Crypto never stays boring. Crypto never stays boring with news all over the world confirming its growing legitimacy. It also covers its growing pains as well.
Blockchain technology continues to prove itself a trending winner amongst institutions and individuals – South Korean ICONLOOP raised 10 billion KRE ($8 million USD) in its Series A funding round.
New Vector, a British blockchain startup also raised $8.5 million this week. The company developed a decentralized messaging protocol known as Matrix which serves as an alternative to WhatsApp and Slack. Governments like the US and France count themselves as some of its clients.
NuCypher, a privacy-focused blockchain startup raised $10.6 million from Bitfury, Arrington Capital, and more.
BCause was forced to liquidate its assets after failing to pay its creditors. BCause has originally filed for reorganization but creditors urged the court to dismiss the filing as they believed the company was beyond reproach.
In Europe, the EU finance commissioner pledged to propose new rules to govern the crypto industry. Valdis Dombrovskis, the commissioner, believes that the region must have a unified approach to crypto if it hopes to compete to be a global crypto hub.
Hong Kong, even amidst its troubles, is also seeking to regulate crypto.
In Japan, the finance minister revealed that crypto donations to individual politicians aren’t illegal, unlike those made in cash or securities.
The United States SEC continues to crack down on icos and crypto companies. They’ve already settled with Longfin, PlexCorps, and Block.one. This week, it was Reginald Middleton, the man behind Veritaseum. The company raised $15 million but the SEC cracked down, accusing them of illegal sale of securities and misappropriation of funds.
Blockchain and crypto adoption continues, with the week seeing established global franchises launching key products. The world’s largest retailer Walmart announced this week that it had launched a blockchain project that would track shrimp imports to its Sam’s Club locations. The project would enable small farmers in India to supply the retailer which was previously not possible.
In Japan, Nomura, a financial services giant, has formed a blockchain partnership with LINE, a messaging operator. In nearby South Korea, CU, a popular convenience store with 13,500 locations, is set to accept mobile blockchain-based payments.
No surprises here, but Libra continues to be in the hot seat, and not in the best of ways. We saw PayPal exit, which caused others to become questioning of their relationship with the association. Those with shaky ties are rumored to be payment processing giants Visa and Mastercard, as well as Stripe.
We’ve also seen Bakkt trading volume finally skyrocket to nearly 800%. Could this be the rush that we’ve been waiting for?
What do you think? We have a lot of scrutiny in our industry, but we’ve also got a lot of progress too. Let us know what you think on our Facebook Page!
