Digital asset manager Grayscale Investments has unveiled a new cryptocurrency fund dedicated to smart contract platforms excluding Ethereum, underscoring growing investor appetite for alternative blockchain networks. The Grayscale Smart Contract Platform Ex-Ethereum Fund, also known by the ticker symbol GSCPxE, is the company’s 18th investment product. The fund will provide exposure to seven smart contract platforms at the following weightings: Cardano (ADA): 24.63% Solana (SOL): 24.27% Avalanche (AVAX): 16.96% Polkadot (DOT): 16.16% Polygon (MATIC): 9.65% Algorand (ALGO): 4.27% Stellar (XLM): 4.06% Grayscale said the new fund is now open for daily subscription by accredited investors. Ethereum’s dominance as the premier …

After spending years ridiculing Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, Wall Street’s billionaire class is finally warming up to the idea of virtual assets powering the digital economy. This week, Citadel founder and billionaire Ken Griffin formally backtracked on his anti-crypto stance as he announced that his firm would begin offering digital assets to its clients. Of course, Griffin isn’t the only wealthy investor to have a change of heart, so we’re not going to bust his chops too much. So, while crypto analysts continue to debate about whether we are in a bull or bear market, institutions, venture capitalists and ordinary people …

Grayscale parent Digital Currency Group, better known as DCG, announced that it intends to repurchase up to $250 million in shares for various Grayscale investment products. The share repurchase program is centered around Grayscale’s Litecoin Trust, Horizon Trust, Zcash Trust and other Grayscale products, DCG confirmed on Wednesday. The pace and timing of the share repurchase are not fixed and will depend on several factors, “including the levels of cash available, price, and prevailing market conditions,” the company said. Digital Currency Group Announces $250 Million Share Repurchase Program for Grayscale® Litecoin Trust (OTCQX: $LTCN), Grayscale® Horizen Trust (OTCQX: $HZEN), Grayscale® …

Blockchain data indexing protocol The Graph has launched a $205 million ecosystem fund to lure new developers to its platform, offering further evidence that venture capital firms were still keen to support growth funds centered around decentralized applications. The ecosystem fund was financed by Digital Currency Group, Multicoin Capital, Reciprocal Ventures, Gumi Cryptos Capital, NCG and HashKey. The fund’s stated purpose is to accelerate the growth and development of key projects in The Graph’s ecosystem. HashKey Capital managing director Deng Chao said the company will provide resources and guidance to decentralized application developers and projects looking to gain access to …

Digital Currency Group CEO and founder Barry Silbert has purchased more ZCash to add to his company’s coffers as the price of the token moved above $240 for the first time in days. In a Wednesday tweet to his more than 678,000 followers, Silbert announced the purchase of $85 million in Zcash (ZEC), or roughly 376,106 tokens assuming an average price of $226. The buy is just the latest for Silbert, who seems to be portraying himself as a contrarian in the crypto market — responding to negative comments on ZEC by purchasing millions more. Alright, you asked for it. …

Zcash (ZEC) surged by nearly 20% in the past 24 hours, helped by the euphoria surrounding its core protocol's decisive transition from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS). The ZEC price logged an intraday high at $188.80 on Binance after rising two days in a row by more than 27%. The cryptocurrency's move upside also wiped out a big portion of the losses it had faced earlier this week, in the wake of a downside retracement across the crypto market. ZEC price jumped after the cryptocurrency's main developer, Electric Coin Company (ECC), announced that it would move Zcash's protocol from PoW …

New York-based crypto-mining service provider Foundry USA takes the lead to become the world’s second-largest Bitcoin (BTC) mining pool after taking up a 15.42% share of the network. Data from BTC.com shows that Digital Currency Group-owned Foundry USA stands behind the pool leader AntPool by a hash rate of just 4,000 PH/s, which contributed to a 17.76% network share at the time of writing. The rise in the participation of American entities can be attributed to China’s recent blanket ban on crypto trading and mining activities. The ban forced a large-scale migration of local Bitcoin miners, who now reside in …

On Thursday, the Digital Currency Group (DCG) announced that it has raised $600 million in a new credit facility, making its debut into the debt capital markets. The debt funding round was led by private equity firm Eldridge. The company stated that the increase, which provides DCG with a credit facility enabling it to draw on as needed, "enhances DCG's strategic, operational, and financial capabilities" by lowering its cost of capital and boosting the development of its investment portfolio and fully owned enterprises. Another US$600m for @LunoGlobal parentco @DCGco to help us upgrade the world to a better financial system. …

European security startup Nym Technologies has announced a $13 million funding round coordinated by renowned crypto investor Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z, and further participated by a venture capital firms Digital Currency Group, Tayssir Capital, Huobi Ventures, Hashkey and Fenbush. This third funding round represented their highest raise to date, following seed funding of $2,5 million in May 2019 and Series A raise of $6 million in July 2021 — Polychain Capital led the latter of which — according to financial data from Crunchbase. Nym Technologies is an open-source, decentralized infrastructure that aims to surpass the typical third-party privacy services offered …

Digital Currency Group (DCG), one of the largest companies in the cryptocurrency industry, has completed a major secondary investment round led by Japanese financial giant SoftBank. DCG has sold $700 million worth of shares to companies like Google’s parent company, Alphabet, to bring its valuation to more than $10 billion, the company officially announced Monday. “Proud to welcome SoftBank, CapitalG, Ribbit, GIC, Tribe and Emory to an already fantastic list of DCG shareholders. And even more proud of over 1,000 employees of DCG and our wholly-owned subsidiaries that made this happen,” DCG CEO and founder Barry Silbert said. In a …

According to an announcement issued on Wednesday, DCG is now authorized to buy up to $1 billion worth of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). This development extends DCG’s prior authorization by $250 million if they choose to do so. Indeed, DCG has so far purchased $338 million in GBTC, according to the company’s announcement on Wednesday. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, DCG had purchased $193.5 million worth of GBTC shares back in May 2021. At the time, the firm’s GBTC purchase limit stood at $250 million. As part of the announcement, DCG revealed that it plans to use cash on hand …

Digital Currency Group, the venture capital firm behind some of the biggest companies in blockchain, has become the second-largest shareholder of Streami, a leading cryptocurrency exchange operator in South Korea. Barry Silbert, founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group, explained his rationale for backing Streami: “We expanded our investment in Streami because of their fantastic team and the incredible potential of the digital asset market in South Korea. Streami provides the critical foundation for this market to scale rapidly, and our investment will fuel its position as the most trusted digital asset platform in Korea.” The investment includes a regional …