Tag: Mainstream

Galaxy Digital Invests $44 Million Into Institutional Cryptocurrency

by Blockchain News

In order to access its exclusive asset storage and management capabilities, Galaxy Digital has put $44 million into an institutional bitcoin custody platform.

The purchase of GK8, a company that has created its own patent bitcoin custody system with the intention of providing safe asset management for institutional customers, has been successfully completed by the cryptocurrency investment business owned by Mike Novogratz.

The firm specializes in the provision of cold vault technology, which enables transactions to be carried out despite the absence of a connection to the internet. It has the potential to automate transactions thanks to its in-house multi-party computation (MPC) vault, and the service also gives access to decentralized finance (DeFi) networks, tokenization, and NFT trading.

According to a statement released by Novogratz, one of the primary motivations for the purchase was the rising demand for custody services among investors. The cold storage solutions and wallet technologies developed by GK8 will be integrated into GalaxyOne, the premier brokerage platform that will soon be released by Galaxy Digital.

As a result of the business transaction, Galaxy will expand its operations to include a location in Tel Aviv, where they will bring on approximately 40 staff formerly employed by GK8. Lior Lamesh and Shahar Shamai, co-founders of GK8, will continue in their roles as leaders of Galaxy’s custodial technologies offering after the company was acquired.

At the time of its introduction, GalaxyOne is expected to provide institutional-grade consumers with access to a comprehensive variety of bitcoin financial services. Trading, lending, derivatives, cross-portfolio margining, and custodial offers are all going to be a part of this. All of these are going to be handled by GK8.

In December 2022, Galaxy announced the purchase of Argo Blockchain’s primary mining operation for the price of $65 million. This move was Galaxy’s way of doubling down on its investments in the cryptocurrency mining business. In order to avoid going bankrupt during a challenging year for the mining industry, the mining company was forced to sell up its Helios mining plant.

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UNICEF calls for child safeguards amid mainstream crypto adoption

by Cointelegraph

The United Nations Children’s Fund has called for incorporating child safeguards into online child protection initiatives, citing financial and exploitative threats posed by unregulated crypto markets.

UNICEF’s “Prospects for children in 2022” report, which examines the impact of global trends on children, anticipates further mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies — “demonstrating both the promise of greater financial inclusion and the need for new child safeguards.”

Source: UNICEF

The report shows that digital currencies have gained widespread interest in 87 countries by the end of 2021, with the majority of jurisdictions experimenting on their own versions of a central bank digital currency. UNICEF expects a similar growth trajectory in 2022, as the report states:

“A potential alliance between governments, large banks and investment firms against challenger banks and blockchain-based finance could arise in many countries.”

The push for crypto’s mainstream adoption is also fueled by the economic pressures levied by the COVID-19 pandemic. As UNICEF reported, the economic recovery in high-income countries will slow will see an increase this year despite factoring in future disruptions from the pandemic.

Source: UNICEF

UNICEF also expects the collaboration of governments, large banks and investment firms with crypto and blockchain firms:

“These developments will eventually require the emergence of national and international legal and regulatory frameworks. As we wait to see what direction these trends take us in, the implications for children hang in the balance.”

With mainstreaming of cryptocurrencies, UNICEF acknowledges the significant benefits bestowed via financial inclusion and “frictionless remittances and more instant, transparent and efficient social assistance programs.”

However, the United Nations agency warns about the threats posed by unregulated markets to the well-being of children, such as stability of financial systems and deteriorating government revenues. 

Calling out for new child safeguarding reforms, the report also highlights some of the possible negative impacts of unregulated transactions that support child trafficking, sexual exploitation, the sale and purchase of content depicting child abuse, and defrauding and extortion of children. On an end note, UNICEF suggested:

“Now is the time to begin incorporating cryptocurrency and digital currency child safeguards into online child protection initiatives.”

Related: Nations to adopt Bitcoin, crypto users to reach 1B by 2023: Report

A Crypto.com report predicts that global crypto users could reach one billion by the end of 2022. As Cointelegraph reported, the global crypto population increased by 178% in 2021, rising from 106 million in January to 295 million in December.

Source: Crypto.com

Crypto.com’s report estimates that “If we extrapolate a similar rate of increase in 2022, we are on track to reach 1 billion crypto users by the end of 2022.”