Prada & Adidas Launch NFTs on Polygon, USD 140B Man Group Mulls Crypto Fund + 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.

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NFTs news

• Italian luxury fashion house Prada and sportswear giant Adidas partnered to launch a new non-fungible token (NFT) project built on the Polygon (MATIC) network. The project is set to bring together participants across fashion, design, and crypto to co-create a large-scale digital artwork inspired by the physical Re-Nylon collection, they said, adding that they’re collaborating with digital artist Zach Lieberman. Proceeds from the NFT sales will be donated to charity and allocated to the artist and community creators.
• A dedicated physical museum for NFTs is opening on January 27 in Seattle, per DesignBoom. The showroom will put on display a number of artworks ranging from Larva Labs Cryptopunks series to Blake Kathryn and H+ Creative, among many others.
• Crypto exchange Bybit announced it is launching an NFT marketplace on January 20.

Investments news

• Investment firm Man Group, which manages almost USD 140bn in assets, is looking into creating a crypto fund for its clients, the CEO Luke Ellis said during Bloomberg’s The Year Ahead event. He added that he sees “interesting opportunities” to apply its risk management skills and technology to provide a sort of risk-controlled version of crypto for its clients.
• Privacy protocol Secret Network raised USD 400m in ecosystem funding. This comprises a USD 225m ecosystem fund and another USD 175m accelerator pool, the former being meant to expand their application layer, while the latter is for user adoption.
• Staking platform Stader Labs announced it has closed a USD 12.5m private sale led by Three Arrows Capital, valuing the company at USD 450m.
• Digital asset trading technology company BlockFills raised USD 37m in Series A round to fuel its expansion plans.
• Shakepay, a company that allows Canadians to buy, sell and earn bitcoin (BTC), has announced a CAD 44m (USD 35.3m) Series A investment led by QED investors. The funding should be used to scale the business and launch new products.
• Blockchain computing network Aleph.im raised USD 10m in a recent funding round led by Stratos Technologies. January marks the beginning of Aleph.im’s rollout of their first computing resource nodes that will eventually carry the bulk of the decentralized network’s processing power, they added.
• Web 3 brand Autograph announced a Series B funding round worth USD 170m co-led by a16z and Kleiner Perkins. The company has also appointed new board members, including Katie Haun who leads her own firm, Arianna Simpson who is General Partner at a16z, and Ilya Fushman, Partner at Kleiner Perkins.

Banking news

• According to US bank BNY Mellon’s Chief Executive Officer, Emily Portney, digital assets could create a significant source of revenue for the financial institution starting from next year, per Bloomberg. She also said that global watchdogs should implement clarity in the space, which could be a stepping stone for her bank.
• Moroccan banking service operator Attijariwafa Bank joined RippleNet, US-based fintech company Ripple‘s payment network, local outlet Boursenews reported. Members of the bank will be able to exchange transactions with each other from a number of destinations around the world, it added.

Regulation news

• Crypto exchanges are set to be a primary focus of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) crackdown on digital assets in 2022, per Bloomberg. The additional scrutiny is crucial for crypto investors to get the types of protections they get when trading stocks or other assets, according to SEC Chair Gary Gensler.
• Crypto exchange Zonda announced it was granted regulatory approval to operate in Canada.

Adoption news

• New York City Mayor Eric Adams said his first paycheck, coming this Friday, will be converted into ethereum (ETH) and BTC, Bloomberg reported. The money will be converted through crypto exchange Coinbase.

CBDCs news

• Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, has accused a Westminster committee of dismissing key arguments for the introduction of Britcoin, a digital version of the pound backed by the UK’s central bank, per City AM. Bailey said that the Bank of England should consider issuing its own digital currency to prevent commercial entities, planning to issue private digital currencies in the form of stablecoins, from taking over a key central bank monetary function.

Legal news

• Kavita Gupta, former head of Ethereum-focused blockchain company ConsenSys, accused her former employer of bullying her and creating a toxic work environment, particularly for women. She alleged that the firm mistreated her and was trying to avoid compensating her for investments that have made ConsenSys more than USD 300m. Meanwhile, as reported, ConsenSys filed a lawsuit against Gupta for resume fraud.