Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
Legal news
- The case of Ripple versus the United States regulators took a fresh turn as a group of XRP token holders asked the American court system to accept their testimony as third-party defendants in the company’s battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC claims that Ripple has been selling the token as an unregistered security. But the group of “well over” 6,000 XRP holders, represented by lawyer John E. Deaton said, per a letter to the court, that they would speak as one of the “hundreds of nonparties” who had suffered from the SEC’s “overreaching allegations” that Ripple says “have caused harm” to Ripple and XRP supporters.
Investing news
- A new survey of 235 individuals, conducted by Mizuho Securities estimates that 10%, or nearly USD 40bn in direct stimulus checks, may be used to purchase bitcoin (BTC) and stocks, Yahoo Finance reported. “The survey predicts that bitcoin will account for 60% of total incremental investment spend. We calculate it could add as much as 2-3% to bitcoin’s current USD 1.1trn market value,” the report added, citing Mizuho managing director Dan Dolev.
Exchanges news
- OSL Digital Securities said it has secured a Hong Kong-first by “going live” with a new licensed trading desk, which it said has received securities and automated trading service permits for cryptoasset-related offerings from the regulatory Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). The desk, the company claimed, is compatible with leading cryptoassets such as BTC, ethereum (ETH) and “selected security tokens.”
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Diginex Limited, a Nasdaq-listed digital assets financial services company, announced the launch of EQUOS Origin (EQO), a token that can only be earned through trading on the EQUOS crypto exchange. EQO will have utility within an already functioning exchange and is not being offered for sale to raise capital, they said. Meanwhile, in an interview with Bloomberg, Richard Byworth, CEO of Diginex, said that BTC may rise to USD 175,000 by year-end.
- AmericanAirlines Arena, home of the National Basketball Association’s Miami Heat, is edging closer to securing a new naming rights partnership with popular crypto derivatives platform FTX, the Miami Herald reported (via SportsPro). Per the report, in preparation for the naming rights partnership, the domain name ftxarena.com has been registered by an unidentified party.
Blockchains news
- NEM Group said it launched Symbol, its next-generation Proof-of-Stake+ (PoS+) public blockchain. Symbol’s technical features can be leveraged by projects building fintech, healthcare and supply chain products, they said, adding that with the launch comes XYM, the native token of the Symbol from NEM (XEM) platform, used for transactions on the network.
- Chinese giant Ant Group has been ranked first in terms of the number of global blockchain patent families filed, followed by another two Chinese giants, Ping An and Tencent, Ant Group said, citing a report by Intellectual Asset Management, a magazine focused on “intellectual property from a business point of view.” The rankings were based on data from Clarivate’s Derwent Innovation, whose Derwent World Patents Index (DWPI) showed that in 2020, there were 9,415 patent families filed in the blockchain field, a drop from 12,300 in 2018 and 11,299 in 2019, Ant Group said in an emailed announcement.
Payments news
- Velo Labs and Interstellar announced that the Interstellar team, based in San Francisco, is integrating with Southeast Asia-based Velo Labs, under the leadership of Mike Kennedy and with the ongoing support of its partner organizations, Stellar Development Foundation and Lightnet Group. “The strategic partnership between Interstellar and Velo Labs, which began in January 2020, set out to revolutionize international payments,” they added. Velo Labs is backed by Stellar Network, while Interstellar advises businesses and creates products and solutions, primarily leveraging the Stellar (XLM) blockchain network.
NFTs news
- The non-fungible token (NFT) craze has now moved on to body parts, with a 20-year-old tennis pro taking to the OpenSea platform to auction off her right arm and shoulder – in digital form, of course. The tennis player, Ukraine’s Alexandra Oleynikova, is currently ranked 654th in the world, but said that the winning bidder will be able to request that she bears a tattoo “or any other artwork” of their choosing. Per Sports.ru, Oleynikova stated, “When I start performing at Wimbledon or the [French Open], you will be able to resell the NFT for considerably more” than it is currently worth.
Career news
- Brian Brooks, the former acting head of the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, has joined Spring Labs, a financial technology firm aiming to improve the exchange of sensitive data, as its first independent director, the company said.