Calls from the crypto community for Ukraine to accept other cryptocurrencies have been answered. The official Ukraine Twitter account shared that it will now accept donations from Polkadot (DOT), while other cryptocurrencies will soon be added. The people of Ukraine are grateful for the support and donations from the global crypto community as we protect our freedom. We are now accepting Polkadot donations too: $DOT: 1x8aa2N2Ar9SQweJv9vsuZn3WYDHu7gMQu1RePjZuBe33Hv. More cryptocurrencies to be accepted soon. — Ukraine / Україна (@Ukraine) March 1, 2022 Gavin Wood, the co-founder of Polkadot had previously shared that if the Ukraine wallets were to add DOT, he would …

Global crypto exchange platform FTX launched a fund called the FTX Future Fund with an aim to support long-term improvements for humankind. The project will deploy up to a billion dollars to support projects focusing on safe artificial intelligence development, reducing biorisk dangers, effective altruism and more. According to the announcement, the team will support both non-profit and for-profit ventures as long as it aligns with the fund's mission such as protecting future generations by addressing issues such as poverty and environmental problems. The fund also aims to look for projects pushing technological progress forward. The firm also underscores that …

South African crypto exchange VALR has raised $50 million in a Series B equity funding round, marking the largest-ever funding for an African crypto exchange. With this latest round of funding, VALR’s valuation has increased to $240 million, a 10X in growth since it raised its $3.4 million in a Series A round in July 2020. This round was led by VC Pantera Capital, Alameda Research, Coinbase Ventures, and several others. VALR claims to have processed over $7.5 billion in trading volume since 2019 from over 250,000 retail customers and 500 global institutional users. It currently has about 420 BTC …

Within the first week of the Russia-Ukraine war, the Ukrainian government has reached out to the crypto community on Twitter for raising funds to support its civilians and troops. Ukraine has now started accepting Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Tether (USDT) as donations. As Russia threatens to take over Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv, the government of Ukraine sought help from numerous international organizations to overpower the imminent threat. However, considering time is of the essence, the official Twitter account of Ukraine extended its call for help to Crypto Twitter. Stand with the people of Ukraine. Now accepting cryptocurrency donations. …

BitPanda, a Viena-based crypto exchange platform has made its maiden acquisition in the form of United Kingdom-based Trustology, a crypto custodian and wallet service provider for an undisclosed amount. BitPanda will rebrand the newly acquired fintech firm to BitPanda custody in a bid to start its native crypto custody services focused on institutional investors. The firm plans to begin its newly announced crypto custody services by taking custody of all its assets across its retail and institutional businesses. The firm claimed it would become the largest crypto custodian by doing so. The crypto platform’s first-ever acquisition comes after a series …

Welcome to the latest edition of Cointelegraph’s decentralized finance newsletter. This week has been full of funding raises, innovations, service deployments, and a bit of volatile technical price action — for a change. Axelar Network attains $1B valuation following secondary raise The Axelar Network announced the completion of a $35-million Series B funding round this week, elevating its total market valuation to over $1 billion and establishing its status as a unicorn corporation. Major participants of the round include Dragonfly Capital, Polychain Capital and North Island Ventures, among others. The network has implemented partnership integrations with a suite of validators, …

Last week’s Crypto Biz newsletter explained how Wall Street is essentially marketing Bitcoin (BTC) for us after Wells Fargo said digital assets could “soon hit a hyper-inflection point” in terms of adoption. This week, JPMorgan Chase issued its own bullish outlook when it labeled the metaverse a $1 trillion a year opportunity. In addition to JPMorgan, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) this week sent out a strong signal that nonfungible tokens (NYSE) and the metaverse are part of its long-term plans. On the regulatory front, the Republic of the Marshall Islands took a bold step in becoming a leader …

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 …

American venture capital firm Sequoia Capital has launched a new cryptocurrency fund as part of its ongoing efforts to bootstrap the next generation of promising crypto-focused startups. Bloomberg reported Thursday that Sequoia is allocating up to $600 million towards the new sector-specific fund. Shaun Maguire, a partner at Sequoia, described crypto as a “megatrend over the next 20 years” and called it “the future of money.” The new crypto fund is part of three new sub-funds that were introduced by Sequoia on Thursday. The new funds, which operate under the Sequoia Capital Fund, will rely on capital that’s already committed …

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway dumped a portion of its Visa and Mastercard holdings and increased exposure in Nubank, the largest fintech bank in Brazil that's also popular among the country's Bitcoin investors. In a securities filing late Monday, the industrials conglomerate disclosed that it had purchased $1 billion worth of Nubank Class A stock in Q4/2021. On the other hand, it sold $1.8 billion and $1.3 billion worth of Visa and Mastercard stock, respectively, signaling a shift away from credit companies to gain exposure in their fintech rivals. Buffett, the so-called "Oracle of Omaha," is popular for his cautious approach …

Venture capital funding in the cryptocurrency market is showing no signs of slowing, as major investors continue to back promising startups in niche industries spanning the metaverse, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and GameFi. Cointelegraph’s new series, VC Roundup, provides a rundown of some of the biggest funding stories of the past few weeks. To stay informed on the latest developments from the world of blockchain business, be sure to register for our Crypto Biz newsletter, which is delivered to your inbox every Thursday. Animoca Brands leads NFT3 raise Web3 identity network NFT3 raised $7.5 million in seed investments to continue building …

Analyzing the aggregate cryptocurrency market performance over the past 7 days could give investors the impression that the total market capitalization grew by a mere 4% to $2.03 trillion, but this data is heavily impacted by the top 5 coins, which happen to include two stablecoins. Excluding Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB) and stablecoins reflects a 9.3% market capitalization increase to $418 billion from $382 billion on Feb 4. This explains why so many of the top-80 altcoins hiked 25% or more while very few presented a negative performance. Gala Games (GALA) announced on Feb. 9 a partnership …