Cryptocurrency Daily News Bulletin: April 18, 2019

General News

Accenture and Italian insurance group Generali have launched a blockchain solution aimed to streamline Generali’s Employee Benefits Network offerings, including insurance cover for life, disability, accident and healthcare. The system allows participants in the reinsurance process to share accurate data, with the prototype showing cost and time savings.

Binance will launch its new fiat-to-crypto platform in Singapore next week. 

Coinbase is expanding their services to 11 more countries, including: Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Chile, India, Hong Kong, South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines and New Zealand, taking their total exposure 53 countries across 4 continents.  

HTC is leading a new $50 million blockchain-focused VC fund, Proof of Capital, that includes a partnership with the firm. The fund will focus on “regular VC deals, as opposed to token-based investments”. Proof of Capital portfolio companies will work with HTC directly to develop products for their Exodus blockchain phone and other HTC blockchain ventures.

Rakuten, Japan’s e-commerce giant, has started accepting account registrations for its new crypto exchange, Rakuten Wallet. 

Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) are introducing new rules to strengthen internal supervision of cold wallets for storing cryptocurrencies at crypto exchanges, according to Reuters. The FSA suggests there could be risks of internal theft, which most exchanges having no policy to protect against. 

Cryptocurrencies

Binance $20.76 USD (5.55 percent) has announced the success of its seventh coin burn. The exchange removed 829,888 BNB from circulation, valued at $15.6 million. However, Binance claim the rate of burning will slow down as the price of BNB increases, with BNB surging 189% in Q1. The Block estimates Binance made $78 million in net profits in Q1 2019, compared to $47 million in Q4 2018. BNB is now the seventh largest coin.

Ethereum 171.53 USD (3.20 percent): The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) and Microsoft have corralled major blockchain providers behind a new project to help businesses design and standardise crypto tokens. The “Token Taxonomy Initiative” crosses Ethereum, Hyperledger, R3’s Corda and Digital Asset’s platforms and includes members such as Accenture, Banco Santander, EY, IBM, ING, Intel, J.P. Morgan, R3, among others. It will comprise workshops and a GitHub repository where findings and test data can be linked to existing token implementations on various blockchain networks. Meanwhile, Ethereum core researcher Danny Ryan, claims they are aiming to become quantum resistant within three to five years using zk-snarks and expects Ethereum 2.0 to be live by the end of 2019. New test nets are scheduled to go live in the next quarter. Lastly, a new list of billion dollar blockchain companies compiled by Forbes shows the importance of Ethereum, with more than half of the companies working with the leading smart contract platform.

Stellar $0.117291 USD (1.57 percent) is expanding with their development foundation seeking 11 new hires, including a long list of engineers, a grants and partnerships manager.

Telegram Open Network (TON) has partnered with German financial services provider Wirecard. TON Labs will work with Wirecard to develop new digital financial products. The partnership comes a week after sources hinted TON had moved to private beta testing mode, for the first time since its record-breaking private ICO last year.

– WN.com, Jamie Saarloos