Blockchain & Digital Assets

May 14, 2020 @ 7:28 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Libra Association has added three new members: Temasek, Paradigm, and Slow Ventures. Launched by Facebook, the Libra Association is a Switzerland-based independent entity seeking to launch a blockchain-based payment system. Recently, Libra tweaked its white-paper backing away from its original intent to launch a… Read More

May 14, 2020 @ 11:32 am By JD Alois  |  

France has created a unique regulatory regime for the issuance and trading of digital assets that are utility tokens. Under French law, an initial coin offering (ICO) issuer may apply for a “visa” to offer a utility token. If approved, the issuer may publicly promote… Read More

May 14, 2020 @ 10:50 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Digital asset custody provider BitGo announced on Thursday it has been named as the custodian of India-based crypto exchange, CoinDCX. BitGo reported that as the custodian of CoinDCX, it will provide the secure storage and custodianship of cryptocurrencies held on CoinDCX, fully insured and protected by… Read More

May 14, 2020 @ 9:04 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Cryptocurrency payments processor CoinPayments announced on Wednesday it has appointed Jason Butcher as its new CEO. CoinPayment reported that Butcher has been its Chief Operating Officer since 2017, and previously as an advisor starting in 2015, helped boost CoinPayments’ monthly transactions to more than $100… Read More

May 14, 2020 @ 7:41 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Germany-based neobank Bitwala will allow its 80,000+ customers to buy, hold, and earn interest on Bitcoin through their bank accounts. Bitwala’s new cryptocurrency service is being offered through a partnership with the developers of the Celsius Network, a major digital assets lending platform. DefiPrime data… Read More

May 13, 2020 @ 11:49 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The total or combined stablecoin supply reached an all-time high of around $10.4 billion on May 12, 2020. It’s notably the first time that the total market cap of all stablecoins has exceeded the $10 billion mark. According to Stablecoinindex.com data, Tether’s (USDT) market capitalization… Read More

May 13, 2020 @ 10:45 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

MakerDAO, a leading Ethereum-based lending system, is preparing to move to a multi-collateral DAI (MCD or Dai) system. The protocol’s community has closed down the single-collateral Dai (Sai) system, as the decentralized finance (DeFi) solution gets ready for the transition. MCD had been activated on… Read More

May 13, 2020 @ 4:47 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

FalconX, a U.S.-based digital asset trading platform, announced on Wednesday it raised $17 million through its latest financing round, which saw participation from Accel, Accomplice VC, Coinbase Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, Flybridge Capital Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Avon Ventures. Founded in 2018, FalconX describes itself… Read More

May 13, 2020 @ 3:25 pm By JD Alois  |  

In a document posted by EY Canada yesterday,  the bankrupt crypto exchange QuadraCX trustee posted a document indicating 16,959 individual claims for the crypto and money. Most of the funds were vaporized when founder and CEO Gerald Cotten died without sharing passwords to the accounts… Read More

May 13, 2020 @ 1:44 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

A group of researchers claims that most of the digital transactions on EOS, Tezos (XTZ) and with the Ripple company-associated XRP virtual token don’t actually transfer any “value.” Research published on arXiv reveals that merely 2% of transactions conducted on the XRP ledger and only… Read More

May 13, 2020 @ 12:49 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) has launched a Bitcoin Mining Map that tracks the creation of BTC. As we all know, Bitcoin just completed its periodic “halving” event when the creation or mining of Bitcoin is cut in half. As one may expect,… Read More

May 13, 2020 @ 11:49 am By Mathilde Saliou  |  

Equisafe is a Fintech company specialized in asset tokenization whose solutions are based on the Tezos protocol. This week, Equisafe’s President and co-founder, Bilal el Alamy, unveiled a partnership with the real estate asset management company Koytcha Immo.  Below is a discussion with el Alamy… Read More

May 13, 2020 @ 10:09 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Digital asset exchange Bitfinex announced on Wednesday it has joined forces with digital asset custody provider Koine to launch an institutionally oriented post-trade service, enabling investors to mitigate counterparty risk and the use of private keys in the clearing and settlement of cryptocurrencies.  Through the… Read More

May 13, 2020 @ 9:35 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Encrypted messaging provider Telegram has reportedly abandoned its TON blockchain project after a lengthy court battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, confirmed on May 12, 2020, that the Telegram Open Network (TON) initiative would be discontinued, because… Read More

May 13, 2020 @ 8:25 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

TradeStation, an online broker-dealer and futures commission merchant, announced on Wednesday residents in Connecticut, North Carolina, North Dakota, Vermont, Washington D.C., and Wyoming may now apply for an account to trade cryptocurrencies on TradeStation Crypto’s brokerage platform. The news comes less than six months after TradeStation Crypto, has received additional state… Read More

May 12, 2020 @ 8:46 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

A limited-edition “cassette tape” produced by Grammy award-winning DJ André Allen Anjos (aka RAC) has been tokenized and released on Zora, an Ethereum-powered digital marketplace. Zora’s developers first gained recognition last year, when they launched Saint Fame, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that has developed… Read More

May 12, 2020 @ 7:45 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Henri Arslanian, the global leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers‘ (PwC) cryptocurrency and blockchain-related projects, shared the auditing firm’s 2nd Annual PwC-Elwood Crypto Hedge Fund Report on May 11, 2020. Arslanian summarized the key findings from the report as follows. The median crypto asset hedge fund returned +30%… Read More

May 12, 2020 @ 4:00 pm By Lee A. Schneider  |  

In the wake of the announcements of Facebook’s Libra and the Chinese government’s intention to have a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), the topic of CBDCs as a new component of a country’s legal tender has become popular with governments and commentators. The basic idea… Read More

May 12, 2020 @ 1:52 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

 Securrency, a global financial services technology infrastructure and products company, announced on Tuesday it has formed a new partnership with investment management and banking firm, Musharaka Capital to develop a compliant platform for issuing digital securities in Saudi Arabia.    The companies reported that they… Read More

May 12, 2020 @ 8:43 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Binance.US, the leading cryptocurrency exchange company’s US-based division, has introduced an over-the-counter (OTC) digital asset trading desk. The new OTC option is only available for trades valued at $10,000 or more. OTC crypto trades are negotiated directly between the buyer and the seller. They don’t… Read More