DeFi Protocol Ref Finance Completes $4.8M Financing Led by Jump Crypto

NEAR’s Blockchain ecological DeFi project Ref Finance announced the completion of $4.8 million financings led by Jump Crypto.

Other investors include Alameda Research, Dragonfly Capital, D1 Ventures, OKX BlockDream Ventures, Kucoin Ventures, SevenX Ventures, Kronos, Move Capital, Puzzle Ventures, 0xMaki, Caoyin, etc.

Ref Finance’s latest financing will expand its team, continue to build DeFi services, and build better DeFi products and services for customers to support the NEAR ecosystem.

Reportedly, Ref Finance currently uses algorithms such as automatic market maker (AMM) to provide DeFi one-stop service for the NEAR ecosystem.

Some of the DeFi protocols that the market is familiar with, such as Uniswap, use algorithms such as automatic market maker (AMM), allowing investors to deposit funds into the on-chain liquidity pool in advance, which makes a completely decentralized and non-custodial manner, all the while providing seamless transactions between cryptocurrencies.

It also uses the stable-swap market, a version of AMM, to exchange stablecoins.

Currently, NEAR supports the trading of ETH, SOL, LUNA, and CELO tokens through Asset Bridge for financial activities. Transaction costs on Near are about 1 cent per transaction, and transactions completed in one to two seconds.

KuCoin Pulls $150m Funding in Pre-Series B, Hitting $10bn Valuation

KuCoin Exchange, the world’s fifth-largest brokerage platform by trading volume, has announced a pre-Series B funding round in which it pulled $150 million.

The trading platform said it would use the raised funds to expand its current centralised service offerings to take a foothold in the broader Web3.0 ecosystem. The exchange said it would continue to develop its crypto wallet services and deepen its involvement in gaming, Decentralized Finance (DeFi), and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) through its investment arms like KuCoin Labs and KuCoin Ventures.

“The vote of confidence from prominent investors, including Jump Crypto and Circle Ventures, solidifies our vision that one day everyone will be with crypto. KuCoin is built for all classes of investors, and we believe these new investors and partners will contribute to making KuCoin synonymous with a reliable and trustworthy gateway into (the) crypto space,” said Johnny Lyu, CEO of KuCoin.

Jump Crypto led this round of funding round, others participating parties include Circle Ventures, IDG Capital, and Matrix Partners.

The recent funding brings the total capital raised by the firm to $170 million after completing its Series A round back in November 2018. With the excess liquidity, the exchange said it is committed to building out its platform to make it ten times more efficient than it currently is at the moment.

As described by Tak Fujishima, Head of Asia, Jump Crypto, the exchange’s backing is predicated upon the company’s strides in offering crypto services with years of track record.

“We are pleased to support the company as it continues to grow and expand its offerings in futures and margin trading, lending, staking, and passive yield generation to support the growth of Web 3.0 and the crypto markets,” said Tak Fujishima, Head of Asia, Jump Crypto.

KuCoin has now joined the list of other trading platforms like FTX Derivatives Exchanges and Coinbase which is currently valued at above $10 billion.

Jump Crypto to Build New Validator Client for Solana

Following the growing security breaches on the Solana Blockchain network, Jump Crypto, a start-up known for many things in the digital currency ecosystem ranging from system redesign to investment is set to help the protocol build a new validator client. 

This proposed validator client is bound to help the Solana protocol regain its stance as it relates to the enhanced efficiency, throughput, and reliability of the protocol. Jump Crypto said the new validator client will complement the one that Solana Labs have designed and that it will be written in the C++ programming language.

“The Solana network has seen exponential growth over the last two years, which shows no signs of slowing down,” added Anatoly Yakovenko, Co-Founder of Solana. “By adding more core contributors like Jump Crypto, the network can maintain its status as the best place to build in web3 while scaling to billions of users. I’m excited for Jump’s engineers to bring a new perspective to the network and help improve network resiliency and efficiency.”

Kevin Bowers, Jump Trading’s Chief Science Officer, has been appointed to lead the project, drawing up a team of experienced scientists and engineers that have helped develop complex algorithms, software, hardware, and networks for one of the largest low latency trading systems in the world.

The creation of a new validator client for Solana is long overdue as the protocol is now losing favour amongst its users with the recent bouts of attacks and outages it has been experiencing. The endeavour from Jump Crypto will be done in collaboration with the Solana Foundation, with both outfits working on the premise to help reposition Solana as one of the fastest and most robust smart contract networks around.

“Through Jump’s decades of work in solving some of the most complex networking challenges across traditional financial markets, we have seen first-hand the impact that improving a network’s speed and efficiency can have on an entire financial system,” said Kevin Bowers. They expressed optimism with respect to the Solana-Validator endeavour.

Jump Crypto denies closing due to FTX losses

The cryptocurrency division of the Jump Trading Group, known as Jump Crypto, has debunked rumors circulating on the internet that it could shut down as a result of FTX losses.

On November 17, the business said in a tweet that “Jump Crypto will not collapse. We believe that we are one of the crypto businesses that is both well-funded and highly liquid in the current market. Please take into consideration that I continue to engage in “investing and trading.”

On November 12, the firm that deals in cryptocurrencies tweeted that it was surprised by the events surrounding FTX, but it informed its customers that “exposure to FTX was managed according to our risk plan and we remain well financed.”

In spite of assurances made by Jump Crypto to the contrary, the cryptocurrency community continues to exercise extreme caution in the wake of the collapse of FTX and the ensuing repercussions of this event. Knower, a market expert, made the following statement in a tweet: “Jump crypto will genuinely tweet claiming they’re okay and not shutting down, but 157 reply guys and threadooooors will argue that they’re lying (because SBF stated the same thing).”

There seems to be less trust in the cryptocurrency community as a result of recent events, including the collapse of FTX and the events that followed. Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried, who served as the CEO of FTX before the company declared bankruptcy, disputed that the “shitshow” that was FTX had any financial effect on FTX US before FTX went bankrupt. Previously, Bankman-Fried held to the position that “any user may completely withdraw (subject to petrol expenditures, etc.)” from FTX US. It became immediately apparent that this was not the case as soon as FTX Group, including FTX US, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Following the collapse of FTX, BlockFi found itself in a similar circumstance and at first denied rumors of financial difficulties.

A few days after assuring customers that all BlockFi products were “totally functioning,” founder and COO Flori Marquez allegedly said that the company was on the verge of filing for bankruptcy due to reports that the majority of its assets were kept on the defunct FTX market. This statement comes after Marquez had previously assured customers that all BlockFi products were “totally functioning.”

Jump Crypto Ranks Third in Bitcoin Holdings, Trailing Only Binance and Bitfinex

Recent data from Arkham indicates that the third-largest Bitcoin holder’s address bc1ql49ydapnjafl5t2cp9zqpjwe6pdgmxy98859v2 is controlled by market maker Jump Trading and is stored on the Robinhood custodial service platform. Over the past three months, this address has accumulated a total of 118,300.2 BTC, equivalent to approximately $30.8 billion USD.

Furthermore, data from BitInfoCharts provides insights into the dominant Bitcoin holding addresses.

One of Binance’s cold wallets, with an address of 34xp4vRoCGJym3xR7yCVPFHoCNxv4Twseo, holds a substantial 248,597 BTC. Similarly, Bitfinex, with its cold wallet address bc1qgdjqv0av3q56jvd82tkdjpy7gdp9ut8tlqmgrpmv24sq90ecnvqqjwvw97, also possesses an amount of 178,010 BTC. These two addresses represent some of the largest Bitcoin holdings.

Jump Crypto, a prominent yet enigmatic player in the cryptocurrency realm, operates as a key division of the traditional quantitative trading powerhouse, Jump Trading Group. The firm has been linked to significant crypto events, including the Terra Luna crash and the bankruptcy of FTX.

In November 2022, rumors suggested that Jump Crypto might wind down its operations due to potential FTX-related losses. However, on November 17, Jump Crypto swiftly dispelled these rumors via a tweet, highlighting their robust financial standing and asserting their status as one of the most well-capitalized entities in the crypto space. They further emphasized that their dealings with FTX were well within their risk parameters.

Fast forward to March 3, 2023, Jump Crypto showcased its adeptness by addressing the Wormhole Exploit from February 2022. Utilizing their smart contracts, they managed to reclaim approximately $195 million in stolen Ethereum. In partnership with Oasis, they modified the smart contract’s logic on the Oasis Network, ensuring the safe return of 120,000 stolen wrapped ETH. While this move underscores Jump Crypto’s capabilities, it also sparks concerns about the potential misuse of such strategies in the DeFi sector, posing questions about the industry’s trustworthiness.

Jump Crypto Enters Confidential Phase in SEC vs. Terraform Labs Case

Jump Crypto Holdings has been allowed to submit papers in a secret manner, which is a key milestone in the litigation that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is pursuing against Terraform Labs and its creator, Do Kwon. In the current legal procedures, this action, which was approved by Federal Judge Jed Rakoff, represents a significant turning point throughout the proceedings. Considering the sensitivity and complexity of the matter, the papers in issue have been submitted to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York as part of the discovery process. These materials will be processed in a private manner with the intention of protecting their confidentiality.

The cryptocurrency known as Jump Crypto, which is a subsidiary of Jump Trading, is now being investigated for its alleged role in the events that led to the devaluation of the TerraUSD (UST) and the subsequent collapse of the Terra ecosystem. This event was a significant contributor to the decline in the cryptocurrency market in 2022. The manipulation of the price of UST is one of the allegations that have been made against Jump Crypto. According to the allegations, this manipulation resulted in around $1.3 billion in profits for the company and its CEO, Kanav Kariya. The gravity of the problem and the high stakes involved are supported by these claims, which are an essential component of the lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Over the course of many months, the proceedings in the case against Terraform Labs and Do Kwon have been developing. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed charges against Terraform Labs and Kwon in February, accusing them of conducting a crypto asset securities scam that was worth several billions of dollars. In the context of a larger regulatory crackdown on cryptocurrency companies and their executives, this case represents a component of that crackdown. Furthermore, Kwon himself has been subjected to legal issues, such as his detention in Montenegro for using forged travel credentials and the ensuing four-month jail term that he received as a result of his arrest. It was recently decided by a court in Montenegro that Kwon should be extradited, which means that he may be brought before a court in either the United States of America or South Korea to face charges.

Within the context of any future motion practice or trial, the court has maintained the authority to decide whether or not to make any of the private papers available to the public. In the event that such a disclosure is being considered, the court will inform Jump Crypto’s legal counsel, giving them the chance to oppose to the revelation. By using this method, sensitive information is protected from public exposure while still being protected from revelation to the general public in the event that the court deems it appropriate to do so.

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