Kraken is excited to announce a $100k donation to Coin Center, one of the leading non-profit advocacy groups focused on the public policy issues facing digital asset technologies.
This latest donation is part of Kraken’s ongoing commitment to the excellent work Coin Center does to promote research, educate regulators and advance the rights of digital asset users with sensible policy approaches.
The donation follows an announcement by crypto asset management firm Grayscale that it would endow $1 million to Coin Center and match donations up to another $1 million. In 2018, Kraken laid the groundwork with a similar donation campaign that helped Coin Center raise over $3 million dollars.
Pete Rizzo, Kraken’s Editor-at-Large, said:
“Kraken is proud to again be at the forefront of funding important advocacy work that will help educate U.S. lawmakers and regulators on the transformative potential of cryptocurrency. At a time when misinformation about this new technology remains high, we call on all industry leaders to join us in funding this essential work.”
Coin Center has been a vanguard for challenging policies such as the proposed STABLE act as well as recent rushed Financial Crimes Enforcement Network rulemaking that would have limited the unbanked’s access to digital asset services.
Kraken considers it a core duty to protect the well-being of the digital asset industry and the rights of every individual to use cryptocurrencies. Last year, Kraken donated over $500k through grants and other charitable initiatives to empower blockchain developers, digital asset projects and organizations dedicated to the health of the industry.
Anyone who wishes to contribute to defending the digital asset industry is free to donate to the #JoinTheMatch campaign at: coincenter.org/donate.
Fine Wines Become First Tokenized Securities Under New Swiss Blockchain Law
Sygnum, a digital-asset finance firm with a Swiss banking license, has tokenized its first set of assets under the nation’s new law addressing the use of distributed ledger technology (DLT).
According to a press release on Monday, Sygnum Bank teamed up with Fine Wine Capital AG to tokenize a range of “investible fine wines,” issuing tokens representing the alcoholic assets on Sygnum’s Desygnate platform.
The move was enabled by the first phase of the new law, effective from Monday, Feb. 1, with Sygnum and Free Wine Capital now free to register and transfer their tokenized assets without concern for any legal ramifications, according to the release.
The legislation is expected to open up luxury goods such as diamonds and fine wine to a larger pool of investors by increasing accessibility and liquidity of such assets using blockchain technology.
“Tokenization of wine assets enables us to expand our private collector investor base to new private and institutional investors,” said Fine Wine co-founder Alexandre Challand. “This provides them the opportunity to hold, trade or request a physical settlement of this unique asset in an efficient manner.”
Tokenized assets issued on Desygnate have their ownership records recorded on the blockchain ledger that is legally binding. The ownership rights are transferable to others solely over the DLT system under Switzerland’s new law.
“The legal provisions which come into effect today ensure that asset tokenization is now a viable alternative to traditional securitization,” said Sygnum’s head of regtech, Gino Wirthensohn.
First proposed by the Swiss Federal Council in 2019, the new law went through a rigorous legislative process before finally passing both the lower and upper chambers last summer. A second phase comes into effect at the start of August that will address infrastructure upgrades in the financial markets.