Cryptocurrency Financial News
Earlier this week, Switzerland’s Financial Market Supervisory Authority granted a banking and securities dealer license to crypto financial service Sygnum. Now, as the business attempts to become a full-fledged bank in Switzerland, it’s looking to obtain a banking license in Singapore.
Bitcoin futures platform Bakkt has announced it will open its Bakkt Warehouse to customers on September 6, allowing them to hold their bitcoin with the firm. With the launch of the warehouse, Bakkt will also begin offering regulated, physically settled bitcoin futures on September 23.
Last Thursday, former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne announced his resignation as both the head of the online retail giant and a member of its board. With a change in leadership, Jonathan Johnson has taken over as the new CEO, affirming that the company’s blockchain-based efforts will continue as planned.
A recent report published by the crypto and blockchain analytics firm TokenInsight suggests that the crypto community’s love affair with the initial exchange offering, supposed heir apparent to the initial coin offering, may already be ending after three short months.
Market players told Reuters that US-China trade tensions and a weakening yuan have increased crypto demand among Chinese investors.
Ripple’s investment arm, Xpring, recently took part in a $4 million seed round for startup Coil, as well as gifted the fledgling company 1 billion XRP to help build its community.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has delayed its decision regarding three proposed bitcoin ETFs from asset managers Bitwise Asset Management, VanEck/SolidX, and Wilshire Phoenix. All decisions have been pushed to dates in late September and mid-October.
Quontic Bank, a small New York City bank, began working with crypto firms when it opened a checking account for a bitcoin ATM company a few weeks back and has since been on the lookout for companies in need of a crypto-friendly bank.
While most of the state’s guidelines are adaptations of existing requirements, Rhode Island’s money transmitter license for crypto firms will ask that agencies follow strict compliance metrics, anti-money laundering and anti-fraud protocols, and security requirements.
Robinhood and subsidiary Robinhood International have received broker licenses from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, allowing the service to launch stock, ETF, and crypto investment offerings in the country.
At first it looked like LedgerX had simply announced its bitcoin futures plan too early. Now the story has unraveled as the firm loses a press representative and its CEO threatens to sue the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
After announcing yesterday that the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) had approved LedgerX’s plan to offer clients physical bitcoin futures, the CFTC released a statement today claiming the firm’s bitcoin futures contracts have not been approved.
While financial chiefs around the world gathered to discuss the “serious difficulties” Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency may cause, the summit was also swirling with rumors that Japan was leading the development of a government-backed international crypto payments system meant to help tackle money laundering issues.
While Nasdaq Inc. and Citigroup Inc. saw a burst of blockchain pilots that produced positive results over the last four years, Wall Street has yet to fully adopt the technology, with some believing the price of full adoption still outweighs the benefits.
In the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) newly published FinTech note titled “The Rise of Digital Money,” the IMF states that banks will face “tough competition” and may even see their services surpassed by tech firms issuing digital money and stablecoins.
After receiving a C+ rating from Weiss in January 2018, the Weiss Ratings offshoot Weiss Crypto Ratings raised Bitcoin’s investment rating to an A-, making note of the network’s “reduction in tech roadblocks.”
The Financial Conduct Authority, a UK financial watchdog, has issued a press release stating the agency is consulting over a ban on the “sale, marketing and distribution to all retail consumers” of crypto-based derivatives including options and futures, as well as “unregulated transferable cryptoassets.”
Agustín Carstens, general manager of the Bank for International Settlements, stated that the banking institution was in support of central banks that want to research, make, and issue their own digital currency, adding that, thanks to projects like Libra, the market will evolve “sooner than we think.”
Countries within the eurozone could have an instant payments system implemented across all banks by 2020 as finance industry officials fear competition with Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency.
With Bitcoin IRA offering hybrid crypto and fiat individual retirement accounts (IRAs) since 2016, the digital asset IRA firm has partnered with BitGo to launch crypto IRAs, allowing individuals to diversify their holdings among 12 different digital assets.
