Absolument pas!

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September 12, 2019 BOBBY IS BACK: More than a year after he sold one of China’s longest-running bitcoin exchanges, Bobby Lee, co-founder of BTCC, is back. Announced Thursday at CoinDesk’s Invest: Asia event in Singapore, Lee’s new venture, Ballet, is rolling out a hardware wallet supporting multiple cryptocurrencies. To differentiate its product and spur adoption outside crypto circles, Ballet will generate public addresses and private keys for users in advance. Lee believes this design will make it easier for cryptocurrency newcomers. Full story ISSUED AND SETTLED: Spanish banking giant Santander says it has become the first institution to use a public blockchain to manage all aspects of a bond issuance. Revealed Thursday, the company not only used a token on ethereum to represent the $20 million debt issuance, but settled it with another set of ERC-20 tokens representing cash held in a custody account. Why that’s important: Imagine asking someone a question on WhatsApp and waiting for them to mail a postcard with the answer. Santander, in this analogy, conducted both parts of the conversation digitally. Full story BINANCE IN THE USA: The largest crypto exchange by volume is making its U.S. debut next week. Binance.US said Wednesday that the platform will open registration and deposits on September 18. According to a company blog posting, Binance will roll out multiple products across the U.S. After registration, six cryptocurrencies will be available for deposits: bitcoin, ethereum, XRP, bitcoin cash, litecoin and tether. Trading will begin later at an undisclosed date. Full story ABSOLUMENT PAS! France's finance minister has said the EU should block Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency because it poses a threat to the sovereignty of national currencies. Bruno Le Maire reportedly said at the opening of an OECD conference on blockchain and cryptocurrencies: “I want to be absolutely clear ...  we cannot authorize the development of Libra on European soil.” Full story KLAY SALE: South Korean messaging giant Kakao’s “klay” token – the native cryptocurrency of its recently launched Klaytn blockchain – is soon to make its first official exchange listing on Upbit. Ground X, the firm set up by Kakao to develop the Klaytn network, announced the news in a Medium post on Sept. 5, saying klay will list on Upbit’s Singapore and Indonesia platforms by the end of this month. Upbit Singapore revealed on Sept. 6 that klay will be listed following price discovery via a Dutch auction – in which the price is reduced until buyers are found – on Sept. 18. Full story CHANGING TIDE: Bitcoin is looking up again, with the intraday technical charts reporting bullish reversal patterns. Prices could rise to recent highs above $10,900 in the short-term. The bullish case would further strengthen if trading volumes pick up in the next few hours. A drop below Wednesday's low of $9,855 would put the bears in a strong position, though that looks unlikely at time of writing. Full story EXCHANGE RANKINGS: The U.K. has the most crypto exchanges of any nation worldwide, according to a report from Bitfury’s blockchain analytics arm, Crystal. Despite being home to banks that make buying crypto with GBP tricky, Britain has 43 exchanges registered. Coming in at second and third place, respectively, are the U.S. with 27 exchanges, and Hong Kong with 22. (Actually, second place with 33 exchanges really goes to “unknown” – entities whose geographic location can’t be identified.) Singapore, Australia and China occupy fourth to sixth places, respectively. WHO WON #CRYPTOTWITTER Copyright © 2019 CoinDesk, All rights reserved.  Our mailing address is:  250 Park Avenue South New York, NY, 10003, US  Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list