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UNICEF considers how crypto might affect children
UNICEF (the United Nations Children’s Fund) is a UN agency tasked with providing humanitarian aid to children worldwide and recently put out a report entitled “Prospects for children in 2022“. In part of the report, the agency enumerates three possible positive effects of crypto on children: (1) greater financial inclusion which would increase the livelihood of families and therefore children, (2) more frictionless remittances, and (3) more instant, transparent, and efficient social assistance programs. Additionally, the agency enumerates three possible negative consequences of crypto: (1) financial instability, (2) facilitation of transactions for child trafficking, sexual exploitation, and child pornography, and (3) defrauding of children.
Altogether, the crypto section of the report reads with a bit of a negative bias, with very little elaboration of benefits and more emotionally charged language in the discussion of risks. Additionally, the report provides no data to estimate relative magnitudes of the different effects and no discussion of how the greater transparency of most blockchain transactions often empowers law enforcement to trace criminals such as child traffickers more easily than the existing financial system does.
Solana wallet Phantom raises $109 million at $1.2 billion valuation
Phantom is the most popular crypto wallet for use on the Solana blockchain. Founded less than a year ago in March 2021, the company’s product gained 70,000 users by July when it raised $9 million in a Series A round. This month (January 2022), the company raised over 10 times that amount: $109 million at a $1.2 billion valuation in a Series B round led by Paradigm and with participation from a16z, Solana Ventures, and other big-name VCs. Full story.
FTX raises $400 million at $32 billion valuation
Just a few days ago, it was announced that FTX US raised a $400 million Series A at an $8 billion, and today it was announced that its international sister company FTX raised $400 million in a Series C round at a valuation of $32 billion. For reference, the company NASDAQ has a market cap of only $29.7 billion, and the Intercontinental Exchange (the parent company of the NYSE and other exchanges both in and outside of the U.S.) has a market cap of $70.8 billion.
Crypto price dip hasn’t affected Avalanche transaction growth
BTC, ETH, AVAX, and just about every other cryptocurrency has seen a major price dip during the last few months. AVAX, the native cryptocurrency of the Avalanche blockchain, fell from an all-time high of over $146 on November 21 of last year down to around $55 earlier this month. However, despite the 62% price drop, Avalanche smart contract transactions have continued to grow at a relatively unaffected pace.
