LedgerX To Launch First Physical Bitcoin Futures Launch

It has been reported that LedgerX has filed for a designated contract market (DCM) license which will enable them to offer physically-settled Bitcoin futures products to its customers.

Once approved the company will be the first U.S. firm to offer physically settled Bitcoin futures contract beating out Bakkt.

Bakkt, the cryptocurrency exchange by Intercontinental exchange (ICE), plans to launch a similar product last year but has since then been delayed several times for undisclosed reasons.

According to the chief risk and operating offer at LedgerX, Juthica Chou, when they get their license they will be able to offer Bitcoin, Bitcoin options and Bitcoin futures to retail customers through a new platform, dubbed Omni.

The ledger platform received regulatory approval in July 2017 and will be able to offer retail customers a top tier experience, through their existing institutional liquidity pool from day one.

The DCM application of LedgerX is just an additional license on top of its existing permissions and operationally the company is already set up to provide futures services.

E-Commerce Giant Rakuten Targets Crypto Adoption

E-commecre giant of Japan, Rakuten has recently opened the account registration process of its cryptocurrency trading service, Rakuten Wallet.

It plans to open the exchange in June of this year and it is now in the process of on-boarding users into its platforms.

It must be noted though that prospective users are only allowed to participate if they hold an account with Rakuten Bank as deposits and withdrawals are only allowed using this bank.

It has also been revealed that the e-commerce giant pants to launch a smartphone app to allow customers to make deposits and withdrawals into their trading accounts on the go.

The launch of the new service is the latest step taken by the Japanese technology giant into cryptocurrency operational integration.

It is not yet known how cryptocurrencies will play within Rakutens ecosystem and the possibility of seeing cryptocurrencies part of the payment options of their e-commerce is possible given recent cryptocurrency friendly developments within the organization.

Visa And Coinbase Launching Crypto-Backed Debit Card

It has been reported that card company giant, VISA and US-based cryptocurrency exchange and wallet provider Coinbase has recently teamed up to provide customers with a debit card that is directly tied to their crypto wallets.
The Coinbase Card is connected to the user’s cryptocurrency balance in their digital wallets.

The platform currently supports trading of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and Litecoin which are all spendable using the new debit card.

According to Visa the new card will enable users to spend crypto as effortlessly as the money in their ban and make cash withdrawals from any ATM.

Coinbase UK CEO, Zeeshan Feroze, states that whenever a customer uses their card they instantly convert crypto into fiat currency.

Accompanying the Coinbase Card is a mobile app that will enable consumers to see spending summaries, transactions receipts and notifications of activities.

Institutional Investment Manager Files SEC Application For Issuance Of Digitized Securities

According to a filing document that was release last April 12 an American institutional-grade investment manager, Arca is seeking approval to issue digitized securities.

These digital securities will be in a form of tokens called Arca UST Coins which are essentially digitized shares that will be authenticated and then recorded in a form of ERC-20 compatible tokens or Ethereum (ETH) blockchain.

It was revealed that all transactions will be authenticated before it is recorded in the blockchain to ensure only valid and authorized transactions are store, once stored these records will be immutable.

Each of Arca’s UST tokens will be valued at $1 with at least 80% of the fund planned to be invested in U.S. Treasury securities such as bills, bonds and notes issued by the U.S. Treasury.

The remaining 20% will be invested in other fixed income instruments such as bonds and debt securities issued locally or internationally.

Arco also emphasized that the Arco UST Coin will not be listed from trading on any traditional stock exchange or any other national market system nor decentralized exchange, however, investor can carry out secondary transactions on a peer-to-peer basis.

ConsenSys Seeking $200 Million In New Investments

It has been reported that the Consensys, a blockchain company founded by one of the co-founder of Ethereum, is seeking around $200 million in new investment.

However Consensys also revealed that is has a projected expenses of about $152 million in 2019 with $52 million revenue for an estimated $100-million cash burn.

In trying to lure in investors the company pitches itself as a combination of three significant assets: equity for 134 projects or companies, token holdings from major initial coin offerings and potential long-term revenue generating internal operations.

The additional funding will help the company to accomplish some lofty goals by 2020 such as launching at least 10 blockchain networks, grow revenue to $100 million per year, tokenize 30 percent of activities in its so called mesh projects and help deliver Ethereum 2.0.

To built a lasting impression to investors the company highlighted its growing yearly revenue revealing that in 2017 the company earned $6.5 million, $21 million in 2018 and projects $52.3 million in 2019.

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