kast

According to Cointelegraph, the stablecoin payment company Kast has launched the KAST Business platform, integrating features such as corporate accounts, payment cards, cross-border transfers, and stablecoin yield balances. The platform provides services through stablecoin infrastructure.Kast stated that businesses can receive payments through fiat virtual accounts provided by regulated partners, deposit supported stablecoins and crypto assets, issue virtual cards, and make local payments in over 20 currencies.The platform's services cover more than 170 countries and regions, but specific availability varies by jurisdiction. Idle balances earn an annual yield of up to 8%, and there is also a cashback of up to 3% on spending.Kast is a fintech company rather than a bank, and regulated services are provided by licensed partner institutions. Kast completed a $80 million financing in March at a valuation of $600 million, which will be used for product development, licensing acquisition, and expanding into North America, Latin America, and the Middle East markets. The company claims to currently have over 1 million users and plans to attract 1,000 to 5,000 active businesses by the end of 2026.

A five-day public debate between ether.fi CEO Mike Silagadze and KAST CEO Raagulan Pathy has brought KAST's user deposit terms into the spotlight. Silagadze publicly shared screenshots showing that KAST's terms treat users' deposited stablecoins as sold to KAST, with ownership immediately transferred to the company, and the original terms did not mention that users could request redemption.According to The Defiant, verified through the Wayback Machine, these terms have been in place at least since June 25. As of July 7, KAST updated its terms to include users' right to redeem unspent balances, but the legal structure remains unchanged—deposits are still defined as sales, with the company's total liability capped at $500, registered in Comoros, Anjouan Island, and governed by Seychelles law.Additionally, KAST previously promised that points would be exchanged for tokens on a one-to-one basis, but on July 2, this was changed to conversion into tokenized equity, causing dissatisfaction among users. Research account Decentralisedco pointed out that KAST can earn about 4-5% annualized returns from idle balances by counting users' stablecoins as company assets, a structure that differs from competitors like ether.fi, which settle through user-controlled smart contracts.

According to Bloomberg, stablecoin payment company KAST has completed its latest round of financing, raising $80 million, which values the company at $600 million. The round was co-led by QED Investors and Left Lane Capital, and the funds will be used for expansion in North America, Latin America, and the Middle East, as well as for hiring, licensing applications, and product development.According to insiders, KAST expects its annual revenue run rate to rise to $100 million this year. This financing further confirms the trend of venture capital firms continuing to invest heavily in the digital dollar account space, with related startups attracting significant capital inflows.

ChainCatcher news, according to dynamic data from RootData X, in the past 24 hours:CoinFund founder Jake Brukhman focused on the stablecoin infrastructure Plasma.Pudgy Penguins CEO Luca Netz focused on the cryptocurrency credit card KAST.Unchained founder and CEO Laura Shin focused on the on-chain reputation governance platform jokerace.The Defiant contributing writer and DeFi Rate editor Cooper Turley focused on the DeFi protocol [The Metagame](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/The Metagame?k=MTk2Mzg= "DeFi protocol").DeFi super user DeFi Dad focused on the digital payment platform Wirex.Anonymous Twitter influencer Inversebrah focused on the derivatives trading market [Euphoria Finance](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Euphoria Finance?k=MTU4NzY= "Derivatives trading market").Merit Circle partner director Pentoshi focused on the Layer 1 blockchain Stable.

ChainCatcher news, according to the official X account of M^0, its stablecoin platform has now launched on the Solana network, with the first partner KAST issuing KAST Dollar based on the M^0 architecture, focusing on payment and savings scenarios. Other integration partners include Spree Finance, Squads Protocol, Jito, and Perena. M^0 supports developers in building branded and feature-rich digital dollar solutions through its $M extension framework.

ChainCatcher news, according to official information, MEXC will launch Forkast (CGX) in the innovation zone on February 19 at 20:00 (UTC+8), and open the CGX/USDT trading market.On the same day at 20:10 (UTC+8), the CGXUSDT U-based contract will be launched, supporting 1-50x leverage and both full position and isolated position modes.To celebrate the launch of Forkast (CGX), MEXC is launching an event to share 1,250,000 CGX and 50,000 USDT.

ChainCatcher news, the project financing platform Polkastarter tweeted to announce that the XO IDO whitelist application is now open.It is reported that the XO platform currently has over 1.5 million users and 600,000 SBT token holders.

ChainCatcher news, according to Decrypt, the blockchain-based competitive gaming ecosystem and event platform Community Gaming has announced that its upcoming video game-centric prediction market Forkast will launch on the Ethereum sidechain gaming network Ronin.The platform will allow users to stake tokens and earn rewards while predicting events in gaming, esports, Web3, and internet culture. Forkast is one of the first consumer applications to be integrated into the Ronin network.

ChainCatcher news, according to Techcrunch, led by Sequoia China (HongShan) and Sequoia India (Peak XV), has jointly invested $10 million in the seed round financing of the stablecoin payment platform KAST.KAST is a bank-like platform based on stablecoins, allowing users to hold and use stablecoins through traditional payment channels, and providing credit card services that can be used within standard merchant networks, enabling users to spend their stablecoin assets at merchants that do not support cryptocurrency payments.The platform was co-founded by Raagulan Pathy, former head of Asia Pacific at Circle, and Daniel Bertoli, former partner at Quona Capital, primarily targeting users in emerging markets, especially offshore workers. KAST reduces cross-border payment costs by bypassing traditional banking networks and is currently not operating in China and India due to regulatory restrictions. DST Global and Goodwater Capital participated in this round.

ChainCatcher news, Solayer core contributor and former SushiSwap core contributor Kastrye has confirmed attendance at the "DeInsight 2024" annual summit to be held on November 11 in Bangkok during Devcon.The "DeInsight 2024" annual summit will take place on November 11 at Hotel Nikko Bangkok in Bangkok. This summit is co-hosted by ChainCatcher and RootData, with Soso Value as a co-organizer. The event aims to bring together elites from the Web3 field to exchange insights on the industry, and it is expected to attract over 1,000 industry elites.In addition, the conference will unveil the RootData List 2024, a significant ranking that objectively selects influential individuals or institutions in the industry from a data perspective.

According to ChainCatcher, citing sources from The Block, Forkast Labs has laid off most of its editorial staff after merging with data provider CryptoSlam. In January of this year, Forkast.News merged with CryptoSlam to create a "Web3-focused data intelligence and media platform," and launched the new brand Forkast Labs. However, Forkast.News appears to have stopped publishing articles and video content last month, with its last article published on November 22.According to sources, Forkast.News experienced layoffs this year and ultimately decided to suspend its editorial operations at the end of November. The company wrote in an internal memo shared with employees last month, "In the future, we will focus more on data, and the collective team will concentrate on launching new data products."

ChainCatcher news, The Sandbox announced a strategic partnership with global Web3 data infrastructure and media company Forkast Labs, aimed at changing the way digital asset value is measured in the metaverse.Forkast Labs will leverage its influence in blockchain data and news to ensure The Sandbox gains exposure in the global blockchain community. Forkast will also introduce a metaverse index to measure the performance of NFT assets in The Sandbox, allowing The Sandbox's 400+ partner brands (such as Warner Music Group, Ubisoft, and Gucci Vault) to track market performance in real-time. (Source link)

ChainCatcher news, Web3 data intelligence company Forkast Labs has launched a series of digital asset indexes, including the Forkast 500 NFT, Forkast SOL NFT Composite, and Forkast ETH NFT Composite, which will provide real-time insights into the performance of the tokenized economy of digital assets.It is reported that Forkast Labs is a global data, media, and Web3 infrastructure company formed by the merger of multi-chain NFT data provider CryptoSlam and Forkast.News in January 2023, co-founded by former Bloomberg TV anchor Angie Lau. (source link)