Bitcoin is still in the vulnerable corridor on the way to $3,000, while a bad narrative on ETF hangs over a cryptocurrency market. But otherwise, it keeps moving.
JPMorgan Presents JPM Coin, The Testing Stage Is Set To Open
The big news today is the launch of cryptocurrency backed by JP Morgan Chase, the largest US bank, and this is probably what is needed in a stagnant market.
The so-called JPM Coin created by bank's engineers will be tested for several months before its launch, when later it will be used to process a piece of all $6 trillion JPM transfers. The representative of the bank noted that the world is step-to-step switching to blockchain, and although it is difficult to assess whether this statement is pure marketing, or there is something bigger behind these words, the ex-sceptic JPM states pretty confidently about its developing cryptocurrency.
"So anything that currently exists in the world, as that moves onto the blockchain, this would be the payment leg for that transaction"
— Umar Farooq, head of J.P. Morgan's blockchain projects
So, the cryptocurrency created by JPM will be used for cross-boarder payments, will be tested for a long time, and probably be introduced into the company's daily business processes, if this will be effective. At the same time, specific details on the JPM Coin are not given. It is likely that the blockchain will play a technical, rather than an investment role. However, this is a big progress for the mass blockchain usage.
Just remember, back in 2017, Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase said:
"[dont't work with crypto] For two reasons: it’s against our rules, and they’re stupid. And both are dangerous”
"It is worse than tulip bulbs”
Well, we hope that this work isn't carried out without his knowledge.
Bloomberg: "JPM Coin Should Absolutely Obliterate Ripple"
The first laudatory odes to the new token announced by the largest American bank were sung by Bloomberg.
BloombergTV editor Joe Weisenthal thinks that JPM Coin can probably become the real threat for Ripple and especially its XRP coin. At least, the token's usage and the JPM's brand makes someone to feel that.
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If it turns out that the Blockchain/Coin framework turns out to be a good one for banks transferring money around, then the JPM Coin should absolutely obliterate Ripple
Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) 14 Feb. 2019 г.
Indeed, the Ripple's currency and network can be ousted by the product presented by the large financial institution. At the same time, we do not know whether this new token is an investment instrument or a stablecoin, or literally a virtualized non-tradable share. Moreover, JPM Coin is discussed in the context of the blockchain and distributed ledgers which is more like to a temporary refusal of the bank to submit any tradable market decision. So, probably, Ripple is still taking its place.
Reality Shares ETF Trusts Withdraws Its ETF Proposal
Reality Shares ETF Trusts, which belongs to Blockforce Capital, withdrawn its application ETF (exchange-traded fund) listing. According to Reality Shares, the company initially submitted an application to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to open a fund called Global Currency Strategy ETF, however, then canceled its decision.
The fund, recently announced in the media, was supposed to provide access to Bitcoin futures trading, but now there is no chance to exist for it now. Representatives of the Commission contacted the company after they studied the application and explained exactly what rules of the law it violates. (Namely, Investment Company Act of 1940).
However, the details of this news are not entirely clear. On the one hand, the application form that was submitted by Reality Shares would allow automatic approval of proposal after 75 days. On the other hand, the Commission, as it were, informally informed the company that the request should be withdrawn, it turns out that the SEC didn't have an opportunity to completely or legally refuse it*.
- The issue requires more knowledge in the US law.
Investors Filed A Class Action Lawsuit Against Huobi And Elastos, Startup Co-Founder Responds
A group of investors filed a lawsuit against HBUS (Huobi US) and the cryptocurrency startup Elastos.
The Supreme Court of New York accepted a lawsuit according to which Elastos violated the main statement of US securities laws, namely all offers of securities should be regulated by the SEC. The plaintiffs argue that the ICO carried by Elastos was an unregistered sale of securities, which somehow falls under the supervision of the SEC. The lawsuit also states that earlier, Elastos proposed a program for token holders, which would give investors 6% of the coins value, but this promise haven't been fulfilled.
As Huoxing24 reports, the Elastos co-founder, Han Feng, has responded to the accusation of selling illegal tokens. Fen will defend his interests in court against investors. But we also do not forget that Huobi acts as a defendant, being the foreign exchange that operates with Elastos tokens and recently opened a division in the States. It is difficult to estimate how much a collective lawsuit filed by investors will cost for 2 companies, but litigation is not the best marketing step at the moment.
Crypto Is Now A Priority For CFTC's Supervision, According To The Documents
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) will be more attentive to cryptocurrency this year. At the moment, CFTC is one of several regulators that have partial control over digital assets. Besides, the Division of Market Oversight (DMO) will be tasked with conducting a large-scale review of the CFTC rules and regulations in a cryptocurrency market.
"I commend DMO, DSIO and DCR leadership and staff for their work to bring additional transparency into the CFTC agenda in order to ensure that registered market participants devote adequate compliance resources consistent with our regulatory priorities”
The program, called KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid - the principle according to which most systems work best if they are simple and not complicated) will probably be noted this year, and we do not know in which direction - positive or negative for the industry.
Nasdaq Launches Its Newest Crypto Index
The cryptocurrency indexes promised by Nasdaq have finally arrived.
On February 25, the Nasdaq Stock Exchange will begin to display Bitcoin and Ethereum index values provided by Brave New Coin. Two indexes, namely Bitcoin Liquid Index (BLX) and Ethereum Liquid Index (ELX) will be quickly updated and work as "legitimate" instrument if the user want to get accurate information about the state of the 1st or 2nd largest currencies.
At the moment, Nasdaq’s contact with the cryptocurrency market is fairly accurate. So, the exchange continues to invest in crypto startups, such as Symbiont, which funding amounts to $20 million. At the same time, the cryptocurrency platform promised by Nasdaq is not currently being discussed and is unlikely to return to the public field in 2019.
HSBC Has Reduced The Cost Of Settling Foreign Exchange Trades By A 25% Thanks To Blockchain
Great news to reassure HSBC customers and investors or to demonstrate the real opportunities of blockchain in the financial sector.
HSBC, the largest British bank, reported on the results of the blockchain implementation. According to the representative of the organization, with the help of the implementation of distributed technology, it became possible to save 25% of bank expenses on foreign operations.
"We’re able to demonstrate that this is not a one-off proof of concept or just one or two trades.”
Mark Williamson, chief operating officer at HSBC FX, noted that from February 2018 to January 2019, 150,000 transactions worth $250 billion were processed through the bank's DLT platform. This is a really interesting result, which is valuable for the industry - blockchain technologies can and will develop right inside the financial system.
Mitsubishi Works On Global Open Network, Blockchain-Based Payment System
The high-tech Mitsubishi divisions have repeatedly signaled interest in cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. This time, Mitsubishi UFJ officially announced its plans to launch a new payment system based on the blockchain, but this will happen next year - in 2020.
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The development of the Global Open Network is carried out jointly with Akamai Technologie. The platform itself promises to be quite variable in use (to provide connection with cloud services and the Internet of things), and to process more than 1 million transactions every second. The new platform will allow users to manage assets using the blockchain to reduce transaction costs.
The launch of this platform was allegedly known as far back as 2018. Then several Japanese organizations belonging to various industries at once expressed their desire to release their own cryptocurrency or introduce blockchain into their business processes. However, the Japanese regulators remain quite tough now, so the biggest players are able to present a competitive solution.
Virginia Pension Funds Disclosed Their $21 Million Investment In Morgan Creek Blockchain Technology
Investments of such institutions as pension funds andlocal organizations in cryptocurrency remained a rather ambiguous topic even when the crypto was at its peak and could be offered for use literally everywhere. However, some information has now become known that reveals the behavior of Virginia pension funds regarding digital assets.
"You may have read or heard that the Employees' and Police Officers Retirement Systems have invested in something called Blockchain Technology. Given that this technology is what has been used to create and run the cryptocurrency markets, you may be concerned that these are investments in bitcoin or other electronic currencies."
Investments of public pension funds from Fairfax County, (Virginia, USA) in Morgan Creek blockchain fund amounted to $21 million. County's pension system chief Jeffrey Weiler noted that the fund decided to invest in this unit of Morgan Creek with an interest in technology rather than cryptocurrency in particular. So far it is difficult to assess whether such an investment is promising or not.
Former Mt. Gox CEO States That Mt.Gox Won't Be "Re-Launched' Despite What Brock Pierce Promises
Brock Pierce, someone who is known as cryptocurrency investor, promised to restart Mt. Gox, which left creditors in an ambiguous situation after the exchange lost 650,000 Bitcoins. Pierce’s plan as a whole is based on speeding up the recovery of the exchange and conducting operations with ownership of Mt.Gox "ownership stake".
But Mark Karpeles, Mt. Gox’s former CEO doesn't feel not enthusiastic about the idea proposed by the investor. The former head of the bankrupt Bitcoin exchange received a Pierce's letter in which he expressed the intention to purchashe the platform, but Karpeles did not respond to his offer. According to Karpeles, the Mt.Gox acquiring requires a court decision, and this will not bring any income either to him or to those participating in civilian rehabilitation.
"Pierce’s narrative is that he’s going to be kind enough to give the surplus to creditors but there is no surplus anyway. Even if there was, he is not the shareholder of Mt. Gox so this is baseless.”
Probably, this exchange will still bother people for a long time, and especially enterprising people, and those who were somehow connected with it. So far we have received more and more news that civil rehabilitation is not going as efficiently as it could.
🏁 Ethereum Foundation found a new bug in the upcoming Constantinople hard fork | Buterin doesn't think that the discovered vulnerability is dangerous | Cory Johnson, Chief Market Strategist at Ripple, left the team
💱 KuCoin will go offline while carrying platform upgrade on Feb. 18 | StellarX DEX is acquired by Coinsquare | Binance will delist CLOAK, MOD, SALT, SUB and WING currencies on Feb. 22 | LocalBitcoins to introduce new user identification rules | Coinmama hacked, about 450,000 emails stolen | Recently hacked Cryptopia can "open again whenever they like", but they presumably wouldn't
🏛 Only one month left before the SEC will accept/dissacept Bitwise and NYSE ARCA ETF applications
👁 Research: ASIC miners control 85% of Monero network
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