Category: Economic World News

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USD Coin has been in the spotlight of late and the reasons should not be far-fetched for anyone who has been following proceedings in the crypto ecosystem of late. In less than a month, the company rose in value and notched the 58th position of top cryptocurrencies, according to data on CoinMarketCap. More overwhelming is the circulating supply of the coin which surpassed 125 million with a 24-hour trading volume of about $2 million.

Not less than 12 exchanges, according to an official blog post from Circle, have expressed their plans of joining the ecosystem for the incorporation of the USD coin. The exchanges are BitMart, Fcoin, Gatecoin, Hanbitco, Hotbit, SWIFT, OCP Capital, DDEX and Bit-Z. The world’s first instant crypto-backed loan provider; Nexo also disclosed the ongoing process of adding the stablecoin. Users of Shenzhen-based cryptocurrency startup Bitkan and wallet provider Tokenary can as well store and use USDC to carry out various services.

The last two weeks recorded a surge in the number of companies granting reception to USDC since the token was issued. About 50 companies are coming on board and the motivation stems from the collaboration between Circle and Coinbase which led to the establishment of CENTRE Consortium.

Bootstrapped by contributions from founding members Circle and Coinbase, an early form of these protocols in production today servicing millions of customers. CENTRE envisions a decentralized and independent system where its software implementation will be handled by an organization exclusively set up for this purpose. It will provide the support, governance and ongoing research and development for the project.

Circle Announces Plan to Remove Redemption Fees

The regulated Money Transmitter Circle has decided to stop the charging of fees for the conversion of USDC to US dollars. This decision is a perfect way to latch onto the burgeoning popularity of the stablecoin.

USD Coin seeks to remove the attendant time challenges associated with the movement of dollars anywhere in the world. The software-compatible fiat stablecoin infuses stability within the crypto space and opening new frontiers for trading, risk hedging, lending and beyond. Thus, users can tokenize their dollars into USDC and vice-versa from Circle and Coinbase. USDC is acceptable for crypto-only exchanges.

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Taiwan’s highest legislature has approved amendments to existing laws, enabling the country’s regulator to combat anonymous cryptocurrency transactions.

On Friday, Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan passed a legislative proposal that mandates cryptocurrency transactions to fall under the purview of existing money laundering laws.

The amendments to the Money Laundering Control Act and the Terrorism Financing Prevention Act enables the country’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) – Taiwan’s financial regulator – to gather KYC information of cryptocurrency investors from trading platforms, Focus Taiwan reports.

Specifically, the regulator “now demand that operators of virtual currency platforms implement “real-name systems” that require users to register their real names, according to new provisions,” an excerpt from the report added.

Further, banks will also be required to report ‘suspicious’ transactions that are anonymous, to the regulator. The amendments, Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said, align the country’s laws with international anti-money laundering norms.

The revisions follow a pointed proposal by Taiwanese lawmaker Jason Hsu who, in October, sought to enforce a similar framework used by the EU’s Anti-Money Laundering Directive.

Hsu, a congressman from Taiwan’s Nationalist Party, has advocated against calls for a cryptocurrency ban and instead called on Taiwan to take a different position to the hostile stances taken by neighbouring China and South Korea.

“Just because China and South Korea are banning, doesn’t mean that Taiwan should follow suit – there is a huge opportunity for growth in the future,” Hsu said in a parliamentary session last year. “We should emulate Japan, where they treat cryptocurrency as a highly regulated, highly monitored industry like securities.”

As reported in October, the chairman of Taiwan’s FSC has also revealed that the regulator is preparing guidelines for regulating initial coin offerings (ICOs) in the country.

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Hong Kong-based stock market commentator Raymond Yuen has been indicted for misleading web users into investing into a Crypto Mining Ponzi Scheme.

Based on reports on local Hong Kong media outlet The Standard, investors had narrated to the Democratic party how Yuen swindled them of HK$6.9 million in funds for a Ponzi scheme.

According to the reports, Yuen had promised juicy profits to investors who invested in the crypto mining services, he was promoting. Yuen also lured investors into signing agreements, where he recommended a 10-month payback offer, according to the report.

Sham Shui Po district councilor and deputy spokesman for the party’s financial policy panel, Ramon Yuen Hoi-man said Yuen promised them they could get their money back after the 10-months period and make profits afterward. They, however, started getting concerned about their investments as the return being sent to them was reduced on a monthly basis.

While the media outlet remains unclear if some investors had taken out a loan or not, one of the complainants, Chan, according to the Standard, had borrowed HK$200,000, which she used to invest into the mining services for a little yield of HK$7 per day.

Investors who filed the complaint complained about the lack of transparency regarding the contract and the share of profit, which they claim was far less than they expected. They also accuse Yuen of failing to disclose the risks involved in cryptocurrency mining and making false claims about the affiliation of the company with the founder of the cryptocurrency being mined, which he claimed could change the “algorithm to outperform its competitors.”

Shum Wan-wa, a lawyer and a member of the Wong Tai Sin District Council, said the contract signed by the investors was a trap, as it included a waiver to their right to file a class action suit against the company.

Known as “The Young Wizard of Investment”, Yuen, who had shot to prominence in the early 2000s for his analysis of the stock market, had lured investors in with his status as a financial expert, who had built his status through two radio shows on financial investments and authored a book on stock investments.

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Reliance Industries, India’s largest private sector firm, has successfully participated in its first ever trade finance transaction powered by blockchain technology.

In an industry first, Indian oil and energy conglomerate Reliance Industries completed a trade finance transaction with US-based Tricon Energy, a global chemical distributor.

The end-to-end ‘live’ transaction was executed over R3’s Corda blockchain, a press release from HSBC India confirmed. Corda’s blockchain platform is described by the press release as a “single shared application, rather than requiring multiple isolated digital systems across various counterparties, located around the globe.”

HSBC and fellow banking giant ING Bank Brussels facilitated the Letter of Credit – the bank guarantee of a buyer’s payment- of the shipment between the two energy firms in a fully digitized transfer of title. Compared to current timelines of up to 7 to 10 days of processing export documentation, the blockchain solution facilitates the transaction in less than a day.

Pointedly, the announcement boasted:

This transaction validates the commercial and operational viability of blockchain as an alternative to conventional exchanges for paper-based documentation.

Specifically, the letter of credit was issued by ING Bank for Tricon Energy USA as the importer with HSBC India participating as the negotiating bank for Reliance Industries as the exporter.

Underlining the “transformative impact” of blockchain technology in trade finance, HSBC India’s head of global banking and markets Hitendra Dave stated:

“The use of blockchain is a significant step toward digitizing trade…The overall efficiency it brings to trade finance ensures cost effectiveness, quicker turnaround and potentially unlocks liquidity for business.”

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Andreas M. Antonopoulos, the author of “Mastering Bitcoin” and a self-proclaimed “computer geek” who has dedicated his career to bitcoin, has a bone to pick with Bitly, the web-link shortening service.

Bitly has seemingly blacklisted cryptocurrency sites from its service, prompting readers with a warning prior to redirecting to the original website, a Twitter thread between the bitcoin expert and one of his readers reveals.

Antonopoulos is close to publishing his fourth book, which is comprised of hundreds of crypto-related bit.ly links that Bitly is blocking. A reader seemingly brought this to his attention, questioning why Bitly was issuing a warning when the sites “don’t point to any harmful location at all.”  Antonopoulos asks the company for an explanation, threatening to remove and replace all of the bit.ly links with a competitor. The fourth book he references appears to be “Mastering Ethereum”, which comes out in less than four weeks.

Hey @Bitly,

Why are you blocking https://t.co/9gk4wWPQnN links to crypto-currency sites?

I’m about to publish my 4th book and it has about 200 https://t.co/9gk4wWPQnN links in it. If you are going to block links, I will need to remove all 200 and replace them with a competitor https://t.co/Xg4FkemcA7

— Andreas M. Antonopoulos (@aantonop) November 3, 2018

The “Mastering Bitcoin” author went on to canvas the crypto community for a solution, asking: “What (reliable, neutral, established) link-shortening service can I use that doesn’t filter/block links based on a broken blacklisting service? I need to replace all @Bitly links in my book ASAP.” While he wasn’t looking for “roll your own” suggestions, this is largely what he received from the Twitter sphere.

Other followers suggested that Antonopoulos avoid shortening links in his new book altogether, saying that readers aren’t keen on clicking on a link shrouded in mystery anyway. Others still suggested taking a more decentralized approach by using an archive system at the end of the page or chapter to avoid relying on a third-party altogether.

Crypto Ban Deja Vu

Antonopoulos is an influencer in the cryptocurrency community and probably someone that Bitly doesn’t want to alienate, as it would likely trigger a ripple effect among blockchain-content publishers.  He is an early bitcoin investor who previously sold his holdings to pay his rent, in response to which he became in a millionaire thanks to donations by the crypto supporters inspired by Roger Ver.

His books, which also includes “The Internet of Money”, are best sellers. Most recently, “Mastering Bitcoin” has made its way into China’s media programming, though they replaced Bitcoin in the title with Blockchain. Antonopoulos said that “even with a slightly sanitized title…the content is the same.”

Meanwhile, tech leaders including Facebook and Google earlier this year attempted to officially block crypto-related ads but those bans have since been lifted. Investors cried foul at the time, pointing out how tech giants continued to allow ads for other risky sites like gambling. Meanwhile, ads are a key component to the tech revenue model.

It’s unclear if Bitly has taken an official position on crypto-related links, and the company has yet to respond to an email seeking comment.

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