Helen Partz
Major European digital asset manager CoinShares is finalizing the acquisition of the French fintech firm Napoleon Group despite the ongoing market decline.
CoinShares announced on July 4 that the firm has acquired Napoleon Asset Management, a digital asset management subsidiary of Napoleon Group.
CoinShares previously entered into a sale and purchase agreement (SPA) to acquire the entire issued share capital in Napoleon Crypto SAS for 13.9 million euros ($14.5 million) in November 2021.
The latest acquisition came shortly after the French financial regulator, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), authorized the acquisition of Napoleon AM on June 28. CoinShares subsequently proceeded with the transaction pursuant to the terms set out in the group SPA on June 2022.
Paris-based Napoleon AM was launched after completing an initial coin offering (ICO) in late 2018, raising over $10 million through the sale of NPX tokens. The firm has received the alternative investment fund manager (AIFM) license and became one of the first European asset managers to be financed by an ICO and incorporated under French law.
In late 2019, Napoleon AM launched a regulated Bitcoin (BTC) fund, the Napoleon Bitcoin Fund.
The acquisition of Napoleon AM allows CoinShares to offer AIFM-compliant products and services in addition to being a major issuer of crypto exchange-traded products in Europe. The license enables the firm to provide market services across the European Union, expanding CoinShares’ products with algorithmic trading and artificial intelligence tools developed by Napoleon AM.
The transaction is yet another piece of evidence that CoinShares continues scaling despite the ongoing market decline, CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti told Cointelegraph, stating:
“CoinShares continues to grow despite market conditions. The bear market is an opportunity to solidify positions and build new products and services.”
According to the CEO, having an AIFM-regulated entity in CoinShares’ group is important because it’s “one of the most demanding licenses.”
“CoinShares has always been at the forefront of regulation, it is a strong advocate of regulation in the digital asset industry and has an extensive list of regulated products and services,” Mognetti added.
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Arijit Sarkar
Prominent economist Peter Schiff, who is well-known in the community for his anti-crypto sentiments, had his bank shut down by Puerto Rico regulators. The revelation, however, led to Crypto Twitter pointing out the “irony” as Schiff’s prediction for Bitcoin (BTC) came true for his own traditional bank.
Puerto Rico regulators closed down Schiff’s bank for not maintaining the net minimum capital requirements, which further impacted the customers as they lost access to their accounts following a subsequent freeze.
While acknowledging that “customers may lose money,” Schiff stated that he was unaware of the regulatory minimums and was not presented with any form of legal notice prior to the abrupt closure. He added:
“It costs a fortune to run a small bank. That’s why I never really made any money. The compliance costs are outrageous.”
As a witness to what many consider an epic plot twist, the crypto community took the opportunity to explain the importance of Bitcoin in reinventing the core of traditional finance.
Bitcoin podcaster Stephan Livera, too, chimed in on the development as he said, “He’s [Schiff] been a #bitcoin skeptic since $17.50.” The sudden closure of Schiff’s bank in Puerto Rico reignited the discussions around Bitcoin’s resistance to judicial supremacy.
“The irony here is priceless,” added @HodlMagoo, while others rhetorically helped Schiff find a promising alternative to traditional finance, asking “Do you understand why you need bitcoin now?”
On the other end of the spectrum, Puerto Rico has been receptive to crypto acceptance in the region. On April 20, Puerto Rico authorities became the fourth jurisdiction in America to award a money transmitter license to Binance.US, a United States-based subsidiary of crypto exchange Binance.
While the crypto community empathizes with Schiff and the bank’s customers for their losses, the episode further cements Bitcoin’s position as the ultimate replacement of traditional finance.
Analysts from Deutsche Bank forecasted BTC prices to rebound back to $28,000 by the end of the year despite an ongoing bear market.
Analysts Marion Laboure and Galina Pozdnyakova envisioned the Standard and Poor (S&P) to rebound back to its January levels, which in turn, could result in a 30% increase in Bitcoin’s value from current levels midway through 2022 — bringing up its price to the $28,000 mark.
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Arnold Kirimi
Multichain, a cross-chain platform, has announced the integration of the Bitcoin-based (BTC) smart contract protocol Rootstock (RSK) blockchain into its ecosystem. This will allow users to exchange Ether (ETH), USD Coin (USDC), Binance USD (BUSD) and other assets between RSK, Ethereum and BNB Chain.
According to Monday's announcement, the integration is a major milestone for Multichain because it opens up access to decentralized finance (DeFi) on Bitcoin. This addition will allow users to take advantage of RSK's security and functionality.
The integration will enable RSK to bring Bitcoin to Multichain's ecosystem while also providing access to new markets and use cases for its users. The RSK sidechain is the first Bitcoin-based sidechain to be incorporated into Multichain. It has a unique place in the world of Bitcoin enthusiasts as well as with Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-powered DeFi.
The company said its integration with Rootstock is meant to provide fundamental benefits to builders utilizing RSK. They won't have to spend resources building bridges to capital and addressable markets, for example. They will also have a quicker time marketing new platforms based on RSK.
Users may start bridging their ETH, USDC, BUSD, BNB, WBTC and DAI between RSK's network and Ethereum. Multichain will add additional chains and tokens to the RSK network in the coming weeks and months. RSK co-founder Diego Gutiérrez Zaldívar stated:
"RSK is home to the fastest-growing DeFi for Bitcoin ecosystem with protocols that are built to last and provide real solutions to the issues users face in centralized finance."
The anyCall interoperability protocol has been updated by Multichain, which allows cross-chain communications and name contracts. It will be a valuable instrument for building cross-chain decentralized apps on Rootstock and other supported networks.
Rootstock, the brainchild of Bitcoin Core developer Sergio Lerner, saw several years of development before its initial mainnet launch in January 2018. “Essentially Rootstock aims to be what Ethereum is, a decentralized, Turing-complete smart contract platform. However, Rootstock aims to utilize the Bitcoin ecosystem rather than creating a new one from scratch,” blockchain engineer Albert Szmigielski stated in a 2016 blog post.
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This Daily Dose was brought to you by Cointelegraph.
