Fundraising Rounds From Pintu Exchange and Calaxy, New Crypto Laws, and Gasoline Price Hikes

Pintu, an Indonesian crypto exchange, in collaboration with Intundo Ventures, Lightspeed Ventures, and Pantera Capital, recently raised $113 million in a Series B funding round. The newly raised funds will help improve functionality by introducing new features, tokens, and blockchain support.

Pintu Crypto Exchange Raises $113 Million 

When talking about Pintu and Indonesian crypto adoption, the platform’s CMO Timothius Martin recently said that,  

“The numbers of crypto investors in Indonesia have doubled from 6 million in the beginning of 2021 to over 12 million in February 2022.” 

Last year in August, this crypto exchange, in collaboration with Lightspeed ventures, raised about $35 million in its Serie A funding round. 

Some reports from Naked Crypto Data indicate that crypto fundraising activity has been increasing in the past few months, despite the recent price trends. “#crypto has attracted record $6.7 billion of fund investments in April.” 

Calaxy Crypto App Raises $26 Million

Earlier today, another social token platform, Calaxy, raised $26 million in a fundraising round. This Hedera Hashgraph-based crypto application launched by the NBA player Spencer Dinwiddie also chose a new CEO. This platform mainly helps fans link with top creators by buying online classes, video calls, fan clubs, and even video messages.  

The funding round was led by Animoca Brands and HBAR Foundation. One of the company’s co-founders noted that Calaxy is more of a “Web 2.5 product.” This platform combines web2 social features with what web 3.0 offers. 

Solo Ceesay, a Co-founder, noted that:

“We took social token technology, but then also took the utility that you find from already validated Web 2 social platforms focused on monetization.” 

But, the app hides some of its crypto features from its interface to attract persons not interested in crypto. In June 2021, Calaxy raised $7.5 million in its first funding round.  

New Proposed Pro Crypto Bill  

Earlier today, a new bill focused on providing a better regulatory environment for crypto in the US was proposed in the senate. This bill proposes that the SEC loses its head over crypto assets, with the Commodity Futures Trading commission taking charge. According to multiple reports, this bill targets to offer tax breaks for crypto transactions. 

Once the bill is passed, regulators will have clearly defined roles in the industry. Senator Lummis even mentioned that, 

“The United States is the global financial leader, and to ensure the next generation of Americans enjoys greater opportunity, it is critical to integrate digital assets into existing law and to harness the efficiency and transparency of this asset class while addressing risk.”

This bill was introduced in Capitol with two senators Kirsten Gillibrand a Democrat, and Cynthia Lummis of the Republican party. As a Bipartisan effort, this bill could quickly get the much-needed attention to passing. However, there is no guarantee that the bill will go through soon with the coming midterm elections.

Lummis has bitcoin investments hitting nearly $350k; hence some could easily argue about a conflict of interest. But, this bill, if passed, will grant security to crypto.  

Yellen Warns That Inflation Could Stay High

Earlier today, Treasury secretary Yellen faced scrutiny from US lawmakers when she termed the current inflation rates in the country unacceptable. During this session, Yellen had to defend President Biden’s $1.9 trillion American rescue plan, continually criticized for the ongoing inflation hikes. But, while talking about the inflation problems, Secretary Yellen mentioned that the rates could remain high. 

A Bloomberg tweet noted:

“Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen tells US lawmakers that inflation is likely to stay high and that she ought not to have termed big price increases as “transitory” last year.”

As the US experiences increased living costs, other countries, including Canada, the UK, Japan, and Germany, are also experiencing massive inflation. 

Elsewhere, Gasoline Prices at Over $5 in 13 US States

Today, the number of states pricing Gasoline at a little over $5 hit 13 when Maine, New Jersey, and Massachusetts hiked their prices. These hikes brought the US national average gas price to a new record high of $4.919. Earlier this year, JPMorgan Chase and Co predicted that by August this year, the prices could hit $6.2.