A subsidiary of Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, has joined a blockchain-based platform for commodity trade finance. Sberbank Switzerland AG has signed an agreement with Swiss trade finance platform Komgo to apply its blockchain-powered trade finance service. Representatives from Sberbank Switzerland AG told Cointelegraph that the collaboration with Komgo addresses the growing digitization of trade finance. Evgeny Kravchenko, head of trade finance at Sberbank, outlined that commodity trade finance is a strategic business of Sberbank Switzerland AG. According to the executive, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States’ countries are the…
Month: September 2020
How blockchain can promote sustainability and ethical labor practices
As the post-coronavirus world develops a greater awareness of global supply chains, we talk to Leanne Kemp, the CEO and founder of Everledger who has made it her mission to increase transparency and trust within global markets. Aside from Everledger, a company that uses blockchain technology to create digital records that track the supply chain of luxury goods like gemstones and fine wine, Kemp is a leader in the blockchain space in myriad other ways. She co-chairs the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Future of Manufacturing. She…
BNP Paribas connects to major stock exchanges with DAML smart contracts
BNP Paribas’ securities arm has partnered with Digital Asset to develop a number of real-time trade and settlement applications using DAML-based smart contracts, the firm announced on Sept. 15. The new DAML-driven apps will connect BNP Paribas Securities Services with major global stock exchanges like the Australian Securities Exchange, or ASX, and the Hong Kong Exchange, or HKEX. The apps will provide market participants in the Asia Pacific with real-time access to ASX’s and HKEX’s upcoming blockchain-based trading and settlement platforms. BNP Paribas will specifically connect to the ASX’s blockchain-powered equity…
Curve, Aave, Synthetix and 7 others join Global DeFi Alliance
Huobi’s decentralized finance (DeFi) consortium — dubbed the Global DeFi Alliance — has welcomed 10 new members — bringing its total membership to 15. The new members comprise DeFi heavyweights Curve Finance, Aave, Synthetix, Balancer, Loopring, Zapper, Zerion, Bitpie, Mykey, and CoinGecko. They join founding members Maker Foundation, Compound, NEST Community, dYdX, and Huobi DeFi Labs to explore “cross-border collaboration opportunities” and promote the development of the DeFi ecosystem. The Global DeFi Alliance launched one month ago, describing its mission as driving collaboration between decentralized finance projects from both the…
More than $1B in Bitcoin has been tokenized for DeFi
More than $1 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC) has now been tokenized to access decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols on the Ethereum (ETH) network. That’s equivalent to the entire total value locked (TVL) in DeFi less than four months ago. According to DeFi Pulse, roughly 98,300 BTC, worth $1.05 billion, has been tokenized using protocols other than Blockstream’s Lightning Network — equating to more than 12% of the DeFi’s sector’s $8.57 billion combined capitalization. Number of Bitcoins locked in DeFi protocols: Defi Pulse The milestone illustrates the increasing popularity of ETH-based…
Here’s Why Ethereum Could Return to Last Week’s Lows at $315
Ethereum has surged over the past few days after bottoming at $310-315 early last week. The leading cryptocurrency has been benefiting from a recovery in both legacy markets and Bitcoin, which both have pushed higher since the lows they established last week. As of the time of this article’s writing, ETH trades for $380 — which is a price over 20% higher than the aforementioned lows. The cryptocurrency is up 5% in the past 24 hours, having pushed higher from a strong drop on Sunday morning. The coin remains in…
Mad Money host Jim Cramer forecasts a generational wealth storage shift
Jim Cramer, host of the popular CNBC mainstream markets show, Mad Money, described changing mindsets across generations as they relate to wealth storage. “I think that my kids, when they get my inheritance, won’t feel comfortable with gold, and will feel comfortable with crypto,” Cramer told Morgan Creek Digital co-founder Anthony Pompliano on a podcast episode. “I have to start recognizing that maybe I am using a typewriter,” he said of his possibly outdated gold storage practices. Cramer’s comment came in the middle of a lengthy interview, which saw the…
Binance’s US branch lands in Alabama
Binance.US, the regulatory-friendly United States branch of crypto exchange Binance, has added Alabama to its list of approved states. Binance added Alabama to its list in a Sept. 13 announcement, complete with a football graphic as homage to one of the state’s favorite pastimes. The announcement also listed steps necessary for Alabamians getting started on the platform, including account creation and verification. Binance unveiled its ban on U.S. customers in June 2019. The company subsequently released a regulatory-sensitive version of the platform months later, called Binance.US. The U.S. platform’s terms and…
U.S. Presidential candidate served for alleged securities fraud at rally in NYC
Presidential candidate Brock Pierce was served for his connection to alleged securities fraud during his campaign rally in New York City earlier today. Source: Twitter. James Koutoulas, the lawyer leading this case, told Cointelegraph that Pierce was served legal documents in connection with a class action case against Block.One — a company that Pierce co-founded. Block.One was the company behind EOS’ $4 billion initial coin offering. The project’s ICO was the largest such offering to date. Brock Pierce has co-founded a number of crypto projects including Block.one, Tether, and Blockchain Capital.…
World’s largest banks lost 3x Bitcoin’s market cap during the pandemic
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the world’s 14 largest banks have lost $635.33 billion in market capitalization. This is more than three times the current market capitalization of Bitcoin (BTC) and almost double the capitalization of all cryptocurrencies. Market capitalization of the world’s biggest banks. Source: Buy Shares. The starting point for this data is December 19. For reference, Bitcoin’s market cap at the time was $130 billion. As the world was entering the pandemic induced recession, six of the banks on the list had a market cap higher than…