General News
Bithumb has launched a global OTC trading desk for digital assets. The new Hong Kong-based venture – Ortus – is a “block deal, matchmaking service” for institutional clients. Ortus has already setup offices in the U.K., Hong Kong, Japan, Australia and Argentina.
ErisX, a digital assets trading platform, has recruited three top-level officers from major companies. Robert Thrash joins the company as COO from Barclays and the bank’s managing director of agency derivatives services. They also hired senior technical program manager at YouTube and former CBOE head of sales. The hirings come as ErisX is getting ready to launch spot trading and futures trading in Q2 this year.
Credit Suisse Asset Management and Portuguese bank Banco Best have “successfully processed live end-to-end fund transactions” using blockchain technology. The firms used the FundsDLT platform, developed in a partnership with KPMG and software provider InTech. They announced “more efficient, scalable, and timely” cross-border transactions.
Independent Reserve, the Australian crypto exchange, announced it is now the first in the country to offer insurance coverage to its institutional clients.
Invstr, the investing app, has launched a crypto index for their platform. The index will allow retail investors to examine the impact crypto investments will have on their portfolios using weightings that optimise risk-reward based on volatility of constituent assets.
Voyager, a crypto brokerage startup founded by veterans of Uber and E*Trade, is going public on Canada’s TSX Venture Exchange through a reverse merger valued at $60 million. The New York-based firm acquired UC Resources Ltd., a mineral exploration company that ceased operations in 2015. Voyager Digital Ltd. will begin trading on Feb. 11 on the TSX.
Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin $3,448.43 USD (0.84 percent) can now be used by travelers across 37 locations throughout Argentina to pay for public transit. Riders can now use the payment provider Bitex to load credits to their SUBE travel cards. Meanwhile, a bitcoin ETF will most likely ultimately gain approval from the SEC, according to a commissioner Robert J. Jackson Jr.
Binance $8.24 USD (2.17 percent) CEO Changpeng Zhao announced he expects to launch its own blockchain “in the next week or two.” The new blockchain, Binance Chain, will be used to power the upcoming Binance DEX. Binance Coin (BNB) will be migrated off the Ethereum network and no longer be an ERC20 token. Zhao also says it will be structured more like NEO and XRP, utilizing far fewer validators than most public blockchains to focus on performance – a factor he believes is causing many coins to leave Ethereum’s network.
Elon Musk is "highly confident" that Spacex will land humans on Mars about six years from now. He believes that Mar… https://t.co/iI74PwYmud
2020-12-31 03:17:18
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Spacex and Tesla CEO Elon Musk believes that Mars' economy will be run on #cryptocurrency. #bitcoin #marscoin… https://t.co/2yrxGKiiLH
2020-12-31 09:07:45
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#cryptocurrency,bitcoin,marscoin,
Coinbase knew cryptocurrency XRP was a security rather than a commodity and “illegally” sold Ripple Labs’s tokens a… https://t.co/rKcQvUxdaL
2020-12-31 02:50:17
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BitTorrent Token $0.000836 USD (-10.75 percent) continues to gain rapid adoption with crypto payments gateway CoinPayments the latest to add support for the BTT token – bringing it to more than 1,200 merchants globally.
Litecoin $37.70 USD (12.61 percent) Foundation and Beam have officially partnered to explore whether Litecoin should implement the privacy protocol Mimblewimble.
Ripple $0.297522 USD (1.39 percent) has partnered with another 10 top universities for its University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI), bringing the total to 29. Institutions in the initiative will carry out research, develop and launch course materials, host conferences and award scholarships to students pursuing work in blockchain and crypto.
– WN.com, Jamie Saarloos