Daily Digest - 26th May 2023

Headlines

▌Cryptocurrency venture capital firm Paradigm expands focus to AI

Cryptocurrency venture capital firm Paradigm is emphasising that its focus on cutting-edge technologies, including artificial intelligence, is moving beyond blockchain, two people familiar with the matter said. The firm now calls itself a research-driven technology investment firm, rather than investing exclusively in disruptive cryptocurrency/Web3 companies. According to the Wayback Machine run by the Internet Archive, the revision appears to have gone live around May 3. "We believe cryptocurrencies will define the decades to come" was also removed from the homepage, and there is now no mention of web3 or blockchain. People familiar with the strategy said the company has not changed its mission and continues to focus on cryptocurrencies and web3. The updated website copy is designed to emphasise its technology research and point out that Paradigm has supported companies exploring new technologies in its core strategy, one example is the AI Arena.”

Policies

▌The Central Bank of Brazil announced 14 CBDC pilot institutions, including Banco do Brasil, Visa, and Microsoft

The Central Bank of Brazil has selected 14 institutions to participate in the country's CBDC pilot. The list includes Bradesco, Nubank, and Itaú Unibanco, as well as Banco do Brasil and the local stock exchange B3. Multinational companies such as Visa and Microsoft are also participating. The central bank will begin onboarding participants to the Real Digital Pilot platform in mid-June 2023.

▌South Korea passed a bill requiring lawmakers and other government officials to declare their holdings of digital assets

South Korea’s National Assembly has unanimously passed a bill that will empower lawmakers and other senior government officials to declare their digital asset holdings. The 268 members of the unicameral body unanimously passed the Kim Nam-guk Prevention Act, named after South Korean representative Kim Nam-guk. The bill successfully passed a key committee on Monday and was passed with recent amendments. The amendment requires sitting members of parliament to disclose all digital assets acquired between the start of their term and May 31 by the end of June. Rep. Chun Jae-soo said traditional assets such as cash, stocks, and real estate types are only required to be declared when they exceed 10 million won. With cryptocurrencies, every coin needs to be reported due to unpredictable value fluctuations.

Cryptocurrency

▌DCG will close the institutional trading platform TradeBlock on May 31

Digital Currency Group (DCG) will close its institutional trading platform TradeBlock, which provides trade execution, pricing, and prime brokerage services to institutional investors, on May 31. DCG acquired TradeBlock in 2020, financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. A DCG spokesperson said in a statement that due to macroeconomic conditions and the prolonged crypto winter, as well as the challenging US digital asset regulatory environment, we have decided to close our institutional trading platform business. TradeBlock is led by Breanne Madigan, who previously spent 15 years at Goldman Sachs and also served as Ripple's vice president of global institutional markets.

▌President of Ripple: The acquisition of Bitstamp will help the company expand its global reach and go beyond the payment field

Ripple President Monica Long said the company's recent stake acquisition in European cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp will help further expand the company's international reach and diversify beyond payments. Ripple has a strong balance sheet, and we are actively looking for opportunities to continue expanding our business outside of the US and beyond payments as we further build on our global leadership. It was previously reported that Ripple acquired a minority stake in Bitstamp from Pantera Capital in the first quarter.