We all love a story of unlikely duos brought together by a common cause.

On Tuesday, it was announced that LL Cool J, one of rap’s seminal figures, and Paul Tudor Jones, billionaire hedge fund pioneer, became part of an exclusive club of investors backing a new $72 million crypto VC fund. North Island Ventures is headed by investor Glenn Hutchins, co-founder of the $39 billion private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, and has been quietly making VC investments in crypto and blockchain projects since early last year.

Elon Musk’s tweets led to large gains in the price of Doge last week, with the market value of the Shiba Inu-themed digital asset briefly exceeding $10 billion yesterday, making it the 8th largest digital asset. Even though the market cap has fallen to about $9.17 billion this morning, the joke crypto remains more valuable than Aave and Synthetix – combined. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

On that note, episode 12 of Coppercasts with Aave's founder, Stani Kulechov, will be dropping this week so make sure to keep your eyes peeled for that!

Below is our weekly roundup of industry news. If you’d like to get in touch with us about any of our products or services, we look forward to hearing from you. Just send us a note.

This week's top stories

Ether tops $1.7k, setting new record as CME Futures launch nears

Ether hit a fresh all-time high on Friday, surging past $1,700 for the first time. The second largest cryptocurrency by market cap rose steadily the past week, ahead of the launch of Ether futures contracts from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, set to start today. Some investors believe that futures and other crypto-focused derivatives products will give institutional investors more confidence to invest in the space.

Ethereum hit another milestone this weekend. According to data from blockchain explorer Etherscan, the Ethereum blockchain recorded 1 billion transactions on Saturday.

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Legendary macro investor launches $200m fund to invest in growth stage crypto companies

Legendary macro investor Dan Tapiero is launching a $200m fund called 10T Holdings to invest in cryptocurrency startups, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday. The fund will invest in mid-to-late stage digital asset companies.

10T Holdings comes at a time of increased institutional interest in cryptocurrencies. In addition to Tapiero, the filing lists as investors longtime investor Michael Dubilier and Stan Miroshnik, former CEO of crypto-focused advisory firm Argon Group.

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PayPal is investing in a new business unit focused on crypto and digital currencies

Paypal is launching a new business unit dedicated to cryptoasset services, the company's CEO, Daniel Schulman, announced this week. In an earnings call on Wednesday, Schulman said the existing financial system is outdated and that his firm will be investing heavily into blockchain and digital assets.

The new crypto business unit is expected to launch later this quarter.

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In case you missed it..

⚡️The rise and fall of Bitcoin billionaire Arthur Hayes. Read more

⚡️Bill Miller’s fund to allocate $300m to Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. Read more

⚡️Grayscale buys $76m worth of Ethereum. Read more

⚡️Stablecoin on-chain volume surpassed $300 billion in January. Read more

⚡️China's blockchain service network announces Cosmos integration. Read more

⚡️Bitcoin miners generated over $1bn in January revenue.Read more

⚡️Australia’s central bank says Bitcoin ‘not really money,’ no risk to financial stability. Read more

⚡️Elon Musk boosts Dogecoin by 76% with a tweet. Read more

⚡️21Shares launches the world’s first Polkadot ETP on Swizerland’s SIX exchange. Read more

⚡️LINK, AAVE, ZRX and COMP hit record price highs, outperforming Bitcoin. Read more

⚡️BitMEX to launch Dogecoin perpetual swap contract. Read more

⚡️Arcane Crypto finalises Nasdaq listing. Read more

⚡️Canadian investment firm Accelerate Financial files for Bitcoin ETF. Read more

⚡️Yearn Finance votes to inflate YFI token supply by 20%. Read more

⚡️Yearn Finance attack: Tether freezes $1.75m USDT stolen. Read more

⚡️Ruffer has sold about 40% of its Bitcoin exposure, drawing around $650m in profit. Read more

⚡️Nigeria's CB tells the country's financial institutions to close accounts tied to crypto exchanges. Read more

⚡️Binance suspends deposits in Nigeria following Central Bank directive. Read more

⚡️Gemini launches 'Earn' — an interest-earning program that offers up to 7.4% yield. Read more

⚡️Serbian man extradited to US after being indicted in $70m crypto fraud. Read more

⚡️India's central bank RBI close to digital currency decision as Paypal exits Indian payments market. Read more

From Copper

Forthcoming event: Copper Security Webinar

The cryptoasset world is no stranger to highly skilled hackers, and as threats multiply in frequency and sophistication, maintaining awareness of current security trends is more important than ever.

Don’t miss our Security Webinar on Monday 15 February at 12:30pm GMT. Learn best practices from four experts, including our CISO, Jake Rogers, on navigating a complex and rapidly evolving #cyber threat landscape.

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