EOS TROUBLES: The world’s seventh-largest blockchain by market cap, EOS, has had a value topping $3 billion since February. But the project has long been plagued by fears that its structure was too centralized, and now the lion’s share of entities that govern the chain are in China, prompting fears of state intervention. Further, EOS contributors devoted to building decentralized apps (dapps) and development tools for the blockchain are losing clout – and making little or no money from contributing to the ecosystem. One of them even publicly disavowed the blockchain earlier this month, citing the excessive power of the largest EOS token holders. Full story EXTORTION ARREST: U.S. law enforcement has charged Steven Nerayoff, an early supporter of the ethereum project and a former paid advisor to Overstock’s tZero, with extortion. Nerayoff, an attorney and founder of blockchain consulting firm Alchemist, was arrested Wednesday by the FBI and was scheduled to face charges before a federal court in Brooklyn. The FBI also arrested Michael Hlady, an Alchemist associate. The pair face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of the alleged scheme, described by the FBI as “an old-fashioned shakedown” by the Attorney Office’s for the Eastern District of New York and “an age-old extortion scheme … with a modern-day twist.” Full story TOKEN ACTION: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged ICOBox and founder Nikolay Evdokimov for violating securities laws with its 2017 token sale and subsequent activity facilitating other initial coin offerings (ICOs). The SEC alleges that Evdokimov raised $14.6 million by selling “ICOS” tokens to more than 2,000 individuals, promising customers that the tokens would increase in value once they began trading. Moreover, token holders were told they could purchase other tokens on the ICOBox platform at a discount using ICOS tokens. Now, “the ICOS tokens are virtually worthless,” the SEC says. Full story BANK GOES CRYPTO: The Swiss branch of one of the top financial institutions in the Middle East is launching a suite of cryptocurrency-based services. Arab Bank (Switzerland) announced on Thursday that it will offer services such as custody and brokerage of bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH). The bank – based in the canton of Zug, aka “Crypto Valley” – said the launch is aimed at “existing and younger clients who seek to include digital assets as one asset class in their diversified portfolios." Full story TRADE PLAY: Bank of America has joined Marco Polo, a consortium working to bring efficiencies to international trade using blockchain technology. The bank said Thursday that, as a long-standing provider of trade and supply chain finance solutions, it is becoming a Marco Polo member firm to offer better services for clients. Founded by startups R3 and TradeIX, Marco Polo is built on R3’s Corda blockchain platform. The network aims to deliver real-time connectivity, greater visibility for trading relationships and lower barriers to accessing capital. Full story | 
