Global venture capital funding in the cryptocurrency space reached an all-time high of $6.5 billion in the third quarter of the year, surpassing the second quarter’s record of $5.2 billion.

Thailand’s oldest bank, Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), has acquired a 51% in Thai cryptocurrency exchange Bitkub for 17.85 million baht ($536.6 million). The transaction is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2022.

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is set to become the first known U.S. politician to receive his entire paycheck in the flagship cryptocurrency bitcoin. The mayor, who is a well-known bitcoin bull, has been taking steps to integrate BTC into the city’s operations.

This week we are taking a look at unique, one-of-one NFTs that have been collected or traded via SuperRare, a marketplace for unique, single-edition digital artworks. This segment is brought to you in partnership with NFT data and discovery platform Masterpiece.

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Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• VCs Invest Record $6.5 Billion in Crypto in Q3
• Thailand’s Oldest Bank Acquires 51% Stake in Crypto Exchange
• Mami Mayor to Receive His Entire Paycheck in Bitcoin
• Exploring 1of1 NFTs with Masterpiece
• Sponsored: Crypto.com - The World’s Fastest Growing Crypto App

VCs Invest Record $6.5 Billion in Crypto in Q3

Global venture capital funding into the cryptocurrency space has reached an all-time high of $6.5 billion in the third quarter of the year, surpassing the second quarter’s record of $5.2 billion.

For the quarter there were a total of 286 cryptocurrency deals recorded, down from 291 in the second quarter of the year. In the first nine months of 2021, venture capitalists invested $15 billion in the cryptocurrency space. The figure shows a 384% rise from 2020’s full-year total of $3.1 billion.

The most active venture capital firm in the cryptocurrency space was Coinbase Ventures with 24 deals. It was followed by CMT Digital and Polychain Capital, which tied for second with nine deals each.

The U.S. led in VC funding for the cryptocurrency industry, recording $2.97 billion in the third quarter, up from $2.87 billion in the second quarter. Cryptocurrency exchanges were the leading industry segment in the quarter.

Thailand’s Oldest Bank Acquires 51% Stake in Crypto Exchange

Thailand’s oldest bank, Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), has acquired a 51% in Thai cryptocurrency exchange Bitkub for 17.85 million baht ($536.6 million). The transaction is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2022.

Bitkub is licensed by Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and a reported trading volume of over $30 billion from January to September of this year. The trading volume makes it Thailand’s largest exchange with a dominant market share.

The exchange has had issues with severe outages amid increased trading activity, leading the SEC to order it to shut down for five days to resolve the issues causing the outages.

Mami Mayor to Receive His Entire Paycheck in Bitcoin

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is set to become the first known U.S. politician to receive his entire paycheck in the flagship cryptocurrency bitcoin. The mayor, who is a well-known bitcoin bull, has been taking steps to integrate BTC into the city’s operations.

In a tweet, Suarez revealed he is going to take his next full paycheck in bitcoin, and asked for the help of Miami’s CIO Mike Sarasti to do so. Sarasti has hinted he already received a portion of his paycheck in BTC, and sent Suarez a Strike link for him to register.

Suarez has been vocal about turning Miami into a bitcoin hub and allows the city’s employees to receive their paychecks in bitcoin if they so wish.

NFT Spotlight: SuperRare’s Single-Edition Digital Artworks

Unlike the majority of NFT collections that are currently found on platforms like OpenSea, SuperRare is dedicated to single-edition digital artworks, most of which are sold via an auction system.

SuperRare launched back in 2018, and like many NFT marketplaces, it has seen a boom in trading activity this year - with both the number of sales and sales volume increasing dramatically at the start of 2021. This is visualized below.

SuperRare has hosted many notable drops, from TIME Magazine to leading NFT artist Beeple - Including a collaboration of theirs which resulted in the creation of a one of one TIME Magazine cover back in May. According to Masterpiece data, the TIME cover was originally sold for 126.5 ETH, $351,452 at the time of the sale. Six months later, the same piece was sold for 675 ETH, $2,376,321.

The largest sales on the platform have both come in the last month from a London based artist known as XCOPY - their work explores death, dystopia and apathy through distorted visual loops. Both works, which were created in 2018, sold for 1,300 ETH and 1,000 ETH respectively. You can explore XCOPY’s collection of work here

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