Crypto & Blockchain: Maelstrom Equity Launches, Celo Milestones, TOKEN2049 Attracts 25K
The crypto and coin world witnessed several significant developments recently. Maelstrom Equity, a new private equity arm, launched with a focus on crypto and related firms. Meanwhile, Celo reached two milestones, and TOKEN2049, a major event, attracted over 25,000 attendees.
Maelstrom Equity, headed by Arthur Hayes, formerly of BitMEX, has entered the scene. The new firm aims to invest in promising crypto and blockchain projects. In other news, Celo, a mobile-first blockchain, achieved two notable milestones. It introduced XAUt0, an omnichain Tether Gold token, enabling access to gold-backed stablecoins in over 150 countries. Additionally, Celo integrated Nightfall, a zero-knowledge privacy layer developed by EY, enhancing user privacy.
At TOKEN2049, a prominent event in Singapore, several innovations were showcased. Hypersurface introduced HyperEVM, enabling fully on-chain covered calls with transparent strikes and upfront stablecoin premiums. Citrea previewed its upcoming mainnet, promising to unlock deep BTC liquidity and boost miner revenue streams. Robinhood's CEO, Vlad Tenev, described tokenization as a 'freight train' and hinted at real estate tokenization as the next big step. Alpaca launched the Instant Tokenization Network (ITN), an open platform for minting and redeeming tokenized U.S. stocks 24/7. Meanwhile, MEXC Ventures increased its stake in Ethena to $30M, bringing total ecosystem exposure to $66M. GEMtrust DAO introduced GEM DiCom, a gemstone-backed ERC-20 token, allowing accessible ownership of high-value gemstones through gemNFTs.
These developments reflect the growing maturity and innovation in the crypto and blockchain space. From private equity investments to privacy enhancements, tokenization platforms, and novel asset-backed tokens, the industry continues to evolve and attract significant attention, as seen in the large turnout at TOKEN2049.
