CRYPTO NEWS: Bitstamp Gains BitLicense!! Great for BITCOIN and RIPPLE!
As seen on CoinMarketCap, we’ve got a mixture of greens and reds on the market, but the bulls currently have the slight upper hand. The world’s flagship cryptocurrency, bitcoin (BTC) has increased by 2.53 percent. Ether (ETH) still maintains its “second in command” status, with a minor decrease of 0.48 percent. Ripple’s XRP maintains the number three position, and it’s currently gaining by 0.95 percent. Other considerable movements in the market include EOS and Cardano which have increased 3.14 and 6.54 percent respectively.
Now, if I scroll down to the top 20, we’re also having a mixture of a pretty lush and green market with some shades of red across the board. Monero has increased 3.51 percent, while Tezos experiences some nice gains with a 7.88 percent increase!
Now onto the news! According to a report by Coinjournal, Bitstamp USA Inc., a subsidiary of Bitstamp Limited, has been granted a virtual currency license by the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS). Now, what does this mean for Bitstamp? The virtual currency license, which is also known as BitLicense, will make it possible for Bitstamp USA Inc., to add support for a vast array of cryptoassets, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and even the U.S dollar.
Interestingly, the new licensure will also allow the firm to facilitate money transfers onto the Ripple blockchain network, issue XRP balances in fiat U.S dollar, as well as a few other fiat standards including, the Australian dollar, British pound sterling, the euro, the Swiss franc, and the Japanese yen. Commenting on the development, Nejc Kodric, CEO of Bitstamp expressed his excitement over the achievement. He also noted that securing the BitLicense is a significant step in the company’s expansion journey.
In his words:
“We’ve always been receptive to proactive efforts that protect the interests of retail and institutional investors alike. Securing a BitLicense is another excellent example of our commitment to be the most trusted digital currency exchange in the world. Having a BitLicense is also a key element in ramping up our presence in the United States, especially when it comes to institutional investors.”
It’s worth noting that the BitLicense has proven quite elusive to several crypto-related firms to date and some big whales in the cryptospace, including CEO of Kraken cryptocurrency exchange, Jesse Powell still sees it as draconian and unnecessary. Since its creation in August 2015, only 19 firms have succeeded in obtaining the BitLicense, including Circle, Gemini, Ripple, Coinbase, Xapo, and others.
Now, onto the second news item for today! Per a Crypto Insider report, Bitfinex, a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange has announced the removal of the $10,000 equity limit for new trading accounts in a bid to create a level playing field for everyone.
Explaining the reason for the sudden change, the Bitfinex team hinted that in the past six months it has been overwhelmed by the massive increase in the number of new cryptocurrency traders that have shown interest in joining the platform.
Against that backdrop, it decided to remove the $10,000 “barrier” in a bid to make life easier for everyone. Commenting on the latest development, Bitfinex CEO, Jean-Louis van der Velde reiterated that:
“For the past six months, we have been working tirelessly to ready our platform for a new wave of customer accounts and are now in a position to open Bitfinex to a wider audience. By removing our minimum equity requirement, the only limits are now set by the traders themselves.”
Also, the chief technical officer (CTO) of Bitfinex, Paolo Adroino, took to his Twitter handle to state that one of the reasons behind the change is to attract more developers to the exchange, as Bitfinex is significantly dev driven.
Now, what does this mean for Bitfinex? With this forward-thinking maneuver, the Bitfinex exchange will now be open to everyday retail crypto traders and it would also significantly boost the lagging trading volume that has relegated it to the 36th position on the CoinMarketCap top 100 cryptocurrency exchange rankings.
So what are your thoughts on this situation?
Are you confident that securing a BitLicense will significantly boost the reputation of Bitstamp? And what are your thoughts about the latest Bitfinex minimum equity reduction from $10,000 to $0? Will it usher in more investors into the exchange and the nascent world of bitcoin in general?
Let me know what you guys think below!!
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Disclaimer: Cryptopig content is written by a team of blockchain passionate people. We are not registered as investment advisors. Don’t take the information in this post as investment advice and make sure you do your own research before investing. Cryptocurrencies are a very risky investment, never invest more money than you can afford to lose.