Revolut, a major European cryptocurrency-friendly trading application is expanding to another major market. The London-based firm has launched its digital banking app in Japan, as Revolut announced in a Sept. 8 tweet. According to a report by The Nikkei, Japan is the first non-English speaking market for Revolut. Headquartered in London, the company reportedly has 13 million users worldwide, operating in European countries, the United States, Australia and Singapore. As reported, Revolut’s initial roll out in Japan will be limited to “international transfers” and “managing money in 23 currencies.” Registered…
Day: September 10, 2020
Whale vault gobbles up virtual real estate for development in The Sandbox
The Whale non-fungible token vault has become the second-largest holder of virtual land in The Sandbox game — and its owner plans to become a virtual real estate developer. WHALE tokens represent fractional ownership in The Vault — the private NFT collection of the prominent crypto investor and social media profile ‘WhaleShark_Pro.’ It has garnered a $16 million market cap despite holding just $1 million worth of NFTs, suggesting many speculators believe WhaleShark’s collection of rare tokens is likely to grow in value significantly. Blockchain intelligence firm Messari estimates that…
Chinese authorities charge six people over $5.8B PlusToken ponzi scheme
Six of the 109 individuals recent arrested by Chinese authorities in connection with the $5.8 billion crypto Ponzi PlusToken have been charged. The defendants Chen Shaofeng, Luu Jianghua, Lu Jianghua, Lu Qinghai, Jin Xinghai, Wang Yin, and Zhang Qin were charged by prosecutors in Xiangshui County and Yancheng City on September 7. The authorities said they were “suspected in organizing and leading criminal pyramid schemes.” Official announcement of PlusToken scammers’ prosecution: 12309.gov.cn 109 individuals suspected of involvement with PlusToken were arrested in late July, including 27 persons believed to be…
Banks failing to identify up to 90% of suspicious crypto transactions
Financial institutions worldwide have reported 134,500 suspicious transactions concerning virtual currencies in the past two years — but that’s just the tip of the iceberg according to a report published by blockchain forensics firm CipherTrace. The report says the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has seen a major increase in suspicious transaction reports from institutions since publishing its May 2019 Advisory on Illicit Activity Involving Convertible Virtual Currency (CVC). Despite this, CipherTrace asserts that many financial institutions have developed inadequate “home-grown” systems for identifying cryptocurrency-related accounts and transactions, that simply…
US legislators approve bills for study of blockchain in commerce
The Committee on Energy and Commerce has just approved two pieces of legislation to spur more in-depth analysis of blockchain technology in government, clearing the way for their vote in the House of Representatives. In an online debate moderated by Chamber of Digital Commerce founder Perianne Boring on Sept. 9, Democratic Representative of Florida’s 9th District Darren Soto announced that after “nearly two years of pushing,” the Committee on Energy and Commerce had passed the Digital Taxonomy Act. In addition, the committee approved the American COMPETE Act. Both pieces of legislation…
Ren and UMA launch a Bitcoin-backed yield dollar
Trustless cross-chain bridge Ren and permissionless synthetic asset platform UMA have teamed up to launch a Bitcoin-backed yield dollar called uUSD, in addition to a joint liquidity mining reward program. The partnership will result in a product that allows investors to leverage Bitcoin permissionlessly on the Ethereum network. The uUSD is UMA’s second yield dollar product following an Ethereum-backed yield dollar called yUSD, launched in July 2020. The concept was highly successful with over 10 million yUSD minted over the past two months. In partnership with @UMAprotocol, we are introducing…