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Blockchain Security Firm Blockaid Raises $50M to Tackle On-Chain Threats

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What to know: Blockaid secured $50 million in Series B funding led by Ribbit Capital, with participation from GV and existing investors. The company say it scanned over 2.4 billion transactions and blocked 71 million attacks last year. Blockaid plans to expand its research and engineering teams to meet growing demand from financial institutions and Web3 companies. Blockaid, a cybersecurity firm specializing in blockchain security, said it raised $50 million in a Series B funding round to help expand research, engineering and product development. Ribbit Capital led the round, with backing from GV and existing investors including Variant and Cyberstarts, the company said. The funding comes as demand for blockchain security rises, with major financial institutions and fintech firms expanding their on-chain operations. Blockaid, which started operations in 2023 and raised $27 million in a Series A round, provides real-time threat detection for blockchain transactions. The company inte...
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Tether Made 'Unsolicited' Bid for Majority Stake in $1B LatAm Agribusiness Adecoagro

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What to know: Tether's investment arm earlier this month submited a non-binding, unsolicited offer to acquire a majority stake in agricultural producer firm Adecoagro. The bid is for $12.41 per share. Adecoagro's New York-listed shares (AGRO) are higher by 8% premarket to $10.48. Adecoagro’s board is reviewing the offer with financial and legal advisors. Tether, the crypto firm behind the $140 billion dollar USDT stablecoin, made an "unsolicited" proposal to acquire a majority stake in Latin American agricultural commodities producer firm Agrodeco (AGRO). The Adecoagro board met on Feb. 16 to discuss the bid and has engaged financial and legal advisors to determine whether accepting the offer aligns with shareholders' interests, the company said. Adecoagro's shares jumped 8% premarket to $10.48 in premarket trading in New York. Adecoagro is a major player in South America’s agribusiness sector focusing on sugar, ethanol, dairy, and crop production and op...
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SingularityNET reportedly in talks with Fetch.ai and Ocean Protocol for $7.5b token merger

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Blockchain projects focused on artificial intelligence SingularityNET, Fetch.ai and Ocean Protocol are reportedly in talks to merge their tokens into one coin called ASI. According to Bloomberg’s sources familiar with the matter, the three artificial intelligence (AI)-focused blockchain firms are in advanced talks, nearing a consensus to merge their tokens into a single entity. This move aims to consolidate their tokens into an ASI token, potentially attributing a value of approximately $7.5 billion to the merged entity. The proposed announcement of the merger, anticipated as soon as Wednesday, is contingent upon receiving community approval from all entities involved. Despite the merger, the three platforms would maintain their independence, the sources note. The firms are expected to collaborate under the supervision of a “Superintelligence Collective,” led by Ben Goertzel, the founder of SingularityNET. Humayun Sheikh, CEO of Fetch.ai, is expected to be appointed as chairman ...
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Bitcoin passes $70k mark and $1.38 trillion dollar market cap

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Bitcoin (BTC) is back above the $70,000 mark after tumbling for 11 days with high price volatility. BTC is up by 5.4% in the past 24 hours and is trading at $70,500 at the time of writing. The flagship asset’s market cap is slightly above the $1.38 trillion mark with a daily trading volume of $42.7 billion. Data from CoinGecko shows that Bitcoin’s price rally has brought bullish momentum to the global crypto market capitalization with a 5.4% increase — currently hovering around $2.83 trillion. According to data provided by Santiment, the number of whale transactions consisting of at least $100,000 worth of BTC surged by 50.7% over the past 24 hours — rising from 8,233 to 12,404 unique transactions per day. Moreover, Bitcoin’s total open interest (OI) also registered an $800 million increase. Per data from Santiment, the total BTC OI surged from $11 billion to $11.8 billion over the past day. Higher price volatility is usually expected when an asset’s whale activity and open int...
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Binance to be blocked in the Philippines by regulatory watchdogs

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The Philippines’ SEC is taking steps to block local access to Binance, citing that the exchange operates without the necessary license. The regulatory body has successfully obtained the green light from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) of the Philippines to prohibit access to Binance’s website and its associated services nationwide. Emilio Aquino, the SEC Chairperson, communicated to the NTC that Binance poses a risk to the financial safety of Filipino investors. The SEC has accused Binance of illegally offering various services, including crypto savings accounts and leveraged trading options, without securing the proper authorizations. Although the number of Filipino users on Binance is unavailable, GWI research suggests the Philippines has over 9.3 million cryptocurrency owners, positioning it as the seventh largest country in crypto ownership. The SEC issued a warning in November stating that Binance was conducting business in the Philippines without the req...
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OFAC sanctions Russian providers of digital financial assets

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Treasury Department has sanctioned Russian providers of digital financial assets, saying many of the designated entities offered services that helped evade sanctions. The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned 13 entities and two individuals, who operated in Russia‘s fintech sector to offer services to evade U.S. sanctions. According to a press release on Mar. 25, the sanctions target companies servicing Russia’s “core financial infrastructure and curtail Russia’s use of the international financial system to further its war against Ukraine.” Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian Nelson, highlighted that the objective is to hinder Russia’s capacity to seek alternative payment avenues as a means to evade sanctions. “Russia is increasingly turning to alternative payment mechanisms to circumvent U.S. sanctions and continue to fund its war against Ukraine.” Brian Nelson The sanctioned entiti...
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