This is your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
Exchanges news
- Spot trading volumes on both top tier and lower tier crypto exchanges plummeted in June to USD 177bn (-36%) and USD 466bn (-53%) respectively, said the latest report by CryptoCompare, a provider of the crypto market data. Crypto derivatives volumes dropped 36% to the 2020 lowest monthly volume of USD 393bn, while total spot volumes dropped 49% to USD 643bn. Thus, derivatives represented 37% of the market in June. Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) total options volumes reached another all-time monthly high of 8,444 contracts traded up 41% since May. But CME futures volumes decreased since May by 23% to 128,258 in June. Among the top 15 top tier exchanges, Binance and OKEx represent approximately 3/4 of spot volume. Binance traded USD 42bn (-20%), OKEx USD 41bn (-29%), and Coinbase almost USD 7bn (-38.5%).
- The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has granted a London-based subsidiary of Kraken, Crypto Facilities, aka Kraken Futures, a Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF) license. The exchange claims that Crypto Facilities is the first and only licensed derivatives platform offering exposure to leveraged cryptocurrencies in the European Union. The license will allow institutional clients who would be prohibited from trading on unlicensed exchanges to trade on the futures platform.
- OKEx has integrated Flipside Crypto‘s Fundamental Crypto Asset Score (FCAS) feature directly on its platform, said the emailed press release. This will allow traders to look into a crypto asset’s rating, score, rank and fundamental health, and compare it to other crypto assets.
- Bitfinex said has launched paper trading, a demo account service that enables users to practice strategies and trade bitcoin (BTC) in a simulated market environment without putting funds at risk in a live account.
- Maximilian von Wallenberg has become a member of the Management Board of Boerse Stuttgart Digital Exchange GmbH. He is a fintech expert and serial tech entrepreneur, and he was responsible for an AI-based asset manager for cryptocurrencies as Chief Product Officer, among other accomplishments, the company said.
Blockchain news
- The Afghan Government is launching a Smart Medicine project with three large pharmaceutical distributors and producers, in order to battle counterfeit drugs. The country’s government and the pharmaceutical distributors – Royal Star Pharma, Nabros Pharma, and Bliss GVS – have partnered with blockchain startup Fantom. The platform said that, by facilitating blockchain certification of pharmaceuticals in the country, Fantom alongside technology partner Chekkit and its partners will create an immutable audit trail to ensure items are not tampered with at any stage of the distribution. Initially, Fantom with its Opera mainnet will track 80,000 products across four different pharmaceuticals.
- South Korean telecoms operator LG U+ has announced the launch of a blockchain-powered repairs, insurance and warranty service for Samsung smartphones, reports Chosun. The move comes days after rival carrier SK Telecom announced a similar move – also initially only for Samsung handsets.
- A joint public-private sector initiative in South Korea has pledged to invest some USD 838,000 in a blockchain-powered smart payments platform spearheaded by the government of the North Jeolla Province, reports Jeonbuk Joongang. The media outlet says that the central government will foot 60% of the bill, with the remainder coming from private-sector investors.
- Kyobo Insurance, one of South Korea’s biggest insurers, has announced that it is to join a blockchain-powered healthcare initiative, per Bloter. The initiative is named the Health Alliance for U, and claims to manage a customer benefits and data platform in conjunction with online and brick-and-mortar healthcare services. Fellow signatories include the likes of Dunamu subsidiary Lambda256 and pharmaceutical giant Chong Kun Dang.
- The Japanese real estate fund operator Fund Creation has joined the Japan Security Token Association (JSTA), per a press release. The JSTA’s membership has expanded quickly this year, with Securitize’s Japanese subsidiary and major Japanese traditional financial institution Tokai Tokyo joining in recent weeks.
Crypto adoption news
- NetCents Technology, a Canada-based crypto payments technologies company, said it will form a wholly-owned subsidiary in Germany and it will also set up its first European banking relationship. The businesses the subsidiary will operate include merchant processing, invoicing for subscription-based businesses, as well as merchant services and crypto-banking stack/solution as a white-label offering for commercial banks.
- Digital asset investment firm Arca has launched Ethereum-based trading for new fund – its new digitized security, the ArCoin. Per the press release, the ArCoin represents shares in Arca’s US Treasury Fund, which is registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and is 80% made up of US Treasury securities.
Dapps news
- Ethereum-based dapp (decentralized app), Forsage, is an unregistered security, and possibly a Ponzi scheme, decided the Philippine’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Per their announcement, Forsage’s owner is instructed to officially register the dapp, while the users are advised against using it. The SEC added that Forsage said that its program will continue to function even if its website is closed, and that the Government cannot shut it down because it is decentralized, hence free from authority.
Bankruptcy news
- Willie Breedt, CEO of cryptocurrency investment firm VaultAge Solutions, has been declared bankrupt as he was handed a sequestration order by the court in South Africa (forcing him into bankruptcy), reported news24. Breedt is suspected of defrauding over 2,000 investors out of c. ZAR 277 million (USD 16.3 million).
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