A megabank is offering investors access to a digital fund, while a16z just invested $70 million on an ether protocol.
Wall Street is continuing to embrace digital assets. They don’t need to tell us anything as the proof is in the fine print. According to a United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, a multinational investment bank has quietly offered clients exposure to ether through a company headed by a billionaire.
Goldman has worked with Galaxy Digital before to give clients a gateway to digital assets. The investment giant began trading a Bitcoin futures project in June 2021. Goldman Sachs sees the writing on the wall and sees the long-term potential of the emerging asset class. Either that or its clients want to invest in it.
In this week’s newsletter, there are classic stories about a major Wall Street bank expanding its cryptocurrencies offerings and venture capital continuing to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into Blockchain startups. We take a deeper look into the new gateway from Binance.
Goldman Sachs is hooking clients up with Galaxy Digital’s ETH fund
According to regulatory documents filed with the SEC, Goldman Sachs has begun offering ETH investments to its clients through Galaxy Digital, possibly opening the door to broader institutional adoption of digital assets. Goldman was listed as a recipient of introduction fees for referring clients in the Form D filing. Goldman will accept a minimum investment of $250,000 per client for exposure to an investment product. The filing appeared on the SEC’s website two days after Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman’s senior chairman, said he was “keeping an open mind” about cryptocurrencies.
Bain Capital Ventures sets up a half-billion-dollar fund for crypto projects
Bain Capital Ventures, a Massachusetts-based asset management firm, announced the creation of a $560 million fund dedicated to Blockchain startups. The firm has invested $100 million in 12 projects. The representative from Bain Capital said the fund was focused on supporting open internet infrastructure. I have been screaming from the rooftop that venture capital funding is changing the makeup of the industry. The influx of VC capital is one of the most bullish indicators we have.
Binance to focus on crypto payments with new subsidiary Bifinity
The world’s largest exchange by trading volume has a lot of resources to address the growing needs of the digital asset community. This week, the Changpeng Zhao-led company unveiled Bifinity, a new payment on ramp that allows merchants to provide services to their customers. Payment solutions such as Paysafe and Checkout.com have also been secured by Bifinity. The acquisition of Swipe by Swipe and the partnership with Zilliqa were both surprising.
Andreessen Horowitz invests $70M in Ethereum staking protocol Lido
The $70 million investment by the Silicon Valley firm in Lido Finance is a big deal. Lido’s developers will use the cash injection to support the adoption of staking solutions on Ethereum 2. Lido makes it easy for users to stake ether without having to meet the threshold for network validators. A few years ago, 32 ETH wasn’t much, but it now costs almost $90,000.
Before you go…
The Terra ecosystem is generating a lot of buzz in the community. The network’s native token Terra reached new all-time highs this week, after a 30% rally in just three days. In the latest edition of The Market Report, a deep dive was taken into up-and-coming Terra projects. You can watch the replay to learn more about projects such as Star Terra, Loop Finance and Mirror Protocol.
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