Insurance is key for financially securing important assets. Yet, the cryptocurrency sector — which is predicted to reach a global market size of $4.94 billion by 2030 — may be lagging behind when it comes to insuring digital assets. For instance, it’s been noted that less than 1% of all crypto investments are currently insured. This statistic is alarming, considering the rapid growth and high-risk profile associated with today’s cryptocurrency market. Ben Davis, team lead for digital assets at Superscript — a British startup and Lloyd’s of London-licensed insurance broker — told Cointelegraph that crypto has been marginalized when it …

Web3 projects are the talk of the current digital scene, with thousands of new companies coming to life every day in an attempt to ride out this global wave with their own product releases. Unfortunately, reality has shown most of these offerings do not provide any tangible value to their players or user bases. Instead, they rely on superficial hype of cryptocurrencies, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and related buzzwords, a seemingly unnatural method to pursue user growth. At present, these efforts result in short-term successes and unsustainable growth. To ensure projects are built on foundations that enable long-term value, startups are …

The ongoing crypto winter has seen budgets and jobs slashed, but the search for top-tier talent hasn’t stopped across several Web3 verticals, according to some crypto recruitment firms. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Kevin Gibson, founder of crypto recruiting firm Proof of Search said that the majority of staff cuts in the crypto market have been from centralized exchanges, most notably the 18% staff cut at Coinbase in June, 10% cuts at Gemini in July, and the 5% cut at Crypto.com. Despite this, he said there is “still a great deal of demand” for crypto job seekers to get work with “Game-Fi, …

Nuri, a German start-up crypto bank with 500,000 customers filed for insolvency on Aug. 9, citing major crypto sell-offs, insolvency of Celsius and other crypto funds earlier this year as a reason for the move. The crypto bank said the move will “ensure the safest path forward” for all its customers, but also stressed that the insolvency will not affect its services, customer funds, investments, or the ability for customers to withdraw their assets from the platform. Nuri filed for insolvency on Tuesday, August 9th, 2022. This does not affect our services, customer funds or investments. You can find a …

A lot has happened in the Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency markets since our last edition of VC Roundup. The monumental collapse of the Terra ecosystem spilled over into other segments of the digital asset market, exposing over-leveraged traders, lending platforms and venture capital funds. In the process, Bitcoin’s price plumbed new lows, falling below the previous cycle’s peak for the first time in its history. Despite macro headwinds inflicting pain on the crypto markets, venture capital firms are still investing in the industry’s most promising startups. The latest edition of VC Roundup highlights funding deals for digital asset infrastructure providers, …

Even though crypto markets appear to be on a long, arduous path ahead based on recent weeks of token turmoil, venture investors looking to get their hands on a Web3 future aren't slowing down. On Wednesday, venture capital giant, a16z, announced closing its fourth cryptocurrency fund at $4.5 billion. This brings the total money invested by Andreessen Horowitz in digital currency and blockchain business to more than $7.6 billion. The new investment vehicle will focus on early-stage ideas as well as projects that are more mature and have already shown some traction. According to the firm, $1.5 billion of the …

Three years after being ousted as CEO of WeWork, Adam Neumann has jumped on the crypto bandwagon, raising $70 million in the first major funding round for his climate tech venture Flowcarbon. The project aims to make carbon trading more accessible by putting carbon credits on the blockchain. Neumann is an Israeli-American businessman and investor famous for his role in founding coworking space provider WeWork in 2010, a company once heralded as the future of workspaces. However, it all came crashing down in 2019 when the company attempted to go public, which instead lifted the lid on WeWork’s unprofitable business …

As many in Africa continue to adopt crypto and blockchain, more venture funding flowed into the continent in Q1 2022 than in Q1 2021, according to a new report by blockchain investment firm Crypto Valley Venture Capital (CV VC) and Standard Bank. The report, titled “The African Blockchain Report 2021,” shows that blockchain startups were able to raise $91 million in the first quarter of 2022. Q1 2022 saw a 1,668% year-on-year increase in cash inflow compared with Q1 2021's growth of 149% — a jump of more than 11x, according to CV VC. While Africa has not yet seen …

The crypto job market shows few signs of slowing down despite high-profile cases of staff layoffs and hiring freezes across big tech companies. In recent weeks, several major tech companies have announced a paring back of staff, citing a downturn in the traditional market and narrowing demand for products that had boomed during the pandemic. Recently announced hiring cuts include Twitter, Uber, Amazon and Robinhood. On Tuesday, movie streaming service Netflix terminated the roles of 150 mostly United States-based employees amid a slowdown in revenue growth. Earlier this month, Facebook parent company Meta instituted a hiring freeze for most of …

Web3 projects are the talk of the current digital scene, with thousands of new companies coming to life every day in an attempt to ride out this global wave with their own product releases. Unfortunately, reality has shown most of these offerings do not provide any tangible value to their player or user bases. Instead, they rely on superficial hype of cryptocurrencies, NFTs and related buzzwords, a seemingly unnatural method to pursue user growth. At present, these efforts result in short-term successes and not sustainable growth. To ensure projects are built on foundations that enable long-term value, startups are encouraged …

Video games have evolved significantly since their initial release in the 1970s. Following the Pong days, the world experienced unprecedented internet growth in the 2000s. In this time period, gaming developers were introduced to new business models, such as free-to-play, a staple of Web 2.0. With a free-to-play model, users were given access to their favorite games for free, with in-game assets costing money. Even for those who don't consider themselves gamers, this evolution presented the world with a new reality of continuous revenue for video game companies and lower barriers to entry for players. The major drawback with free-to-play …

When you think of a crypto-friendly U.S. state, Washington is hardly the first to come to mind. Yet, a lot has been happening on the ground in the Pacific Northwest lately. Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed a bill, SB5544, into law on March 30. The new legislation creates a working group of seven state officials and eight trade association leaders to examine “various potential applications of and policies for blockchain technology” and report to the governor in December 2023. Republican state Senator Sharon Brown, one of the sponsors of the legislation, said, “By creating the Washington Blockchain Work Group, we …