Do repost and rate:
Crypto Briefs is your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptocurrency and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
Cryptocurrency exchange news
- Crypto Times reports that the JVCEA, an association of 18 Japanese cryptocurrency exchanges say that Japan has at least 3.1 million cryptocurrency exchange account holders – although only 65% of account users are active on a monthly basis (as of January-July 2019).
- OKEx says it will support the (ETC) hard fork – expected to take place before Friday this week. The exchange says it will suspend services at midday UTC +2 on September 11, and will resume said services when the ETC mainnet becomes stable.
- Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, confirmed that the 24 hour trading volume on the BINANCE futures platform, which is in "invitation-only beta mode," has exceeded USD 150 million.
- Crypto market data provider CoinGecko upgraded its Trust Score metric to version 2.0 that evaluates crypto exchanges based on multiple criteria. "In May 2019, we introduced Trust Score on CoinGecko to combat the alarming trend of exchanges reporting fake trading volume," the company said, adding that their new grading system takes into account multiple metrics in the liquidity, API technical coverage, and scale of operations categories.
Cryptocurrency news
- An expert says small Belarusian companies will likely provide a fertile testbed for Telegram’s . Per a MyFin report, Alexander Lozben of Cryptocode says that larger companies will keep a close eye on how smaller companies deal in Gram transactions before deciding if they too want to use the new token.
Adoption news
- Hong Kong-based public trust company Legacy Trust is launching a new business, First Digital Trust (FDT), that will focus on digital asset custody and hopes "to have USD 28 billion worth of assets in custody within the next 3 years." FDT is also in talks with undisclosed venture capital funds as it looks to raise USD 15 million in the coming months, the company said in a press release.
Investment news
- Bakkt says it will require customers to make USD 3,900 deposits for Bitcoin futures contracts. Initial requirements for speculative customers will be set at USD 4,290. Bakkt will go live with physically-settled bitcoin futures contracts and a crypto custody service, called Bakkt Warehouse, on September 23 to enable investors to trade and store bitcoin in a regulatory-compliant manner.
- Blockstack, a developer of a decentralized computing network, said it raised USD 23 million in its token offerings in 2019. "And we are in discussions with international investors for an additional USD 5M+ which may be distributed in a separate private placement or in a follow-on SEC-qualified offering, as we have previously disclosed in our SEC filings. The goal of this additional distribution is to continue growing our community and network in Asia," the company added.
Regulation news
- The American Treasury has told Facebook that its forthcoming Libra token “must meet anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism standards,” says Reuters. The social network has previously claimed it will meet all regulatory requirements before Libra’s launch.
- Cryptocurrency ownership, interest and trading are all on the rise in Cuba, reports Portal Cuba. The government has also confirmed that it does not impose any regulations on cryptocurrency use or ownership in the country.
- The Venezuelan state has claimed, “We’re the first country in the world with a government that officially embraces cryptocurrencies.” Per a report from Aporrea, the country’s cryptocurrencies department, Sunacrip, spoke of initiating a “crypto revolution” in the country.
