Market Meanwhile Weekly Research from Waves Lab
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Fundraising
The Y Combinator-backed
https://www.cointracker.io/, which started out as a portfolio & tax manager for cryptocurrency investors, and now has published aggregated data across its 50,000 connected crypto exchange accounts and $300 million worth of tracked cryptoassets. The company recently raised $1.5 million.
CoinTracker has also previously raised $1.5 million led by Initialized Capital, which was the first seed investor in Coinbase, and other investors including Juan Benet, CEO of Protocol Labs.
Other investors include Kindred Ventures, Signature Fund, Ryan Shea (cofounder, Blockstack), Zach Peret (cofounder and CEO, Plaid), William Hockey (cofounder and CTO, Plaid), and Brenden Mulligan (cofounder, LaunchKit), and a few others. This is in addition to Y Combinator.
https://venturebeat.com/2018/10/12/cointracker-tracks-taxes-for-cryptocurrencies-and-correlations-between-crypto-holdings/
Dragonfly Capital Partners
https://www.dragonflycapitalpartners.com/ has raised $100 million for its inaugural fund to invest in cryptocurrency startups.
The fund’s founding team is led by managing partners Alexander Pack, a young cryptocurrency venture capitalist who previously managed crypto and fund investing for Bain Capital Ventures, and Bo Feng, a venture capital veteran with more than 20 years of experience and founding partner of Ceyuan Ventures.
https://venturebeat.com/2018/10/09/dragonfly-capital-partners-scoops-up-100-million-for-cryptocurrency-investments/
Blockchain projects partnerships and milestones
Qtum Blockchain Becomes Amazon Web Services Partner in China
https://www.coindesk.com/amazon-web-services-china-partnering-blockchain-qtum/
Coinbase expands its European presence beyond the UK as Brexit looms
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/16/coinbase-crypto-exchange-opens-dublin-office-as-brexit-looms.html
Sony Corporation, Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc., and Sony Global Education announced the development of a rights management system for digital content that utilizes blockchain technology*1. This new system is based on Sony and Sony Global Education’s previously developed system for authenticating, sharing, and rights management of educational data, and additionally features functionality for processing rights-related information.
https://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/201810/18-1015E/index.html
Top heads moves
Steve Wozniak, technology innovator and co-founder of Apple, has been announced as co-founder of EQUI Global
https://equiglobal.com/, a company dedicated to the disruption of the venture capital industry.
Built on a blockchain-powered backend, EQUI Global is a venture capital fund focusing on technology.
It is designed to disrupt the traditional nature of the industry by allowing non-institutional investments, and by enabling investors to trade their investments on external cryptocurrency exchanges in the form of EquiTokens.
https://www.verdict.co.uk/steve-wozniak-equi-global-venture-capital/
Former White House economic advisor Gary Cohn is finally unveiling his next career move: blockchain.
Cohn, who left the Trump administration in March, will join start-up Spring Labs
https://www.springlabs.com/index.html as an advisor, the company announced in a press release. The firm uses blockchain technology to share credit data between banks.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/12/former-white-house-economic-adviser-gary-cohn-joins-blockchain-startup.html
Adam White, who helped build Coinbase into a crypto-colossus with 25 million customers, is joining Bakkt
https://www.bakkt.com/index, the venture launched in August by a consortium led by Intercontinental Exchange (market cap: $42 billion), parent of the New York Stock Exchange, as chief operating officer.
Bakkt, with its deep ties to Wall Street’s institutional investing titans, is pitching itself as the venture with an inside track at bringing Bitcoin mutual funds and ETFs to America’s 401(k)s.
http://fortune.com/2018/10/15/cryptocurrency-coinbase-bakkt-adam-white/
Assets management