CME’s Bitcoin Futures Break Records With $1 Billion in Notional Volume

The world’s largest options and futures exchange, Chicago Mercantile Exchange & Chicago Board of Trade (CME Group) and its bitcoin futures contracts saw an all-time high on May 13. According to CME’s records, the exchange recorded 33,700 contracts on Monday which represented a notional value of around 168,000 BTC ($1.35 billion). Also Read: Our Value of Money Is Subjective But That Doesn’t Make It Meaningless CME Sees Over $1B of BTC Futures Contracts Traded CME Group’s bitcoin futures contracts soared on Monday at the same time that crypto spot markets…

Crypto Custodians Foresee Growth in Partnerships with Traditional Custodians

Alexandre Kech, CEO of Onchain Custodian, predicted that collaboration between crypto and traditional custodians will grow.  Kech’s remarks came during a panel called “Custody: The New Global Competitive Landscape,” part of Consensus 2019 on May 14. Kech observed that crypto custodians are much better at adding new token support to their wallets and are willing to hold a variety of crypto assets. “We have the agility, both in terms of compliance and technology, to deploy those coins way faster.” By Kech’s reasoning, traditional custodians are often reluctant to take on…

Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary Calls Bitcoin (BTC) ‘Garbage’

One of Shark Tank’s most prominent investors has taken aim at Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Kevin O’Leary, who also goes by the nickname ‘Mr. Wonderful’ on the show, recently appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box and gave his negative opinion of Bitcoin. O’Leary told the host that Bitcoin is neither a valuable asset or a currency, but rather constituted a “digital game.” He also called BTC “worthless,” explaining that its difficult for institutional investors to trade in the asset as receivers want some guarantee of value, “To me, it’s garbage, because you…

Facebook Onboards Two Former Coinbase Compliance Experts

Social networking giant Facebook has on-boarded two new compliance experts, who previously worked at United States major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. Mikheil Moucharrafie joined Facebook as compliance officer after almost four years of working at Coinbase. At the exchange, Moucharrafie held positions such as support analyst and quality assurance tester, anti-money laundering (AML)/bank secrecy investigator, compliance manager, and risk manager. Jeff Cartwright spent nearly five years at Coinbase as a compliance manager, head of internal audit, and director of regulatory risk and exams. Prior to joining Coinbase, Cartwright was involved in…

Hyperledger Rolls Out Suite of Blockchain Tools for Interoperability

Hyperledger has introduced a set of tools dubbed “Hyperledger Aries” aimed at interoperability of different types of blockchain-based data. The company announced the development in a blog post on May 14. Hyperledger Aries is a set of tools that purportedly enables the exchange of blockchain-based data, supports peer-to-peer (P2P) messaging and facilitates interactions between different blockchains and other distributed ledger technologies. Per the post, Hyperledger rolled out the project in order to provide code for P2P interaction and advance interoperability, among other objectives. The product includes a blockchain interface layer,…

BitOasis Ready to Become First Licensed Middle Eastern Bitcoin Exchange

BitOasis is set to become the first regulated bitcoin exchange in the entire Arab world following preliminary approval from regulators in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bloomberg reports May 12, 2019. In recent times, the region has begun to pursue an increased adoption agenda for cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology as a way of attracting more business to the Middle East. BitOasis Gets Regulatory Nod From UAE According to Bloomberg, the Abu Dhabi Global Market Authorities recently granted preliminary regulatory approval to BitOasis – a bitcoin exchange based in the UAE.…

Blockchain, Crypto Will Have a Role in US Tech Independence

Technology needs to be a national issue for the United States, with digital currencies and blockchain to be recognized within that goal, according to Ripples’ Director of Regulatory Relations Ryan Zagone, at the Consensus 2019 conference on May 14. Zagone stated that technology needs to be a national security issue for the U.S. to ensure that the country is the leader and is not reliant on foreign innovators: “There is a broad discussion in Washington around 5G being dominated by foreign firms and the U.S. being reliant on foreign technology…

US SEC Delays Decision on Bitwise Bitcoin ETF, Seeks Public Comment

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has again delayed its decision on cryptocurrency index fund provider Bitwise Asset Management’s bitcoin (BTC) exchange traded fund (ETF). The development was revealed in a filing published by the SEC on May 14. In the recent filing, the SEC revealed that it has delayed its decision on whether to approve or disapprove Bitwise’s ETF, and also requested for a public comment from interested parties. The Commission thus asks interested persons to “provide written submissions of their views, data, and arguments with respect…

Charlie Lee Tempts Fate, Offloads Physical Litecoin Collectibles in Auction

By CCN: Charlie Lee is selling more Litecoin, but not of the digital variety. After liquidating his LTC portfolio at year-end 2017, the Litecoin creator is now auctioning off what he describes as “unique collectibles”. These are more than a dozen physical coins with labels that are signed by Charlie Lee himself. Lee stated on the Bitcoin Forum: “I got some of my Lealana 25LTC & 10LTC coins graded by ICG. The labels of these coins are signed by me. There are a total of 5x 25LTC coins and 8x…

Facebook Hires Two of Coinbase’s Former Compliance Managers

Facebook hired two Coinbase veterans to work in compliance this month, and at least one of them is involved with the social media giant’s blockchain effort. Jeff Cartwright left Coinbase in March after nearly five years at the U.S. cryptocurrency exchange in various compliance roles. He joined Facebook as a policy and compliance manager this month, according to his LinkedIn profile. The profile does not address how involved he will be in Facebook’s blockchain projects, which include a secretive plan to create a price-stable cryptocurrency. Reached by CoinDesk Monday evening,…