Crypto Exchange Bitfront Announces it Will Shut Down

Stripe Inc., which is one of Silicon Valley’s most valuable Fintechs, is reportedly getting closer to what might be one of the largest public-market entries in recent times. Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison told company workers that the firm’s executives set a goal of taking the Fintech firm public or allowing workers to sell shares in a private-market transaction within the coming year, according to sources familiar with the matter (and cited by the WSJ).

Injective, a blockchain specifically designed for building financial applications, announced a new $150 million ecosystem initiative “to further accelerate the adoption of interoperable infrastructure and DeFi.”. Injective claims it is the first fully decentralized smart contracts platform “optimized for building finance applications.” Injective was “created using the Cosmos SDK...

DailyPay has announced it has secured $260 million of capital to fuel growth domestically, expand internationally and further invest in product innovation. DailyPay is a Fintech that enables employees to access their earnings in real-time. The funding is “divided between revolving credit facility capacity provided by Barclays and Angelo Gordon,...

Digital asset exchange Luno will reportedly be cutting 35% of Its staff. Luno’s management stated that the upcoming job cuts will impact company workers in all supported regions. Luno is part of the Digital Currency Group (DCG) and reports having over ten million customers globally. Luno further noted that...

Solvo Finance, an EU-based cryptocurrency startup, has announced that their forthcoming crypto investing app will integrate Fireblocks, an easy-to-use platform “to create new blockchain-based products and manage day-to-day digital asset operations.”. With the support of Fireblocks’ battle-tested technology, Solvo will be able “to provide world-class security for customers’ digital...

Wise (formerly dba as Transferwise) (LSE:WISE) has announced 15 new partners, in four different markets, to start 2023. In total, Wise now claims 60 partners globally. Wise shares that almost 10 million new customers gained access to Wise, via the Wise Platform, in 2022 alone. The four new markets include:...

The DNB considers the non-compliance to be very severe. The Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank or DNB) has fined Coinbase Europe Limited €3,325,000. The administrative penalty was assessed as Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) had been providing digital asset services in the Netherlands without registration and thus not in compliance with existing law.

Merchant commerce omnichannel company, Pine Labs announced that it has acquired a proprietary enterprise platform from Bengaluru-based Saluto Wellness Private Limited. This acquisition will “boost the capabilities of Pine Labs’ Issuing Business under the Qwikcilver brand, enabling it to strengthen its offerings across employee rewards and recognition, customer loyalty programs, and channel partner programs for medium and large enterprises.”

Copper.co, the provider of institutional digital asset custody and trading solutions, announces the appointment of Lord (Philip) Hammond of Runnymede, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, as Chair. He takes up this role with “immediate effect.”. Lord Hammond has “served as a Senior Adviser to Copper since October 2021.”...

UAE-based Alaan, the spend management platform for Middle Eastern businesses, announced that it has raised $4.5 million pre-Series A funding, “backed by Presight Capital, Y Combinator, and angel investors.”. Together with the $2.5 million seed round last year, Alaan has “raised a total of $7 million in equity.”

Silicon Prairie has been approved to operate an Alternative Trading System (ATS). An ATS is similar to a securities exchange but with different regulatory requirements. An entity must first be approved as a broker-dealer before applying to become an ATS. This will enable Silicon Prairie to offer secondary trading in securities.

Fagura, a Fintech that aims to become the “first community digital bank in CEE for anyone to borrow, invest and transfer money,” has raised over €786,000 on Seedrs. According to the offering page, 287 investors backed the firm, which easily topped its €400,000 initial funding goal. Investors received equity at a pre-money valuation of €5 million. Fagura is approved for secondary transactions of its shares and is a Seedrs nominee firm.

Hawk AI, Germany’s provider of anti-money laundering (AML) and fraud prevention technology for banks and payment companies, announced $17M in Series B financing “to accelerate product development and global expansion.”. The investment round was “led by Sands Capital from Washington D.C., with participation from new and existing investors,...

We recently caught up with Girts Straujums, CEO of WeavePay, a UK-based payment platform that helps businesses go borderless. Girts Straujums talked about the issues facing Fintech platforms and how certain customer needs are still not being met. Straujums also shared the main reasons why banks in Europe and the UK reject small and medium-sized businesses. Straujums also touched on what he thinks are the most complicated payment problems that need to be solved.

US securities regulators are looking into the operations of investment advisers over crypto-asset custody. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is examining the activities of registered investment advisers over whether they’re following applicable guidelines around custody of customer digital assets. This, according to sources familiar with the matter (and cited by Reuters).

Online lender Accelerated Payments has announced topping the €1 billion worth of invoice financing milestone. Based in Ireland, Accelerated Payments claims to be of the fastest-growing Fintechs in the world, with offices in Europe, the UK, Canada, and the USA. Accelerated Payments provides a solution for cash flow delays...

In order to get a better understanding of the current state of the industry, the Ferrum Network team conducted a survey “to gather insights from participants about their involvement in and views on Web3.”. In order to get a better understanding of the current state of the digital assets...

Managing compliance risks can feel intimidating, “especially because identity crime and fraud attempts jumped by 36% in 2021 relative to 2020,” according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. As global regulations and accessibility increase, so do compliance risks. To ensure secure operations and offer a swift onboarding experience...

Alviere, the embedded finance platform provider, is pleased to announce that Grupo Coppel, Mexico’s largest non-food retailer, has chosen Alviere “to enable the launch of Coppel Access, a mobile wallet that will provide millions of unbanked and underbanked consumers in the U.S. with easy access to digital financial services, with its industry leading embedded finance platform.”

SongBits.com is a new platform that is planning to launch later this year that will allow users to invest in “a bit of a song from world-class artists.” Investors may then share in the song’s streaming revenues for life, according to the company. A private launch is...