metaverse

Fragma launches its blockchain metaverse, rewarding users with tokens for social mining, which means any action on the platform, including commenting, liking, and sharing. Fragma empowers content creators to monetize their activities by including Augmented Reality-powered ads, while enabling advertisers to target a wider audience through relevant posts.

01 December 2021

Company update/cloud

Calastone and Microsoft to collaborate on cloud and DLT

Calastone, the largest global funds network, has signed a partnership agreement with Microsoft, which will see the firms collaborate on the use of cloud and distributed ledger technology to create market efficiency across the global investment funds industry.

01 December 2021

Company update/payments

Axletree partners Roxe on instant cross-border settlements

Axletree Solutions, a global provider of bank connectivity and financial integration solutions that power over $50 billion in daily transactions, announced that it has entered into a partnership with Roxe, the next-generation, open global payment network. Roxe’s solutions power instant and affordable cross-border payments using blockchain technology.

30 November 2021

News/people

David Marcus quits Facebook

David Marcus has quit as the boss of Facebook parent Meta's fintech unit after leading a frustrating effort to launch the Novi digital wallet and its associated stablecoin Diem.

30 November 2021

Company update/crypto

Algofi raises $2.8m to build decentralised lending market

Algofi, the fast, low-cost lending market and stablecoin protocol built on the Algorand blockchain, today announced $2.8 million in seed funding during Decipher, Algorand’s annual community conference.

30 November 2021

Company update/markets

ASX opens first test environment for DLT-based Chess replacement

ASX is pleased to announce that it has today opened the first of the integrated Industry Test Environments for the CHESS replacement project – ITE1.

30 November 2021

News/crypto

Ex-Citi trading exec launches $1.5bn crypto fund

A former Citi trading executive has launched a $1.5 billion fund focused on investing in crypto infrastructure, blockchain protocols, and virtual worlds.

30 November 2021

News/crypto

Japanese banks to test digital currency

A consortium of 74 Japanese firms - including the country's biggest banks - have set out plans to start testing a private sector digital yen in the coming months.

24 November 2021