Today in Crypto: Chainlink Labs Partners with PwC Germany, Bitget Acquires BitKeep, Bitzlato Allows Users to Withdraw up to 50% of Assets, BANXA Joins Hands with BitMart

Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
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Blockchain news

• Chainlink Labs, a developer of the popular Web3 services platform Chainlink, announced that it entered into a strategic joint business relationship with auditing and consulting service PwC Germany to help accelerate enterprise blockchain adoption. “Chainlink Labs will help empower companies working with PwC Germany that want to interface with the blockchain economy but lack the expertise to develop smart contracts and operate node infrastructure,” said the press release. “PwC adds its strong technical expertise and regulatory understanding as a lever to help customers to develop compliant and secure smart contracts and operate infrastructure,” it added.

Exchange news

• Crypto trading platform Bitget announced a $30 million investment in the decentralized BitKeep multi-chain wallet, becoming its controlling stakeholder. Per the press release, the investment involves the merger of BitKeep Wallet with Bitget’s business domain. Meanwhile, BitKeep was evaluated at $300 million during its previous funding round.
• Russia-linked crypto exchange Bitzlato enabled its users to withdraw up to 50% of the assets stuck on the platform following the money-laundering charges by the US and Europol, the company announced on its Telegram channel. It added that Bitzlato customers can move their assets to an external wallet or exchange by using the Telegram bot, bz_phoenix_bot.
• A Web3 on-and-off ramp solution BANXA Holdings announced a strategic partnership with digital asset exchange BitMart. The press release said that the collaboration will unlock fiat-to-crypto on-and-off-ramping and further advance crypto adoption in vital markets such as Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Latin America (LATAM).

Adoption news

• Plan ₿, a joint initiative between the Swiss City of Lugano and USDT issuer Tether, announced a collaboration with the Guess boutique to officially bring bitcoin (BTC), USDT, and LVGA payments to retail stores in Lugano. The shop will use an advanced POS system with Bitcoin lightning network, said the press release, adding that the boutique is “centrally located making it a prime spot for both tourists and Lugano residents to begin experimenting with real-life digital assets.”

Gaming news

• South Korean gaming studio Nexon announced that it would be building a dedicated, application-specific Polygon Supernet to power the blockchain ecosystem of its popular game MapleStory Universe and to expand the in-game economy. According to the announcement, “in the future, powered by a Polygon Supernet, players will be able to earn and collect [non-fungible token] NFT items through gameplay to unlock various benefits or utility across the ecosystem.”
• The Sandbox, a decentralized gaming virtual world and subsidiary of Animoca Brands, partnered with GCEX, a digital prime brokerage and part of the GCEX Group, to create an education and client engagement platform within the DubaiVerse, a space in The Sandbox that will be home to some of Dubai’s major brands and partners, said the press release. The partners will offer an experience to gamers and companies that want to access the open metaverse, educating them on decentralized finance (DeFi) and on GCEX’s offering for institutional and professional clients, it added.

Career news

• Crypto wallet and exchange Luno announced that its co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Marcus Swanepoel is moving into a new role as Executive Chairman, and Chief Operating Officer James Lanigan is elevated to CEO. It added that it hired Canaccord Genuity Group to “help bring on new institutional and strategic investors alongside Digital Currency Group (DCG) to fund scaling, support expansion, accelerate market share gain, and prepare the company for an eventual public listing.” Luno is a wholly-owned investment of DCG.