Bakkt all-time high / LocalBitcoins compliance / Israeli blockchain lending / Interest-bearing Abra

Inside Cryptocurrency .

Inside.com Part of   Network July 28, 2020

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Market Watch Bitcoin $10,969 +1.6% Ethereum $317 -1.6% XRP $0.228 +2.6% Top 100 Winner: Kava.io (KAVA) $2.48 +16.2% Top 100 Loser: Ampleforth (AMPL) $1.66 -24.7% Prices as of 4:00 p.m. ET

Bakkt reported a record-high trading volume yesterday on its physically-settled monthly bitcoin future contract. Bakkt's largest investor is the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the NYSE. More: On Monday, 11,509 bitcoin or $114m worth of futures, were traded. Monday's trading volume was 84% higher than its next-highest volume day during the past 12 months: December 17, 2019. Skew Analytics

LocalBitcoins added compliance and transaction screening. The peer-to-peer bitcoin marketplace selected Elliptic to provide automated transaction and wallet screening solutions to reduce illicit use. More: Finland-based LocalBitcoins reported a global trading volume of $2.9b in 2019 and 15.6m transactions between 913,000 traders. Founded in 2012, LocalBitcoins transactions have historically cleared offline, in cash, face-to-face, and without identity verification. Its volumes have been declining since June 2019, when it banned cash transactions, and began demanding ID checks and implementing EU KYC/AML practices. Elliptic's Chief Scientist told CoinDesk that these policy shifts have contributed to "a 50% drop in darknet crypto inflows for the year." Although LocalBitcoins' volume increased just 10% from 2018 to 2019, its headcount ballooned 65%. Coindesk

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Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) announces first-ever Central Blockchain Securities Lending Platform. The trading platform will utilize distributed ledger technology for "a new level of safety for securities lending." More: TASE members were given access to a sandbox environment for testing in March. TASE claims the platform will allow direct lending between market participants of major financial instruments, including positions held for "shorter timeframes." Tel Aviv Stock Exchange

Abra now offers interest-bearing accounts. Annualized yields are currently 4.1% for Bitcoin, 4% for Ethereum, and 9% for stablecoins USDT, USDC, PAX, and TUSD.  Background on U.S. interest-bearing crypto accounts: On July 13, the SEC and the CFTC charged Abra and related company Plutus Technologies Philippines Corp. for unregistered security-based swap transactions. Abra settled both charges without admission or denial. Abra was founded by Bill Barhydt. Investors include Stellar (XLM), Josh Kopelman, and Howard Morgan's First Round Capital, Brock Pierce's Blockchain Capital, and American Express Ventures. Abra's competitor, BlockFi, is yielding 6% on small deposits and 3.2% on deposits above 5 bitcoin. BlockFi's investors include Peter Thiel, Michael Arrington, Morgan Creek, Michael Novogratz, and the Winklevoss twins. Abra's stablecoin yield of 9% slightly exceeds BlockFi's yield of 8.6% on its three listed stablecoins: USDC, GUSD, and PAX. The Block Crypto

Polkadot raises $43m in a private token sale. More: Polkadot's native DOT tokens were reportedly available for $125 apiece. Polkadot aims to build a network that bridges other blockchains. Polkadot integrated off-blockchain data provider Chainlink on February 24, making it the first project beyond Ethereum to utilize decentralized oracles. The Block Crypto

Augur's long-awaited Version 2 launches today. Augur has seen sparse updates since co-founder Joey Krug seemingly abandoned the project several years ago. More: Augur released its mainnet in July 2018 but suffered from numerous complaints of low transaction volume and poor user experience. Ahead of the v2 launch, Augur's REP token has rallied 134% YTD. Its market cap is $230m. On May 22, 2018, when asked Krug how actively involved he was in Augur development, Krug said he was overseeing the project and had hired about 20 people to do coding. Augur v2 introduces a new REP token called "REPv2" which will require a token swap from the old coin. Brave New Coin

Austria's A1 Telekom now accepts bitcoin as payment. Bitcoin and other cashless payment options are now available within "A1 Payment." The telecommunications giant generates over $5b in annual revenue. A1 Telekom Austria Group

Upcoming Technical Events: The Shelly network of Cardano (ADA) is scheduled to hardfork tomorrow, July 29. The Mainnet of Elrond (ERD) is scheduled to launch Thursday, July 30. Binance will swap Augur's old token REP for REPV2 on July 30. Ethereum (ETH) 2.0 testnet Madella is tentatively scheduled to go live on August 4.

Quick Hits: DeFi protocol Synthetix is decommissioned. Asset management firm FiCAS launches a cryptocurrency Exchange Traded Product (ETP) in Switzerland on SIX Digital Exchange. The actively managed product is called Bitcoin Capital Active ETP. Michael Pratt, Treasury Secretary of Australia's New South Wales, proposes regulatory reform for blockchain within the state. Using Chainalysis' new Market Intel tool, reporters are releasing new investigations, such as today's report from CoinTelegraph showing that although 0.32% of cryptocurrency transactions are illicit, 5% of all circulating bitcoin have been accumulated by darknet markets, scammers, and thieves. CEO's and CFO's talk the winners and losers of the office of the future. * * This is sponsored content.

Written and curated by wide-eyed bitcoin watcher since $1, Aaron Wise. Streaming headline junkie, Associated Press fanboy, eye-strained news terminal watcher, 2017 founder of Cryptocurrency Newsfeed. Temporarily based in Florida while awaiting the construction of cryptopia.  Editor Written and curated by Eduardo Garcia in New York. Eduardo is a graduate of the Columbia Journalism School M.A. Science program and writes regularly for the New York Times Climate Fwd: newsletter. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade.

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