Daily Cryptocurrency Bulletin For Wednesday, July 31, 2019

General News

B3i, a consortium startup working to use blockchain tech in the insurance industry, has launched its first product on R3’s Corda platform. The new Cat XoL product brings greater speed and lower cost to the market, allowing insurers, brokers and reinsurers to “interact, negotiate and place risk more securely and efficiently.”

Blockchain, a London-based crypto wallet provider and block explorer service, has launched its first digital asset exchange. The new custodial exchange, PIT, can link to non-custodial Blockchain wallets to conduct quick transfers, with over 40 million wallets created.

Canaan Creative, the major bitcoin miner manufacturer, has confidentially filed for an IPO in the U.S according to a report from IFRAsia, seeking to raise $200million via the public listing.

Kraken has partnered with Estana Custody to offer new options for fiat deposits and withdrawals in U.S.D, Euros, Canadian dollars, British pounds sterling and Japanese yen.

Overstock.com, the major online retailer, announced it will pay shareholder dividends in its affiliate company’s digital security, TZORP. Approximately 40,000 holders hold around 37 million shares of Overstock – at a 10:1 ratio of common stock to series A-1 shares – 3.7 million digital shares will be disbursed. The dividend date is set for September 23, 2019.

Rain has launched following regulatory approval by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) – becoming the first licensed crypto exchange in the Middle East. Rain closed a $2.5million funding round co-led by BitMEX and is the first graduate of the CBB’s sandbox program.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has finalized its guidance on crypto assets. Notable points include the likely blanket ban on crypto derivatives in September and any token that is not a security token, or an e-money token is considered unregulated.

Cryptocurrencies 

Bitcoin $9,775.12 USD (2.64 percent) users can now receive cash-back rewards in BTC when using the Fold mobile app for purchases at Amazon, Uber, Starbucks, Burger King, REI, and Target, to name a few. The crypto payments startup. This provides competition for in-browser app Lolli which recently offered this feature for desktop users. However, Fold’s app automatically directs the rewards to a wallet specified by the user.

PundiX $0.000592 USD (5.82 percent) has established a new cooperation with Samsung allowing users to integrate the XWallet app to Samsung Blockchain Wallet. Users can move cryptocurrencies stored in the Samsung Blockchain Wallet into the XWallet, which is also available with the XPOS, a blockchain PoS device deployed across 25 countries.

Ripple $0.320291 USD (2.16 percent) has a newly formed foundation aimed at boosting the adoption and development of the XRP ecosystem. The Netherlands-based fund “will be used to support the development of tools/apps/integrations/plugins that make it easier to use XRP for (consumer/small business) payments.” Most funds so far have gone to the founder of Ripple-backed startup XRPL Labs – Wietse Wind – also a director at the foundation. Meanwhile, Ripple has partnered with Kyoto University and the University of Tokyo as part of its University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI).

Tezos $1.23 USD (21.64 percent), the proof-of-stake and democratically governed blockchain, is the latest addition to Coinbase Pro’s institutional trading platform. XTZ is up over 20 percent today on the news.

– WN.com, Jamie Saarloos