New York, United States, 20th September, 2021,
Taker Protocol, a crypto liquidity protocol for NFTs, has raised $3 million from a number of reputable investors to build new financial primitives into the burgeoning NFT market.
The round was led by Electric Capital, with DCG, Ascentive Assets, Dragonfly Capital, Spartan Group, The LAO, Sfermion and Morningstar Ventures participating as well.  
Taker Protocol focuses on improving the liquidity available in the NFT market. Due to the unique non-fungible structure of NFTs, existing DeFi primitives are difficult to integrate into the market, resulting in significant issues in terms of overall liquidity. The value of an NFT is extremely volatile and often effectively becomes zero as no buyers can be found at any reasonable price. Furthermore, NFTs are difficult to use productively after purchase and often end up forgotten in the user’s wallet.
Taker Protocol aims to solve the worst of the liquidity issues. Allowing lenders and borrowers to liquidate and rent assets that aren’t cryptocurrencies creates new liquidity streams and opportunities. For Taker, these assets will include NFTs, financial papers, synthetic assets, and much more. 
The TKR token defines membership in the Taker DAO, which has several key functions in the system. In addition to setting loan-to-value rates and other parameters in the protocol, the DAO will also contribute in fairly appraising a particular NFT or NFT collection. This means that each asset supported by Taker will have a guaranteed fair floor price. In return, TKR holders will be able to obtain rewards and receive a portion of platform income. 
The funds received will help Taker launch the full version of the protocol across multiple chains, including Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, BSC and Near. The support of major stakeholders and participants in the NFT ecosystem will also help further development of the project.
Taker DAO contains many different Curator DAOs (Sub-DAOs), each sub-DAO will manage their own whitelist and a floor price for any NFT on their whitelist if the borrower defaults on the loan. We believe that it is best to mitigate the risks for our lenders by carefully selecting the NFT assets that our community desires and trusts the most. Aligning the interest of the DAOs with that of the lenders, we will mitigate the risk exposure for the lenders and optimize the profits for the DAOs. Moreover, each sub-DAO will have its own funds and can choose to focus exclusively on a specific type of NFT assets. For example, it could be artworks-only or Metaverse-only. 
Taker Co-Founder Angel Xu comments:
“We are absolutely thrilled to welcome so many well-established investment funds to the team. Their participation heralds an exciting new phase for the protocol as we seek to address persistent problems in the NFT lending market for the benefit of end-users. This investment will enable us to further optimize liquidation of NFT assets across multiple blockchains, removing the barriers to entry that prevent new players from entering the market.”
“Taker Protocol is using an innovative approach to solve the biggest problem in the NFT space — lack of liquidity. With Taker, we are one step closer to the world where anyone anywhere can use their NFT assets to take out a loan.” (Maria Shen, Partner at Electric Capital)
About Taker
NFT DeFi: Taker is the first protocol to provide liquidity to the NFT market through a DAO. It is a multi-strategy, cross-chain lending protocol for lenders and borrowers to liquidate and rent all kinds of crypto assets, including financial papers, synthetic assets, and more. Taker provides ensured liquidity via our lenderDao infrastructure and extensions that could be integrated into NFT marketplaces.
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San Francisco, United States, 21st September, 2021,
Portal ,a self-hosted Layer 2 wallet and true cross-chain DEX on Bitcoin that makes atomic swaps between Bitcoin and other digital assets fast, secure, and private, is delighted to announce the closing of an $8.5 million funding round to build a self-sovereign and uncensorable DeFi on Bitcoin. 
The funding round saw participation from Coinbase Ventures, ArringtonXRP Capital, OKEx, Republic.co, Shima Ventures, LD Capital, Monday Capital, GenBlock, Taureon, Autonomy Capital, Krypital, B21 Capital as well as the senior executives and founders of Ethereum, DFINITY, MobileCoin, Tether (USDT), Galaxy Digital, Bitcoin.com, Republic, Centre.io, Polymath, Æternity, Hedera Hashgraph, Blockstream, Reef Finance, GlobeDX, FIO, Portion, and 4K.
Michael Arrington, founder of ArringtonXRP & TechCrunch, said, “Decentralized cross-chain bridging is one of the hardest problems in crypto right now, especially as multiple blockchains gain real traction. We’re excited to see Portal’s Bitcoin-native approach to multichain transfers go live and provide an alternative bridging mechanism to the growing number of active onchain users.”
Brain Johnson from Republic Capital said “Interoperability is a necessity for blockchain to bridge into the mainstream finance world. Republic Capital invested in Portal with this future in mind. Utilizing Bitcoin’s security as an anchor, we believe the Portal and its team are in a unique position to build one of the leading bridges in DeFi.”
Portal offers the speed and liquidity of centralized platforms with the trust minimization guarantees of Bitcoin. From spot markets to options, p2p lending and borrowing, all using on-chain, peer to peer contracts and without third party custody or control, Portal unlocks Bitcoin’s potential to actually decentralize finance. 
At the core of Portal is its Layer 2 and Layer 3 technology, called Fabric, which is an open-source toolbox for deploying censorship-resistant layers on top of the Bitcoin base layer. Fabric enables the completely private, off-chain execution of “smart contracts” for asset issuance, P2P swaps, staking, liquidity, derivatives, and more. 
Portal CEO Eric Martindale said, “By bringing a fast, peer-to-peer, Layer 2 exchange — with the speed of centralized exchanges but with privacy — Portal is delivering on the promise of self-sovereignty for everyone. The current centralized exchanges, false “decentralized” DEXs, custodially wrapped tokens, and censorable ecosystems all threaten Bitcoin’s promise of self-sovereignty. Fabric technology enables Layer 3 privacy on cross-chain transactions and eliminates the need for centralized custodians.”
On why they chose to build on Bitcoin, Martindale commented, “We believe Bitcoin provides the much needed financial infrastructure that the free, uncensorable internet-of-the-future will be built on, and although we are starting with a P2P exchange, our mission is to be The Platform for decentralized, peer-to-peer human interactions… be it communications, financial transactions, or social media.”
The platform uses Bitcoin’s “hash time-locked contracts” to ensure that users retain full control over the funds offered up in trade, preventing counterparty risk and loss of funds. It incentivizes anonymous, self-interested third parties to intermediate transactions between mutually untrusting peers while guaranteeing security. 
The funding announcement comes ahead of Portal’s public token sale on Republic.co launchpad in October.
About Portal
Portal is DeFi built on Bitcoin. It makes DeFi unstoppable with anonymous, zero-knowledge swaps via the first true cross-chain DEX that’s genuinely trustless. It eliminates minting wrapped coins (ie wBTC, wETH) or risky staking with intermediaries. With Portal, DeFi becomes a service that anyone can provide, maintaining anonymity within open, transparent markets with a security model as robust as Bitcoin mining. 
Fabric protocol is Portal’s Layer 2 and Layer 3 technology that enables building censorship-resistant communications, media and one-click cross-chain swaps, all on Bitcoin. 
 For further information, visit: https://portaldefi.com/ 
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Midtown, Gibraltar, 21st September, 2021,
Panther Protocol creates private scalable infrastructure for smart contract platforms, DeFi and Web3, and is delighted to announce a strategic partnership with Polygon, the Layer-2 scaling solution often referred to as “the Ethereum’s Internet of Blockchains.”
Panther Protocol, who is building their MVP on Polygon, aims to bring interoperable privacy and compliance friendly selective disclosure mechanisms to the Polygon network. Besides providing technical support, Polygon will help Panther collaborate with projects within its ecosystem in the development efforts of privacy features that empower end users. It will also aid our mission in giving institutions and fintechs a clear path into private and compliant DeFi. 
Polygon and Panther both acknowledge the value of privacy as a basic human right. Panther leverages the zkSNARK technology to let users mint fully-collateralized, privacy enhancing zero-knowledge assets (zAssets) by depositing their digital assets from any blockchain into Panther vaults. They can then use zAssets across the DeFi ecosystem. 
The MVP will allow the first Panther users to get acquainted with zAssets, which provide privacy by default whilst retaining DeFi composability. Minting zAssets can effectively be seen as a shielding mechanism, and burning as unshielding. It will be implemented via a small number of shielded privacy pools on Polygon, keeping balances of zAssets permanently backed 1:1 by native collateral in Panther vaults. 
Expect to see in the Panther MVP:
Shielding and Deshielding of assets – the foundation for zAssets to function
Private transfer of assets
Voluntary Full disclosure of selected transactions and their linkage 
Ability to interact with Panther via web wallet
Panther Vaults
Why launch the MVP on Polygon?
Panther decided to launch our MVP on Polygon (formerly known as Matic) while the $ZKP token will be launched on Ethereum and use Polygon’s interoperable capabilities to bridge tokens over. The project chose Polygon because it has demonstrated its incredible technical capabilities, it has very low fees, which will allow the proper shielding of zAssets, and of course, because of its thriving and rapidly expanding DeFi ecosystem. 
“Polygon’s approach brings scalable, low cost transactions to the Ethereum network as well as a burgeoning ecosystem of DeFi protocols already using their technology. Panther’s partnership will enable zAsset utility between all Panther users in a privacy preserving, scalable and regulatory compatible fashion – opening the doors for true institutional adoption and retail usage,” said Panther Protocol CEO Oliver Gale.
About Polygon
Polygon is a protocol and a framework for building and connecting Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks. Polygon aggregates scalable solutions on Ethereum, supporting a multi-chain Ethereum ecosystem and combines the best of Ethereum and sovereign blockchains into a full-fledged multi-chain system. Polygon solves pain points associated with Blockchains, like high gas fees and slow speeds, without sacrificing on security.
About Panther Protocol
Panther is an end-to-end privacy protocol connecting blockchains to restore privacy in Web3 and DeFi while providing financial institutions a clear path to compliantly participate in digital asset markets. 
Panther provides DeFi users with fully collateralized privacy-enhancing digital assets, leveraging crypto-economic incentives and zkSNARKs technology. Users can mint zero-knowledge zAssets by depositing digital assets from any blockchain into Panther vaults. zAssets flow across blockchains via a privacy first interchain DEX and a private metastrate. Panther envisions that zAssets will become an ever-expanding asset class for users who want their transactions and strategies the way they should always have been: private.
Want to learn more about Panther?
Check out the website.
Stay connected with Panther: Telegram | Twitter | Medium | LinkedIn | Website |
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Xbiex, Malta, 26th September, 2021,
Virtue Poker is excited to host The Celebrity Charity Poker tournament that commences tonight, September 26, at 11 pm UTC.
The tournament will be live-streamed on Twitch . 
Tonight will feature the first of two 6-player tables of the Celebrity Charity Poker tournament.
Tonight’s table will include Hall of Famer and Virtue Poker Team Pro Phil Ivey, BA Hall of Famer Paul Pierce, YouTube sensation Mr. Beast, Ethernity’s Nick Rose, Sam Trabucco – CEO of Alameda (FTX), and Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin.
All participants will compete for bragging rights and a $100,000 prize pool for charity. The 12 players are spread across seven time zones and various continents. Therefore, the Celebrity Charity Poker tournament will run over multiple days to give everyone a fair chance at winning.
Tournament structure
Every table has six players and will play down until one winner remains. The winners of both tables will face off to claim the Virtue Poker Championship Title and the $100,000 prize pool for charity.
All players select the charity of their choice to receive $2,500. In addition, winners of each table can add $10,000 more for their charity, with the Overall Champion adding another $50,000 to the tally.
Virtue Poker secured the help of Lon McEachern and Norman Chad to provide color commentary for this event’s featured table. 
The Celebrity Charity Poker Tournament can be broken down as follows:
Table 1: 9/26 11 pm UTC
Table 2: 9/28 3 pm UTC
Final Table: Date TBA
Giving Block: For Viewers
The Virtue Poker Celebrity Charity Poker Tournament viewers are encouraged to donate to charitable organizations via The Giving Block. The provider supports a variety of cryptocurrencies and supports several nonprofit organizations globally. Those who contribute to The Giving Block are entered in a 2 ETH drawing during this event. There are multiple 1 ETH prizes for users who complete:
● Joining the Virtue Poker Telegram channel
● Following Virtue Poker on Twitter
● Joining the Virtue Poker email list
Virtue Poker, with the help of Binance NFTs, has created a collection of 11.801 non-fungible tokens. Every NFT represents a card in a 52-card deck. Players who assemble hands and hold the winning hand for each knockout split a $2,500 prize. Additionally, holders of the winning hand for the championship knockout round are entered into a drawing to win $25,000. These NFTs can be purchased from Binance NFTs.
About Virtue Poker
Virtue Poker is a decentralized poker platform that uses the Ethereum blockchain and peer-to-peer networking to provide an online poker site that’s safe, honest and fun. It was founded in 2016 within Consensys, the leading full stack Ethereum software engineering company and incubator founded by Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin in 2014. Backed by Consensys and stakeholder Phil Ivey, Virtue Poker is on a mission to make blockchain-based betting mainstream. Learn more: https://virtue.poker/
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Gibraltar, -, 27th September, 2021,
Trading volumes soar by 197% on fast-growing European crypto platform affirming rising levels of crypto adoption among global investors
 Currency.com, the high-growth European crypto platform, today reported a strong rise in global client numbers and trading activity for the first six months ending 1 July 2021.
The number of new clients who opened an account on crypto platform Currency.com increased by 130% in H1 2021 compared to H2  2020. Over the same period,  the crypto platform reported a surge in  trading activity, with the total trading volumes executed on Currency.com across all markets growing by 197%[1].
In the first half of this year,  clients also increased their trading activity on the platform. The total number of trades executed by clients increased by 968% from H2 2020 with notable interest in Dogecoin. The top  traded cryptocurrency markets on the platform in H1 2021 included Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Litecoin and popular memecoins.
These results reflect Currency.com’s growing reputation as a crypto platform of choice among cryptocurrency investors and the rising interest in cryptocurrencies globally.
Vitaliy Kedyk, Head of Strategy at Currency.com commented:
“Our data shows that global adoption of cryptocurrency is firmly entrenched, showing no signs of slowing down. More global regulation, growing institutional interest and the ongoing search for alternative sources of returns in a low interest rate environment are lending support to the burgeoning asset class. More people are turning to cryptocurrencies. As a platform authorised and licensed to provide Distributed Ledger Technology services, Currency.com is well placed to support investors in their journey.”
Strong growth in recent months has been supported by Currency.com’s rapid response to clients’ needs. In H1 2021, Currency.com added 19 new ERC-20 and DeFi tokens to its platform[2]. Plans are underway to add more coins to the platform by the end of the year, such as PanCake Swap, Stellar, Curve DAO Token and TRON, among others.
Commenting on Currency. com’s plans for the rest of the year, Vitaliy said:
“With a mission to enable more people to invest in cryptocurrencies safely and easily, we will continue to enhance our features and offer clients a wide selection of products in line with global regulations and best practices. Supported by our free and extensive education resources, we aim to offer new and existing clients a host of new solutions in 2H 2021.” 
About Currency.com
Currency.com is a high-growth, crypto platform seamlessly linking the booming world of cryptocurrencies with the world of traditional financial assets. The crypto platform is powered by simple, slick and intuitive technology to empower investors to securely buy, trade and invest in popular cryptocurrencies using both crypto and fiat currencies. 
In markets where it is permissible to do so, the crypto platform  additionally enables  investors to trade tokenised equities, tokenised indices and tokenised commodities , thereby allowing more investors to diversify their digital assets beyond cryptocurrencies. To help investors trade with confidence, the crypto platform is fitted with robust risk management controls , transparent pricing  and extensive financial education content.
In 2020, the crypto platform reported a 374 per cent growth in its client base, making it one of Europe’s fastest growing cryptocurrency exchanges platforms. Venture Capitalist Viktor Prokopenya was an early investor in the company through his fund VP Capital.
Currency Com Limited is authorised by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission to  provide Distributed Ledger Technology services under licence number 25032. The company has  offices located in the UK, Cyprus, Belarus, US, Gibraltar and Ukraine.
To find out more, visit www.currency.com
Media contact
Shamillia Sivathambu
[email protected]
[1] Source: Currency. com trading activity, globally, H1 2021 (1/1/2021-1/7/2021) vs H2 2020 (1/7/2020- 31/12/2020)
[2] *Currency Com does not provide services to clients who live in countries (are residents of countries) in prohibited jurisdictions. For the full list of prohibited jurisdictions, click here. 
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