Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.

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NFTs news

• Video platform YouTube is exploring adding NFT features for its video creators, Chief Executive Officer Susan Wojcicki wrote to the site’s broadcasters, per Bloomberg. However, she did not say exactly what her team is planning, or when. Also, Wojcicki told creators her company was looking to Web 3 as a “source for inspiration.”
• The Blockchain-Based Service Network (BSN), China’s state-sanctioned blockchain infrastructure project, said it is releasing its platform for non-fungible tokens (NFT) in the country. To differentiate from NFTs outside China that are traded on public chains with cryptocurrencies (banned in China), NFT is renamed as Decentralized Digital Certificate (DDC) by BSN.
• Italian luxury fashion brand Gucci has partnered with toy brand Superplastic for the upcoming drop of 10 NFTs beginning February 1. Each NFT will be given away with a ceramic sculpture handmade in Italy and co-designed by Gucci.
• John Lennon’s son Julian will be selling a collection of Beatles memorabilia as a set of NFTs dubbed the “Lennon Collection” on NFT marketplace YellowHeart starting February 7. The collection includes some notes jotted down by Paul McCartney while writing the song “Hey Jude,” clothing worn by John Lennon in the Beatles’ films, and various guitars given to Julian Lennon by his father.

Investments news 

• MicroStrategy will continue investing in bitcoin (BTC) despite the recent dip, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing Chief Financial Officer Phong Le. The company, which held USD 2.41bn worth of BTC as of September 30, says its strategy is to buy and to hold BTC.
• Investment giant Grayscale Investments added 25 digital assets to a list it keeps of potential investments, including DeFi projects Algorand (ALGO) and Convex (CVX) and metaverse startups The Sandbox (SAND), Axie Infinity (AXS), and Yield Guild Games (YGG). However, they added that not every asset under consideration will be turned into one of their investment products.
• Major asset manager Schwab Asset Management is looking for ways to offer clients additional exposure to crypto, like spot cryptocurrency or blockchain technologies in the form of an exchange-traded fund (ETF), David Botset, head of equity product management and innovation, told Blockworks. The company already offers four mutual funds and four ETFs with crypto ties from third parties.
• Blockchain Founders Fund raised USD 75m for its BFF II fund from a range of investors, including NEO Global Capital, AppWorks, and Sebastien Borget, Chief Operating Officer of The Sandbox, a video game and metaverse app. The fund said it has already invested in a number of companies, including decentralized derivatives exchange FXDX and video games tech startup Breshna.
• BCB Group, a provider of business accounts and trading services for the digital asset economy, announced that it has closed a USD 60m Series A funding round co-led by Foundation Capital. This funding round will enable BCB Group to provide payments and market infrastructure across more regions, they said.

Regulation news

• Thailand’s financial authorities plan to regulate the use of digital assets as a means of payment for goods and services, the Bank of Thailand, Ministry of Finance, and the Securities and Exchange Commission said. Regulators said they will consider exercising their power to limit the use of crypto for payments and will issue new guidelines for certain digital assets that support the financial system and innovation without posing systemic risk.
• Belarus has no plans to tighten its liberal crypto regulation, the press service of Hi-Tech Park, the Belarusian cryptoasset regulator, told Bloomberg. Belarus liberalized crypto use in 2017, allowing individuals to own, mine, and trade digital coins for other tokens or currencies.

Exchanges news

• Binance said it has agreed with the Argentine Football Association (AFA) to become the main sponsor of the national football team and the naming sponsor of its national football league for five years. It is the first deal Binance has closed with a national soccer team worldwide, the company added.
• Coinbase launched a free tax center that will display users’ taxable activity in one place, including short- and long-term gains and losses, in order to help US taxpayers with filing their upcoming taxes with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Additionally, Coinbase and Coinbase Pro customers have free access to tax reports for up to 3,000 transactions made on these platforms.
• Bithumb will stop accepting wallet addresses that haven’t been properly registered with the exchange, as it enforces the travel rule. This rule, recommended by the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force, requires exchanges to collect data about transactions and share them with authorities when they exceed a certain threshold.

CBDCs news

• The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub announced that in 2022, it will launch new projects into central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), next-generation payments systems, and decentralized finance (DeFi). CBDCs account for 3 out of 17 projects that were active in 2021 or will be launched in 2022, they added.

DeFi news

• DeFi project Acala Network (ACA) has gone live on Polkadot (DOT). The news of its launch on mainnet was shared in a tweet, stating that the utility token ACA is “now transferable enabling the community to send, receive, and participate in on-chain governance.”

Adoption news

• Information markets platform Polymarket has relaunched its site with new information markets across a variety of industries, including crypto, NFTs, business, global politics, pop culture, and more. US residents can view the information markets on the relaunched site, but cannot make trades, as trading is available for users who reside outside of the US.

Career news

• Coinbase hired former US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) employee Thaya Knight as its senior public policy manager. Knight had been the counsel to Commissioner Elad Roisman at the SEC since November 2020.