Curated Ventures into the Metaverse

Hi NoRamp Community,

Daily News:

1) London-Based Wine Platform Curated Ventures into the Metaverse

2) dYdX Foundation Receives $30 million From Community Treasury

3) FTX Files to Sell Subsidiary Acquired for $10M to CoinList for $500k

4) AppTech Integrates Its Commerse Payments Platform With FinZeo

5) Ascent Acquires Waymark to Transform Compliance Automation

London-Based Wine Platform Curated Ventures into the Metaverse:

• Curated, a UK-based wine platform, has introduced a metaverse experience designed for wine enthusiasts, leveraging advanced technology to offer a virtual space where passionate collectors can explore and engage with the world of wine.

• The metaverse initiative includes a virtual wine cellar tour launching this spring, enabling users to display their collections, enhance their wine knowledge, and guide guests through their assortment of fine wines using VR headsets, with Apple Vision Pro access expected by the end of 2024.

• Highlighting its innovative approach to wine collection, Curated has integrated blockchain and NFT technology to authenticate each bottle within its community, providing a comprehensive record of each wine's journey from vineyard to collector and enhancing the experience with a blockchain-backed virtual environment.

dYdX Foundation Receives $30 million From Community Treasury

• The dYdX Foundation, supporting the dYdX protocol, has received $30 million in DYDX tokens from the community treasury following a decisive DAO vote, aimed at fostering the protocol's ecosystem growth, community engagement, and maintaining decentralized governance.

• The funds will be utilized to hire new talent and scale the dYdX chain, extending the foundation's operational runway beyond its current six months. This strategic financial boost comes after two and a half years of the foundation's efforts to impact the ecosystem with a previously smaller capital base.

• The foundation plans to allocate the majority of this budget towards employee salaries, bonuses, and benefits, with plans to hire four new staff members in the next year. Other planned expenditures include marketing, business development, and legal costs, aiming for three years of operational runway and ensuring the foundation's actions do not adversely affect the token's price.

FTX Files to Sell Subsidiary Acquired for $10M to CoinList for $500k:

• The FTX Debtors estate, under CEO John Ray III, is selling its subsidiary Digital Custody Inc. (DCI) to CoinList for $500,000, a significant reduction from the initial purchase price of $10 million in total across transactions in December 2021 and August 2022, with financing from DCI's original CEO, Terence J. Culver.

• FTX acquired DCI intending to use it for custodial services for FTX.US and LedgerX. However, DCI was never integrated into FTX's operations, and following the bankruptcy filing in November 2022 and the sale of LedgerX, DCI has been deemed surplus to the estate's needs.

• Despite DCI's current lack of utility to FTX, it holds a valuable license for custodial services from the South Dakota Division of Banking. The sale to CoinList, chosen for its advantageous offer and potential for swift regulatory approval, is supported by the Committee and the Ad Hoc Committee of Non-US Customers of FTX.com, with a clause allowing FTX to seek better offers until three days before closing.

AppTech Integrates Its Commerse Payments Platform With FinZeo:

• FinTech company AppTech has integrated its Commerse product with the recently acquired FinZeo platform, aiming to offer a comprehensive financial services stack that facilitates secure payments, digital banking, and merchant services through a unified system.

• The integration positions AppTech to help traditional banks enhance their competitiveness in the digital banking sector by offering vertically integrated financial services designed to reduce costs, eliminate redundancies, and enable real-time, borderless fund transfers.

• AppTech's partnership with Broadnet extends its combined platform's capabilities to provide custom eco-solutions across various sectors including community banks, credit unions, and other organizations. FinZeo, founded in 2018, brings advanced payment and banking technology to the mix, promising more efficient and economical transactions for businesses, especially in high-traffic areas like major airports.

Ascent Acquires Waymark To Transform Compliance Automation:

• Ascent Technologies has acquired Waymark to enhance its AI-enabled compliance automation solutions for financial services, combining Ascent's obligations management technology with Waymark’s advanced horizon scanning tools for a comprehensive regulatory risk management solution.

• The merged capabilities now provide full regulatory coverage across the US, EU, and UK, automating the identification of regulatory obligations and offering insights into future regulatory trends, streamlining compliance processes for financial institutions.

• This strategic move, following Ascent’s acquisition by Edgewater Equity Partners, positions Ascent at the forefront of regulatory technology, offering customers a powerful tool for navigating the complex regulatory landscape and preparing for upcoming changes, as endorsed by industry leaders and customers like ING.

NoRamp:

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