Bullish News On The Crypto Front

Morning Report: After a dearth of good news for the crypto world, here’s some anti-bad stuff.

Bitcoin may be stuck in the $7,000s, but, behind the scenes, the hard work of making crypto work as more than a curiosity continues.

A few things are worth our time this morning as we catch ourselves up:

• Coinbase targets regulatory approval as competitive edge. Leading U.S. crypto purchase, storage, and trading company Coinbase is working to “operate a regulated broker-dealer, pending approval by federal authorities.” If it does so, the company claims that it will “be capable of offering blockchain-based securities, under the oversight of the [SEC.]” That would give it a massive leg up in the important U.S. market. Meeting regulation can be complicated, and it can form a material moat for Coinbase.
• Robinhood continues crypto trading expansion. Robinhood, the popular low-fee stock trading platform, has continued its crypto trading rollout this week to Texas.
• SEC opens the door for some cryptos. And finally, the SEC’s recent comments regarding crypto caused a stir when the government’s agent said that “frankly not all of them [cryptos] are obvious on its face exactly what” they are. Could that bode well for some assets in the space? Some folks think so.

Price appreciation for crypto assets could happen sooner, later, or never. Regardless, the efforts needed to make cryptos work for normal people continue. There’s a long road yet until regular folks need or use crypto, and we’re still waiting for the first must-have crypto app, but maybe we’ll get there all the same.¹

That’s what a lot of people are betting on, at least.

1. Bitcoin doesn’t count. Ethereum is cool but not there yet. Why isn’t there an excellent crypto and DApp for playing poker?

From The Crunchbase Daily:

Ranking the buys of tech’s Big Five

Only a small portion of startups end selling to the five largest U.S. tech companies. But what these behemoths lack in deal quantity, they make up for in dollars spent. Crunchbase News takes a look at how M&A activity levels compare among these giants.

Gett picks up $80M

On-demand ride service Gett has raised $80 million in a new financing round led by Volkswagen that values the company at around $1.4 billion. Gett’s CEO says the company is on track to turn profitable in all cities it serves by the Q1 of next year.

Coinbase buys Keystone Capital

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has acquired securities dealer Keystone Capital in a move aimed at clearing the path to operate as broker-dealer. Meanwhile, in other crypto news, startup Unchained Capital has raised seed funding to roll out loans backed by cryptocurrency.

Honest Co. raises $200M

Consumer goods company and onetime unicorn The Honest Company has raised $200 million from private equity investor L Catterton. The financing brings total capital raised by the Santa Monica, Calif.-based company to more than $500 million.