Cryptocurrency

A UK company behind ‘autonomous agent’ technology has secured $40 million in investment.

Fetch.ai, based in Cambridge, has been backed by tech incubator DWF Labs, a digital asset market maker and Web3 investment firm with offices in Singapore, Switzerland, the UAE, Hong Kong, South Korea and British Virgin Islands.

The platform powers peer-to-peer applications with automation and AI capabilities. The investment will support the development and deployment of autonomous agents, network infrastructure, and decentralised machine learning on the Fetch.ai platform.

Fetch.ai’s platform provides all the necessary tooling for builders to develop, deploy and monetise their applications and platforms. As an autonomous machine-to-machine ecosystem, Fetch.ai’s agents work as a network of independent parties that interact with each other directly and store information via the blockchain network. 

The process of autonomous economic agents finding, negotiating, and interacting with each other is all automated, and requires no user input, which reduces costs and removes the reliance on intermediaries.

Any resulting agreements between agents are then recorded on the Fetch.ai blockchain using FET, the native token of the Fetch.ai blockchain, which is the main medium of exchange to pay for transactions and can be used to pay agents for providing services.

“Their technical architecture and decentralised approach to machine learning create a new paradigm for developers and entrepreneurs, and we’re thrilled to support their growth and development,” said Andrei Grachev, managing partner of DWF Labs.

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Cryptocurrency shorts

Gary Gensler, chair of US regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission, has requested a record $2.4 billion in funding to increase staff numbers to 5,139 from 4,685 and crack down on “misconduct” in the cryptocurrency industry. “As the cop on the beat, we must be able to meet the match of bad actors. Thus, it makes sense for the SEC to grow along with the expansion and increased complexity in the capital markets,” he said.

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is funding the legal team defending him against federal fraud charges with millions of dollars he gifted his father from Alameda Research, according to a report from Forbes.

Freeport, a soon-to-be-launched blockchain-based platform that allows people to invest in fine art, is offering an exclusive four-piece collection of prints from pop artist Andy Warhol – including Marilyn, Double Mickey, Mick Jagger and Rebel Without a Cause.

Crypto and stock giving platform The Giving Block saw more than 1,000 non-profits join for the second straight year in 2022. Crypto donors have now given more than $125m to charities via the platform, with USD Coin emerging as the leading crypto donation option for the first time at 44% of total volume – with Ethereum passing Bitcoin to take second spot.

UK government unveils first AI whitepaper

Crypto prices

The overall market cap of the 23,100 coins is at $1.19 trillion at the time of writing (7am UK), a 2% increase in the last 24 hours.

For round-ups of recent cryptocurrency news developments, click here.

For valuations of the top 100 coins by market cap in US dollars, plus 24-hour price change, see below.