Never a stranger to volatility, the crypto markets have been as active as ever over the past month. As every month passes, this newsletter serves as a reminder of how quickly this industry is moving, and the developments within it.
As the title indicates, March has been a story of two halves. The first half of the month, plighted by an ongoing war and supply shortages, saw the crypto markets take a slight downturn, with little hiring in the space likely linked to bonus season at top tier financial institutions. Nevertheless, as we seemingly crawl out of the situation where the world found itself in early March, the second half of the month has been great for space.
Regulators buckle up
Most notably the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the regulatory authority in the UK, has announced that it will be launching a new cryptocurrency division. It is understood that the new division will be monitoring both innovative and complex businesses operating in the growing industry, as well as handling cases of scams and fraud involving digital assets. Another wider pro-crypto development in Europe came from one of crypto’s favourite CEOs, Sam Bankman-Fried. The 29-year-old founder and CEO of exchange platform FTX announced that FTX has gotten approval from Cypriot regulators to set up its European unit. Headquartered out of Switzerland, the American-based exchange made a move to cement itself as a leading exchange, growing its client base to the once unexplored Europe. In fact, FTX took it a step further, by also becoming the first crypto exchange to receive a crypto license in Dubai. Touted as one of the leading cities for blockchain innovation, the development of Dubai as a crypto city in the coming years will surely attract some of the world’s top talent to the city.
Web3 pierces Traditional Markets
As crypto becomes more mainstream, we now begin to see small industries developing within the larger industry. Products in the wider ecosystem which were previously recognized as adjacent; such as NFT’s, GameFi, and DAO’s, are now spinning out into some of the largest deals of the year. Just weeks after the acquisition of its largest competitor’s main brands, the company behind the well-renowned Bored Ape’s Yacht Club, Yuga Labs, has announced a $450m funding round to bring the company’s valuation to $4b. The funding will be invested in expanding into the gaming industry and developing a proprietary metaverse. In a move that seemingly cements crypto’s presence in gaming and arts, the development of the two biggest NFT projects uniting will be an interesting one in the coming months. In regards to another crypto company reaching a multi-billion dollar valuation, Consensys announced a new round of investment led by Softbank, Microsoft, and Temasek which saw the firm double its valuation to $7b. The areas for which the $450m raised in this latest round of investment will be deployed are yet to be announced, but the value of the world’s 3rd largest company entering the space must not get lost upon one. As the space grows and smart money enters, we at Armstrong International are delighted at the strides that the industry is making in legitimizing itself.
Hiring in Crypto
Finally, March saw a few interesting developments on the hiring front. Most notably, the first employee at JP Morgan’s Onyx division, Christine Moy, announced that she would be leaving the firm, following an 18-year career at the American financial powerhouse. Rather, Mrs. Moy will be looking to deploy her expertise in a more native firm in the Web3 space, but she is yet to announce where exactly that will be. Last month also saw the demise of Meta’s attempted digital currency company, Diem (formerly known as Libra). The stop in operations led to a raid on the highly talented working force which Diem had attracted, and as the talent left, no move was more notable than that of Dahlia Malkhi, ex-Chief Technology Officer of Diem, who just this month joined the decentralized oracle blockchain network, Chainlink Labs, to act as Chief Revenue Officer at the firm. We at Armstrong would like to wish nothing but the best to the above mentioned, as well as anyone else who is considering leaving the financial services industry to take on the challenges that crypto aims to solve. If you are thinking about joining the digital assets industry or would like to know more about what that looks like, please feel free to reach out to me.