Amazon CEO on Crypto and NFTs, EPNS to Expand Beyond Ethereum + More News
Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
__________
Adoption newsEcommerce giant Amazon is “not probably close” to adding crypto as a payment mechanism to their retail business, CEO Andrew Jassy told CNBC. He didn’t rule out that it’s still possible and added that he expects NFTs to grow “very significantly.”
US football team The Dallas Cowboys announced a partnership with crypto platform Blockchain.com. The team will be adding a QR code on every seat of their stadium that will link to the Cowboys’ website and highlight Blockchain.com’s wallet so fans can learn more about crypto, they said.Australian market research company Roy Morgan said that 5% of surveyed Australians older than 18 now own at least one cryptoasset. 59% of investors are younger than 35, but Australians aged 50+, who make up only 13% of the investor base, have the largest average crypto investment at an average value of around AUD 56,200 (USD 41,580).Investments newsEthereum Push Notification Service (EPNS), a “decentralized” notification protocol, said it has raised a USD 10.1m Series A funding round, with an average valuation of USD 131m. Jump Crypto led the round. EPNS said they will use the funding from the Series A to expand the team, grow the user base, and develop beyond the Ethereum ecosystem “to stay true to the vision of a multi-chain, interoperable decentralized future.”Blockchain ecosystem Klaytn (KLAY) announced the launch of a USD 20m fund to create a Blockchain Research Center program, which would back research projects for the development of its blockchain technology over the next four years. The Request For Proposal, which is available for universities and research consortiums interested in blockchain-related research, will be open from April 14 to June 13.Skynet EGLD Capital, a fund that accepts in-kind subscriptions in Elrond (EGLD) native tokens, announced it raised more than USD 40m to support the development of the Elrond blockchain ecosystem. They added that “significant amounts” of capital have already been deployed into different existing solutions in the ecosystem.Digital currency investment platform Symphony Digital announced the closing of its inaugural fund, Symphony Digital Opportunities Fund, securing USD 40m from institutional and private investors.Exchanges newsGemini announced their Gemini Credit Card is now available in all 50 US states, enabling users to earn up to 3% crypto back on dining (some exclusions apply), 2% crypto back on groceries, and 1% crypto back on all other purchases.Bitfinex announced that it is enabling real-time Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) payments for euro-denominated deposits and withdrawals in collaboration with fiat on-ramp services provider OpenPayd.Indian crypto exchanges CoinSwitch Kuber and WazirX have disabled INR deposits for the purchase of cryptoassets through a widely-used state-backed transfer network Unified Payments Interface (UPI), per Reuters.Taxes newsCrypto tax software and blockchain analytics company ZenLedger announced a partnership with the major, France-based manufacturer of crypto hardware wallets, Ledger, to allow users to keep track of their taxes when using crypto.DeFi newsDecentralized storage and computing network Aleph.im announced that it will integrate with Tezos (XTZ) blockchain. Tezos-based decentralized apps (dapps) and marketplaces will be able to utilize Aleph’s distributed compute and storage nodes, they said.
