Illinois-based financial services company First Midwest Bank’s trust division has reported it held 29,498 shares of Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust as of the second quarter of 2021. According to an institutional investment manager holdings report filed by the First Midwest Bank Trust Division to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company increased its shares of Grayscale’s Bitcoin (BTC) Trust by more than 283% over that of the first quarter of 2021, from 7,693 shares at the end of March to 29,498 shares in two separate lots on June 30. First Midwest reported the holdings were worth $880,000 at the time …

From QR code payments to mobile banking apps, consumers worldwide are increasingly reliant on digital payment solutions, especially as mobile technology becomes more ubiquitous. Government-led efforts in driving cashless economies have been a key factor, with countries such as Singapore or the Philippines seeing their central banks driving the adoption of contactless payments during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, usage rates for digital payments platforms have recorded promising growth, even as high as 5,000% in the Philippines alone. Related: Digitized Europe: The shift to a cashless world This unprecedented rise in cashless payments is also paving …

Decentralized finance came to life with the inception of Ethereum in 2013. However, it truly hit the ground running in 2016–2017 with the backing of Ethereum developers and some entrepreneurs and experts in the financial investment sphere. To get our facts right and clear all misconceptions, DeFi encapsulates a variety of financial applications in cryptocurrency or blockchain that are geared toward removing intermediaries between parties in financial transactions. Related: The great unbanking: How DeFi is completing the job Bitcoin started A large majority of DeFi applications are built on top of Ethereum. The first major, and the largest, DeFi application …

Support for the Algorand ecosystem appears to be growing, with digital asset manager Arrington Capital earmarking $100 million for projects building on the smart-contract platform. The massive Arrington Algorand Growth Fund, or AAGF, has been designed to accelerate additional development across all facets of the smart contract platform, the company announced Thursday. This includes applications spanning the DeFi, traditional finance, public sector and NFT marketplaces. AAGF will invest in an array of Algorand-focused projects, including native cryptocurrencies that drive new financial applications on the network. Arrington Capital was founded by TechCrunch and Crunchbase founder Michael Arrington. The company oversees more …

The financial industry has seen a rise in demand for exposure to digital — and crypto — assets in all asset classes. This has led to interest, demand and investment from institutional finance, ranging from digital asset custody to digital asset trading desks, regulatory and compliance frameworks, and audit and risk models. It is fair to say that digital assets have taken the financial services industry by storm. While the attention and investment from traditional finance in decentralized finance (DeFi) is hailed as a progressive step, there are enormous challenges and hurdles that financial services and institutions need to consider …

Last month, Bitcoin (BTC) reached above $60,000, highlighting the current frenzy around digital currencies. Following BTC, altcoins also saw substantial increases in value. All of this is music to the ears of long-term and short-term bull investors seeking increased gains, even with the current pullback and support of Bitcoin hovering around $40,000. However, despite all the hype around the current bull run, a lack of digital asset liquidity continues to be a significant challenge for exchanges, traders, token issuers and market makers. The reality of today’s market is that professional crypto traders cannot efficiently access global liquidity or find the …

Spanish stock exchange Bolsas y Mercados Españoles, or BME is set to test its blockchain infrastructure for small- and medium-sized enterprise financing following a successful pilot run back in 2020. According to Finextra on Friday, this next set of trials by BME will involve businesses that are part of the country’s SME financing ecosystem under the aegis of a regulatory sandbox created by Spain’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, this sandbox is seen as an important step in promoting greater fintech development in Spain, with a focus on improving greater competition while reducing …

Babel Finance, a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency financial services provider, has secured $40 million in venture capital financing to expand its offerings to more institutional clients. The Series A investment round was led by Zoo Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Dragonfly Capital, BAI Capital and Bertelsmann, and Tiger Global Management, the company announced Monday. Venture capital and private equity funds from North America, Asia and Europe participated in the raise. Flex Yang, CEO of Babel Finance, said the investment round will aid the company in meeting growing institutional demand for crypto assets: “The alliance with our new investors from traditional finance is …

In the past, there were plenty of reasons for financial advisers to dismiss Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies as a worthy investment, but all of that is starting to change as more institutions become attuned to the digital asset class. A face-melting rally for Bitcoin between September 2020 and April 2021 amplified the need to push beyond the narrative that digital assets are simply too volatile to include in client portfolios. In a keynote address at this year’s virtual Crypto Finance Conference St. Moritz in January, Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein outlined six major themes that could shape the cryptocurrency market …

John Whelan, the head of Banco Santander’s blockchain lab in Madrid, recently touted the potential for increased decentralized ledger technology adoption in mainstream finance. Speaking during a webinar organized by Fintech Surge and the Future Blockchain Summit on Wednesday, Whelan remarked: “I could imagine a future where there is a global settlement network for an asset class of securities that operates in a fully controlled, private, permissioned layer-two on top of a public blockchain network.” While acknowledging that current public blockchain networks might not be optimized for high-frequency transactions, Whelan highlighted their suitability for settlements in the financial services arena. …

To function effectively, society has long depended on people having faith in their institutions. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and wide-ranging failures of leadership, that faith has been tested like never before. Nowhere is the decline in trust more evident than in the financial services sector. In its 2021 Trust Barometer, Edelman found that only 53% of American respondents said they trusted those in the U.S. to "do what is right" — down 5% from its 2020 survey. You can see this in the battle between Main Street and Wall Street, which played out in January’s GameStop rally. More than …

Retail trading platform YIELD App has launched a beta version of its web platform, giving retail traders direct access to the fast-moving DeFi market. The new platform, which is designed to simply DeFi access for the masses, registered 2,000 early users and collected $3 million during its private beta phase. Its investors include BnkToTheFuture, Alphabit Fund, Digital Strategies, PALCapital, Yeoman’s Capital, and Chronos VC in a hybrid fund. The platform enables direct investment in YIELD App’s DeFi Alpha Fund I, which reportedly provides up to 20% APY through interest on stablecoins and token holdings. App users can deposit and withdraw …