Day: September 14, 2018

Coinbase, BitGo Reaffirm Plans to Focus on Serving Institutions in Crypto

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Two US-based crypto behemoths, Coinbase and BitGo, will continue to facilitate growing demand for Bitcoin from institutional investors by operating as trusted custodians. Earlier this week, BitGo was approved by South Dakota regulators to create and operate a crypto custody solution, while Coinbase established a new office in New York exclusively to handle institutional demand into the market. Coinbase New York is now officially open. pic.twitter.com/JCe8r392LB — Michael del Castillo (@DelRayMan) September 13, 2018 Bitcoin Needs Fresh Capital, Institutional Demand Will do it In an interview with CNBC Fast Money,…

A Top-20 Crypto Exchange Is Replacing Tether With a Rival Stablecoin

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A top-20 exchange is phasing out an embattled cryptocurrency. Digifinex has decided to replace tether (USDT), perhaps the best-known “stablecoin” designed to maintain a steady exchange rate with the U.S. dollar, with a rival, TrustToken’s TrueUSD. Based in Singapore, Digifinex handled $131 million in trading volume over the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap, making it the 16th-largest exchange by that measure. Kiana Shek, Digifinex’s co-founder, told CoinDesk she’d been “looking for ways to get rid of USDT” for months, adding, “I simply don’t believe in tether but I had…

Final Draft of ICO Legislation Could Signify Next Step for Philippines Fintech Sector

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The Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is due to unveil the hotly anticipated draft regulation for cryptocurrencies in the next few days, if the information provided by The Manilla Times is correct. If the regulation reflects the previous enthusiastic efforts to implement cryptocurrency in the Philippines, it stands to play a seminal role in defining the country’s status as a major player in the fintech sector. The SEC chairman, Ephyro Luis Amatong, has previously emphasised the need to regulate cryptocurrency exchanges as traditional trading platforms. The draft comes in…

Lightning Labs Releases Redesigned and Optimized Desktop App

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An alpha version of the new Lightning desktop app has been released. The application includes a redesigned and optimized backend for light clients, as well as a simplified interface for users with little to no cryptocurrency experience. Lead application developer at Lightning Labs Tankred Hase joined the company in January 2018 and was assigned to oversee the app’s redesign. Speaking with Bitcoin Magazine, Hase explains that the application preceding the current design was very much a prototype and built before his time with the company. “The aim was to expose…

Paxful CEO Ray Youssef Shows How Bitcoin Can Be Used for Social Good

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Can bitcoin be used for social good? If anyone thinks so, it’s Ray Youssef, the CEO of peer-to-peer bitcoin platform Paxful. A successful entrepreneur in the crypto and blockchain space, Youssef comes from humble beginnings and understands the importance of maintaining control over one’s finances. Marred by memories of homelessness and extreme monetary strain, Youssef’s journey to build Paxful was an arduous one. “When my mother got divorced and lost her home that she had put so much into, I went into higher gear,” he explained in an interview with…

Japanese SBI Set to Launch Ripple-Based Mobile App

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Japanese Fintech heavyweight SBI Holdings plans to launch a Ripple-powered mobile payment application called MoneyTap. In a tweet shared with his followers, Takashi Okita, CEO of SBI Ripple Asia shared the web page of the new payment application, which promises to offer “easy bank transfer application” without fees. The exact launch date for the mobile app is uncertain, but the site gave an estimated timeline for the release of both the iOS and Android versions for Autumn of 2018. Earlier this year, SBI Ripple Asia, a joint venture between SBI…

Ethereum Consolidates Newly-Won Growth as Wider Crypto Market Falters

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Friday, September 14: After yesterday’s bullish upswing, crypto markets have today been hit with widely-dispersed corrections. Ethereum (ETH) is today’s most resilient large-market-cap altcoin, seeing the most notable growth on the day among the top twenty cryptoassets, as data from Coin360 shows. Market visualization by Coin360 After soaring 18 percent on the day yesterday, September 13 – and peaking as high as $223 during early trading hours today – Ethereum has seen a tempering downwards, before regaining some losses in the hours before press time. At its current $214 price…

No Longer Beta: $200 Million Tezos Blockchain Will Be Official Mainnet Soon

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The “experimental” phase for the Tezos blockchain is over. On Monday morning, the Tezos Foundation will officially announce that the protocol will no longer be in a beta period, and instead be a full mainnet, launched and run by its community. The designation is admittedly largely a semantic one. Tezos launched a mainnet, or live blockchain version of its software at the end of June, and since then its xtz tokens have been tradeable. While the blockchain was being used as intended throughout that time – with the number of network…

The Chinese Are still Hungry for Bitcoin. Will They Break the Bank all over again?

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Lately we have been trying to predict big finance houses’ arrival into the world of cryptocurrencies, but we are neglecting the equally important factors linked to the current situation in this market, which could rock the boat much earlier than that. The last time we discussed the subject was last February, when we noted in this article a strong recovery in the Chinese bitcoin market that everyone was considering to be an agonizing one. Here is a brief summary. In September of 2017, China caught the world by surprise, closing…

Blockchain’s Popularity Among Large Enterprises Soared 11% This Year, Survey Finds

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New research from fintech analysts Juniper House has found that blockchain’s traction with large enterprises has risen by 11 percent this year, according to a press release published September 11. Juniper’s Blockchain Enterprise Survey: Deployments, Benefits & Attitudes (Second Edition) found that 65 percent of responding large enterprises – defined as those who employ a minimum of 10,000 staff – are “considering or actively engaged” in blockchain deployment, up 11 percent from the corresponding 54 percent figure last year. Further data analysis shows that nearly a quarter of firms have…