Strong Institutional Investment For Bitcoin According To Morgan Stanley Report

Morgan Stanley recently released a report dubbed as “Update: Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and Blockchain” stating that Bitcoin and altcoins have created a new institutional investment class in 2018.

The multinational investment bank’s outlook on Bitcoin is generally bullish despite the almost year long bearish trend and reveals surprising change in funding flow into the sector along with trend for crypto futures.

One of the main takeaway of the report is what the bank calls crypto’s rapidly morphing thesis.

The report traces the evolution of Bitcoin from its varying roles as digital cash, a new fundraising mechanism, method of store of value and now as a new institutional investment class.

Given this recent revelation the bank’s CEO, James Gorman, has indicated that a trading desk specializing in derivatives tied to digital assets could be a potential service offered to its client in the future.

According to reports the bank has already measures in place to offer Bitcoin Swap trading but will not offer the service until certain level of demand is reached and completing thorough internal approval process.

Bitfury Raised $80 Million From Mike Novogratz And Other Investing Firms

A cryptocurrency related firm in Europe, Bitfury has recently concluded a funding round that garnered them $80 million worth of investments.

Investors included Korelya Capital, Mike Novogratz's Galaxy Digital and several Europe-based firms: Jabre, Lian Group and Armat Group.

Bitfury was valued at more than $1 billion in the deal according to inside sources.

Bitfury is a London based company that sells cypto mining gear and develops blockchain technology for private and government clients.

According to Antoine Dresch, managing partner at Korelya, Bitfury has become the largest western blockchain unicorn or firm.

Earlier funding rounds raised more than $100 million for Bitfury and it has been reported that the company may consider an initial public offering in Amsterdam, Hong Kong or London If the IPO pushes through the company may seek a valuation of $3-$5 billion.

Plain English Guidance On ICOs Soon Says SEC Official

The director of Corporation Finance in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Willian Hinman has hinted a “plain English” guidance to clarify when and how cryptocurrencies may be classified as securities.

The guidance will help developers determine if what they are planning to offer falls under securities.

The exact date when the guidance will be published is still uncertain, however just in case developers are still uncertain about their project they can get in touch with the SEC’s new Finub, which was created to streamline communication between the project issuers and the agency.

Hinman reveals that the commission will be examining among other things accounting, custody and token valuation.

He also adds that tokens are usually classified as securities if the projects offers an instrument of money to a third party and the third party expects the issuer to generate a return on that instrument or in this case tokens.

Consensys To Offer $500K Grants For Ethereum Projects

Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum and founder of ConsenSys has announced a total of $500,000 grant allocation for Ethereum infrastructure projects.

The grants or bounties will be given $10,000 to $25,000 awards and will commence in early 2019.

The grant will be distributed via an open-source community development platform Gitcoin.

According to a press release, ConsenSys will support projects that focus on infrastructure, research, user experience, design, interoperability, and developer tools.

However the wider Ethereum community will also have a say to what projects the grant will be given.

The Grants program of ConsenSys is widely seen as a less strings-attached way for the company to support developers in the Ethereum space as well as focus on the technology improvements needed to scale Ethereum.

For Ethereum to become a foundational technology it must be able to scale to cope with increase in demand.

As it stands there is still a long way to go. Initiatives like this hopes to inspire developers to create the mechanism to make Ethereum scalable.

New Partnership For Bitpoint Making Car Dealerships And Rentals Accept Crypto

One of the 16 regulated crypto exchange in Japan has recently partnered with major car dealerships and Airport Limo rentals to enable clients of the said companies to accept cryptocurrencies.

Hinomaru Limousine has started accepting payments in cryptocurrencies for its airport taxi service while Carch Holdings allows crypto payments at its used car dealerships.

Clients of both establishments need to have an account with Bitpoint account and wallet app to be able to use the service. The application is available for both Android and iOS and currently supports Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum

The partnerships are on trial runs and will run from November of this year to January of 2019.

If the initiative is successful the two companies will expand the crypto payments offering to its other services and locations beyond the current trial areas.

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