BoA eyes crypto future ??; Goldman goes DeFi? ??; Coinbase now live in Germany????
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Last week (2-7 August) was another super hot and interesting week in Blockchain & Cryptocurrency space.?We will look at?Bank of America eying crypto future; Goldman Sachs, one of the most prestigious banks in the world, exploring DeFi, and Coinbase launch in Germany, and other interesting news and developments.
Without further ado, let us dive into what has happened in the financial technology sector last week. Let’s connect the dots.
BoA eyes crypto future ??
What’s the catch? ???It appears that?Bank of America (BoA)?was a leading strategic investor in?Paxos’?recent?$300 million Series D round.
Oak HC/FT?led the funding round, which also included PayPal Ventures and Mithril Capital, among others.
USP ?? Paxos?provides cryptocurrency brokerage service, asset tokenization services, and settlement services. Bank of America?joined?the Paxos Settlement Service earlier this year. The platform uses blockchain technology to achieve the same-day settlement of stock trades.
THE TAKEAWAY
It’s not about Paxos - it’s about BoA here.?As stated in the headline, this development is more about Bank of America rather than Paxos. The fact that the second-largest bank in the world by market capitalization is showing interest in the future of blockchain and cryptocurrency, is a huge thing. One can remember that the BoA also opened?bitcoin futures trading?for select clients earlier in the month. The crypto game is only getting started! ??
Goldman goes DeFi? ??
The news ???Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs has recently filed an?application?with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that would offer exposure to public companies in?decentralized finance?and blockchain around the globe.
The fund ???Sparse on details, the filing noted that the fund would invest at least 80% of its assets into companies that advance blockchain technology and the digitization of finance.
“The Goldman Sachs Innovate DeFi and Blockchain Equity ETF (the ‘Fund’) seeks to provide investment results that closely correspond, before fees and expenses, to the performance of the?Solactive Decentralized Finance and Blockchain Index?(the ‘Index’),” the filing said.
Global coverage ???The markets that Goldman would be picking from would include Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.
THE TAKEAWAY
Hype ??♂??It appears that the ETF is composed of companies that have shown interest in blockchain technology, but has little to no relation to actual DeFi.?Nokia,?Facebook?and?Alphabet?are the top allocated equities in the proposed ETF. But it’s good marketing nevertheless!
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Coinbase now live in Germany????
The launch ???One of the biggest crypto platforms?Coinbase?has announced launching the subsidiary Coinbase Germany to serve the German market.?
Local services ?????Coinbase Germany will offer institutional and end-customers secure and regulated access to cryptocurrencies. What’s a bit different here is that the exchange is expanding its product range with a staking offer and German earn rates, meaning German customers can generate passive income with their cryptocurrencies.
Obviously, German-speaking customer support and options for institutional customers will be expanded over the long term.
Regulation first ???It must be noted that all services offered by Coinbase Germany are subject to the supervision of the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). This is the approach Coinbase has taken from day 1, and it quite differs from some other big names in the market. It might be one of the reasons it became the first crypto exchange to ever go public.
?? THE TAKEAWAY
Bumpy road ???Although it had some big expectations, Coinbase’s IPO wasn’t a blast. In fact, the stock is going down quite steadily and has lost close to 30% since the public debut. On the other hand, many analysts believe it’s still a buy based on the potential growth and maturing market. Having that in mind, it will be very interesting to see whether Coinbase will manage to get strong in the German market, especially having the regulation-first approach in mind. Germany is a huge market with growing crypto interest. But what matters here is the execution.
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About: I am?a business developer, sales professional, FinTech strategist, as well as Cryptocurrency and Blockchain enthusiast. I'm highly passionate about Financial Technology and Digital Innovation, and strongly believe that it will change the world for the better. Apart from my daily job at a global payments startup where I'm leading the company's expansion into Europe, I'm an active member of the FinTech community and a TechFin evangelist.
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