Israel Announces Plans For Interest-Bearing Shekel CBDC

Hi NoRamp Community,

Daily News:

1) Batman Back on Blockchain With Ethereum NFTs

2) Israel Announces Plans For Interest-Bearing Shekel CBDC

3) Eclipse Secures $50M Ahead of Mainnet Launch

4) Oxygen Neobank Switches Focus From Banking to Health Insurance

5) Vouch Secures $25M in Funding Round Led by Ribbit Capital

Batman Back on Blockchain With Ethereum NFTs:

• The Dark Knight returns to the Ethereum ecosystem with a new NFT collection, The Legacy Cowls Collection, commemorating the 85th anniversary of Batman's first appearance, featuring 11,544 digital collectibles available on March 29 via Candy Digital for $49.99.

• The collection, made in collaboration with DC Comics and Warner Brothers Discovery Group, uses the Ethereum scaling network Palm and is based on the comic story "Batman: The Legacy Cowl," with artwork from DC artist Pablo M. Collar and writer Dan Abnett.

• Owning a Legacy Cowl collectible grants access to augmented reality experiences on Meta platforms, voting on creative decisions, access to puzzles, and exclusive future drops, with Candy Digital specializing in sports and entertainment collectibles backed by investors like Galaxy Digital and ConsenSys Mesh.

Israel Announces Plans For Interest-Bearing Shekel CBDC:

• Israel's central bank plans to support a new shekel central bank digital currency (CBDC) with the option of bearing interest, featuring instant payments, multi-payment support, offline use, and balance limitations.

• The shekel CBDC will be implemented in a two-tier model, allowing banks to hold it as part of their short-term liquidity buffer, which would be non-interest bearing.

• While Israel has been considering a digital shekel since 2021, no concrete pilot tests have been conducted yet, and the central bank's decisions regarding the digital shekel system are not final.

Eclipse Secures $50M Ahead of Mainnet Launch:

• Modular blockchain Eclipse has raised $50 million in a Series A funding round led by Placeholder and Hack VC, bringing its total funding to $65 million, with participation from other investors including Polychain Capital and Delphi Digital.

• Eclipse is built using the Solana Virtual Machine for execution, Celestia for data availability, and Ethereum for settlement and consensus, aiming to be the most performant layer-2 solution on Ethereum.

• The company plans to launch its mainnet in Q2 of 2024 and has already released devnet and testnet versions, with dapps like Rarible and Solend testing its infrastructure, and plans to sponsor hackathons and organize community events post-launch.

Oxygen Neobank Switches Focus From Banking to Health Insurance:

• San Francisco-based digital banking platform Oxygen has "temporarily suspended" its banking services to focus on health insurance solutions, officially starting the account closure process on March 8, with all accounts to be closed by March 29.

• Customers will have continued access to their accounts until March 29, after which any remaining balance will be returned via check by The Bancorp Bank, N.A. within 45 days, with deposits into Oxygen accounts halted from March 16 and all services related to Oxygen Savings Accounts discontinued by March 21.

• Oxygen is launching a new health insurance offering, Oxygen Health, by the end of March, aiming to provide a comprehensive, affordable health plan that integrates health with financial solutions, in partnership with alternative and supplemental health plan providers.

Vouch Secures $25M in Funding Round Led by Ribbit Capital:

• Vouch, a provider of business insurance for high-growth companies, has raised $25 million in its Series C-1 funding round, led by Ribbit Capital.

• The company plans to use the funds to enhance its insurance product offerings, broaden its distribution channels, and invest in its technology platform, following a year of 66% revenue growth and favorable loss ratio outcomes.

• In 2023, Vouch expanded its reinsurance partnerships, launched AI Insurance to address emerging risks associated with artificial intelligence, and successfully resolved hundreds of complex claims, with the additional funding supporting further expansion and innovation.

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