Digital asset manager Cobo has raised $40 million to advance institutional pathways to decentralized finance products, offering compelling evidence that more Asia-Pacific investors are seeking secure access to the DeFi market. The Series B financing will be used by Cobo to develop the first DeFi-as-a-service, or DaaS, infrastructure, which allows institutions and their customers to access decentralized finance products in a compliant manner, the company announced Wednesday. Specifically, the capital will be deployed to acquire regulatory licenses and ensure that anti-money laundering guidelines are followed on all products. Cobo further explained that DaaS gives institutions more secure exposure to DeFi smart contracts without the need to understand market complexities.

Trading app Robinhood has opened up a waitlist to test a crypto wallet for users to hold their tokens. According to a Wednesday blog post, Robinhood plans to start testing a digital wallet feature on its app that enables users to send and receive cryptocurrencies in October. The move may encourage more Robinhood users to use the app for crypto trading, as it currently only allows them to buy crypto with United States dollars and trade on the platform — users can’t deposit or withdraw in crypto. Robinhood did not specify which tokens the digital wallet would support, but the app currently provides commission-free trading for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin SV (BSV), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Ethereum Classic (ETC). The company said it planned for the wallets to have security features, including identity verification, multi-factor authentication, and email and phone verification “to keep coins safe from hacks and other threats.”

Tokenized sport collectibles projects have raised almost $1 billion in funding in the space of a week. On Sept. 22 Dapper Labs — the firm behind the Flow blockchain and the widely popular tokenized basketball collectibles, NBA TopShot — announced a further $250 million in a funding round led by tech-focused hedge fund Coatue. As reported by Cointelegraph on Wednesday, French-based NFT soccer trading card game developer Sorare raised $680 million in Series B funding led by Japanese fintech giant Softbank. The funding round raised the valuation of the firm to $4.3 billion.

Non-fungible token company Bookblocks.io has partnered with a New York-based organization to help women in Afghanistan have access to education amid the Taliban takeover. Bookblocks.io announced it would be releasing a non-fungible token, or NFT, on Oct. 5 with the proceeds given to Women for Afghan Women, an organization which helps provide women access to education and vocational training in both Afghanistan and the United States. The artwork, inspired by American author Louisa May Alcott, features half a woman’s face covered by a single butterfly wing with the quote “nothing is impossible to a determined woman.” When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in the 1990s, they banned education for almost all women and girls. History has practically repeated itself as the extremist Islamist group seized control of the government following the withdrawal of the U.S. military last month, only advising men and boys to return to school so far. The country’s Deputy Minister of Education Zabihullah Mujahidwhile has cryptically said the Taliban plans to give women and girls access to education “as soon as possible.”