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WHERE THE PUCK IS GOING: BitGo is hardly resting on its laurels after receiving conditional regulatory approval from South Dakota to become a qualified custodian for digital assets.
Looking ahead at its next milestone, the blockchain security provider is getting ready to secure a future $1 trillion crypto wallet. "It may be a little far away, but we have to start thinking about it now; we have to start designing it now in order to get there," CEO Mike Belshe said.
In the meantime, BitGo is also working on a crypto insurance product that it plans to release in the next few months. Full Story
LONG ARM OF THE LAW: U.S. regulators brought charges against 1broker for violating federal law through a bitcoin-based security swap scheme.
The Marshall Islands-based company sold securities swaps in exchange for bitcoin. The SEC and CFTC confirmed their suspicions after an undercover FBI agent was able to purchase these swaps on U.S. soil.
The SEC released a statement warning, "International companies that transact with U.S. investors cannot circumvent compliance with the federal securities laws by using cryptocurrency." Full Story
MAN BITES DOG? In what may sound like a counterintuitive move for a self-described decentralized exchange, Everbloom is seeking to become a licensed broker-dealer.
As part of an effort to attract institutional investors to its platform, the company has registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and applied for a license from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the self-regulatory organization. The startup has begun this long and difficult path so as to not be caught in a regulatory mess.
"Obtaining a broker-dealer license is a long, tedious and expensive endeavor but we believe a necessary one that will ultimately add long-term value to the company and position ourselves well against our competitors," said Everbloom CEO Scott Pirrello.
If approved by FINRA, Everbloom could profit off its token-related services (currently offered free of charge) without losing sleep that the tokens might be deemed securities. Full Story
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 Coinbase this week released a new investment product. The "Coinbase Bundle" is a portfolio of crypto assets weighted by the total market cap of each asset. It allows users to gain exposure to all coins listed on Coinbase's platform in one product. Such a portfolio would be at $159.03 if $100 were invested exactly one year ago today. The crypto community should expect similar products to come out from Coinbase and other platforms. For more research insights check out the CoinDesk Research section here. |
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| | HOW LOW CAN YOU GO? The claim that ethereum's price has bottomed out is plausible, since the market structure (i.e. the pattern of price movements over time) is similar to that of December 2017, the last time the cryptocurrency found a floor before rebounding mightily. Full Story |
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BEST OF THE BEST:
BLOOMBERG: Columnist Elaine Ou offers a crisp articulation of the case for decentralized money underpinned by user paranoia rather than the state.
While the arguments will be familiar to veterans of the crypto space, it's a great piece to share with a friend or family member who asks, "how can it be worth anything if it's not backed by the government?"
THE REST:
BLOOMBERG: Another columnist, Joe Weisenthal, analyzes the similarities between the cannabis and the crypto industries today and the dotcom bubble of the 90s.
He re-lives the days in the 90s before the dotcom bubble burst when a company that owned a car delarship claimed to have discovered the cure for AIDS.
But there are clear distinctions in how dotcom companies grew and the mistrust from which the crypto industry was born, Weisenthal notes.
VENTURE BEAT: A startup called GOeureka has launched the alpha version of a blockchain-based hotel booking platform, which it says will allow consumers to make reservations without paying steep commissions.
WALL STREET JOURNAL: An investigative piece claims to have found "nearly $90 million in suspected criminal proceeds that flowed through" 46 cryptocurrency exchanges over a period of two years.
Of that, $9 million in particular went through ShapeShift AG, the Erik Voorhees-led exchange known for providing anonymous services, the article says. This was the most laundered through any single exchange in the U.S., according to the report.
ShapeShift, which plans to institute a new KYC policy next month, reportedly banned several addresses belonging to potential criminals after receiving questions from the Journal. |
We've launched our first-ever podcast, "Late Confirmation," a digest of top stories in the blockchain world, delivered daily from the team at CoinDesk and sponsored by the Oxford Blockchain Programme. |
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