Cardano's commercial arm invests $100M to boost DeFi, NFTs, blockchain

Cardano's (ADA-USD -2.4%) commercial and venture arm, Emurgo, invests $100M to accelerate decentralized finance, non-fungible token solutions, and blockchain education efforts to accelerate the development of the Cardano ecosystem. The fourth largest cryptocurrency by market cap slides to $2.2 in the past 24 hours, while the largest crypto, bitcoin ((BTC-USD +0.4%)) is slightly higher at $43.5K, and Ethereum ((ETH-USD +2.1%)) climbs back over $3K level. Emurgo said it will invest additional funds in African artificial intelligence, blockchain, and smart technoligies firm Adanian Labs. "We will create a dedicated operation from 2022," Kodama wrote in a tweet. Cardano (ADA-USD) also said it will enable a new DeFi stablecoin dubbed Djed with Cardano's payment gateway provider, Coti, to provide a tool for DeFi operations and avoid transaction fees; the stablecoin uses smart contracts to ensure price stability, Cointelegraph reports. Despite Cardano's decline, Bitcoin and other cryptos gain even as exchanges restrict China accounts.