News linked to both this project and an event.
The Bank of England Digital Pound Lab, in collaboration with NOBO Finance, Dun & Bradstreet, and Polygon Labs, tested the interoperability of stablecoins and simulated digital pounds in cross-border trade finance, aiming to reduce settlement delays and financing constraints for SMEs.
According to CoinDesk, the Bank of England (BOE) announced that its digital pound project has officially entered the second phase, focusing on testing whether public stablecoins and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) can interoperate within a single payment stream to promote the modernization of cross-border trade finance. This experiment focuses on SME trade finance scenarios: exporters receive advance financing through stablecoin technology, while UK importers complete final settlement using the digital pound. Participants include UK fintech company NOBO Finance, global business data analytics firm Dun & Bradstreet, and blockchain company Polygon Labs. The three parties will integrate wallet transaction data, open finance information, and business intelligence to build reusable credit assessment profiles for SMEs. Polygon will provide stablecoin settlement infrastructure through its Open Money Stack, encompassing fiat currency exchange, wallet, and smart contract functionalities. The BOE emphasized that the laboratory does not involve real customers or funds, does not represent a decision to officially issue the digital pound, and the experimental results will serve as a reference for the joint assessment of the digital pound by the Bank of England and the Treasury later this year.
Odaily News: The Bank of England's (BOE) digital pound project has entered its second phase, testing whether publicly issued stablecoins and central bank currency can operate together in a single payment process for trade finance. The BOE will collaborate with NOBO Finance, Dun & Bradstreet, and Polygon Labs in its Digital Pound Lab to explore building reusable credit profiles for small businesses and research the use of stablecoins alongside a potential digital pound in invoice factoring. The experiments do not involve real customers or funds and are designed to provide a reference for the BOE and the UK Treasury in evaluating the interoperability of different forms of digital currency. (CoinDesk)
global private market investment management giant Hamilton Lane has announced that its direct equity strategy fund, Hamilton Lane Equity Opportunities Fund VI (EO VI), has completed a $3.8 billion fundraise. This amount exceeds the $2.1 billion raised for the previous fund. Participating investors include a diverse range of institutions such as public pensions, sovereign wealth funds, union pensions, endowments, foundations, and family offices. The fund will provide investors with diversified investment exposure.Hamilton Lane already has a presence in the crypto space. In March of this year, it made a strategic investment in the on-chain investment platform Republic. Additionally, its senior credit opportunity securitization fund, HLSCOPE, has approximately $9 million in total asset value on the Polygon network, primarily investing in senior secured private credit and senior secured loans in North America and Europe. (Bloomberg)
According to Bloomberg, private market investment management giant Hamilton Lane is preparing its first RMB-denominated fund, targeting to raise approximately 1 billion to 1.5 billion RMB (approximately $150 million to $220 million), with plans to complete by the end of this year; insiders revealed that the fund will raise capital from investors within China. Hamilton Lane previously raised USD funds through the Qualified Foreign Limited Partnership (QFLP) mechanism and converted them into RMB capital to invest in assets within China; its direct equity strategy fund Hamilton Lane Equity Opportunities Fund VI (EO VI) has completed fundraising of $3.8 billion. Hamilton Lane has already established a presence in the crypto sector, strategically investing in the on-chain investment platform Republic this March; its tokenized credit fund is already custodied on-chain, and the Senior Credit Opportunities Securitization Fund HLSCOPE has a total asset value of approximately $9 million on the Polygon network, primarily investing in senior secured private credit and senior secured loans in North America and Europe.
: Web3 fintech startup Jia announced the completion of a $3 million seed funding round, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Stellar Development Foundation, A100x Ventures, TCG, and Hashed Emergent.To date, Jia's total cumulative funding has reached $7.3 million. Jia currently operates multiple decentralized lending pools and introduces liquidity through networks including Base, Stellar, Arbitrum, and Polygon, while utilizing stablecoins for cross-border settlements to reduce remittance costs and settlement times.The new funds will be used to expand features such as corporate bank accounts and cash flow management.
According to NADA NEWS, JPYC, the issuer and operator of the Japanese yen-pegged stablecoin JPYC, announced that it has raised an additional $17.62 million in the second closing of its Series B funding round. Combined with the first closing, the total funds raised are expected to reach approximately $28.93 million. Participating investors include NCB Venture Capital, Metaplanet, Kitao Bank, and Yokohama Capital, among others. The newly raised capital will be primarily used for system and application development, hiring talent for business expansion, stablecoin issuance and redemption, trading, payments, management-related operations, and new strategic investments. JPYC stated that, as of April 15, its cumulative issuance has exceeded approximately $13.21 million. The stablecoin is currently supported on Avalanche, Ethereum, and Polygon, and the company is considering adding support for Kaia and Arc.