Nearly half of Gen Z and Millennials want to see crypto become a part of their 401(k) retirement plans, according to an October survey from United States asset manager Charles Schwab. Asking participants what they would like to see added to their 401(k) retirement products, the firm found that 46% of Gen Z and 45% of Millennials said they "wish" they could invest in cryptocurrencies as part of their retirement planning. It shouldn't come as a surprise, as the survey also found that 43% of Gen Z and 47% of Millennials are investing in cryptocurrencies outside their 401(k) already, which …

South Korea’s financial watchdog, The Financial Service Commission (FSC), would monitor crypto whales with assets of over 100 million won ($70,000) to prevent money laundering efforts using digital assets. The FSC noted that the greater the proportion of virtual assets and stablecoins, the higher the money laundering risk. Thus, special focus should be placed on monitoring crypto whales with significant digital asset and stablecoin holdings under the new anti-money laundering guidelines, reported local media. The report also drew attention to the use of stablecoins in money laundering and noted that stablecoins, especially those that are commonly used by the public, …

$4.5 trillion asset management firm Fidelity Investments is reportedly set to hire another 100 people to bolster the firm's growing digital assets division — a stark contrast to the recent squeezing out of crypto-talent. A Fidelity representative told Bloomberg on Oct. 22 that the firm has begun a new round of hiring which will bring the Fidelity Digital Asset’s headcount to around 500 by the end of the first quarter of 2023. A search on Fidelity’s job board currently shows 74 live results for digital asset-related positions, which cover areas relating to blockchain technology, business analysis, customer service, finance and …

Institutional adoption of digital assets is “moving very, very fast,” and much faster than the rate nascent industries ordinarily develop at, says Coinbase Senior Advisor John D’Agostino. In an Oct. 18 interview with SALT moderated by Anthony Scaramucci, D’Agostino said that new asset classes often take time to develop, as “institutional inertia is a very real thing” and “there’s a lot of switching costs associated with adding new assets” but that this hasn’t been the case with crypto. “So for me, for someone who spent 15 years trying to get commodities to be mainstream, it’s actually moving fast. But I …

The French stock market regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), approved France’s Société Générale bank as a digital assets service provider (DASP) on Sept. 27. Société Générale joined international operators such as Voyager, Bitpanda, Binance and Etoro as registered DASPs. The bank did not announce its approval. Société Générale’s digitally focused Forge subsidiary was registered to provide digital assets custody, purchase/sale of digital assets for legal tender and trading of digital assets against other digital assets. The French bank announced in June that it was partnering with Metaco, a digital asset management and infrastructure provider, to develop its digital …

Anchorage Digital co-founder and president Diogo Mónica believe there is immense opportunity in Asia’s institutional investors, with the digital asset infrastructure provider on Oct. 5 announcing a “major expansion” of its platform into the region. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Mónica said the company chose Singapore as a “jump point” into the wider Asia market as the country has become a hub for crypto companies and has a strong regulatory environment. Anchorage is currently undertaking the application process with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the city-state's central bank. “It’s about being in a regime that’s friendly towards crypto and that businesses …

Cathie Wood's investment firm, ARK Investment, is making its two actively managed crypto strategies available to registered investment advisors. The strategies will be available as separately managed accounts (SMA) through a collaboration with the digital asset platform Eaglebrook, the companies announced on October 3. The ARK Cryptocurrency Strategy aims to capitalize on the monetary revolution, said the companies in the statement, claiming that it "could serve as a strategic allocation in well-diversified portfolios." Cathie Wood, ARK's founder and CEO, said: "The strategies will be separately managed accounts (SMAs) designed to meet the needs of financial advisors, wealth managers, and their …

The Vienna-based fintech unicorn Bitpanda is harkening back to the ways of traditional finance (TradFi) through new offerings on its exchange platform. By adding commodities to its list of available investment options, Bitpanda aims to provide its users to benefit from short-term price fluctuations in more traditional instruments, such as oil, natural gas and wheat. Bitpanda CEO Eric Demuth told Cointelegraph that due to investor demand, the line between TradFi and decentralized finance (DeFi) is becoming more blurred every year. “People want to be able to trade multiple asset classes simply, safely and conveniently, and TradFi is catching up to …

Ethereum investment products increased by 2.36% to $6.81 billion in assets under management (AUM) throughout August, outperforming Bitcoin products which saw a 7.16% drop off to $17.4 billion. The figures were contained in a new report by CryptoCompare. This was also reflected in the Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH)-product trading volumes, with Grayscale’s most notable Bitcoin product, GBTC experiencing a 24.4% drop in volume, while its Ethereum product, GETH actually increased 23.2%. CryptoCompare's report suggeste the highly anticipated Ethereum Merge was the cause behind the change in trading volumes: Indeed, even at a more granular level, no Bitcoin products covered …

Despite Bitcoin’s (BTC) promise of a peer-to-peer world, building a Bitcoin-first business in 2022 still requires third-party intermediaries. Whether it’s startup capital, using fiat money or simply exploiting fiat payment rails, Bitcoin business means interaction with the legacy financial system. A necessity for the vast majority of Bitcoin-based businesses, it means that they probably need a bank. Cointelegraph spoke to Bitcoin-only businesses about their experiences working with banks, given that ultimately, Bitcoin gets a lot of bad press in mainstream media. Plus, some of the banking industry’s biggest supporters love to bash Bitcoin. Ben Price, founder of the Bitcoin Company, …

While mainstream coverage of cryptocurrency has been overwhelmingly negative in the wake of the collapse of the Terra ecosystem, the bankruptcy of Celsius and the fall of Three Arrows Capital, these events ultimately show why more of the financial system should operate on-chain, bringing more transparency and information to market participants. In all three cases, the damage was caused and exacerbated by opaque, off-chain entities. And while the reason for the trio of events is important, it has also caused considerable damage to the overall reputation of the industry. These events have made it clear that the industry is in …

Inc. magazine has named BlockFi the fastest growing company in the United States in 2022. At the top of the magazine’s Inc. 5000 2022 list, it experienced 245,616% growth, a lead of more than 99,000% over the second-place company, a platform for hiring nurses. The median growth rate was 230% across all 5,000 entries. The Inc. list “ranks companies by overall revenue growth over a three-year period,” according to the magazine. In the fast-moving world of crypto, three years is practically an epoch, and BlockFi’s achievement is especially notable after a number of dramatic turns for the company and the …