25.04.2024

Blockchain Security Company CoolBitX Raised $16.75 Million in Series B

Led by Japan-based SBI Crypto Investment Co. Ltd., the Monex Group, BitSonic, and the National Development Fund of Taiwan, the group provided CoolBitX $16.75 million from the Series B funding round. To date, the company has raised $30.25 million: $500,000 from a seed funding round, $13 million from Series A, and the most recent round.

CoolBitX, creator of the cryptocurrency-storing CoolWallet, continues to be popular with investors. In a press release today, the Taiwan-based startup announced that it had secured additional funding for expansion.

With this new funding ready, CEO of CoolBitX Michael Ou spoke to Cointelegraph on the future of Sygna Bridge, the company’s signature solution to the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) regulations. Sygna allows Virtual Asset Service Providers licensed or registered in any of the 200 global jurisdictions to be regulatory compliant while still being user friendly.

“In the past, there was no such infrastructure to facilitate behavior between crypto exchanges. So we built Synga Bridge… whenever we make a transaction for our customers, we share customer information in a private and secure channel.”

The deadline for complying with the FATF’s travel rule is rapidly approaching in many countries. As of today, numerous crypto exchanges have already begun or are considering implementing Sygna Bridge to meet this compliance. CipherTrace and the Shyft Network are also working with exchanges before the deadline.

CoolBitX’s strategy for 2020

Japan may be the next major expansion for CoolBitX as Sygna Bridge becomes more accepted by exchanges in other countries.

“Sygna’s progress has been in line with the strides made in crypto KYC/AML in various Asian jurisdictions, especially Japan. As such, CoolBitX will be establishing a Sygna entity in Japan this year as we are committed to having open dialogues with local stakeholders.”

While the Series B investment will certainly be a boost for Synga, CoolBitX has its sights set higher. Ou discussed what this funding would mean for the future of his company:

“We are looking for more growth every year. I’m sure even by the end of this year we will have even more news to share because we are rolling out more product lines which will help the growth of our company. Overall what we want to achieve is not just a valuation of the company or the funds that we raise. We want to foster the mass adoption of crypto space.”

Blockchain Platform Waves Launches New COVID-19 Betting Market

Blockchain platform Waves has launched a new betting market allowing users to speculate on whether the spread of the coronavirus pandemic has passed its peak.

Customers can now purchase ‘COVID-UP-SEP20’ and ‘COVID-DOWN-SEP20’ tokens to bet on whether the number of new weekly cases worldwide will exceed April 4 – 10’s record of 595,802 confirmed infections before September.

Waves’ tokens are purchased in exchange for the stablecoin, Neutrino Dollar (USDN). All USDN used to buy the tokens are locked in escrow until September, and then distributed among the winners.

The campaign will ostensibly contribute to coronavirus charity initiatives.

Making waves with their new markets

At the start of April, Waves launched predictive betting markets allowing users to speculate on whether the number of globally confirmed COVID-19 cases would increase or decrease on a week-over-week basis.

Speaking to Cointelegraph a Waves spokesperson revealed the platform’s week-over-week predictive markets had finished, adding that its new September markets are likely to be its last COVID-19-themed betting market.

The number of weekly confirmed cases will be determined according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Waves donates 10,000 USDT to charity

Waves encourages winning punters to contribute toward the ‘#CryptoCOVID19’ charity initiative that has raised nearly $4 million so far.

Waves also contributed 10,000 Tether (USDT) to a dozen charities fighting the effects of coronavirus – including TheWaterProject, NoKidHungry, PencilsofPromise, and the Lupus Foundation.

However, the weekly markets garnered just $4,500 in predictions.

Betting market born out of lockdown

The Waves spokesperson stated that the idea to launch coronavirus-related betting markets grew out of internal discussions regarding how long the pandemic and lock-down would last.

“As soon as the coronavirus epidemic started gaining momentum around the world and in Moscow, in particular, the WAVES.Exchange team switched to working remotely”, the spokesperson stated:

“All the team members started wondering when it would all end and started sharing their predictions. Thus, the idea was born – to make predictions on the basis of the exchange … We also thought that this could be a great charity initiative in support of the #CryptoCovid19 campaign.”

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