Arca and BlockTower Capital have agreed to merge into a unified cryptocurrency investment platform. Rayne Steinberg, Arca’s CEO, said in a statement that “investors have been clamouring for regulated digital assets investment offerings for years.”
The merger will help ensure the firms possess “the resources and expertise to effectively manage our current product offerings and broaden our investment options.”
Arca and BlockTower are both registered investment advisers in the US. According to the firms, BlockTower’s venture capital division, BlockTower Venture Capital, will maintain its independent operations.
“To compete in the evolving digital assets sector and effectively serve our investors, we must continually strive to attract top talent. By merging with Arca, we are thrilled to instantly strengthen our investment team,” said Ari Paul, BlockTower’s chief investment officer.
Coinbase Purchases On-Chain Payments Platform Utopia
Coinbase announced on November 13, 2024 that it has acquired Utopia Labs to enhance the on-chain payments infrastructure of its cryptocurrency exchange.
The Utopia Labs team will join Base, Coinbase’s layer 2 scaling network, to help advance the on-chain payments roadmap within Coinbase Wallet, according to a blog post by Coinbase.
The company explained that Base supports developers create on-chain applications, which attract users, and the Wallet then integrates these users, thereby encouraging more developers to build on-chain.
Earlier in October 2024, Base’s Total Value Locked (TVL) exceeded that of Arbitrum, the long-time leader among layer 2 solutions. At present, Base has approximately $3.15 billion in TVL, compared to about $2.9 billion for Arbitrum, according to DeFiLlama data.
Fireblocks Collaborates With South Korean Bank For VAT Tokenisation
Fireblocks, a digital assets platform has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with NongHyup Bank, a large South Korean bank specialising in commercial credit and banking services for the agricultural sector. They hope to launch a prototype for tax refunds.
Fireblocks and NongHyup Bank are set to implement the Fireblocks Tokenization Engine in a trial project aimed at refunding value-added tax (VAT) and goods and services tax (GST) on retail purchases.
Fireblocks co-founder and CEO Michael Shaulov informed Cointelegraph that their goal is to enhance transparency and security. He said: “Through tokenisation, we can assign unique digital identifiers to assets, allowing for real-time tracking across their lifecycle — from issuance to settlement — without the risk of manual error or fraud. This not only reduces operational costs, but also ensures a secure, immutable record that strengthens trust between banks and their clients.”
In South Korea, a flat VAT of 10 per cent is applied. However, certain specific items, such as medical supplies and unprocessed foods are exempt from this tax, and tourists are only required to pay VAT on minor purchases. The fee for reclaiming VAT can vary between 3 per cent and 6 per cent of the item’s price.
