HSBC blockchain trade financing. Nomura crypto-custody. Circle $3bn valuation + stablecoin - Weekly Recap 21 May

HSBC has completed a letter of credit trade finance transaction on its blockchain platform. They say the platform is now ready to be adopted across the $9tn industry.

Morgan Stanley envision a future where central banks can use negative interest rates to enact a more effective monetary policy over government backed cryptocurrencies. However since people will be free to move between cryptocurrencies they may choose one with a monetary policy that suits them.

Is there really such a thing as ASIC resistance? Here’s a look at the current state of cryptocurrency mining.

Nomura and Ledger have partnered to develop an institutional grade custody service for cryptoassets.

Circle has raised $110m at a $3bn valuation. Investors include Jihan Wu’s Bitmain and Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group. The company plans to launch it’s own USD tether, USD-C, for use on crypto to crypto exchanges like Poloniex which it acquired in February.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has launched a fake ICO for “Howeycoin” as part of a campaign to educate investors on the abundance of scams in the market.

Banco Santander has completed a pilot of blockchain voting for investors at AGMs.

Genesis Trading has joined the ranks of Circle, Coinbase and Bitflyer to receive a Bitlicense from the state of New York.

Bitfinex, one of the world’s largest unregulated exchanges, has told its users to hand over their tax information.

Steem, the blockchain that’s helping content creators disrupt facebook and youtube has reached 1 million users.