Cryptocurrency Daily News Bulletin: April 29, 2019
April 29, 2019 1:03 pm
General News
Bitfinex CFO Zhao Dong claims it will take a few weeks to unfreeze $850 million worth of funds held by Panama-based Crypto Capital. This follows an investigation opened by the New York Attorney General (NYAG) showing Bitfinex could not access and had borrowed $700 million from Tether’s reserves to cover up the shortfall. The news sparked a sell off across the market.
ETrade is planning to launch crypto trading on its platform, providing access to its 5 million brokerage accounts. The service will initially support Bitcoin and Ethereum, as they aim to rival existing digital trading platforms such as Robinhood and Coinbase.
Marsh, the global insurance broker will soon roll out its proof of insurance (POI) blockchain platform to U.S. commercial clients, allowing certificates of insurance to be acquired.
SeedInvest, the equity fundraising platform recently acquired by Circle, has been granted an alternative trading system (ATS) license by the FINRA – letting it facilitate secondary trading of private equities – “an important step forward towards realizing the vision of tokenized securities.”
Traki, one of Venezuela’s largest retail chains, has adopted Cryptobuyer Pay as a default payment solution across all stores. The point-of-sale system supports BTC, DASH and LTC.
China’s government is supporting the construction of a “blockchain city” in the critical shipping lane of the Malaysian Malacca Strait. Construction company China Wuyi and investment network SWT International have jointly launched the government-backed project, dubbed Melaka Straits City. The entire infrastructure of the city will be based on blockchain and use DMI coin.
India’s government is have drafted a bill dubbed “Banning of Cryptocurrencies and Regulation of Official Digital Currencies Bill 2019”, with the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), Central Board of Direct Taxes, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs and the Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority all in favour of the ban, according to The Economic Times.
Cryptocurrencies
Ethereum $157.98 USD (-0.12 percent) developers have approved funding to audit the contested code change ProgPoW. 50,000 DAI has been fully met through crowd-sourced donations which will be used to examine “the expected effect of ProgPoW on the security of ethereum,” as well as on ethereum’s mining landscape as a whole. The proposed code change will create more equal competition for mining rewards on the network.
MakerDAO $556.85 USD (6.91 percent) CTO Andy Milenius has left the startup after publishing a 24-page-long letter. He describes the conflict between his ideas of equal workspace and democratization true to a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) and his fellow executives’ desire for a traditional corporate efficiency. The text accuses CEO Rune Christensen of trying to take control over the DAO, causing the project’s core developers to become uncollaborative, as well as using intimidation to force company exits.
Ontology $1.09 USD (-6.52 percent) have partnered with stablecoin issuer Paxos to issue up to 100 million PAX on their blockchain network starting from next month, making it easier for individuals and businesses using ONT tokens to transact in fiat-pegged tokens. The new version of PAX will follow the Ontology’s OEP-4 token standard. More than 10 million PAX were minted in the 18 hours after the NYAG’s allegations about Tether – trading at a significant premium.
Stellar $0.099498 USD (-0.93 percent) has become the 10th coin to be supported on Coinsquare’s platform, allowing XLM to be traded for fiat or crypto.
– WN.com, Jamie Saarloos
