That’s a superb beginning of the year for Bitpanda. Two weeks ago we informed about the release of the Bitpanda Card, a revolutionary mean of payment that integrates multiple cryptocurrencies, metals, and other assets. Now, Bitpanda has yet another reason to celebrate. The Series B round, carried out just a half year after the successful series A, allowed the startup to secure $170 million in funding, at the same time reaching the valuation of $1.2bn. Therefore, Bitpanda has officially become the first FinTech unicorn in Austria and is ready for further expansion in Europe and beyond.

Read more about the top FinTech startups to watch in 2021

The Middle East has gained a new, regulated and Sharia-compliant trading platform for crypto assets. The CoinMENA platform offers transactions (including deposits, withdrawals, and trading) in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash, and supports several local currencies. This way, CoinMENA targets an important niche in the MENA region. Although the platform is highly regulated and follows the strictest security measures, the users need less than a minute to complete the signup process. The startup plans to attract new users offering a time-limited special offer: a two-way referral program.

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What went wrong? Apparently, Revolut couldn’t exit the beta phase in Canada to expand further in the country. The company has informed via Twitter that they are “not able to offer the range of services they had hoped at this stage”. What does it mean exactly? Despite the efforts, Revolut was unable to obtain a Canadian banking license, which reduced its offering on the market significantly. Therefore, the digital bank couldn’t compete effectively with the high street banks. However, Revolut is not giving up, and has assured Canadian users that it plans to return to the market as soon as it’s possible.

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This new feature rolled out by the startup that closed a seed round last month will allow users to send and receive Bitcoin payments as easy as sending a tweet… Literally. The user only has to type a simple tweet including payment details (amount, recipient and mention of Bottlepay account) to transfer funds either in Bitcoin or traditional currencies. But that’s not all: a similar feature is planned to be rolled out to other popular social channels, such as Reddit, Discord, Twitch, Telegram and Mastodon. Seems like the payments revolution will take place on social media!

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Ikigai, founded by two former McKinsey employees Maurizio Kaiser and Edgar de Picciotto, combines the offering of a digital bank with wealth management solutions to serve a growing audience of young and affluent people. According to the company, its potential customers value the financial wellbeing and a sense of purpose in their financial lives, instead of a “mindless accumulation”, as the founders have put it in their own words. Ikigai offers a subscription model with a flat and transparent fee, giving access to the onboarding service carried out by a personal relationship manager, and the app features divided into three main areas: everyday spending, saving, and investing.

Read more about wealth management software development