Get 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
- Gemini announced that it now supports shielded zcash (ZEC) withdrawals, which gives their clients “an added layer of financial privacy within a regulated and compliant framework.” According to the company, it demonstrates that “with the right controls in place and the proper education, regulators can get comfortable with privacy-enabling cryptos.”
- The Gibraltar Stock Exchange, a subsidiary of the Global Stock Exchange (GSX) Group, has listed Canadian investment fund manager 3iQ’s The Bitcoin Fund, “debuting one of the world’s first regulated and exchange-traded bitcoin funds on a European regulated exchange,” said the emailed press release.
- South Korean crypto trading platform Upbit has launched a beta version of a new crypto staking service, reported Fn News. The platform’s operator, Dunamu, stated that customers would initially be able to stake four tokens, namely tron (TRX), maro (MARO), Terra’s luna (LUNA) and cosmos (ATOM) during the beta, which will only be available to PC users. During the beta service period, a staking limit of just under USD 4,300 per customer will be applied – but the exchange hopes to expand its staking services to include other tokens and mobile platforms in the near future.
- DODO Exchange has announced its governance token, DODO. Per the announcement, the ERC-20 token will be instrumental to the DODO ecosystem, which consists of: Admin DAO, Risk Control DAO, and Earn DAO. The total supply of the DODO token is 1 billion. The team has closed two rounds of funding from investors: USD 600,000 in a seed round, and USD 5m in a private sale round.
Crypto adoption news
- New York-based institutional trading firm Genesis said it launched Genesis Custody after integrating Vo1t’s custody technology, acquired in May this year, with their business. The company also aims to become a qualified custodian and an agency trading venue, launch institutional lending API, enter Singapore, and start a capital introduction business.
Investments news
- The Incrementum Digital & Physical Gold fund, operated by Liechtenstein based investment and asset management company Incrementum, has returned 30% since its launch in February this year, Citywire reported. The fund invests 75% in gold and 25% in cryptocurrencies, mainly bitcoin (BTC), it added.
- Major digital asset management firm Grayscale Investments has increased its reserves by BTC 17,100 (USD 184m) in the past seven days, according to analytics platform bybt. In the past 30 days, the firm increased the reserves by BTC 27,392 (295.3m). This brings the GBTC Bitcoin trust to BTC 449,900 (USD 4.85bn), corresponding to 2.2% of the amount of bitcoin in circulation.
- The Delaware-based bitcoin-themed asset management firm Bitwise has seen an injection of some USD 9m in its Bitwise Bitcoin Fund offering over the last year, as United States-based investors flood to BTC. The company made the revelation in a filing handed to the American regulatory Securities and Exchange Commission. A total of 43 investors made the recent injection of funds.
Blockchain news
- Startup that develops blockchain-based solutions Bianjie has announced a partnership with Wuhan Run He De Kang (RHDK), a healthcare data analytics company focused on developing advanced medical safety and healthcare risk management systems. According to the emailed press release, the two organizations will develop a blockchain-based epidemic early warning system to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Bianjie is the core team behind the development of IRISnet, an interchain service hub for next-generation distributed applications, and one of the early contributors of the Cosmos Network.
Stablecoin news
- Binance said that it has created a stablecoin platform named Venus, making use of its Binance Smart Chain network. The project will make use of a new stablecoin named VAI, which will be underpinned by holdings in a number of tokens constructed on the Binance-native BEP-20 blockchain standard. Per an official release, the firm said that it had cooperated on the project with its Swipe Wallet subsidiary, which it bought outright in an undisclosed deal this year.
Regulation news
- California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill into state law on Friday, per which the California Department of Business Oversight will have expanded enforcement powers “to protect California consumers from pandemic-inspired scams, promote innovation, clarify regulatory hurdles for emerging products, and increase education and outreach for vulnerable groups.” According to the press release, the new authority will encompass financial services not currently subject to the department’s regulatory oversight, “including industries that currently exist unregulated in California or new products or services that may enter the market in the future.” Also, the department will be renamed to the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation.