business
Maverick Protocol closes $8M strategic fundraising led by Pantera Capital
The investment round featured several VC firms that will have a significant role in the network’s planned mainnet launch The funds obtained will be used to advance the proprietary Automated Liquidity Placement algorithm and strengthen Maverick’s position in the DeFi derivatives space Decentralised derivatives protocol Maverick on Tuesday announced it had successfully completed an external funding round netting $8 million. The fundraising was led by California-based crypto-focused fund Pantera with participation from other names, including Circle Ventures, Coral Ventures, Altonomy, Tron Foundation, Gemini Frontier Fund, Jump Crypto, LedgerPrime and Spartan Group. Maverick intends to use the funds to release its Automated Liquidity Placement model and open asset-listing function ...
Swizz Beatz Confirms Anthony Hamilton/Musiq Soulchild Verzuz Battle Will Be Free on IG After Triller Backlash
Verzuz co-creators Swizz Beatz and Timbaland were elated when their pandemic-launched musical battle platform was acquired by the Triller Network in 2021, a year after the global livestream phenomenon launched and exploded during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, Swizz told Billboard that they didn’t originally have any plans to monetize the business and were just focused on giving people “some live, love and happiness” during the pandemic. Explore See latest videos, charts and news And then came the backlash from fans when it looked like Tuesday’s (Feb. 15) long-awaited Anthony Hamilton vs. Musiq Soulchild Valentine’s Day showdown would be available only on the paid Triller platform instead of for free on Instagram Live, where it has been since its ince...
Olivia Rodrigo Signs With New Management
Olivia Rodrigo has signed with a new management team, sources tell Billboard. The seven-time Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter is now repped by Lighthouse Management + Media’s Aleen Keshishian and Zack Morgenroth for management in all areas. She joins the firm’s roster of talent, including Jennifer Aniston, Selena Gomez, Jason Bateman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Paul Rudd, artist Petra Collins and supermodel Miranda Kerr, among others. Rodrigo split with her longtime manager Kristen Smith of Camp Far West Management in January. Earlier this month, it was announced Rodrigo would be named Billboard’s 2022 “Woman of the Year” at the annual Billboard Women in Music Awards, which will take place on March 2 at the YouTube Theater at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, Calif. Since starting her career as a ...
Singapore’s DBS Bank set to offer crypto services to retail customers
Singapore’s megabank DBS plans to expand crypto trading to the retail crowd CEO Piyush Gupta has highlighted that the plan is to expand into online trading and a 24/7 operational model DBS Bank was the first financial body to receive MAS approval last year Singapore’s largest lender DBS Bank has highlighted plans to expand the offering to retail investors by the end of the year. The bank is notable for being among the first financial institutions to host a crypto trading desk for institutional investors. The Bank CEO and Director of the DBS Group, Piyush Gupta, revealed during an earnings call for 2021 Q4 on Monday that it had already kickstarted the process of expanding territory. While he did not directly provide any details, he suggested that the bank had set in motion the p...
The Ledger: Hits Are Great, But Labels & Publishers Seek Higher Margins Too
There’s little doubt record labels and publishers will continue to improve revenues in the coming years on the backs of streaming subscriptions, stronger internet advertising and burgeoning sectors like social media and connected fitness. But there’s less certainty about how their margins will grow as industry revenues surge. Investors and analysts are making their best guesses. During Warner Music Group’s earnings call on Tuesday (Feb 8), RBC Capital Markets analyst Kutgun Maral asked management asked if recent deals “are indicative of a greater focus on M&A” and if they “are accretive or dilutive to margins.” CEO Stephen Cooper said WMG will “be quite assertive” in seeking deals it believes can be “immediately accretive [to margins].” Lou Dickler, senior vp, controller, added that th...
Terra partners up with Washington Nationals in a five-year $40 million sponsorship deal
Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon proposed the sponsorship at the start of the month, and the vote saw wide approval Terra will gain branding rights in the home team’s ballpark On February 1, Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon submitted a proposal to sponsor a “household name” team in one of the four major American professional sports leagues. Yesterday, it was revealed that the tabled $40 million deal would be with The Washington Nationals baseball team in a five yearlong partnership. As details about the team to be included in this partnership had not been provided initially, the announcement brought to a halt a week-long period of speculation. “After much anticipation, we’re excited to announce that the [REDACTED] American professional sports partner of the Terra Community Trust (TCT) is the Washingto...
Brené Brown Will Resume Spotify Podcasts Amid Her ‘Tremendous Values Conflict’ With Joe Rogan
Brené Brown posted a message on her website Tuesday night (Feb. 8), sharing that, despite recent controversies, she remains committed to podcasting on Spotify and amplifying issues and voices that matter. Brown had, on Feb. 1, shared the decision to pause her podcasts, Unlocking Us and Dare to Lead, to learn about the music giant’s policies in the wake of COVID-19 misinformation. “Unlike some creators, I don’t have the option of pulling my work from the platform,” Brown noted. This was an indirect reference to musicians including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, who have removed music from Spotify in protest of the streamer distributing Joe Rogan’s controversial podcast. “I’m always going to stand firmly on the side of free speech, so I had a lot of lea...
Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s Widow Sues Over ‘At Least’ $1M in Unpaid Wu-Tang Clan Royalties
The widow of Ol’ Dirty Bastard is suing Wu-Tang Productions for breach of contract, alleging that the company has “willfully refused” to pay the late rapper’s estate at least $1 million in royalties. The complaint, filed in New York Supreme Court on Tuesday (Feb. 8) by attorney Brian Caplan of Reitler Kailas & Rosenblatt on behalf of ODB’s widow Icelene Jones, claims that the company – which is owned and operated by ODB’s cousin/Wu-Tang bandmate RZA (born Robert Fitzgerald Diggs) – has made just one payment of $130,000 to the ODB estate over the last decade and has failed to provide detailed accounting statements during that time. The estate is seeking at least $1 million in damages plus interest, as well as attorneys’ fees and costs. “Despite its repeated efforts and requests, th...
Japan-based messaging app will offer trial run of native token starting in March
Users of Japanese messaging giant LINE will soon be able to use the app’s native token for payments at select online merchants in a limited trial. In a Tuesday announcement, the LINE Corporation said that starting on March 16, users would have the option of paying with native LINK token (LN) — not to be confused with Chainlink (LINK) — at any of LINE Pay’s online merchants. The trial period, which will run until Dec. 26, is aimed at testing real-life use cases for the tokens in addition to increasing the convenience and number of payment options for users. Source: Mikhail Nilov, Pexels LINE Pay said it was considering adding other cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) to its payments options in the future, in addition to strengthening its partnerships with blockchai...
FTX is running a Bitcoin giveaway alongside the Super Bowl ad
FTX plans to reward users with Bitcoin, whose amount depends on what time its Super Bowl ad will run CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has previously said that the advertisement stage doesn’t get any bigger than the Super Bowl. Bahamian-based cryptocurrency exchange FTX has told users that it will be giving away free Bitcoin alongside the airing of an advertisement during the upcoming Super Bowl LVI on February 13. Time is money, literally, since even though FTX has not said the exact amount that is out for grabs. The exchange has told the community that the winners would take home the same number of Bitcoin as the time the ad runs. Say the ad airs at 9:02 pm EST; FTX rewards 9.02 Bitcoin. “We’re giving some Bitcoin away! How much? $1 million worth? $1.5 million worth? We don’t...
Def Jam Names LaTrice Burnette EVP
Def Jam Recordings has named experienced label veteran LaTrice Burnette as its new executive vp, the company announced today (Feb. 8). As part of her move, Burnette will also be bringing her label 4th & Broadway, which she relaunched as president in November 2020, under the Def Jam umbrella. Burnette moves to Def Jam from Island, which she had joined in 2018 as executive vp/general manager. In 2020 she led the relaunch of 4th & Broadway — originally an Island imprint that had been founded in 1984 as a hip-hop and dance label, most notably home to recordings by Eric B. & Rakim — and has since signed artists including Young Devyn, Lil Migo, Pap Chanel, Chiiild and Kidd Kenn to the label. The artists, the label and the core staff of 4th & Broadway will follow Burnette to Def J...
Polygon raises $450 million from token sale to fund Web 3 development
The Ethereum secondary scaling solution gave out MATIC tokens to the participating investors at a discount The blockchain founders intend to dole out the funds across its scaling products and in building Web3 applications The blockchain scalability platform Polygon has announced the completion of a private token sale through which it was able to net $450 million. The raise doesn’t come as a surprise as TechCrunch disclosed at the end of last year that a number of venture capital firms were looking to provide financial muscle to Polygon. Venture funds are shifting focus to scaling projects and Web3 The token sale led Sequoia Capital India, featured over 40 investors in and out of the blockchain space. Some notable names include SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Tiger Global, Accel, Dragonfly Capital,...
