Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, has joined the consortium of tech and crypto companies led by Jack Dorsey’s payments company Block, the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA).

VanEck, an investment firm with close to $82 billion in assets under management with exchange-traded funds, mutual funds and institutional accounts, has announced the launch of its first multi-cryptocurrency fund.

The 0x Protocol’s v4 release will soon allow any project using its smart contracts to offer swaps between non-fungible tokens (NFTs). 0x is currently available on Ethereum, Avalanche, Fantom, Optimism, Polygon, and the Binance Smart Chain.

Sponsored: The Invictus suite of funds offered commendable performance in a quarter marked by heightened volatility in the Bitcoin and broader cryptoasset market. All five of the Invictus funds registered positive returns for the quarter, with the vast majority outperforming their benchmarks. 

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Meta Joins Block’s Crypto Open Patent Alliance
• VanEck Launches Multi-Crypto Fund
• 0x to Allow NFT Swaps on Ethereum, Avalanche, and Others
• What is Solana?
• Sponsored: Invictus Capital continues to deliver an uninterrupted path of growth across all its funds

Meta Joins Block’s Crypto Open Patent Alliance

Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, has joined the consortium of tech and crypto companies led by Jack Dorsey’s payments company Block, the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA).

By joining COPA, Meta joins over two dozen other firms that have pledged not to enforce their “core cryptocurrency patents.” Max Sills, the general manager of COPA, defined these as any “technology that enables the creation, mining, storage, transmission, settlement, integrity, or security of cryptocurrencies.”

The move came shortly after Meta started winding down its Diem stablecoin project after it sold the project’s intellectual property to Silvergate Bank to pay back investors. COPA’s goal is to encourage blockchain-related innovation by reducing the likelihood of patent litigation.

Last year, COPA sued Australian computer scientist Craig Wright over his widely debated claim to be the inventor of Bitcoin and his attempts to copyright the Bitcoin white paper. Meta is the largest patent holder to join COPA to date.

VanEck Launches Multi-Crypto Fund

VanEck, an investment firm with close to $82 billion in assets under management with exchange-traded funds, mutual funds and institutional accounts, has announced the launch of its first multi-cryptocurrency fund.

The fund is listed as an exchange-traded note (ETN) on the Deutsche Borse Xetra and SIX Swiss exchanges and provides exposure to BTC, ETH, DOT, SOL, TRX, AVAX, and MATIC. The firm, in the U.S., currently offers a range of digital asset private funds for high net worth individuals and institutions, as well as several ETFs.

Last November, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rejected an application from VanEck to list a spot Bitcoin ETF. The SEC rejected it as the underlying exchange responsible for the listing, Cboe BZX, does not have a proper "surveillance-sharing agreement with markets trading the underlying assets [of Bitcoin]."

0x to Allow NFT Swaps on Ethereum, Avalanche, and Others

The 0x Protocol’s v4 release will soon allow any project using its smart contracts to offer swaps between non-fungible tokens (NFTs). 0x is currently available on Ethereum, Avalanche, Fantom, Optimism, Polygon and the Binance Smart Chain.

The new NFT swap offering will first launch on Ethereum, before ZRX token holders vote on which chain the feature will be launched on next. Prior to the NFT swap feature, 0x’s primary focus has been on supplying developers with tools to spin up decentralized exchanges on Ethereum.

0x touts that its smart contracts have numerous built-in advantages including 54% cheaper gas costs, royalties for creators, free non-custodial listings on 0x-based NFT marketplaces, and more. Markets like SudoSwap and Trader.xyz currently use 0x’s v3 smart contracts.

Unlike traditional token swaps, NFT swaps are so far unproven technology. 0x’s new offering comes after a boom in the NFT market that saw leading marketplaces like OpenSea reach monthly volumes close to $5 billion.

What is Solana?

Solana is a high-performance blockchain founded by former Qualcomm, Intel, and Dropbox engineers that uses a delegated Proof-of-Stake (dPoS) consensus algorithm. The network uses a unique method of ordering transactions to significantly improve its speed and throughput.

Blockchain networks have historically struggled with scalability issues, with the few that managed to solve them dealing with centralization issues. A decentralized network with small confirmation times and transaction fees has been hard to create, but the problem was tackled in 2017 with the creation of Solana.

Using what’s known as Proof-of-History (PoH), the Solana blockchain is able to handle thousands of transactions per second. PoH uses Verifiable Delay Functions to hash incoming events and transactions to allow nodes to locally generate timestamps of SHA256 computations, eliminating the need for timestamps to be broadcasted across the network.

Check out CrypotCompare’s Solana page to find out more.

Invictus Capital continues to deliver an uninterrupted path of growth across all its funds

The Invictus suite of funds offered commendable performance in a quarter marked by heightened volatility in the Bitcoin and broader cryptoasset market. All five of the Invictus funds registered positive returns for the quarter, with the vast majority outperforming their benchmarks. The simple average return across our suite of funds was 10.7% for the quarter, which is equivalent to an annualized return of 50%.

• The Crypto10 Hedged (C10) fund offered the greatest returns over the quarter at 23.91%, far outstripping its benchmark of 1.66% and Bitcoin at 12.36%. 

• Crypto20, the flagship fund, had a stellar year registering a return of 334.98%, it significantly outperformed its Top 20 equally weighted benchmark, which rose 261.92%.

• The Invictus Bitcoin Alpha (IBA) fund  managed to outperform Bitcoin throughout the fourth quarter, marking a total return of 14.56%, accompanied by significantly less volatility.

• The Hyperion venture capital fund continued on its impressive run, appreciating a further 5.05% off the back of a Quantfury dividend and Syntropy revaluation. The large dividend received by Quantfury will allow for a healthy level of buy-and-burn activity on the IHF token over the coming months.

• Invictus Margin Lending (IML) Fund registered a 2.48% net return for the quarter against its 1.48% benchmark hurdle.

Invictus Capital is now on the cusp of a historic migration into a fully-regulated fund structure that will place us at the forefront of innovation within the asset management space. It should also bring our investors the peace of mind that comes with additional, 3rd-party oversight of our operations.

Disclaimer:

Cryptocurrency trading involves high risk, and is not suitable for all investors. Before deciding to trade cryptocurrencies, tokens or any other digital asset you should carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite.

Its content does not constitute financial advice. Please remember that the value of investments, and any income from them, can fall as well as rise so you could get back less than you invest. If you are unsure of the suitability of your investment please seek advice.

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