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MinePlex Digital and Crypto Bank Secures $100M in GEM Funding

The funds will be used in new banking technologies, including a collaboration with Mastercard and Visa for cryptocurrency transactions.

In another round of investments in the cryptocurrency space, Singapore-based crypto bank MinePlex has secured $100 million from digital asset investment firm GEM Digital Limited (GEM) with the aim of bridging the gap between the digital assets and traditional banks.

According to an announcement on Oct. 11, MinePlex will use the funds to develop new banking technologies, including a collaboration with Mastercard and Visa for transactions that accept Tether (USDT), Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and TRON (TRX). .

Uniting digital assets and traditional banking services is the great bet of MinePlex.

The platform offers fiat and crypto asset services within the same app, enabling transactions such as bill payments and crypto asset purchases.

Introducing CrossFi, MinePlex co-founder and CEO Aleksandr Mamasidikov explained to Cointelegraph:

“We created CrossFi, a new technology running on the LPoS (Liquid Proof of Stake) consensus algorithm and the innovative MinePlex blockchain, offering advantages such as simplicity, operational speed and low fees.”

According to MinePlex, its native MinePlex token (PLEX) will also be listed on the new exchanges as part of the fundraising efforts.

The company also plans to open new offices in South Africa, Australia, India and Brazil, in addition to those already established in Barcelona, ​​Dubai, Uruguay and Singapore. The company claims to have processed more than five million cards in 50 banks in Russia, Europe and Asia.

GEM is a $3.4 billion alternative investment group that has been a source of capital for other startups in the cryptocurrency space.

In September, ParallelChain Lab secured $50 million in funding from GEM following the launch of its parent XPLL token, while Sports Metaverse startup LootMogul secured a $200 million investment commitment from Gem Global Yield.

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Visa Launches Bitcoin and Crypto Debit Cards in 40 Countries in Partnership with FTX

The partnership allows FTX Exchange users in 40 countries to easily spend their bitcoins and cryptocurrencies at any merchant that accepts Visa cards.

FTX is launching bitcoin and cryptocurrency-backed debit cards in 40 countries.

The exchange has partnered with Visa and will focus on Latin America, Asia and Europe.

Despite the bear market, Visa believes bitcoin holders still want to use BTC for payments.

Visa has partnered with one of the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges, FTX, to launch bitcoin and cryptocurrency debit cards, according to a CNBC report.

The offer will be available to FTX users in more than 40 countries, with a focus on Latin America, Asia and Europe.

Visa, along with its competitors in the market, continues to assert that bitcoin and cryptocurrency users still want to use their holdings as a medium of exchange, even amid a bear market downturn.

“While stocks are down, there is still a steady interest in cryptocurrencies,” said Visa Chief Financial Officer Vasant Prabhu, according to the report.

Debit cards, which are already available in the US, simply connect to the FTX platform, allowing users to spend digital assets in their wallets without the need to withdraw assets from the exchange platform.

“We don’t have a position as a company on what the value of cryptocurrency should be, or if it’s a good thing in the long run — as long as people have things they want to buy, we want to make it easy.” said Prabhu.

Visa’s main competitor, Mastercard, has also partnered with several different companies to offer debit cards that support bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. American Express has also expressed interest in offering a similar product, though its chief executive said it likely wouldn’t be “any time soon”.

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Spanish Football League Laliga partners with Globant to support new Web3 and Metaverse initiatives

Laliga, the top soccer league in Spain, announced a partnership with Globant, an Argentine software giant, to bring Web3 and metaverse experiences to its fans. The association will combine Globant’s technological resources with Laliga’s technology division to create products that expand the organization’s reach in the digital world.

Laliga asks Globant to help him build his metaverse stack

Large sports organizations are approaching the digital world as a way to reach new fans and offer new interaction possibilities for their users. Laliga, the main football league in Spain, recently announced a partnership that will serve to expand the company’s digital reach. The organization has partnered with Globant, a software giant based in Buenos Aires, to create metaverse and Web3 experiences for current fans and new users.

These new additions would complement the current digital offer of Laliga’s technology division, which currently includes fantasy games, web design and development, among other areas. The press release outlining the deal hints at possible game development using these new technologies. However, no specific products were announced directly as a result of the partnership.

Oscar Mayo, CEO of Laliga, stated:

LaLiga Tech was created to help sports and entertainment accelerate their digital transformation, and the increase in demand we have seen shows that it remains a core priority for the industry. Partnering with Globant will allow us to continue this growth on a global scale while creating the most immersive and valuable technologies for our customers.

Laliga metaverse movements

Laliga is one of the sports league organizations that has been making several moves to digitize part of its operations. This month, the company partnered with Ethereum-based metaverse platform Decentraland to offer licensed IP experiences in one of the packages available in its metaverse. In addition, the organization recently launched its own application, called MAS, which includes blockchain technology to protect the identity of its followers.

Additionally, the company is entering the traditional game asset market by offering licensed products in Mojang’s Minecraft block game. In the game, users will be able to purchase a pack of skins to equip any character with jerseys from the different teams present in the Laliga squad.

Laliga has also featured NFT-based projects before. In 2021, it partnered with Dapper Labs, makers of NBA Top Shots and Cryptokitties, to issue NFTs depicting the greatest moments in league history.

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Italian soccer champion AC Milan reveals NFT partnership with MonkeyLeague

Italian soccer club AC Milan has announced a non-fungible token (NFT) partnership with web3 game MonkeyLeague.

MonkeyLeague has become AC Milan’s newest NFT gaming partner

As revealed in a post on the club’s website, AC Milan and MonekyLeague plan to create a variety of non-fungible tokens together as part of the deal.

AC Milan is an Italian football club with one of the richest histories in all of Europe. The team is currently the defending champion of Serie A, the highest league division in the country.

“We are excited to start this partnership with MonkeyLeague, a collaboration that allows us to strengthen our position in the field of digital innovation,” said the Italian club’s chief revenue officer, Casper Stylsvig.

“We are particularly proud to be the first football club to partner with MonkeyLeague, bringing this game to our fans around the world and offering them an innovative new way to interact with their favorite team.”

MonkeyLeague is a web3 soccer game in which users create and manage teams of NFT-based characters and compete against other players to climb the league ranks.

The game is based on the Solana blockchain and uses its own native token called MonkeyBucks for the in-game economy.

As part of the NFT gaming partnership, MonkeyLeague will work closely with the football club to create exclusive AC Milan gaming assets, wearables, special gaming tournaments, co-marketing events and a host of other exciting initiatives. as game tests of the club’s players. .”

The first batch of these collectibles is scheduled to launch on October 6 on the MagicEden marketplace, where the tokens will be sold at auction and awarded to the highest bidder.

Oren Langberg, MonkeyLeague’s director of marketing and partnerships, commented: “Associating with champions like AC Milan, an absolutely iconic club throughout football history, is yet another testament to what we are building and where we are headed. We run as a game studio. games. It also represents a key step in our plans to bridge the Web2 and Web3 worlds.”

Cryptocurrency and NFT-related partnerships like these are nothing new to the world of sports and certainly not new to the Italian club. Last year, Milan signed a sponsorship deal with cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX.

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Payments company Bolt cancels deal to acquire cryptocurrency company Wyre

California-based online payments company Bolt pulls out of a deal to buy cryptocurrency provider Wyre. News of the scrapped deal, which was agreed earlier this year, comes amid plummeting valuations in the cryptocurrency and fintech sectors.

Bolt Abandons Wyre’s $1.5 Billion Acquisition Plan

Bolt Financial, a San Francisco-based U.S. technology company, said on Friday that it had canceled a deal to buy cryptocurrency infrastructure provider Wyre Payments, Reuters reported Saturday. The e-commerce platform announced in early April a definitive agreement to acquire Wyre for $1.5 billion.

The deal was considered one of the biggest acquisitions of cryptocurrency companies this year. After a funding round in January, Bolt was last valued at $11 billion. The report notes, however, that high-tech valuations are under more pressure as investor confidence has been hit by recession fears and negative stock market developments.

Payment processor Stripe and fintech firm Klarna Bank also made significant valuation cuts, Reuters noted. Industry valuations have also dropped significantly in the cryptocurrency sector during the market slump in recent months.

In a statement released, Bolt emphasized that he will continue his partnership with Wyre. The online payments company explained that remaining independent would allow it to focus on its core areas of business. The company’s CEO, Maju Kuruvilla, was quoted as saying:

We will continue our existing business partnership with Wyre to pave the way for the integration of cryptocurrencies into our ecosystem, bringing Wyre's innovative cryptocurrency infrastructure to the world.

Wyre offers blockchain-connected payment APIs and fiat ramps for cryptocurrency, forex and cryptocurrency liquidity to users of various cryptocurrency projects. It was created in 2013 and, like Bolt, which was founded a year later, is based in San Francisco.