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BANKING BLOW: The most prestigious banking relationship in crypto has ended. Barclays, the London-based global bank, is no longer working with cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, industry sources told CoinDesk. And while Coinbase found a replacement in U.K. upstart ClearBank, according to people familiar with the situation, the change means deposits and withdrawals in GBP now take days to process. ClearBank is expected to restore Coinbase’s FPS access by the end of the third quarter, however. Full story
NEW AMMO: Investors in the cryptocurrency XRP have filed a new complaint against Ripple that marshals the Securities and Exchange Commission’s own words to argue that the startup illegally sold unregistered securities. The amended complaint, filed Aug. 5 in a year-old lawsuit against Ripple, includes several new arguments and may be the first federal case to cite the SEC’s guidance for applying existing law and regulation to crypto tokens. It also marks the first filing to which Ripple must directly respond by addressing the facts of the case. Full story
FLEXA EXPANSION: Payment solution Flexa is launching in the Canadian market. The firm, which launched the U.S. edition of its SPEDN cryptocurrency wallet in mid-May, announced the news in an official blog post. Backed by Winklevoss-founded cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, Flexa said SPEDN is now open to Canadians on both iOS and Android (beta) and claims 7,500 Canadian merchants will be on-boarded by early September. Full story
CLOSING GAP: The spread between the price of bitcoin on South Korean and U.S.-based crypto exchanges, which returned in June and hit 16-month highs, has disappeared once again. A measure of how much more South Koreans pay for bitcoin, the spread, known colloquially as the “kimchi premium,” has previously reached remarkable levels, with an all-time high at 54.48 percent. The premium had recently been running at around 5–10 percent, but had dropped below 2 percent on Tuesday. Full story
BITCOIN AT LAST: Samsung has integrated bitcoin (BTC) functionality on its blockchain-enabled smartphones. The move comes six months after the flagship Galaxy S10 range was launched with a “Blockchain Keystore” offering cryptocurrency storage and transactions for ether (ETH) and related ERC-20 tokens, but which notably excluded the number one cryptocurrency by market cap. The South Korean tech giant has now included bitcoin support to the developer kit (SDK) for several S10 models (S10e, S10, S10+ and S10 5G), as well as the Note10 and Note10+ devices. Full story
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| LOOKING SOUTH: Bitcoin is eyeing a drop to $10,000, with daily technical indicators reporting a short-term bullish-to-bearish trend change. Such a move, however, may be preceded by a "dead cat bounce," as the intraday charts are reporting oversold conditions. A bull revival now requires a break above July's high of $13,200. Full story |
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| | ELECTION THREAT: Italy's coalition government includes blockchain advocates who have been developing policy that “made a meaningful difference” to adoption of the tech in the country, according to Forbes. However, with the recent rise in nationalism and the right, that situation may be about to change. Contributor Roger Huang writes that co-deputy prime minister and leader of the far-right League party, Matteo Salvini, is moving to force a snap election and may win it outright with his "Italians First" stance. If so, blockchain initiatives are likely to suffer as Salvini has never publicly supported blockchain. |
WHO WON #CRYPTOTWITTER
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