Switzerland-based Backed has successfully closed a $9.5 million fundraising round, with Gnosis leading the investment charge.

According to one asset management company’s forecast, the tokenized real-world asset market could reach a staggering $10 trillion by the decade’s end.

Backed, a tokenized asset issuer, announced on Tuesday that it secured $9.5 million in funding, with Gnosis at the helm of the investment. Other participants in the fundraising round included Exor Seeds, Cyber Fund, Mindset Ventures, Stake Capital Ventures, Blockchain Founders Fund, Blue Bay Capital, and Nonce Classic.

The company plans to utilize the investment to accelerate its private tokenization offering and onboard asset managers onto blockchain platforms, as stated in the press release.

The fundraising round comes at a time when the tokenization of real-world assets  is emerging as a prominent trend in the digital asset industry. Crypto firms and global banking and asset management giants are actively vying to tokenize traditional financial instruments like bonds, funds, or credit on blockchains.

Tokenization offers several advantages over traditional financial systems, including enhanced trade settlement efficiency, broader investor access, and reduced administrative burdens. According to a report by asset manager 21.co, the market for RWAs could potentially reach $10 trillion by the end of the decade.

Backed, headquartered and regulated in Switzerland, specializes in tokenization services and has already issued over $50 million worth of tokenized RWAs. These include ERC-20 compatible token versions of exchange-traded funds and individual stocks such as Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), as listed on its website.

“Youbin Kang, CEO of Nonce Classic, one of the investors in the round, commented, “Global financial markets are fragmented, hindering accessibility and efficiency. Backed aims to solve these issues by bringing RWAs on-chain.”

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In response to mounting regulatory pressure, Wasabi Wallet and Phoenix have ceased operations for customers in the United States. The companies behind these wallets, zkSNACKs and ACINQ respectively, announced the suspensions following recent actions taken by U.S. authorities against similar cryptocurrency services.

zkSNACKs has taken proactive measures to block access to its services from U.S. IP addresses, including Wasabi Wallet. Meanwhile, ACINQ intends to remove Phoenix Wallet from U.S. application stores by May 3.

These decisions underscore the companies’ efforts to comply with potential regulations that could classify self-custody wallets as money services businesses, subjecting them to stringent regulatory oversight.

The regulatory crackdown on cryptocurrency services intensified following the arrest of two individuals associated with Samourai Wallet on charges of money laundering, including funds derived from illicit sources such as the Silk Road marketplace.

The U.S. government’s enforcement actions against Samourai Wallet led to the seizure of its web servers and domain, along with the removal of its app from the Google Play Store in the U.S.

Keonne Rodriguez, co-founder of Samourai Wallet, was granted release on a US$1 million bond after pleading not guilty to charges of money laundering and operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

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South Korea is taking proactive measures to address the surge in cryptocurrency-related crimes by considering the transformation of its temporary crypto-crime investigative unit into a permanent department, as per a local report. The nation witnessed a substantial increase in suspicious transaction reports from crypto companies, prompting the government to enhance its efforts in combating fraudulent activities.

According to a report by Segye Ilbo, the Justice Ministry and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety are set to begin discussions in early May regarding the elevation of the Joint Virtual Asset Crime Investigation Unit to an official department. By formalizing the unit’s status, which currently operates under the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office, South Korea aims to bolster its effectiveness through the appointment of additional prosecutors and budget allocation.

Established in July 2023, the unit comprises approximately 30 experts from seven financial and tax regulatory authorities, marking South Korea’s first dedicated investigative body focused on digital asset crimes. According to a February report by South Korea’s Financial Intelligence Unit, the country has observed a significant increase in crypto-related criminal activities. Local crypto companies reported 16,076 suspicious transactions in 2023, marking a 49% surge from the previous year.

Moreover, South Korea is set to implement its inaugural comprehensive crypto regulation on July 19, aimed at safeguarding investors. The new regulation imposes stricter penalties for market manipulation, including the possibility of life sentences in certain cases. These initiatives underscore South Korea’s commitment to curbing illicit activities in the cryptocurrency space and fostering a safer environment for investors and stakeholders.

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Ether has demonstrated strong performance against Bitcoin for two consecutive weeks, indicating a growing interest in altcoin gains following recent market developments, according to analysts at Bitfinex. Despite bitcoin’s halving event, ether recorded a notable 7.5% increase in its trading pair with BTC, marking its most significant weekly gain against bitcoin since early January.

Bitfinex’s Alpha report underscored ether’s resilience, even amidst regulatory challenges. Concerns regarding the potential SEC classification of ether as security and scrutiny over the Metamask software have raised uncertainties in the market. Nevertheless, ether’s ability to outpace bitcoin suggests a shifting sentiment among investors and market dynamics within the altcoin space.

The decline in bitcoin dominance further supports this narrative, with attention gradually shifting towards altcoins following the halving event. Historically, such events have prompted a surge in altcoin activity, leading to a decline in Bitcoin’s dominance. Currently, bitcoin’s dominance stands at 50.5%, while ether commands a dominance of 15.9%, according to Coingecko data.

Meanwhile, early Monday trading saw a significant depreciation in the Japanese yen, prompting bitcoin to trade at a slight premium against the weakening currency. On the Japanese crypto exchange bitFlyer, the bitcoin-Japanese yen pair traded at a 0.2% premium to bitcoin’s dollar-denominated price on Coinbase. However, as the yen rebounded amidst speculation of intervention by the Bank of Japan, the BTC/JPY pair retreated to trade at 9,797,502 JPY at the time of reporting.

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A recent griefing attack on the Bitcoin testnet has caused significant disruption, leading to the generation of three years’ worth of blocks in just one week. Griefing attacks involve intentionally spamming transactions on a network, increasing its workload, and disrupting its normal operations. Jameson Lopp, co-founder and Chief Security Officer of Casa, publicly claimed responsibility for the attack, generating over 165,000 blocks within the past week.

Lopp explained that the purpose of the attack was to advocate for a reset of Bitcoin’s test network, ensuring that testnet coins have no value and developers can test their software without incurring costs. He also highlighted a bug in the testnet’s consensus code that allows for the creation of massive block amounts in a short time, urging developers to address this vulnerability.

Hashrate and difficulty data on the Bitcoin network testnet indicated a spike to 2,315 TH/s on April 19 before returning to 346 TH/s on April 28. The attack caused interruptions in node syncing, making it impossible to reach the tip due to the high volume of new blocks.

Leo Weese, technical content lead at Lightning Labs, observed the disruption, expressing concerns about the future of permission-less testing networks. While the Bitcoin testnet didn’t suffer significant harm, it did disrupt the testing efforts of open-source Bitcoin application builders.

Despite Lopp’s characterization of the incident as a “free stress test,” it faced backlash from the crypto community. Francis Pouliot, co-founder of Bull Bitcoin, emphasized the impact on legitimate testing efforts, highlighting the wasted time and resources of developers.

While the Bitcoin testnet withstood the attack, the incident underscores the challenges of maintaining open and accessible testing environments in the crypto space amidst malicious activities.

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