Enjoy the comments of our CEO – Taras Filatov on the weekly blockchain industry news.
::::: Blockchain :::::
Coinbase has received a multi-year contract to provide its blockchain analytics software to the U.S. Secret Service.
Spain’s Telefónica, Deutsche Telekom, and British provider Vodafone, three global industry leaders in telecommunications, have jointly finalized a trial blockchain solution for the settlement of roaming discount agreements.
JP Morgan and Singapore’s investment giant Temasek have developed a blockchain-based payment network.
The Rochester Institute of Technology, a private university in New York with 19,000 students, has become the first of its kind to invest seven-figures in blockchain-focused tokenized fund COSIMO X.
Samsung and Stellar Foundation are now official partners. The cryptocurrency will join a range of other coins on the Samsung’s Blockchain Keystore.
::::: Blockchain in Banking :::::
Banking Giant Santander plans to expand the use of ripple payments platform after reaching 19 countries. Half of Santander´s annual international transfers can now be handled by the Ripple app, which is also now operating in the United States.
The central bank of Lithuania is set to issue its blockchain-based digital collector coin LBCOIN on July 23rd. The coin consists of six digital tokens and one physical silver collector coin.
Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank, both crypto-friendly and maintaining a range of crypto industry firms as clients, facilitated nine and eight PPP loans. The PPP program provides financial support to U.S. companies and help them retain employees during the pandemic-related economic shutdowns.
::::: Notorious News :::::
Romanian man admitted Thursday to conspiring to engage in wire fraud and selling unregistered securities linked to Bitclub Network, a cryptocurrency mining Ponzi scheme worth at least $722 million.
The Securities Commission Malaysia has warned against the use of crypto ATMs, after a spate of scams and money laundering through the machines.
Scammers have siphoned $24 million in bitcoin from victims in 2020.
Nigerian scammers converted millions of dollars into Bitcoin via Gemini exchange according to an FBI criminal complaint.
Coinbase user who last August received the now-infamous Internal Revenue Service crypto letter is suing to block the US tax agency from unlawfully seizing private financial records.
::::: Government with Blockchain :::::
The South Korean Government is trying its best to adopt blockchain technology as healthcare becomes the first industry to benefit from this tech.
TF: Please also check Dappros articles on using blockchain in healthcare for better traceability and distributed secure storage of patient data.
Binance Labs makes the first investment for this year, leading $1M seed round in HOPR.
Tether and Centre blacklist 40 addresses in total worth over $46 Million.
Hangzhou Blockchain Week, the first in person post lockdown conference, went off as planned last week. Thousands of politicians, developers, traders, miners, speculators, and DeFi’ers gathered in person, in the beautiful city of Hangzhou.
::::: Coins, Cards, and Digital currency:::::
Changpeng Zhao, Binance CEO, demonstrates the first use of Binance Card powered by recently acquired Swipe.
G20 officials announced that they would begin laying the regulatory groundwork for the group to accept digital payments.
PayPal told the European Commission earlier this year it is actively working in the cryptocurrency space.
Binance announces the rollout of Binance Card in Europe and UK next month.
The Bank of Thailand is ready to deploy its central bank digital currency to local corporations as part of the third phase of the project’s development.
:::::: Acquisitions, Funding, and Exchange :::::
Uniswap, popular decentralized exchange, supports more assets than its ten closest competitors combined.
Fidelity acquires10% stake in Bitcoin mining firm Hut 8.
Aave, one of DeFi’s fastest-growing protocols, raises $3 Million from Framework Ventures and Three Arrows Capital. The two will combine forces with helping Aave attract more liquidity and users.
Zcash releases new version of Frost Signature Scheme to sign transactions between participants that own a single private signing key.
Brave has partnered with crypto exchange Gemini to let its users trade cryptocurrencies from within the privacy-focused browser itself.
TF: interesting development, Brave browsers continues to gain more traction.
Grayscale has reported its best quarter ever after it raised a total of $906 million for its crypto products in Q2 2020.
Sorare, an Ethereum-based fantasy football gaming startup, has raised $4 million in a seed funding round. E. ventures led the round, with participation from German professional footballer Andre Schurrle, Ledger co-founder Thomas France, and venture firms Partech, Fabric Venture, and Semantic Ventures.
TF: great example of using NFT and tokenization to power digital collectibles related to sports and cybersports. Dappros is working on a project in this area which we are planning to unveil soon.
MUFG, the largest financial firm in Japan, is planning to launch its very own digital currency in 2020. Scheduled to go live in the fourth quarter of 2020, the cryptocurrency would be the first-of-its-kind in the Asian nation’s financial history.
Bitcoin Payments Startup Zap secures $3.5 Million. The startup was admitted to Visa’s Fast Track Program last month.
Poloniex has launched its own futures exchange. The new futures arm of Poloniex will offer support for Bitcoin perpetual swaps with USDT as collateral, with 100x leverage.
TF: Did you know that it’s possible to launch your own cryptocurrencies and tokens exchange? Check the overview of the open-source crypto exchange engines by Dappros.
::::: Others :::::
Vitalik Buterin disagrees with Justin Drake an ETH Researcher and says Ethereum 2.0 must launch this year.
WeWork has experienced a rather turbulent period but now it is expected that already in 2021 it will start getting profits.
Kraken is listing three tokens from the world of decentralized finance. Compound, Kava, and Kyber Network will be listed by July 15.
Stay tuned for the next release.
Ref: VYSYN Capital News, Telegram, other sources
