Monday, March 23, 2020
Two draft bills by the U.S. Democratic party introduced to the House of Representatives suggested a “digital dollar” as means of doing direct transfers to “qualified individuals” as part of a coronavirus stimulus package. A later draft of one of the bills had the “digital dollar” language removed from it and it is expected that the other bill will follow suit soon.
Crypto wallet provider ZenGo shined a light on an existing decentralized application vulnerability, which grants unrestricted access to one’s crypto wallet instead of only granting access for a given transaction.
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
A draft bill submitted to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs proposed a digitized version of the U.S. dollar, defined as “dollar balances consisting of digital ledger entries recorded as liabilities in the accounts of any Federal Reserve bank“.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) described the conditions for an “actual delivery” of digital assets as complete and sole control over the digital asset within 28 days from the date of the transaction.
The European Commission mandated 253 million euro to small and medium enterprises working on, among other things, cloud- and blockchain-based solutions, which can drive innovation in the defense and civil sectors.
QuadrigaCX trustee to hand, by request of Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), personal information, account balances and transaction data of users of the now-bankrupt Canadian exchange, raising privacy concerns among the creditor’s committee.
A U.S. judge decided in favor of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which has demanded a halt on the planned issuance of $1.7 billion worth of tokens by Telegram on the grounds of selling securities “without a required registration statement“. The messaging platform appealed the court decision later that day.
Blockstack received approval by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for its patent for cryptographically signing into decentralized applications with a single digital identity, without the involvement of a third party.
Wednesday, March 25, 2020
The TON Community Foundation disclosed its intentions of launching Telegram’s blockchain without the participation of the messaging company. However, questions have been raised whether the blockchain would provide any value without the backing of the messaging company.
Mt. Gox trustee plans to settle claims for fiat currencies, bitcoin and bitcoin cash by creditors of the now-bankrupt exchange in their original asset form, whereas other assets, which are still in possession of the former exchange, are to be converted into cash.
A two-year class-action lawsuit against Ripple for violating security rules by selling an unregistered security, has been reinstituted by XRP investors with additional claims.
Thursday, March 26, 2020
The Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) warned two crypto websites, which were falsely claiming to be licensed, registered or domiciled in Malta.
The Digital Dollar Foundation, a coalition lawyering for a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC), named 24 individuals, who will be joining its ranks. Among the new members, there is a former adviser of U.S. President Donald Trump, a high-rank member of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) and a former commissioner of the Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Microsoft filed for a patent, which explains how the human body can be used as proof-of-work in the process of mining cryptocurrencies. In this sense, people could be rewarded for desirable activities with cryptocurrencies.
Friday, March 27, 2020
A few hundred companies, including some prominent blockchain firms such as Coinbase and Binance, have been allowed to operate without a payment license in Singapore until July 28, 2020. After the grace period firms, registered in Singapore, will be required to submit a license application under the Payments Services Act 2019, or will have to be approved for a license by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in order to continue operations.
Coinbase Commerce, Coinbase’s retailer payment portal, crossed $200 million in total transactions processed, a testimony for the ever-increasing adoption of cryptocurrency-based payments.
HSBC digitized a total of $10 billion paper-based private placement records (records of private stocks and bonds transactions that did not take place on a public exchange) on R3’s Corda blockchain. HSBC views the blockchain technology as an opportunity to add value to its clients by “providing them with self-service tools … to source … information“.
Singapore-based crypto exchange Bitget plans to expand its business to the U.S. and the EU. To achieve this the exchange has already registered itself as a money services business with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and plans to apply for a permit with the EU soon.
Saturday, March 28, 2020
Crypto exchange Binance delisted FTX leveraged tokens from its platform to protect users from possible losses due to lack of understanding on the users’ part how the leveraged tokens work.
