The Crypto Report
Ivy League schools have churned out multiple presidents, Fortune 500 CEOs and other notable alumni and many have the multi-billion endowments to show for it.
Yale University recently announced some of its $30 billion endowment would be put into the cryptocurrency market via an investment in crypto fund Paradigm.
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Other prestigious universities have been betting on crypto as well.
Harvard University, Stanford University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of North Carolina have invested into at least one cryptocurrency fund, according to a report by The Information.
Endowments taking baby steps into the cryptocurrency market may signal a shift in investor sentiment.
In blockchain news, BMW is hosting a tournament for blockchain applications in vehicles, as per a Coin Telegraph report.
The MOBI Grand Challenge will be a three-year-long event beginning October 12, awarding winners more than $1 million worth of tokens.
The first fourth-month challenge is looking for “potential uses of blockchain in coordinating vehicle movement and improving transportation in urban environments.”
The champions of the first challenge will be granted $350,000 worth of awards and may have their technology featured at an event hosted by BMW Group in Munich, Germany in February 2019.
The Cann Report
MedMen Enterprises Inc (CSE:MMEN,OTCQB:MMNFF) is expanding its reach via its latest $682 million acquisition of medical cannabis company PharmaCann LLC.
Its portfolio will now include cannabis licenses in 12 states, adding licenses in Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, Virginia and Michigan. The company is permitted to operate a total of 79 cannabis facilities.
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“This would not have been possible even two years ago and is a testament to how far both the industry and these two companies have evolved,” said CEO Adam Bierman in the company’s press release.
MedMen currently operates 14 retail stores in California, Nevada and New York.
Cannabis retailers sell all kinds of cannabis strains, offering dessert flavors like key lime pie and lemon meringue or flavors named after celebrities like Snoop Dogg and Tommy Chong.
However, the strains may not be so different after all, according to research from the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus.
"It is estimated that there are several hundred or perhaps thousands of strains of cannabis currently being cultivated," said UBC chemistry professor Susan Murch in an interview with science publication Phys.org "We wanted to know how different they truly are, given the variety of unique and exotic names."
The research shows that while breeding highly potent strains of cannabis impacts the genetic diversity within the crop, the THC and CBD levels were not affected.