Incoming New York City Mayor Eric Adams said on Thursday that he will take his first three paychecks in bitcoin when he takes office in January.“In New York, we always go big, so I’m going to take my first THREE paychecks in bitcoin when I become mayor. NYC is going to be the center of the cryptocurrency industry and other fast-growing, innovative industries! Just wait!” Adams wrote in a tweet on Thursday.The tweet was in response to one from Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who on Tuesday pledged to take his next paycheck in bitcoin. Suarez won reelection earlier this week by a wide margin.Adams, currently the Brooklyn borough president and a retired New York City Police Department captain, was pro-crypto throughout … [Read More...]

The Houston Firefighters’ Relief and Retirement Fund (HFRRF) made news recently when it announced it was investing $25 million in bitcoin and ether, marking what was believed to be the first time a U.S. pension fund had put cryptocurrencies directly on its balance sheet.Of course, $25 million is only a drop in the bucket compared to the $5.5 billion in total assets held by the fund – more precisely, it represents just 0.5% of its portfolio. But it still was a notable first step by the historically conservative investment fund. And if other pension and retirement funds follow suit, it could open up a huge source of additional demand for cryptocurrencies, with the funds collectively controlling trillions of dollars in global assets.To be sure, … [Read More...]

Two veterans of Riot Games have launched Patron, an early stage venture firm focusing on the convergence of games and consumer startups, a space the founders call the “Spectrum of Play.”Patron’s debut $90 million seed fund is backed by more than 100 limited partners, including Chris Dixon and Arianna Simpson of Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Crypto.“It’s our conviction that games will shape the future. We believe that the biggest opportunities in games will converge into Web 3 (P2E [play-to-earn]/NFTs), and consumer categories like education, fitness, personal finance and more. It will be built for the gaming-natives who not only grew up with games such as Roblox and RuneScape, but also consumer apps like Discord, TikTok, Robinhood and digital assets like NFTs and … [Read More...]

Crypto-powered digital payment service Ripple has made a $44 million joint Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investment with Nelnet (NYSE: NNI) Renewable Energy into one of Nelnet’s solar energy funds, the firms announced Monday.Ripple will be the majority investor in the tie-up, which will fund solar energy projects throughout the United States.The solar projects financed by the joint venture are estimated to offset over 1.5 million tons of carbon dioxide over 35 years, or about the same amount of carbon dioxide emissions from consuming 154 million gallons of gasoline, according to the companies.“Guaranteeing a clean energy future is a major priority across every industry, not only to drive future economic growth but also to ensure a more sustainable world. As the adoption of cryptocurrencies and … [Read More...]

Venture capital firm NFX has launched a crypto gaming initiative to get pre-seed and seed funds into the hands of founders within nine days.NFX earlier this week announced it had lined up $450 million to invest in seed-stage companies. General Partner (GP) Morgan Beller teased that the fund would be doing “something cool in gaming.”NFX put the money into action on Thursday with the launch of six FAST (Founder-friendly, Application-driven, Software-enabled and Transparent) initiatives, which span a number of industries. The group is looking for founders who are “bringing gaming and web3/crypto/NFTs together in new ways,” according to the website. NFX has made $20 million available for this batch of FASTs, and funds are awarded on a … [Read More...]

Youth-focused fashion retailer PacSun will accept cryptocurrency payments from online shoppers starting this week through a partnership with payment provider BitPay.Online shoppers can select the “Pay with BitPay” button during the PacSun checkout process, and then choose a crypto wallet and currency. The customer has to scan a QR code to complete the payment.PacSun will support 11 cryptocurrencies under BitPay, including bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH) and ether (ETH). The retailer will also accept five USD-pegged stablecoins. BitPay supports leading crypto wallets and exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase and MetaMask.“With digital sales doubling since last year, we understand the continued importance of creating an exceptional online shopping experience for our customers,” PacSun President Brie Olson said in a press release.PacSun and … [Read More...]

Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) General Partner Katie Haun said the crypto industry isn’t opposed to regulation but does need clarity from regulators.“It’s not that the industry does not want regulation. I always say it wants clarity. But it also does not want to be treated as a monolith,” Haun told CNBC’s Kate Rooney during the annual Delivering Alpha investor summit. A16z raked in $2.2 billion in June to launch its third crypto fund, the largest crypto-related fund to date.Haun, a former federal prosecutor who created the U.S. government’s first cryptocurrency task force, said regulators “need to assess the fact that we’re beyond just financial use cases” in crypto, and regulation “can not be one size fits all.”“The SEC has a … [Read More...]

Canadian bitcoin mining infrastructure company Fortress Technologies made a slew of changes Friday.The company announced the departure of its co-founder and chief executive officer, the appointment of a new CEO and chief operating officer, as well as changes to the board of directors. The reorganization comes as Fortress moves to become a dominant player in the bitcoin mining industry.Aydin Kilic, who founded Fortress Blockchain in 2017 and became CEO the following year, resigned as an officer on Sept. 20. His resignation from the Fortress board of directors is effective today. The move comes about a month after Kilic joined publicly traded crypto mining company Hive Blockchain as president and COO.The company named Antonin “AJ” Scalia as CEO and Thomas “Drew” Armstrong as COO. The duo … [Read More...]