Banking on crypto

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January 29, 2020 PROS AND CONS: Silvergate Bank, one of the few U.S. banks openly serving the crypto industry, added 48 new crypto clients in the last three months of 2019. However, deposits and fee income from those clients dropped, according to an earnings report. Full story MET TOO: An investor presentation from Metropolitan Commercial Bank tells a similar tale. The bank’s deposits from digital currency businesses have declined over the past year, a sign competition is heating up in a field where the bank was once one of the only games in town. Full story 5-STAR FLOOD: The OneCoin cryptocurrency project – accused by authorities of being a Ponzi scheme – may have attempted to counter negative news by using "inauthentic" accounts to place large numbers of favorable reviews on TrustPilot and Quora, according to new research. Full story BODY CHECK: Lawyers representing former users of the QuadrigaCX exchange are doubling down on a formal request to exhume deceased founder Gerald Cotten’s body. The lawyers seek to confirm Cotten’s cause of death and whether his body is indeed in the grave, following his mysterious death in 2018. Full story RAISING THE STAKES: Binance US has added staking rewards for the cryptocurrencies algorand (ALGO) and cosmos (ATOM). With the addition, the exchange now joins Kraken and Coinbase in offering staking rewards on PoS coins. Full story $10K NEXT? Backed by bullish longer-duration technical indicators, bitcoin cleared the key 200-day average hurdle on Tuesday, strengthening the case for a rally to $10,000. The bull case would weaken if prices drop below the 200-day average of $8,894 with strong volumes. Full story HIGH STAKES: On the latest episode of The Breakdown podcast, Catherine Coley, CEO of Binance US, talks with Nathaniel Whittemore about the exchange's addition of staking rewards, and what that means for the industry at large. Listen in   WHO WON #CRYPTOTWITTER   Copyright © 2020 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

China should join Libra discussions / Fake Libra ICO on Twitter / Three things to achieve before Libra launches

Inside Libra.

Presented by Subscribe | View in browser 1. Zhu Min, a former deputy governor at the People's Bank of China (PBoC), has urged the nation to reconsider its response to Facebook's Libra project. In Min's opinion, it's "critically important" for the central bank to join discussions and take part in efforts to regulate Libra rather than fast-forward its own mission to create a central bank digital currency (CBDC). Min's remarks come at a time when six central banks - Canada, the European Central Bank (ECB), Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K. - formed a working group with the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) last week to investigate the potential use cases for CBDCs. According to a report, at the time, all seven institutions will assess the "economic, functional and technical design choices, including cross-border interoperability" of CBDCs and will share any findings. -SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST 2. A fake initial coin offering (ICO) for Facebook's Libra stablecoin has reportedly popped up on Twitter. The @CoinLibraToken handle is claiming to sell LIBT tokens to the public. Even though Libra doesn't have any monetary value to it, the scammers claim that by investing 0.1 ETH, it would yield three billion LIBT. If someone decided to invest 1 ETH, they would, allegedly, receive 30 billion LIBT. Despite the fact that there are 12,000 followers of @CoinLibraToken, data shows that 40 percent of those are fake. -CRYPTOSLATE A MESSAGE FROM EQUITYMULTIPLE Making Real Estate Investing Simple, Accessible & Transparent. Build a Stronger Portfolio. Looking to diversify beyond stocks & bonds? EquityMultiple provides you access to the kinds of commercial real estate investments that were once open only to institutional investors. Start with just $10k & diversify across markets, property types, & risk/return profiles. Build a better portfolio. Invest Today   3. According to Dante Disparte, vice-chair of the Libra Association, there are three things it needs to achieve before Libra is launched. The first is to get the "association governance structure" set up and running so that it can "support a generational payment system that could support billions of people..." The second job is to ensure that the technology layer is robust and resilient, and the third is to tackle regulatory and political hurdles. If all three jobs are achieved, Disparte believes that this would bring more clarity and certainty in terms of legalizing the asset. Talking about those who have joined the association, Disparte said that "as a precondition of launch, we need to have a hundred organizations apart from the association." David Marcus, head of Libra, has previously said that around 1,600 organizations around the world have expressed interest in joining the project. He also said that Libra should have "no problem" reaching its goal in launching with 100 members. -AMBCRYPTO 4. A group of lawmakers in Japan is reportedly working to create a digital currency in response to Libra and China's drive for a digital yuan. Details on Japan's digital currency are limited; however, it could be created through a "joint initiative" between the Japanese government and private companies. Speaking to reporters, Norihiro Nakayama, parliamentary vice-minister for foreign affairs, said that the first step would be to look into the idea of creating a digital coin, adding that "China is moving toward issuing digital yuan, so we'd like to propose measures to counter such attempts." -REUTERS 5. David Marcus, head of Libra, has said that the stablecoin project will launch "sooner rather than later." Speaking at the World Economic Forum last week, Marcus said that he was "an optimist," adding that a year ago, conversations around the possibility of something like Libra weren't happening. He went on to say: "I think [they] will lead to a regulatory regime that will mean projects like ours and others will see the light of day." -BUSINESS REPORT 6. In this article, it states that while public opinion of Facebook's Libra is shrinking, central banks are taking the possibility of it seriously. It goes on to note that while many people may think that Libra is "dead and buried," many central banks are operating under the assumption that the stablecoin won't be held back for long, and, as a result, they have to prepare for such a possibility. -FINDER 7. Dante Disparte, vice-chair of the Libra Association, has said that there isn't much competition in the remittance sector. As such, he believes that there are only one or two big players that control these remittance corridors. Speaking of how Libra could tap into this market, he went on to say: "If we introduce the opportunity for digital wallet providers to emerge that are interoperable, that's a big game-changer for the world." -AMBCRYPTO This newsletter was written and curated by Rebecca Campbell. She has been writing and reporting on various industries for the past 10 years, more specifically tech in the last three. Connect with her on Twitter.   Ad Invest in Exclusive, Expertly Vetted Real Estate. From Anywhere. Start with just $10k.

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