SEC Stays Wednesday Decision Denying Bitcoin ETF Applications, Commission Will Review

Peirce — who criticized the agency’s recent disapproval of a Winklevoss-backed bitcoin ETF — posted a copy of a letter, sent by the agency and addressed to NYSE, attesting to the fact that the chairman and commissioners will personally review the applications to determine whether SEC staff ruled appropriately.

The letter does not give a timetable for when the Commission will make that determination.

Developing…

Trends Of Blockchain Technology Is Now Rising Over The World Of Digital Marketing

As the competition in the IT sector grows on the graph, digital marketing has become the key aspects for almost every business to stand out from their competitors. Since the trend of digital is highly impossible to descend, the adoption of blockchain technology in this era seems a lot more impressive.

WHAT IS BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY?

You might have heard about Bitcoin, the digital cash which is moving up and down in terms of volume. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency which is completely decentralized, means that it runs cross-border (across the world) without the involvement of central authority.

This type of cryptocurrency/Bitcoin is built on a technology called Blockchain where the records of transactions are created as a digital ledger. Since it is digital, the transactions cannot be altered or deleted which makes it as the best possible solutions for industries like Political, stumbling on identity & personal data, banking & financial sectors, healthcare and digital marketing as well.

If you think, Blockchain Technology is nothing but a bitcoin, you’re in misconception. Rather, it is a newer technique to track the truthful events. The records with this technology are stored securely in decentralized systems. Recorded transactions are interconnected, given that it doesn’t have centralized point.

DIGITAL MARKETING WITH BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY

It was no less than 4 months when news rolled on “Facebook privacy concern”. Have you seen the headline, pointing Mark Zuckerg “Our personal data can easily be bought and sold to advertisers”? Many experts reveal Blockchain Technology could be a solution”.

Mr.Qadir AK sees a great vision, He said in a tweet, “Blockchain Technology is a resemblance of Digital Marketing”.

[embed]https://twitter.com/NowQadir/status/1030409352484724736[/embed]

Here is how Blockchain Technology Assists Digital Marketing

PRIVACY OVER USER’S DATA

By employing Blockchain technology, user’s data will be encrypted and protected which means it becomes highly secured. The fact is that advertisers and companies often get consumer’s data easily. But, with this technology, they can have more control over what they want to see and what they are interested in.

THE ADVERTISER CAN CONNECT TO THE RIGHT AUDIENCE

Advertisers with blockchain technology can have a cost-effective and smarter way to reach their prospect. Since the technology enables choice based advertisements, advertisers can reach only to the prospective audience within fewer budgets than to target random with a huge amount. In this concern, there are lots of crypto companies emerging with ICO (Initial Coin Offering) and introducing the blockchain based model for digital advertisers.

ADVERTISERS AND PUBLISHERS – DIRECT LINK

Yet another interesting way where blockchain technology steps in is decentralized advertising. Yes, often Advertisers and publishers required to deal with intermediaries like Google or Facebook that connects them with the audience. Blockchain technology can prevent the need for these intermediaries and enable the direct interaction between advertisers and website owners. However, it also ensures genuine clicks than fake ones.

FOR WRITERS AND SOCIAL PROMOTERS

There are firms in a crypto sphere that pays users to share or like the post or even to write a copy of the content for them. As in case of steemit, writers can get paid for their likes (so-called upvotes) and comments.

Emerging Blockchain Technology for Digital Marketing

• WebCoin – The firm connects cryptocurrency, blockchain technology, and Digital Marketing. It builds a platform that intends to resolve key issues of digital marketing including higher cost involved in advertising as well as to tackle the issue arising in reaching out global audience.


• Inda Hash – This Company connects influencers with brands by implementing blockchain technology. Inda Hash claims to unites 300000 influencers in one campaign with brands like Gillette, Ikea, Milka etc.


• Frendz.io – It seems as the fastest blockchain technology to connect brands with the target audience. Frendz simplifies digital advertising using peer-to-peer communication.

Besides these, there are other companies that are running with a similar motive, few of those are Presearch, PM7, AdHive, Wolk, SocialMedia.market, Lydian and unlike.

TO SUMUP!

Digital Marketing with Blockchain technology has become a new and trending strategy for top brands and advertising agencies. Even though the crypto market is flexible and not in a situation that it was during December 2017, people still invest in it. And especially, implementing blockchain technology which itself is digital across the digital marketing is driving companies to a bigger scope.

For more info on cryptocurrency payment acceptance by Ultimez, you can visit here- Crypto Web Service

The article first appeared on https://ultimez.com/blog/trends-blockchain-technology-now-rising-world-digital-marketing/

CargoCoin ICO at Glance

Token Symbol/Ticker: CRGO Blockchain the token is made on: Ethereum ICO dates: 15-04-2018 - 31-12-2018 Token price: 1 USD Soft and Hard Caps: Soft-cap: 5 mln USD Hard-cap: 55 mln USD

[embed]https://youtu.be/ys0__ZB3uBU[/embed]

CargoCoin is designed to be a smart contract, crypto currency platform, decentralising global trade and transport. The platform target is to facilitate and optimise the interaction amongst traders, freight forwarders, shipping lines, booking agents as well as all other parties involved in the international trade and transport of commodities and cargoes. The platform users experience outlines well-balanced ecosystem based on cutting edge crypto security and frictionless interaction.
​CargoCoin objective is to provide a global marketplace environment and utilities for facilitation of trade, transport, exchange of documents and payment options at low cost in real time. The platform architecture is based on the principles of high level of security, transparency, traceability and accountability. It is set up in a way that the participants can take advantage of any part of it alone, or in combination with other sections. It can be used as a very simple platform or as a complex smart contract utility with various payment options. The link between physical trade and transport with online crypto technologies delivers the opportunity for implementation of a large scale project and allows for further expansion.

Social media and other useful links

• Website: https://thecargocoin.com/


• Whitepaper: https://thecargocoin.com/docs/CargoCoin-Whitepaper.pdf


• Executive summary: https://thecargocoin.com/docs/CargoCoin-Executive-Summary.pdf


• Presentation: https://thecargocoin.com/docs/CargoCoin-presentation.pdf


• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecargocoin/


• Twitter: https://twitter.com/thecargocoin


• Telegram: http://t.me/thecargocoin


• Telegram group: http://t.me/thecargocoingroup


• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cargocoin/


• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CargoCoin


• Slack: https://thecargocoin.slack.com/


• Github: https://github.com/CargoCoinRepo/Cargo-Coin


• Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/thecargocoin


• Medium: https://medium.com/@thecargocoin


• Crunchbase: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/cargocoin


• Bitcointalk: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3224289


• Bounty thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3565845

Blockfreelancer ICO at Glance

Token Symbol/Ticker: BFC Blockchain: Ethereum ICO dates: 11/9/2018 - 2/10/2018 Token price: $0.09 Soft and Hard Caps: Soft cap: $1360000 Hard cap: $17860000

Blockfreelancer is a decentralized, transparent, lucrative system for freelancers,employees and companies,using the Ethereum blockchain and smart contract.Our solutions includes freelancers and job marketplace, skills and reputation verification system in a totally decentralized and transparent platform.Now freelancers, full-time employee and companies can meet without boundaries.
​Any one can make money from Blockfreelancer regardless of your age status, whether you"re a stay-at-home mummy,student,disabled,or need ways to make extra money.Now companies will save cost and the hustle of hiring, with our one leap decentralized ratings and skills verification system.

Social media and other useful links

• https://blockfreelancer.com/tokensale/


• https://www.facebook.com/blockfreelancer/


• https://t.me/joinchat/Isg4fxBIUNevymiu0gYPQA


• https://twitter.com/blockfreelancer?s=08


• https://www.linkedin.com/company/blockfreelancer


• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMgqoBsEDNkkE34uo-iSgDw

DAEX ICO at Glance

T​oken symbol: DAX Token blockchain: Ethereum KYC Starts: 8th August, 1PM GMT KYC Ends: 8th September, 1PM GMT Sale Starts: 9th September, 1PM GMT Sale Ends: 14th September, 1PM GMT Token sale price: $0.07 Soft cap: 7,000ETH     ​Hard cap: 10,000ETH

The Global DAEX Foundation (www.daex.io) are the creators of DAEX (Digital Assets Exchange), an open and distributed clearing ecosystem for cryptocurrency exchanges. The goal of the project is to alleviate the responsibilities of centralized exchanges by providing them with identity authentication, asset registration, asset clearing and asset settlement services.
​Centralized exchanges who are part of the ecosystem will remain in control of matching trades, although the aforementioned services will be provided by DAEX using distributed ledger technology and smart contracts. With a wide range of products, the ecosystem will provide several benefits to all participants (exchanges and traders) involved.

Meet the team

Social media and other useful links:

• Website: www.daex.io


• Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaexBlockchain


• Telegram: https://t.me/DAEXOfficial_en


• Medium: https://medium.com/daex


• Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/DAEX_Blockchain/


• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqgUNUY8fM6-XIbweKrYL0w


• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/daexblockchain/​


• Instagram: https://www.linkedin.com/company/daex-blockchain-group-limited

Promax 7.2: The Most Effective and Powerful among the Ethereum Miners launched

The developers have offered the market with high-specs GPU based Ethereum miners which were used all over by the enthusiastic miners. However, these former miners are still less productive, consuming too much power, not efficient, and lack of profitability for sure. So, is it the end? Of course not, in fact, the solution of the problems is already available and this monster called Promax 7.2.

The most productive GPU based Miner Promax 7.2 is actually on their third batch. Since launched Promax 7 has grabbed in public attention due to a revolutionary Multi -Mining crypto currency feature. Promax 7 eth miner can effectively mine Ethereum ,zcash, monero and so on.

The miner is said to generate 3710 MH/s. For mining the zcash, Promax 7.2 can generate 59484 Sol/s of Hash Rate. It hashing performance is far better than the one’s already available in the one.  Promax 7.2 advanced performance is actually the result of 68 Nvidia p102 graphic cards. Since the miner is built in with inverter boards and circuits it uses a minimal power consumption of 4500 watts.

Along with the rising demand for Promax 7.2, there have also been a good demand for G7 and 7.1 miner with each generating 600 Mh/s and 1830 Mh/s respectively. G7 which is known to be asic in feature which works on Ethash and it generates the highest Mh/s as compared to any other Asic’s available in the market.
Whereas 7.1 is known to mine multiple crypto currency while using 34 p102 graphic cards and generating an outstanding performance.

This definitely explain why Promax 7.2 is the most powerful Ethereum Miner in the market.

Coins and algorithms supported by 7.2 Miner

Media Contact

• Company - Promax7


• Contact Person - John Cole


• Product - Promax7-7.2 GPU-integrated cryptocurrency miner    


• URL - www.promax7.com


• Phone: +44 7418341661


• Email Id: sales@promax7.com

NEW YALE STUDY: EVERY PORTFOLIO SHOULD INCLUDE 6% BITCOIN (AT LEAST)

A new research paper published by an Economics Professor at Yale University recommends a portfolio with at least 6% in Bitcoin.

 

ADDING BITCOIN TO YOUR INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO

 

According to Professor Aleh Tsyvinski, Bitcoin should be an imperative part of your portfolio, regardless of whether you are enthusiastic about the cryptocurrency or not.

 

For an optimal construction of one’s portfolio, the economist holds that Bitcoin should account for at least 6 percent of it. Those who are less enthusiastic about the world’s most popular cryptocurrency should hold 4 percent of it.

 

In any case, though, regardless of your position on the matter, Bitcoin should comprise a minimum of 1 percent of your portfolio just for diversification purposes.

 

The study seems to fall in line with the observations of another scholar – Professor Dragan Boscovic from the Arizona State University. Speaking on the matter of cryptocurrencies, he noted:

 

Institutional investors are recognizing this new asset as a valued investment opportunity; this will encourage individual investors. It will also encourage consumers and small shops to start trading in cryptocurrency.

BETTER THAN TRADITIONAL STOCKS

 

The study titled, Risks and Returns of Cryptocurrencies, also outlines a very positive feature of cryptocurrencies when compared to traditional stocks and bonds.

 

Using the Sharpe’s ratio, Tsyvinski demonstrated that digital currencies show higher potential for return, despite their increased volatility. It’s noteworthy, however, that the professor only examined Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Ripple (XRP) for the purposes of his study.

 

The observation of Tsivinsky and his colleague fall in direct contradiction with another noted economist – Nobel Prize Winner Robert Shiller, who said earlier in May that Bitcoin is a failed experiment and “another example of faddish human behavior.”

 

Nevertheless, Bitcoin (BTC) $6495.62 +0.44% has been struggling as of late. While Ethereum $6495.62 +0.44% and Ripple $6495.62 +0.44% have fared even worse amid a prolonged bear market through 2018.

BINANCE UNVEILS DECENTRALIZED EXCHANGE AMID DOUBTS OVER ETHOS

Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance has revealed a “rough, pre-alpha” demo version of DEX, its own decentralized exchange which could ultimately take over from its current platform.

‘A BIG STEP’

 

Introducing a video walkthrough of the exchange, CEO Changpeng Zhao said developers were “very aggressively” on getting a usable product to market.

 

The DEX demo is the first major event on the timeline of the Binance Chain project, the public Blockchain, which the exchange formally announced in May.

 

“As a public blockchain, Binance Chain will mainly focus on the transfer and trading of blockchain assets, as well as provide new possibilities for the future flow of blockchain assets,” a blog post issued at the time reads.

 

Binance Chain will focus on performance, ease-of-use, and liquidity. Binance Coin (BNB) will be upgraded to exist on its own blockchain mainnet, becoming a native coin. At the same time, Binance will transition from being a company to a community.

NO RELEASE DEADLINE

 

“I thought this would happen one to two months later or more, but the team delivered early,” he commented in the video. “It is very much still in early pre-stage development, so this is a casual early pre-alpha demo.”

 

Developers then created a mock-up token, issued it on the Blockchain, sold and created a buy order for it. A release timeframe was not specified.

 

In comments on Twitter, Zhao said he foresaw Binance and DEX “coexisting for some time,” but would “let the market decide” as to whether one usurps the other.

 

Social media reactions also hit a critical note after a user reminded Zhao of Binance’s reported 400 BTC listing tariff, which they argued did not fit in with decentralized principles.

Bitcoin Cash Acceptance Grows — Dish Network and Flow Partner With Bitpay

This week Bitcoin Cash (BCH) proponents will be pleased to hear that more merchants can now accept bitcoin cash due to the crypto-payment processing firm Bitpay announcing a few strategic partnerships this week. The first announcement stems from the subscription television channel provider, Dish, who announced on August 9th that BCH is now accepted as a payment option after collaborating with Bitpay. Further Bitpay joined forces with the firm Flow.io and BCH payments can be used with global cross-border e-commerce platform on more than 60 different payment methods across 200 countries.

Television Network Dish Now Accepts Bitcoin Cash

 

Bitcoin cash payments can now be used to pay for television subscription services with the company Dish after the firm announced migrating away from its former payment processor to Bitpay. The partnership allows Dish customers to utilize their bitcoin cash to pay for monthly subscriptions, and pay-per-view movie events. The company says as a push transaction customers must send the exact amount of BCH needed to make a one-time payment. John Swieringa, Dish executive vice president, and the chief operating officer says the reason they adopted BCH is for the same reason they adopted BTC back in 2014.

Flow.io Platform Users Can Opt to Accept Bitcoin Cash

 

Another partnership with Bitpay that also adds more merchant acceptance to the Bitcoin Cash ecosystem is the company’s integration with the cross-border e-commerce platform Flow.io. The Flow business model is expanding its services to allow cryptocurrency payment processing through Bitpay. The collaborative effort enables Bitpay to process BCH transactions in real-time with more than 60 payment methods in over 200 countries on Flow’s application.

 

“As an addition to Flow’s platform, bitcoin and bitcoin cash are ideal for international e-commerce payments making it easy to buy and sell goods from countries where traditional forms of payment are unavailable,” said Sonny Singh, Chief Commercial Officer at Bitpay.

 

Of course, BCH enthusiasts are always pleased with more merchant acceptance and added BCH payment infrastructure support. Bitpay’s union with Dish gives BCH fans the ability to pay for cable television services with bitcoin cash. With the Flow.io partnership however it will still be up to the merchant if they want to accept cryptocurrency payments but nevertheless, the option is there for Flow.io customers.

The ICO Market Has Hit the Brakes

The ICO economy succumbed to a dramatic decline in Q2 of this year. Such was the extent of the slump that its pushed the average ROI for ICOs into the red for the first time since records began. New figures released this week show the severity of the great ICO slowdown.

Token Sales Are in Trouble

 

The fact that most ICOs from the last quarter are mired in the red will come as no surprise: anyone who’s glanced at their portfolio in the last 90 days will have deduced that much. New figures from ICOrating.com reveal the extent of the decline, but do provide a glimmer of hope for certain segments of the market. A detailed report highlights a number of interesting trends, the most headline-grabbing being the fact that despite an increase in funding, from $3.3 billion in Q1 to $8.3 billion, 50% of ICOs in Q2 failed to raise more than $100,000.

 

Other noteworthy statistics include:

• Only 7% of ICOs from Q2 have been able to secure listings


• 55% of all ICOs from this period failed to hit their funding target


• 15% of projects already had a working business, versus 6% in Q1

 

This latter statistic could be taken as a sign of progress, but as ICOrating.com observes, “The absence of a working business had no effect on fundraising success.”

If You Bought into an ICO in Q2, You’ve Probably Lost Half Your Investment

 

In Q1 of 2018, ICOs made a median return on investment of 49.32%. In Q2, that figure slipped to -55.38%. It’s hard to tell what’s more surprising: the fact that ICOs lost so badly in Q2 or that they turned a modest profit in Q1. Looking back, it’s hard to recall a lot of winners from the start of the year, or indeed from at any point this year. Like the cryptocurrency market as a whole, the ICO industry has suffered from the bloodletting that has seen every major cryptocurrency, bar three, at a loss for the year to date.

 

ICOrating.com’s research is to be commended for the level of granular detail it provides. Its 64-page report reveals, for instance, that 53% of all dapp-related ICOs failed, which tallies with figures showing that no one’s using dapps at this point in time.

 

The research also found that projects at the idea stage – i.e comprising little more than a whitepaper and a basic team – raised just $4.5 million in Q2, whereas those with an MVP fared 8x better.

 

Finally, Exchanges & Wallets, Real Assets, and Computing & Data Storage were the top three categories for fundraising during this period. Financial Services, Privacy & Security, and Banking & Payments, on the other hand, all wound up in the red. Q2 has been the toughest three months for ICOs yet. Token sales scheduled to go live in the remainder of 2018 will be praying for more forgiving conditions.

The Trillion-Dollar Bottleneck Solving the Crypto Custody Issue

After strong gains by Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies at the start of July, a downturn arrived a month later. Over a ten-day span the total market cap of cryptocurrencies cratered by 26 percent, from $297 billion down to $221 billion (8/9/18), according to CoinMarketCap. The market loss of  $76 billion erased more than all of the gains made in July.

 

A Bloomberg News report revealed a massive margin call was made on a wrong-way trade as the likely cause behind the sharp drop in the market.

 

But Goldman Sach’s chief investment officer Sharmin Mossavar-Rahamani added fuel to the fire, declaring:

“…We expect further declines in the future given our view that these cryptocurrencies do not fulfill any of the three traditional roles of a currency: they are neither a medium of exchange, nor a unit of measurement, nor a store of value.”

 

Yet, within the same week, Goldman spoke from the other side of its mouth as the investment bank considers launching its own cryptocurrency custody solution.

 

What is going on?

Premature Pronouncements

 

One of the contributing factors in the initial rise of cryptocurrencies at the start of July can be attributed to Coinbase claiming it solved the custody issue. Later in the month, press releases from Fusang family office in Singapore and Northern Trust state they, too, are going to solve the number one problem plaguing the market.

 

Coinbase’s crypto-custody announcement got a lot of press. But if the six-year-old company that makes a digital wallet and an exchange-trading platform had really, fully solved the custody issue, then why did the surge in the cryptocurrency market decline despite that whale margin call? Stranger still, why did Coinbase announce the hiring of Jeff Horowitz, the former head of compliance at Pershing Capital in the same capacity at Coinbase, a full month after the custody press release?

 

Yes, Coinbase’s media push is to win new institutional business. But there isn’t a point for ‘smart money’ – hedge funds, pension funds, endowments, mutual funds, banks, and insurance companies – to enter the market. So has Coinbase actually solved the underpinnings of a true crypto custodian solution?

What is Custody?

 

Custody is “a service in which a brokerage or other financial institution holds securities on behalf of the client. This reduces the risk of the client losing his/her assets or having them stolen. They are also available to the brokerage to sell at the client’s demand. Like a bank, custody provides an investor a place to store assets with little risk. Unlike a bank, custodians are not allowed to use the items in safekeeping for their own ends…”

 

In “reducing the risk” of losing clients’ assets in the Digital Age means that security and safe storage of assets are paramount importance. Yet when one looks at the cryptocurrency landscape it is littered with data breaches, with billions of dollars in assets hacked or stolen. In the first five months of 2018, $1.2 billion were stolen  – three times the amount of theft in 2017.

 

That hardly instills confidence in the emerging market.

 

Beyond security, selling assets “at the client’s demand” is also crucial for a complete custody solution.

 

There are other components as well, such as over-the-counter trades (OTC). How would OTC work with crypto-wallets?

What Custody is Not

 

With blockchain products leaking digital coins institutional investors will remain on the sidelines waiting for the new market to cure its most pressing need. The three main products in the space include exchanges, wallets, and “sharding” of assets into bits of data stored on hundreds of nodes around the world. Yet, with each one of the solutions there are gaping security holes.

 

The exchanges, which have suffered three-quarters of the breaches the past three years, according to www.myntum.io analysis, are trading platforms first. Security is an afterthought. Getting an exchange approved by regulators and into the market is the main focus. On digital wallets: When a person can lose, steal, or throw a device away it does not meet the definition of custody. Nor does sharding, which stores pieces of assets on a network of nodes, the same nodes that cryptojacking siphons mining power and has disrupted at least one online videogame.

 

“There are OTC trades, where wallets won’t work and where reporting mechanisms don’t exist – not in the way they do on Wall Street,” said Manny Alicandro, a New York City lawyer in the cryptocurrency space at a FinTech event. That might change, as the New York Stock Exchange announced it plans to launch a Bitcoin trading platform.

 

Coinbase lists five categories that make up its quasi-custody solution: segregated cold storage, dedicated coverage, financial and security control, SLAs for fund transfers, and insurance provided by Coinbase.

 

The most problematic is the most important: Who is watching over the segregated accounts?

 

It appears Coinbase partner Electronic Transactions Clearing (ETC), Inc.; a Los Angeles based broker-dealer, will manage the custody piece. ETC, however, just paid an $80,000 fine to the SECfor breaking several custodian rules of the 1934 Securities Exchange Act in 2015, including using clients’ money to cover margin accounts.

 

Sure, the fine is a pittance. But does it instill confidence in the market?

 

In Coinbase’s custody solution there is no mention of reporting to the public or how OTC trades would be handled. Sure, moving crypto assets offline, offchain in cold storage is one way to safeguard them, but having in place service level agreements (SLAs) to seek permission of a future date from Coinbase on when clients could transfer money from their accounts doesn’t meet the custody definition of selling assets “at the client’s demand.”

 

Other solutions with “hot” – as opposed to cold – storage and transparent reporting of transactions, clearing, and settlements need to come to the fold to solve custody. When they do, then institutional money will flow into the new asset class. Xapo wallet, with a cold storage Bitcoin vault, has an institutional page, but like Coinbase, it falls short on solving custody.

 

It’s good to see Nomura, Fidelity, Fusang, and Northern Trust try to solve the problem. But none of these financial institutions are blockchain-based software companies, so it will be interesting to see what they produce.

 

The real litmus test for the market is when trillions of dollars from institutional investors will flow in and the cryptocurrencies market will expand in value.

 

Until then, custody remains a complex problem for the crypto community to solve.

Crypto News Flash: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, EOS, Binance, Litecoin

From a big pile of EOS bounties to toilets on the Tron blockchain, here’s a look at some of the stories breaking in the world of crypto.

 

EOS

 

EOS has handed out the vast majority of all bug bounties on record. To date, the company has rewarded hackers with more than $440,000 for finding loopholes in its platform.

According to Hard Fork, that’s two thirds of all crypto bug bounties in 2018.

 

Tron (TRX)

 

Tron is putting toilets on the blockchain. A new partnership with China-based portable toilet maker MOSHROOM will let people pay to use the bathroom via cryptocurrency. The companies will begin by targeting Southeast Asia and India.

 

Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin

 

A new poll from the American Institute of CPAs finds that 48% of Americans are completely unfamiliar with Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin.

 

Of those who are familiar with cryptocurrencies, 24% think they will rise in value over the next year; 29% think they’ll fall; 35% say they’ll fluctuate wildly; and 12% say they’ll remain stable.

 

Binance

 

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao is offering a sneak peek at the company’s new decentralized cryptocurrency exchange. Zhao says he hopes to launch the new platform sometime this year.

World Bank Mandates Commonwealth Bank of Australia to Issue Bond Using Blockchain Tech

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), the largest bank in the country, has been mandated by the World Bank to arrange a bond issue exclusively on a blockchain, according to a press release Aug. 10.

CBA will reportedly arrange the first bond globally to be “created, allocated, transferred, and managed using blockchain technology.” The Blockchain Offered New Debt Instrument (bond-i) will be issued and distributed on a blockchain platform under the operation of the World Bank in Washington, and CBA in Sydney.

The two organizations are using a private Ethereum blockchain, but the CBA “remains open” to alternatives as “other blockchains are developing rapidly.” Microsoft conducted an independent review of the platform to assess its security and resilience. CBA Executive General Manager of Institutional Banking & Markets International James Wall said:

“We believe that this transaction will be groundbreaking as a demonstration of how blockchain technology can act as a facilitating platform for different participants.”

According to the CBA and World Bank, using blockchain technology will simplify capital raising, trading securities, speed up operations, and “enhance regulatory oversight.” The World Bank issues $50-60 billion in bonds per year for sustainable development in emerging economies.

In July, CBA successfully delivered a 17 ton shipment of almonds to Europe using its new blockchain platform to track the cargo from Melbourne to Hamburg, Germany. The platform is underpinned by Distributed ledger technology (DLT), Internet of Things (IoT), and smart contracts.

 

In Thailand, the Thai Bond Market Association (TBMA) revealed that it would deploy a blockchain solution on its registrar service platform. The new platform will reportedly allow the TBMA to provide faster bond certificate issuance which, in turn, will boost the liquidity of the secondary market. The blockchain solution is scheduled to be introduced later this year.

After a Catastrophic Week, Crypto Markets Rally Forth Into the Green

August 9: The summer crypto rollercoaster continues, as the market sees a healthy rebound into the green after sustaining major losses yesterday.

On August 8  total market capitalization had shrunk to $219 billion –– its lowest level since mid-November 2017. In today’s upward bounce, virtually all of the major cryptocurrencies have posted gains, as data from Coin360 shows.

 

Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at a solid $6,500 at press time, up around 3.2 percent on the day. The leading cryptocurrency shot up around $300 within the space of two hours earlier today, from $6,229 to $6,528. Having since slightly corrected downwards, the coin is nonetheless trading $330 higher at press time than its 24-hour low at $6,144. Bitcoin’s weekly losses however remain at a stark 14 percent, with a more modest 3.5 percentage loss on the month.

 

While today’s sprightly uptick may assuage some edgy crypto nerves, Dogecoin creator Jackson Palmer has been eyeing the recent plummeting markets, which many attributed to U.S. regulators’ announcement August 7 that they would be delaying their decision over whether or not to approve a high-profile BTC exchange-traded-fund (ETF).

 

In a thread of tweets this morning, Palmer pointed to data showing declining daily transaction rates for Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple (XRP), as well as a downtrend in decentralized application (dApp) usage, as more noteworthy indicators of the “fragility” of the space.

 

More optimistically, Litecoin (LTC) creator Charlie Lee said in a tweet today that he considers the bear market to be “the best time for people to work on adoption.”

 

Ethereum (ETH) is currently trading around $363, up around one percent on the day to press time. The altcoin’s intraday spike closely correlated with that of Bitcoin, as it jumped up from $352 to $367 within two hours. Ethereum’s losses on its weekly chart remain at around 11 percent, with monthly losses pushing 24 percent.

 

On CoinMarketCap’s listings, all of the top twenty coins by market cap, except one, are in the green, seeing solid gains within a 1 to 9 percent range.

 

Cardano (ADA) is the strongest performer among the top ten, seeing around 8 percent in growth to trade at $0.12 at press time.

 

Stellar (XLM) and EOS (EOS), and IOTA (MIOTA) are also seeing solid gains, all up 4-7 percent on the day.

 

Among the top twenty coins by market cap, Ethereum Classic (ETC) is the only alt in the red, the first day it has seen losses after a strong bull run all week that defied the wider bear market. After riding a wave of positive momentum triggered by news of its August 7 listing on popular U.S. crypto exchange and wallet service provider Coinbase, the alt has dropped slightly by around 2 percent today to trade at $15.04 at press time.

 

Tezos (XTZ) –– ranked 18th –– is up a bullish 6.22 percent on the day to trade at $1.65 at press time. This strong growth comes despite the project’s latest setback in an ongoing securities class action against its controversial $232 million Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in an American court this week.

 

Total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies is around $228.6 billion at press time, up over $9 billion from yesterday’s aforementioned $219 billion low.

 

As the dizzying vagaries of the crypto markets leave some reeling, a team of financial experts from Yale University have this week suggested a system of factors to predict price trends in major cryptocurrencies.

 

They found that cryptocurrencies “have no exposure” to most common stock markets, nor to returns of currencies and commodities and macroeconomic factors. Instead, they identified crypto-specific patterns, including a “strong time-series momentum effect” among major assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple, as well as a correlation between price and investor attention, which they deduced via social media and search engine trend analyses.

 

Commenting on this “investor attention,” Pantera Capital CEO Dan Morehead today said that crypto markets have recently witnessed something of an overreaction from investors in response to short-term news, such as the SEC’s Bitcoin ETF delay.

Web Browser Brave to Add Cryptocurrency-Based Twitter and Reddit Tipping

Those thousands of hours you spent crafting witty memes while you should have been doing your algebra homework may finally earn you more than retweets and Reddit karma.

 

CNET reports that Brave, the privacy-centric web browser launched by Mozilla co-founder Brendan Eich and funded by an initial coin offering (ICO), plans to roll out Reddit and Twitter tipping to its native cryptocurrency payments system.

 

After manually enabling the payment system through the browser’s settings page, users will be able to link their social media accounts to their in-browser Basic Attention Token (BAT) wallets and both tip and accept tips from other users.

 

“The model will be tipping — a user likes a tweet and can give BAT to the tweeter, and optionally tweet back that he tipped,” the company said, adding that the feature would go live later in the year.

 

As CCN reported, Twitch streamers and YouTube channel operators, along with website owners, can already register as Brave publishers, allowing them to accept BAT payments from their viewers, readers, or fans. Users seeking to reward publishers for quality content can either manually set monthly contributions for individual sites or allow Brave to divide their monthly contribution automatically based on the amount of time that they spent consuming each publisher’s content.

 

Two months ago, Brave — whose browser blocks ads by default — began trialing a feature that allows users to earn cryptocurrency by opting-in to device-based ads that do not track or expose user data. Over the long-term, Brave plans to allow users to earn 70 percent of the gross advertising revenue raised through this system. Publishers will also receive a portion of that revenue, while Brave will take a small cut as well.

 

As of July, the company reported that its browser had 3 million monthly active users across all devices and said that it expects to cross the 5 million mark by the end of the year.

 

Notably, Brave isn’t the only web browser seeking to integrate cryptocurrency into its core services. Last month, Opera announced that it would add a native ethereum wallet to the Android version of its web browser, and just this week the company revealed that users will be able to link their mobile ethereum wallets to their desktop browsers.

Satellite TV Giant DISH Network Now Accepts Bitcoin Cash

Bitcoin cash has been confirmed as the second cryptocurrency payment option by subscription model pay-TV provider, DISH. As announced on the company’s website, in addition to bitcoin which was adopted in 2014 as a payment system, subscribers can now pay for services using bitcoin cash.

 

Since 1980, DISH Network Corporation has played a significant role in the evolution of pay-TV. The company provides services to millions of customers across the globe through its numerous subsidiaries. The services include satellite DISH TV and streaming Sling TV services. The company also operates a national in-home installation workforce and advertising solutions among other services.

Maintaining Brand Versatility

 

The adoption of bitcoin cash by DISH happens at a time when the company is also migrating to BitPay as a new blockchain payment processor for cryptocurrency transaction with customers.

 

John Swieringa, executive vice president and chief operating officer of DISH, notes that the addition of bitcoin cash as a payment system is aimed at serving customers who have adopted a new way of doing business.

 

“We have a steady volume of customers paying with cryptocurrency each month, and BitPay will allow us to continue offering more choice and convenience to our customers.”

 

BitPay is the pioneer company in bitcoin and blockchain payment processing. With offices in North America, Europe and South America, the company is also established in cross-border payments, and enables consumers to manage digital assets with the BitPay Wallet.

Enabling a Seamless Transition

 

To pay with bitcoin or bitcoin cash, a one-time payment is executed by a DISH customer through the website or DISH’s hopper DVR. On sending the exact payment amount in bitcoin or bitcoin cash, BitPay exchanges the funds into U.S. dollars immediately, thereby avoiding the risk of volatility usually associated with cryptocurrency transactions.

 

According to Sonny Singh, chief commercial officer of BitPay, the goal of his company is to offer DISH Network a seamless transition that will enable all customers who are currently use bitcoin for payment to have the extra option of paying with bitcoin cash.

 

Singh notes that cryptocurrency is an increasingly popular way for customers to make purchases and pay for services online as it reduces credit card fraud and is cheaper for the merchants.

100% Benefits, CBNT Disrupting the News System

CBNT (cbnt.io), a decentralized news, and content sharing community will build a well-designed incentive system to create a win-win ecosystem for all participants, including content/articles providers, content readers (viewers), ad publishers, and token holders. In the CBNT community, whether you are content generators or content viewers, both sides can receive tokens “Mining Rewards”. As CBNT grows and traffic boosts, all the profit of numerous ads will also be distributed to all of the participants.

 

Innovation in the CBNT community: participating is mining; 100% benefit exchanging; Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO); practicing decentralized self-operation management of “group wisdom”. All participants in this ecosystem can get 100% corresponding rights and benefits, thus to achieve a win-win system of "content, traffic, and advertising."

 

In the past, the seriously unequal relationship between the media companies, content creators, and readers allowed the media companies to exclusively gain most of the benefit, while the creators, the source of the content, could only get a fraction of the benefit. The content readers and communicators, who contributed their energy and time, did not get any financial benefits from this business model. Their information, time and energy were packaged and sold to the advertisers for the companies benefit. In the CBNT content sharing ecosystem, the advertising value of traffic will be 100% shared with content creators, content readers, and communicators.

High-Quality Content Creators: Obtain benefits from the high-quality content created

• High-quality content will be rewarded with more tokens, which equals benefits and reflects the value of their creations.


• Second, lots of traffic will lead to high-quality content and generate advertising value.     


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Content Viewers and Communicators: obtain returns from the views contributed

• High-quality content can attract more viewer’s attention, and viewers can gain CBNT tokens via sharing, commenting, and liking etc. This creates a positive feedback loop between content viewers and generators.

 

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• All CBNT participants are real name people providing high-quality traffic. This helps advertisers to effectively select real and precise traffic, increase advertising conversion rates, reduce advertising costs, and increase ROI.


• The advertisement can be paid with BTC, USDT, ETH, CBNT and other digital assets.

 

• Based on the CBNT Token operating system, content creators, viewers, and the CBNT community will become stakeholders. When the value of the CBNT community continues to rise, all CBNT token holders will benefit. The news articles will be ranked based on an algorithm from community recommendation, thus achieving a decentralized display. CBNT advertisements will adopt an open and transparent bidding method to protect the interests of CBNT token holders.

 

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CRYPTOCURRENCY REMAINS POPULAR IN SOUTH AFRICA, BUT SCAMS AND QUESTIONS STILL LOOM

Sales for an exclusively African cryptocurrency opened up in August to those with a South African bank account — seemingly capitalizing on virtual currency’s popularity in the nation. Despite growing interest, however, scams and fraud are still rife in the country.

 

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have seen a surge in popularity across South Africa as the nation grapples with growing political and economic uncertainty.

 

The nation has made international headlines as the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and President Cyril Ramaphosa discuss contentious land reform policies in a country facing high unemployment rates and liquidity crises.

 

As a result, more and more citizens are researching virtual currencies, and rising trade volume inside of the country has also been seen. Research from a pan-African investment bank in July revealed how38 percent of South Africans “wish they had invested” in cryptocurrency.

 

Legal regulations in the nation have also been relatively loose so far.

 

The South African Revenue Service announced a new taxation framework for cryptocurrencies in April, but authorities have not really had any other mandates concerning the digital currency market just yet.

FIRST DIBS ON SAFCOIN

 

South African investors now have a new cryptocurrency to look into before the rest of the world gets a glimpse.

 

Those with a valid bank account can now purchase some of the 500,000 SAFCOINs exclusively available for sale to South Africans. In October, 5 million tokens will be listed on other local and international exchanges.

 

Launched by a blockchain company called FHM (Pty) Ltd., SAFCOIN is designed to help Africans get involved with digital currency investing. Company leaders hope to see SAFCOIN “become a widely accepted form of payment across the entire African online trading community” by eliminating “red tape and bulky transaction processes.”

 

FHM said in mid-July that more than 400 e-commerce companies were willing to accept SAFCOIN as payment.

A THRIVING MARKET, BUT ONE WITH SOME RISKS

 

Even though many exchanges are seeing record levels of visitors from South Africans who are looking to buy, sell, trade, and expand their portfolios, there have been some high-profile scams that have swindled investors.

 

In March, a massive Ponzi scheme in the country affected around 28,000 virtual currency investors. BTC Global was able to steal at least $80 million from victims. South Africa’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation said in late May how BTC Global representatives promised “2% interest per day, 14% per week and ultimately 50% per month” for investment returns. The authority also alleged BitCaw Trading Company of being involved with the scheme, an accusation the company strongly denied.

 

Some experts also worry about the lack of education and awareness across Africa about the risks and responsibilities associated with cryptocurrency investment. Rafiq Phillips of ‘just for Getting it (dot) CryptoCurrency’ thinks the virtual currency world in Africa is overall “stacked against the man on the street” as speculation holds up the market across the continent.

MULTIPLE COMPANIES TESTING OUT CRYPTOCURRENCY FROM MESSAGING APP KIK

Messaging service Kik unveiled their own cryptocurrency last year, partially as a way to set it apart from the competition. A growing number of companies are now trying out Kik’s ‘Kin’ virtual currency and associated application for their own usage.

 

 

Kik, well-known for their popular ad-free messaging service, had a highly successful $100 million ICO last year.

 

The company’s Kin token is designed to help users get rewards for finishing activities like surveys and quizzes and for watching interactive videos. Kik has teamed up with Blackhawk Network to also let users trade in rewards for gift cards from places like Dominos, Nike, and Sephora.

 

Companies like Red Bull and Swarovski have been recently experimenting with Kin in order to give fans tokens in exchange for answering survey questions.

 

Now even more companies have taken an interest in Kin’s exclusive Android app, Kinit, which was launched last month. It lets people earn Kin by engaging with different brands through quizzes and surveys, allowing users to spend tokens thanks to a built-in wallet.

PLUGGING INTO KINIT

 

Other messaging services like Telegram have taken steps to create their own cryptocurrency. But Kik’s offering is unique for a couple of reasons.

 

The company decided to move the Kin token from Ethereum to the Stellar network back in March since Stellar is designed for faster transactions. Kik has also spent at least $3 million dollars to get developers to work on the token through the ‘KinEcoststem.’ The Kinit app was designed to get more people used to Kik’s virtual currency.

 

A growing number of companies are turning to Kinit to encourage more user interaction. An Austrian company called Swelly uses Knit to carry out polls for brands. CEO Peter Buchroithner said offering cryptocurrency through Kin was another way to further reward customers who answer questions.

 

21^st Century Fox’s ad-tech division, TrueX, is also utilizing Kinit to give people rewards after they watch 30-second advertisements.

 

Kik’s vice president of communications, Rod McLeod, wrote how the purpose behind Kinit is to help make

 

“Crypto truly consumer-friendly through fun and engaging experiences.”

A BRIGHT FUTURE FOR KIK?

 

Even though the Kik team sees a bright future for the Kin cryptocurrency and associated Kinit app, there are some questions about future viability.

 

Some are not sure current reward structures make it lucrative enough for people to engage with Kinit and Kik in order to earn Kin tokens. Others are worried that partner brands will be unwilling to give users generous amounts of Kin, hindering them from getting the rewards they want.

 

However, others see Kinit as a way to get users and brands to interact and collaborate in a manner that reduces the amounts of personal data shared. This, in turn, could make it a popular tool for people who are concerned about their digital privacy.

Exchanges Round-Up: Goldman Considers Crypto Custody, SA Exchange Launches USDT

Goldman Sachs Exploring Crypto Custody Services

 

Bloomberg has reported that leading financial services company, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., is exploring cryptocurrency custody as a potential future product. According to “people familiar with the matter,” Bloomberg wrote that the firm “is considering a plan to offer custody for crypto funds.”

 

A spokesperson for Goldman Sachs stated: “In response to client interest in various digital products we are exploring how best to serve them in this space. At this point, we have not reached a conclusion on the scope of our digital asset offering.”

 

A lack of established custodians in providing cryptocurrency services has increasingly been perceived as a barrier to institutional investment into virtual currencies in recent discourse, with Blake Estes of Alston & Bird stating last month: “So much of the security of bitcoin and other cryptocurrency rests with who stores that private key, who controls the vault. Blockchain (the technology behind the transfer of assets) itself can’t be hacked, but it all still boils down to who ends up holding the keys. I’d tend to think that pension funds will not venture into uncharted territory until they’re certain about the security of who has custody of the keys.”

South African Exchange Launches Tether Pairings to Drive Down Local Price Premium

 

Johannesburg-based cryptocurrency exchange, Altcointrader, launched Tether (USDT) pairings. The company has introduced USDT with the intention of driving down the premium on cryptocurrency prices in South Africa.

 

Richard de Sousa, Altcointrader partner, estimates that BTC trades at “6%-7%” higher in South Africa when compared to USD prices. With the introduction of USDT pairings, Mr. De Sousa expects that foreigners seeking to capitalize on the arbitrage opportunities presented by the South African markets will drive down the premium on local prices over time.

 

“The trading pair is quite important because it allows people to buy bitcoin without using rands,” De Sousa stated. “They will level the price and make it more competitive. There are massive arbitrage opportunities. It won’t happen overnight, but those who see the opportunities and are willing to take them will benefit tremendously, and this benefit will trickle down to the man in the street because the price of bitcoins in [South Africa] will become closer to the international standard.”

Sublime Group Announced as Market Makers for Blockexmarkets

 

Digital asset brokerage exchange, Blockex, has announced that Sublime Group has begun operating as a market maker on its exchange, Blockexmarkets.

 

The chief executive officer of Blockex, Adam Leonard, stated: “Market Making is a core part of any mature exchange and we are particularly delighted to welcome Sublime Group aboard to our market maker program because they are a great fit for our business.”

 

Rishan Bhagowat, Director of Sublime Group, added: “The digital token age is upon us and BlockEx has shown they are the institutional-grade exchange provider that bridges the traditional and new capital worlds. This shared vision makes BlockExMarkets.com an ideal market for us to support. We’re more than excited to partner with BlockEx and contribute to the realization of the next generation of capital markets.”

 

Last month, Blockex was announced as one of 29 businesses accepted into cohort 4 of the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority’s regulatory sandbox.

Electron Cash Wallet Now Available for Basic Feature Phones

Electron Cash Can Now be Installed on Nokia Style Feature Phones

 

Last February the Electron Cash lead developer, Jonald Fyookball, announced the development team would be funded by the firm Coingeek, and Electron Cash would launch a bunch of new features over the course of the year. So far the team has launched a new iOS version of the wallet and added a Coinshuffle plugin to the client’s desktop version. Now, this week the Electron Cash team has released a Java Micro-Edition of the wallet (J2ME) which makes the client available to feature phones much like the popular and less sophisticated Nokia phones.

 

“Electron Cash published a new wallet: The ‘J2ME’ version of Electron Cash. J2ME stands for Java Micro-Edition,” the Electron Cash lead developer explained in an interview with the publication Coingeek.

 

"With Electron Cash for J2ME, now users who only have access to basic ‘feature phones’ such as the Nokia 216 will still have access to a real Bitcoin Cash SPV wallet, with all the benefits that come with it, including controlling their own private keys and being able to restore their wallet from a mnemonic seed phrase. "

Over 1.3 Billion Feature Phone Users Can Now Use the Bitcoin Cash-Centric Wallet Electron Cash

 

Bitcoin Cash proponents are excited to see an Electron Cash client for feature phones as the wallet could help spread adoption in areas where basic phones are more prevalent. These areas would include Asia and Africa, and according to Counterpoint research there are 1.3 billion feature phone users worldwide.

 

The Electron Cash J2ME version source code is available for review on Github, explains the development team. “The original python code was rewritten in Java, mostly from scratch, in order to build this wallet. It is currently published on GitHub as an alpha release and is currently being reviewed and tested,” Fyookball emphasized.

Former Charles Schwab Exec Joins SEC-Registered Company to Develop Crypto Settlement Network

San Francisco-based SharesPost, Inc. has named Nick Grabowski as Chief Technology Officer. The former Vice President of Application Architecture and R&D at Charles Schwab has led teams of application and systems architects, designers and engineers in building enterprise-class financial services platforms.

 

SharesPost is a liquidity provider to the private technology growth asset class. A FINRA-registered broker-dealer, SEC-registered Alternative Trading System (ATS) and registered investment advisor, the company has more than $4 billion in secondary market transactions in shares of more than 200 leading technology companies.

 

“Our strategy is to create a single, global marketplace for traditional and digital securities of private growth companies. Connecting U.S. and Asian investors and companies on our ATS is a key objective in realizing that vision,” says SharesPost founder and CEO, Greg Brogger.

Grabowski, who joins the firm’s executive management team, will work closely to build the SharesPost Global Liquidity and Settlement System (GLASS) – a global liquidity and compliant settlement network of crypto exchanges.

 

“Nick is a strategic and experienced technologist who has been very successful in developing trading systems, client facing interfaces and brokerage account platforms,” said Brogger. “His mission will be to continue to improve our platform’s existing capabilities and develop new ones related to our blockchain securities initiatives.”

 

SharesPost’s GLASS enables crypto platforms to pool liquidity and settle compliant cross-border token trades. According to the white paper, “Exchanges could boost trading volumes without materially slowing transaction processing speeds by connecting with counterparties on other exchanges. The platforms can market to and serve customers even if regulators deem those tokens as securities in that jurisdiction.”

 

GLASS has attracted a number of high-profile crypto and blockchain advisors, including Fundstrat’s bullish Bitcoin analyst Tom Lee and Kenetic Capital Managing Partner Jehan Chu who also serves as an advisor for QTUM, among other blockchain projects. Chu also founded the Ethereum Hong Kong community, co-founded the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong; and founded the Hyperledger HK community.

 

“SharesPost is building what we think will be the world’s leading secondary platform for ICOs and secondary trading of security and utility tokens. Where others are still just talking about when they might launch their ATS, SharesPost has been operating their ATS for years and has the technology, team and customers necessary to enable global trading of digital securities,” said Chu.

 

In addition to GLASS, SharesPost will operate a marketplace for investors to interact with security and utility token issuers, effectively providing access to ICOs and secondary trading.

The SharesPost marketplace already includes the SharesPost 100 Fund, the only SEC registered mutual fund providing access to the private growth asset class. The fund includes holdings in tech companies such as Lyft, DocuSign, SoundHound, 23andMe, Nextdoor, Pinterest, Spotify and Uber. The minimum investment is $2,500.

 

The company states,

 

“As the SEC and other regulators have become markedly more aggressive in enforcement actions against unregistered platforms, many platforms are requiring token issuers to deliver legal opinions stating that their token is not a security. However, given the regulatory uncertainty, few law firms have been willing to write such opinions. And because exchanges currently have no mechanism to share their liquidity, pools of buyers and sellers are broken up amongst many isolated exchanges. As a result, investors looking to trade these tokens find inefficient price discovery and minimal to no liquidity.”

 

Sharespost currently has 150,000 investors with over 50,000 institutions and accredited investors, representing a wave of investors that can seek liquidity on GLASS.

Traditional European Banks Integrating Bitcoin and Crypto Into Banking Services

Traditional European financial institutions are integrating Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies into their services. Switzerland, Germany and Liechtenstein are at the forefront with Maerki Baumann & Co. AG, Falcon Private Bank and Bank Frick serving clients in crypto-related businesses and services.

Switzerland

 

Zurich-based Maerki Baumann & Co. AG has announced that it will be accepting cryptocurrencies, according to a report by International Investment. The bank serves private clients, institutional clients and external asset managers.

 

Due to money laundering regulations and concerns, most banks are rejecting cryptocurrency deposits. To limit the scope of origin and the due diligence involved in tracking the source of the digital assets, Maerki Baumann is accepting crypto deposits only from payments received for services rendered, including mining.

 

International Investment reports,

 

”Maerki Baumann closely monitors the development of these investment vehicles and the underlying regulation without our commitment to engage in this area. This concerns investments in cryptocurrencies as well as the technologies required to trade and store these instruments. We currently see cryptocurrencies as alternative investment vehicles, but we have limited experience and data (prices, volatility, trading volumes) available in our house,’ the bank said in a statement.”

 

Maerki Baumann joins Swiss bank Falcon Private Bank which began accepting crypto deposits in July. Michael Helbling, head of Falcon’s crypto desk, said in the roundtable interview with The Business Times that the bank has seen “tremendous interest.”

Falcon’s move into crypto is a bit more fraught as the bank is just sailing through a rebranding following the multibillion-dollar 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) embezzlement scandal. A Swiss investigation continues, implicating Falcon as failing to report and repossess $1.27 billion in suspicious deposits linked to Malaysia’s 1MDB.

Maerki Baumannk, on the other hand, was named “Best Swiss private bank” by the business magazine “Bilanz” in 2017.

Liechtenstein

 

Bank Frick of Liechtenstein launched a crypto trading platform back in February, listing Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple and Bitcoin Cash. Cryptocurrencies can be purchased with euros, US dollars and Swiss francs. In addition to the fiat pairs, Bank Frick also offers custodial services for its clients, who are primarily professional market participants and financial intermediaries. Crypto assets are kept in cold wallets.

 

Fully regulated under Liechtenstein and European (EU/EEA) law, Bank Frick clients can only invest in cryptocurrencies once they have been fully identified and verified. The bank says that the verification and identification process also involves checking the origin of the money used to invest in the cryptocurrencies.

 

“Our services are in demand from companies across the whole of Europe. This is because they know that we can offer them reliable support in implementing their business models with cryptocurrencies and blockchains in line with the existing regulatory framework,” Chief Client Officer Hubert Büchel explains. “We aim to place crypto-banking on at least the same level of quality as traditional banking.”

 

Family-owned and operated since 1998, Bank Frick is the only bank in Liechtenstein with acquiring licenses from Visa and MasterCard.

 

Like small banks in the US that have been finding strategies to accept local clients, usually small businesses that are generating revenue in cryptocurrencies, European banks see a business opportunity and they’re moving to compete in the space.

Ripple May Face a Fourth Lawsuit Claiming XRP Is a Security – Law Firm Announces New Investigation

Ripple may face a fourth lawsuit connected to the legal classification of the cryptocurrency XRP.

 

Rosen Law Firm says it is investigating whether Ripple Labs, Inc. violated federal securities laws in connection with its sale of XRP.

 

The New York-based firm says it “represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation.” It also says it is preparing “a class action lawsuit to recover losses suffered by purchasers of Ripple’s XRP tokens.”

 

Ripple has already been hit with several class-action lawsuits filed in California claiming XRP is a security.

 

• May 3 – Law firm Taylor-Copeland files a class action suit in San Francisco, California against Ripple Labs Inc, XRPII LLC and CEO Bradley Glaringhouse.


• June 5 – Law firm Robbins Arroyo files a class action suit in San Mateo, California against Ripple Labs Inc, XRPII LLC and CEO Bradley Glaringhouse.


• June 27 – Law firm Robbins Arroyo files a class action suit in San Mateo, California against Ripple Labs Inc, XRPII LLC and CEO Bradley Glaringhouse.

 

Ripple has pushed back on the allegations, saying the digital asset is completely separate and independent from the private company. At CB Insights’ Future of Fintech conference in New York in June, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse gave three reasons why he believes XRP is not a security.

 

• “If Ripple, the company, shuts down tomorrow, the XRP ledger will continue to operate. It’s open-source, decentralized technology that exists independent of Ripple.”

• “People who buy XRP don’t think they’re buying shares of Ripple. There’s a company called Ripple. We are a private company. We have investors. People have bought shares of Ripple the company. But buying XRP doesn’t give you ownership of Ripple. It doesn’t give you access to dividends or profits that may come from Ripple.”

• “XRP is solving a problem. There’s no utility in a security.”

 

At a separate discussion in October, Garlinghouse called XRP “our digital asset” at a FinTech panel in San Francisco. Ripple owns 60% of the total supply of XRP, with the majority of it locked up in escrow.