On January 20, Finalto, the award-winning global multi-asset liquidity provider and prime brokerage, announced the appointment of Chris Cotterell as the managing director of Finalto Australia.

METACO, a provider of security software and infrastructure to the crypto-asset ecosystem, has announced that Union Bank of the Philippines will deploy its digital asset management solution. Moreover, UnionBank is deploying services on IBM Cloud, in order to leverage the confidential computing capabilities of IBM’s digital asset infrastructure which are fully integrated with METACO’s software. […]

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-- AlphaPoint (https://alphapoint.com/), a white label crypto marketplace software company enabling global access to cryptocurrencies and digital assets, is expanding their team. By onboarding key hires into critical roles, targeting personnel with diverse backgrounds in fintech and capital markets, AlphaPoint looks to meet the rapidly evolving demands of the cryptocurrency industry. In a year where personnel doubled, notable senior hires added to the team include Matthew Moss as Director of Product, Sabine Wisnioski as Director of People, and Tristan Thomas as Product Manager - Government Applications.

As AlphaPoint's new Director of Product, former Liquidnet and DTCC product director Matthew Moss will drive development across the product suite, ensuring customers are able to meet unique market needs. Prior to AlphaPoint, Matt held a wide variety of roles across more than 20 years of experience in traditional financial services: Technical Writer, C++ Engineer, Algo Trading Development Lead, Business Analyst, Technology/Product Division Head, and Product Manager. He joined Liquidnet, the electronic trading venue catering to institutional investors, in its early startup days back in 2002, attending Columbia University to learn C++ and Java programming. He left Liquidnet after 17 years and joined DTCC's ITP business unit (formerly Omgeo) as Product Management Director in Digital Strategy & Platform Management. "I couldn't be more excited to join AlphaPoint and contribute to their mission of providing innovative products and leadership in the fast-growing digital asset ecosystem," said Matthew Moss. 

Sabine Wisnioski, AlphaPoint's new Director of People, delivers a uniquely global perspective to the company. Having grown up in Singapore and studied Chinese and Japanese Language and Literature in Seattle at the University of Washington, Sabine started her career at Google in recruiting. She then moved onto Barclays Investment Bank supporting the FX Settlements office, Japan desk, and soon after completed a Masters of Science in Knowledge Management at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Her first professional exposure to crypto was in 2018, as she helped her firm launch a new cryptocurrency entity – Binfinity – based in Barcelona, Spain. Currently operating out of Tokyo, Sabine specializes in global talent acquisition and as a stand-alone HR Business Partner for tech startups covering APAC and other regions. “It is such an exciting time to join AlphaPoint right now! As we scale our product offering and global services across regions and additional countries, we need to follow through with developing existing talent, diversifying and streamlining our internal processes while understanding what hiring exceptional talent actually means to us at AlphaPoint in order for our teams to help carry AlphaPoint forward with the highest form of engagement possible,” said Sabine Wisnioski, Director of People.

Tristan Thomas, AlphaPoint's Product Manager - Government Applications, has a wealth of experience leading product innovation and strategic solutions for corporations, governments, and startups implementing blockchain and advanced tech solutions. Working throughout US, Europe, Asia and Africa, he has led strategic executive blockchain consulting for Salesforce, GE, SwissRe and Hyperloop, as well as with startup innovators in industries including Asset Management, Supply Chain, IOT, Biotech, Transportation, Gaming, Sports, Real Estate, and Trading. With a background in organizational psychology and IT systems management, Tristan specializes in assessing, developing and implementing new business models that leverage transformative technology.

With a wide array of international placements from different nationalities in 2021, Danielle Humphreys, Operations Associate based in Spain, anticipates further global expansion in 2022, “AlphaPoint has undergone exponential growth in Q4 2021 with many new employees coming in to support the US and APAC teams, along with our newly dedicated Chivo team in El Salvador,” said Danielle. “In Q1 2022, we are actively recruiting across various functions and expertise including the Development Team and People Team, with the goal of doubling company size again by the end of Q4 2022. AlphaPoint currently has 22 remote positions open to candidates across the globe. In the People Team specifically, it is important to transcend geographical hiring boundaries as it enables us to obtain world-class talent who contribute a diverse mix of different cultures and experiences to our company. Come join us!”

About AlphaPoint

AlphaPoint is a white label software company powering crypto exchanges worldwide. Through our secure, scalable, and customizable digital asset trading platform, AlphaPoint has enabled over 150 customers in 35 countries to launch and operate crypto markets, as well as digitize assets. AlphaPoint and its award winning blockchain technology have helped startups and institutions discover and execute their blockchain strategies since 2013. Learn more at AlphaPoint.com

Media Contact: AlphaPoint, [email protected]

Union Bank of the Philippines plans to choose Metaco and IBM to enhance cryptocurrency trading and custody services, taking advantage of the Asian country's rapid adoption of digital tokens. (Read More)

"With the recent launch of our APAC headquarters in Singapore, we can ensure that we continue to offer best-in-class services to UnionBank and other clients in the region," says Patrick Enjalbal, VP Customer Success managing director of Asia-Pacific region at Metaco.

More than 50,000 targets around the world have been affected by the business email compromise scams, Interpol reports.

The Poloniex exchange has been a part of the crypto space for over 8 years now, contributing significantly to its growth and development. It was founded with the mission of building one of the biggest and most advanced digital asset trading platforms in the world. Staying true to its mission, Poloniex provided its users access […]

New team in the region propels Semperis’ global growth of hybrid identity protection solutions and follows recent expansion into APAC HOBOKEN, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Semperis, the pioneer of identity-driven cyber resilience for enterprises, today announced that it is expanding its comprehensive Active Directory (AD) protection, mitigation, and recovery solutions to Australia and New Zealand with a Melbourne-based […]

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According to preliminary Eurostat estimates cited by Trading Economics, annual inflation in the eurozone surged for the sixth straight month in December to a record high of 5 percent. Inflation last dipped in June, when it dropped to 1.9 percent from 2 percent in May.  “We view these figures with some concern, as they are higher than we initially expected,” Isabel Schnabel, member of the Executive Board of the ECB, commented in a recent interview with Süddeutsche Zeitung. The official also acknowledged that many individuals in Europe are concerned about the decline in real salaries and interest income. Nonetheless, Schnabel made it plain that the European Central Bank is not yet ready to hike interest rates in the eurozone, citing estimates that the global pandemic’s price spike will be followed by a ‘marked decrease.’ The banker also indicated that the ECB should avoid suffocating the recovery, saying: “In our predictions, medium-term inflation will even fall below our objective of 2 percent, even if we accept that the projections are currently subject to great uncertainty.” European Central Bank to Act if Inflation Settles Above 2% The ECB executive body’s spokesman also stated that the euro zone’s central bank ‘would act promptly and aggressively if we determine that inflation may stabilize over 2 percent.’ She stated that ending net asset purchases is a prerequisite for raising rates. The decision by the ECB’s Governing Council in December to progressively cut them over the next quarters, according to Schnabel, is the first move in that direction. The Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program is expected to be phased out by the end of March 2022. The official denied claims that the ECB’s silence reflected its fears that the euro debt crisis could resurface if interest rates are raised, particularly in countries like Italy.  “Our actions are guided solely by our price stability mandate. Public borrowing by individual countries has no bearing on the Governing Council’s decisions,” she insisted. The findings from Eurostat and Schnabel’s statements come as other major nations experience rising prices as a result of steps taken to deal with the economic consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak. The consumer price index jumped to 7 percent last month, according to data released by the US Labor Department on Wednesday. This is the most significant annual growth in the last four decades.

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Earlier this month, Fidelity Digital Assets, a division of Fidelity Investments, released a report on cryptocurrency developments and their possible future implications. The adoption of cryptocurrencies by sovereign nations is one of the topics covered in the paper.  “This past year saw some major moves by world governments with regards to digital assets,” Fidelity described. The report discusses countries like China that have banned cryptocurrency and countries like El Salvador that took the opposite approach and made BTC legal tender. “We think the two developments observed this year couldn’t be more opposed. Time will certainly tell which path is more successful,” the report authors discoursed. Though, they noted: “An outright ban will be difficult to achieve at best, and if successful, will lead to a significant loss of wealth and opportunity.” The authors continued, “We also think there is very high stakes game theory at play here, whereby if bitcoin adoption increases, the countries that secure some bitcoin today will be better off competitively than their peers,” expounding: “Therefore, even if other countries do not believe in the investment thesis or adoption of bitcoin, they will be forced to acquire some as a form of insurance.” Fidelity illuminated, “In other words, a small cost can be paid today as a hedge compared to a potentially much larger cost years in the future.” The investment firm established: “We, therefore, wouldn’t be surprised to see other sovereign nation states acquire bitcoin in 2022 and perhaps even see a central bank make an acquisition.” Last week, El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, projected that two more sovereign countries would embrace bitcoin as legal cash this year. Nigel Green, the CEO of deVere Group, is more positive. Three more nations are expected to embrace BTC as legal cash this year, according to him.

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Because several bitcoin ETF applications were declined before 2021, a big segment of the cryptocurrency community has been anticipating the introduction of the first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) for years. The Slump in Bitcoin Futures ETFs Continues Finally, after the first US bitcoin futures, ETF was approved, Proshare’s bitcoin futures ETF debuted with a bang, grabbing about $1 billion in total volume in its first 24 hours. Months later, on January 13, 2022, the Proshares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) is trading for $26.96, down 39.12 percent from its November 10, 2021 peak of 44.29.   In mid-November, Bloomberg contributor Katherine Greifeld stated that the ‘bitcoin futures ETF mania is receding.’ “While the Proshares fund swallowed $1.1 billion in two days – the fastest an ETF has ever done so,” Greifeld noted at the time. The financial author went on to examine the Vaneck ETF, pointing out that the fund’s lower management fees could set it apart from the competition. At the time, Greifeld quoted Bloomberg Intelligence senior ETF analyst, Eric Balchunas, who said: “There’s definitely a lull going on right now relative to the launch mania and so Vaneck has their work cut out for them in trying to get people excited again.” Valkyrie’s BTF is Down 37%, Vaneck’s XBTF is Down 27%, and the Total Open Interest in Bitcoin Futures Across Cryptocurrency Exchanges is Down More Than 38% The Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BTF) experienced the same thing when it hit an all-time high (ATH) of $26.67 per share on November 9, 2021, and now trades at $16.70 per unit, down 37.38 percent from the ATH. The Vaneck Bitcoin Strategy ETF (XBTF) is down only 27.70 percent from its peak of $58.08 per unit on November 19, 2021, to its current price of 41.99 per unit. Despite the fact that Proshares and Valkyrie ETFs were launched before Vaneck, they all show a significant correlation with the spot price of bitcoin and the crypto asset’s futures markets. Open interest in futures markets has decreased since mid-November, as has total bitcoin futures open interest across cryptocurrency exchanges. The largest open interest in bitcoin futures was approximately $28 billion on November 11, 2021. The total open interest on most major derivatives markets is currently $17.22 billion. That’s a 38.50 percent drop in the last two months, and the pattern looks a lot like bitcoin’s spot market price behavior.

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Around the world, the fintech industry has been soaring, kept abuzz throughout 2021 with a continuous flow of technological advances, regulatory developments, and investors’ money. Fintech funding smashed records, pushing

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