Ex-FTX Exec’s Startup Raises $12M for Derivatives Brokerage

Hi NoRamp Community,

Daily News:

1) Russian Financial Behemoth Launches Digital Asset Offerings

2) ‘NFT Worlds’ Built Its Own Crypto Game

3) Ex-FTX Exec’s Startup Raises $12M for Derivatives Brokerage

4) TrueNorth and Brim Partner to Deliver Credit-Card-as-a-Service Platform

5) Online Pension Provider PensionBee Announces US Expansion Plan

Russian Financial Behemoth Launches Digital Asset Offerings:

• Alfa-bank, one of Russia's largest financial institutions, has introduced a "digital financial asset" (DFA) backed by gold, stocks, and cash, allowing customers to invest in four asset classes simultaneously through bank-issued tokens.

• The bank launched the Evergreen Portfolio on its A-Token platform, created in collaboration with its subsidiary Alfa Capital Management Company, based on exchange-traded mutual funds, after obtaining a DFA issuance permit from the Central Bank in 2022.

• The launch marks a significant development in Russia's DFA industry, following similar initiatives by state-owned Sberbank, and positions Alfa-bank as a domestic market leader with a portfolio comprising 86 digital tokens and accounting for 45% of the market.

‘NFT Worlds’ Built Its Own Crypto Game:

• NFT Worlds, a blockchain project that used a customized Minecraft server for in-game land sales as NFTs, faced a significant setback when Minecraft banned NFTs in 2022, leading to the rebranding of the project as Hytopia.

• Hytopia is an upcoming game that aims to combine elements of Minecraft and Roblox, offering a familiar blocky, voxel-based environment with more flexibility for players to create and share their own games and worlds, with a beta launch expected in early April.

• The original NFT Worlds landowners will still find value in their NFTs in Hytopia, not as scarce land but as perks for developers and content creators, such as lower fees for selling in-game content and better visibility for their created games, along with TOPIA staking rewards.

Ex-FTX Exec’s Startup Raises $12M for Derivatives Brokerage:

• Brett Harrison, former president of FTX US, has raised an additional $12 million in seed funding for Architect, a startup providing crypto trading infrastructure for institutional investors, with plans to launch a derivatives brokerage in the next two months.

• The funding round was led by Blocktower and Tioga Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, ParaFi Capital, and SVAngel, despite Harrison's previous ties to the collapsed FTX exchange.

• Architect aims to appeal to professional investors by using the term "digital assets" instead of "crypto" and has received regulatory approval to provide derivatives brokerage services.

TrueNorth & Brim Partner to Deliver Credit-Card-as-a-Service:

• TrueNorth and Brim Financial have partnered to offer a credit card-as-a-service platform to banks, FinTechs, and major brands in the US and Canada, providing consumer, SMB, and commercial credit card solutions.

• The partnership combines TrueNorth's digital solution implementation expertise with Brim's credit card-as-a-service platform, aiming to accelerate market expansion and improve project predictability and speed to market.

• Brim Financial has also partnered with Mastercard to modernize credit card infrastructure in the US and has integrated with Extend's virtual card and spend management platform for vendor payment management within the Concur Invoice platform.

Online Pension Provider PensionBee Announces US Expansion Plan:

• UK online pension provider PensionBee is expanding into the US market through an exclusive, non-binding term sheet with an unnamed US financial organization, aiming to match or exceed its UK business scale within a decade.

• The expansion will allow US customers to consolidate and transfer their employer-sponsored defined contribution retirement plans into a new Individual Retirement Account (IRA), with the service expected to launch in late 2024, subject to regulatory approvals.

• PensionBee Inc will be established in Delaware with headquarters in New York, and the UK fintech will manage operations, including local team recruitment, while the US partner provides market knowledge and substantial marketing funding.

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