Weekly Crypto #4
Stay ahead of the game with weekly industry updates, aimed to capture all important crypto and blockchain news of the week.
Institutional investors are entering crypto, even if SEC is not yet ready to approve ETF requests. Coinbase is moving towards wider adoption and access to buying cryptocurrencies, this time closer to UK sterling users. Opera browser is supporting crypto on desktop now, Telegram gets a community rival and Lightning is making better online payments possible.
Regulations & Finance
The SEC Is Delaying Another Bitcoin ETF Decision: The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is taking more time to review the ETF filings, this time until September. SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, although a vocal supporter of ETF, believes that exchange traded fund could invite more mature regulation, both from the private and public sectors. Market responded to this delay with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency prices downwards this week.
The NYSE’s Owner Wants to Bring Bitcoin to Your 401(k). Are Crypto Credit Cards Next? With the increasing institutional interest in cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, heavy weight companies, their startups and Wall Street, are jumping in. Intercontinential Exchange (ICE), who owns New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), created a new venture Bakkt, which will offer a federally regulated market for Bitcoin. Bakkt is expected to launch in November, and is partnering with big tech and consulting: Microsoft, Boston Consulting Group and Starbucks.
“The parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, which also owns $42 billion of other exchanges, launched a cryptocurrency exchange called Bakkt. That is huge news. That is going to be a very profound impact over the next five or 10 years for the markets, and, to my mind, that’s what people should be focused on.” — Dan Morehead, founder & CEO of crypto investment firm Pantera Capital
Five reasons Why Institutional Investors are Entering Crypto: Despite the recent price drops, cryptocurrencies have the eyes of institutional investors upon them. With companies like Goldman Sachs, exchanges like Coinbase and recently NYSE aiming to make cryptocurrency safe for the retirement funds, NewsBTC identified these five reasons why cryptocurrencies might on the path to be the next big thing for institutional investors: Enhancement of custodial services, US SEC’s stance on crypto assets, Regulated crypto ETFs on the cards, Past performance of cryptocurrencies, Favourable cryptocurrency regulations emerging globally.
Coinbase Move Towards Primary Banking with New Support for Sterling: Coinbase is making it easier for UK users to deposit and withdraw UK pounds. The new system was introduced due to numerous complaints regarding Coinbase’s lack of a user-friendly system. Coinbase UK’s chief executive Zeeshan Feroz described the new system as being “progress towards becoming a primary bank account”.
First Fully Compliant Crypto Exchange Under New European Framework to Open in Liechtenstein: Liechtenstein-based Blocktrade.com cryptocurrency exchange opens in full compliance with most recent guidelines from the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). “This is an ideal way for regulators across Europe to recognize cryptocurrencies as a new asset class and put in a regulatory framework,” added Blocktrade.com’s CEO, Luka Gubo.
The SEC Is Delaying Another Bitcoin ETF Decision: The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is taking more time to review the ETF filings, this time until September. SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, although a vocal supporter of ETF, believes that exchange traded fund could invite more mature regulation, both from the private and public sectors. Market responded to this delay with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency prices downwards this week.
The NYSE’s Owner Wants to Bring Bitcoin to Your 401(k). Are Crypto Credit Cards Next? With the increasing institutional interest in cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, heavy weight companies, their startups and Wall Street, are jumping in. Intercontinential Exchange (ICE), who owns New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), created a new venture Bakkt, which will offer a federally regulated market for Bitcoin. Bakkt is expected to launch in November, and is partnering with big tech and consulting: Microsoft, Boston Consulting Group and Starbucks.
“The parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, which also owns $42 billion of other exchanges, launched a cryptocurrency exchange called Bakkt. That is huge news. That is going to be a very profound impact over the next five or 10 years for the markets, and, to my mind, that’s what people should be focused on.” — Dan Morehead, founder & CEO of crypto investment firm Pantera Capital
Five reasons Why Institutional Investors are Entering Crypto: Despite the recent price drops, cryptocurrencies have the eyes of institutional investors upon them. With companies like Goldman Sachs, exchanges like Coinbase and recently NYSE aiming to make cryptocurrency safe for the retirement funds, NewsBTC identified these five reasons why cryptocurrencies might on the path to be the next big thing for institutional investors: Enhancement of custodial services, US SEC’s stance on crypto assets, Regulated crypto ETFs on the cards, Past performance of cryptocurrencies, Favourable cryptocurrency regulations emerging globally.
Coinbase Move Towards Primary Banking with New Support for Sterling: Coinbase is making it easier for UK users to deposit and withdraw UK pounds. The new system was introduced due to numerous complaints regarding Coinbase’s lack of a user-friendly system. Coinbase UK’s chief executive Zeeshan Feroz described the new system as being “progress towards becoming a primary bank account”.
First Fully Compliant Crypto Exchange Under New European Framework to Open in Liechtenstein: Liechtenstein-based Blocktrade.com cryptocurrency exchange opens in full compliance with most recent guidelines from the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). “This is an ideal way for regulators across Europe to recognize cryptocurrencies as a new asset class and put in a regulatory framework,” added Blocktrade.com’s CEO, Luka Gubo.
Industry & Technology
Bettergram Aims to Become the Crypto Version of Telegram: Telegram has been a go-to communication & chat program for the crypto community. Very well perceived and adopted, Telegram has a few missing that community was asking the developers to implement, like pinning more that five chats to the top of the list. Since Telegram devs were not promptly on this, another project was born, Bettergram, using all the features of Telegram through their API, and delivering what community was asking for. Check it out here.
Opera Browser Opens Its Built-in Cryptocurrency Wallet to Desktop Users: Due to the “overwhelmingly positive response of the crypto-community and users to the crypto wallet in Opera for Android”, developers of the browser, that is used by 322 million people, decided to open up its desktop browser to crypto wallet. “By adding a crypto wallet directly into the browser, we removed the need for complex extensions or separate apps,” said Charles Hamel, Product Lead of Opera Crypto. “Opening up the PC browser to crypto marks Opera’s second step towards making cryptocurrencies and Web 3.0 mainstream.”
Bitcoin’s Open Secret: Lightning Is Making Better Online Payments Possible. Although Bitcoin has been hailed as the new form of electronic payment system, it does have its technical limitations. That’s why the new approaches are built on a higher layers of Bitcoin, in this case Lightning Network on Layer 2 technology. Comparing the solution to PayPal, where there’s fee and a percentage fee per transaction, this payment system can be useful even for small payments. “Lightning fits the bill for how bitcoin was advertised in 2013”, expressed Chris Steward, a contributor to the bitcoin software.
Wikipedia Competitor Everipedia’s Blockchain Is Now Live: Even Wikipedia is getting its blockchain rival. The platform is built on top of EON and developers hope their model with tokens will remain independent of donations or advertisements.
Bettergram Aims to Become the Crypto Version of Telegram: Telegram has been a go-to communication & chat program for the crypto community. Very well perceived and adopted, Telegram has a few missing that community was asking the developers to implement, like pinning more that five chats to the top of the list. Since Telegram devs were not promptly on this, another project was born, Bettergram, using all the features of Telegram through their API, and delivering what community was asking for. Check it out here.
Opera Browser Opens Its Built-in Cryptocurrency Wallet to Desktop Users: Due to the “overwhelmingly positive response of the crypto-community and users to the crypto wallet in Opera for Android”, developers of the browser, that is used by 322 million people, decided to open up its desktop browser to crypto wallet. “By adding a crypto wallet directly into the browser, we removed the need for complex extensions or separate apps,” said Charles Hamel, Product Lead of Opera Crypto. “Opening up the PC browser to crypto marks Opera’s second step towards making cryptocurrencies and Web 3.0 mainstream.”
Bitcoin’s Open Secret: Lightning Is Making Better Online Payments Possible. Although Bitcoin has been hailed as the new form of electronic payment system, it does have its technical limitations. That’s why the new approaches are built on a higher layers of Bitcoin, in this case Lightning Network on Layer 2 technology. Comparing the solution to PayPal, where there’s fee and a percentage fee per transaction, this payment system can be useful even for small payments. “Lightning fits the bill for how bitcoin was advertised in 2013”, expressed Chris Steward, a contributor to the bitcoin software.
Wikipedia Competitor Everipedia’s Blockchain Is Now Live: Even Wikipedia is getting its blockchain rival. The platform is built on top of EON and developers hope their model with tokens will remain independent of donations or advertisements.
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