Blockstream has raised $210 million in a Series B funding round that values the bitcoin technology firm at $3.2 billion and will fund an expansion into manufacturing mining chips.  

U.K. investment management firm Baillie Gifford and iFinex, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex and stablecoin issuer Tether, participated in the round, Blockstream said Tuesday. No other investors were mentioned.

Blockstream also said it had acquired the intellectual property and key employees of Israeli bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer Spondoolies for undisclosed terms.

The move paves the way for Blockstream, based in Victoria, British Columbia, to build out a business line making specialized mining chips known as ASICs, the Canadian company said.

The acquisition, together with the additional funding, will advance Blockstream’s crypto mining products and services, including its recently announced Blockstream Energy service.

The new capital will also further the firm’s Bitcoin-focused financial products as well as its Liquid sidechain network, according to the company.

ASIC ambitions

Now is a “most opportune time” to accelerate growth, Blockstream Chief Strategy Officer Samson Mow told CoinDesk via Telegram on Monday.

“The fresh infusion of capital will allow us to launch more products under Blockstream Finance, as well as bring our new bitcoin ASIC miner to market next year,” said Mow.

Blockstream was founded in 2014 with a focus on building infrastructure and applications based upon the Bitcoin network. The firm was co-founded by CEO Adam Back (inventor of Hashcash, a system for discouraging spam emails that influenced Satoshi Nakamoto’s proof-of-work consensus mechanism design for Bitcoin) and nine others, including Bitcoin Core developer Gregory Maxwell.

The firm’s Series A round, completed in 2016, was led by AXA Strategic Ventures, the venture capital arm of French multinational insurance firm AXA Group; Digital Garage, the Tokyo-based online payments firm co-founded by Joi Ito; and Hong Kong VC firm Horizons Ventures. AME Cloud Ventures, Blockchain Capital and Future\Perfect Ventures also participated in that earlier round.

Something strange is happening in the cryptocurrency world. Recently, Metamask made the announcement about its removal via an official tweet on Thursday, December 26, 2019. According to it, the Web3 browser referred to Google’s action as uncalled for and unfair.

The browser disclosed that Google cited its anti-mining regulation as the reason for the delisting. Metamask, however, pointed out that it does not carry out mining operations.

Further adding that this action by Google is just a means to curtail awareness and prevent the adoption of Web3 browsers. The exchange also cited a similar incident last year, where Google also temporary delisted its chrome browser extension.

Web3 browsers

The Metamask browser contains a cryptocurrency wallet. One which allows users to store and utilize digital assets as well as operate ethereum based Dapps. This is made possible by browser extensions for desktop computers. While on smartphones, the Web3 browser makes use of native apps.

One very important feature of Web3 technology is its decentralization. A system where users are in charge of its control. Though this system comes with a few disadvantages, it is quite famous for its democratic nature. One school of thought sees it as the free evolution of the internet.

The digital asset industry has had a tough climb getting to where it is today. Many governmental and regulatory bodies have tried to keep a cap on this budding technology. Right now it seems their effort has gone a notch higher. That said, the popular video-sharing platform YouTube seems to have joined the fight against cryptocurrency. Thus, the social media giant has suddenly deleted several crypto-related channels this week. Though the platform alleged that this was a mistake and has begun to put them back up.

Now Google Chrome has without prior notice removed Metamask from its app store. This leaves us wondering if there’s a secret war against crypto going on.

NewsSource

The initial reasoning behind the lawsuit was market manipulation and unlicensed securities sales, but the court has not found any solid grounds to continue with the lawsuit.

According to a recent report, the judge of the U.S. district court in California has granted the motion to dismiss filed by the company running FTX – Alameda Research LLC. The court order was published on Thursday, and it reads:

“Defendant Alameda Research LLC’s motion to dismiss Bitcoin Manipulation Abatement LLC’s Amended Complaint in the above-captioned action came on regularly for hearing before the Court on February 13th, 2020. After considering the papers submitted by the parties and the argument of counsel, the Court finds that plaintiff has failed to comply with the requirements of Fed. R. Civ. P. 9(b) or 8(a)(2), and that dismissal is warranted under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6). Accordingly, Alameda Research LLC’s motion to dismiss is granted, and the Amended Complaint is dismissed in its entirety with prejudice.”

Changpeng Zhao Reaction

Binance’s Founder and CEO, Changpeng Zhao, confirmed the suspicious event taking place on the exchange, calling it an attack.

Source : Twitter