Crypto News Headlines — June 7th 2021
Here are the top digital assets news from the weekend.
After being an outspoken advocate for Bitcoin Musk has cooled on Bitcoin calling it destructive to the environment and discontinuing Tesla's short-lived acceptance of Bitcoin as payment for cars. Anonymous has called out musk and has demanded he stops meddling in cryptocurrency.
COINBASE TO GIVE AWAY $1.2MM IN $DOGE
After listing on Coinbase this week Coinbase is giving away over $1MM in Dogecoin to any user who opts-in to sweepstakes and trades (buys or sells) at least $100 worth of the coin.
FIDELITY SELLS OVER $100MM TO WEALTHY INVESTORS
Fidelity investments has raised $102MM from investors in the first nine months since launching the fund according to SEC filings. This makes the fund one of the largest after Pantera, Galaxy and NYDIG.
About Mainbloq
Mainbloq is a data, research, and technology company focusing on blockchain and digital assets. Mainbloq offers a suite of trading tools, including smart order routing and trading algorithms for hedge funds, traders, and some of the world’s largest banks. For more information visit https://mainbloq.io
Clay Cowdery Named As COO at MainBloq
MainBloq, the high-performance trade execution infrastructure for digital assets, is pleased to announce that Clay Cowdery has joined the executive team as Chief Operating Officer.
Clay brings 25+ years experience in tech, engineering, analytics, and financial services operations. He has worked with a variety of early stage FinTechs and established financial infrastructure solution providers. Clients include global banks, clearing houses, and financial regulators.
“I am very excited to join the MainBloq team as we scale the company and provide even more value to our clients. The demand for flexible, advanced financial infrastructure for institutional clients trading in the digital asset space is growing at an incredibly fast pace.”
Clay’s over two decades of experience as an enterprise architect, business strategist, and operations lead will be key to expanding Mainbloq’s footprint in the institutional digital asset space.
“I have been working in cross border fiat currency and trade settlement back-office operations for many years with global financial institutions and central banks. Digital currency has been on everyone’s radar for a number of years. We are now seeing institutional investors investing in these asset classes and taking them seriously,” said Clay.
As part of the company’s continued investment in product and client development Clay will spearhead productizing Mainbloq’s offering for institutional clients and building the company’s strategic roadmap in order to deliver outstanding client experience across Mainbloq’s portfolio of current and future clients.
“I am very excited about the Mainbloq solution and focus on connectivity, messaging and algos. We provide institutional investors with a single virtual view across multiple trading venues and provide them with trading algos to accelerate their trading strategy.
“Clay’s superpower is his ability to filter and focus on delivering features that make an impact advancing the cryptocurrency trading markets” said Chairman and Founder Peter Bordes, “In a complex, rapidly growing global space like digital assets the ability to see the forest for the trees is indispensable.”
Clay is joining Mainbloq during an expansionary period as the company embarks on broadening its client base both in terms of the types of clients and scope of relationships with those clients.
“Clay is that rare person who has vision and the ability to execute,” said CEO and Founder Ryan Kuiken “We’re excited to bring Clay in to help us execute our expansion as the marketplace matures.”
“I think that my knowledge, experience, and wisdom overlaps and complements the rest of the Mainbloq team,” said Clay. I am really excited to contribute to our corporate culture which fosters humility and diversity of ideas, supporting everyone to execute to their greatest strengths. This is rare in the deep technology and Fintech space.”
About Mainbloq
Mainbloq is a data, research, and technology company focusing on blockchain and digital assets. Mainbloq offers a suite of trading tools, including smart order routing and trading algorithms for hedge funds, traders, and some of the world’s largest banks.
Contact Mainbloq
Ryan Kuiken, CEO
Ryan@mainbloq.io
MAINBLOQ Integrates with BEQUANT
BEQUANT and MAINBLOQ have announced a partnership and have both made a serious commitment to building out the technology layer for the emerging digital asset space. As institutions have taken a closer look at the space both companies have been busy building the technology. This includes MAINBLOQ’s Smart Order Router and suite of algorithms and BEQUANT’s Prime Brokerage and Bequant Solutions units.
“We’ve said this before and we’ll say this again, we believe that institutions will be the foundation of Cryptocurrency trading. That is why we’re pleased to announce our partnership with BEQUANT,” says Ryan Kuiken, CEO of MAINBLOQ, “BEQUANT has a similar outlook on the future of the market and this strategic partnership is important to us.”
BEQUANT’s services will provide an unprecedented level of digital asset integration for the financial services industry, from trading terminals, cross-border compliance, matching engines to deep liquidity and tokenization. Combined with MAINBLOQ’s solutions, the market will see a robust and global suite of digital asset opportunities.
“We are incredibly happy to be partnering with MAINBLOQ and are fully committed to delivering industry focused products together,” adds George Zarya, BEQUANT CEO.
MAINBLOQ is currently integrated to 31 of the top cryptocurrency venues and with the addition of BeQuant offers its clients another source of liquidity. Clients can connect to MAINBLOQ via WebSockets, REST and FIX 4.4 & 5.0 where available.
About MAINBLOQ
MAINBLOQ is a research and fintech company focusing on digital assets. MAINBLOQ offers a modular platform including a smart order router, suite of execution algorithms, FIX gateway and consulting services to help clients execute on their trading strategies. MAINBLOQ is building the best-in-class platform for trading digital assets, For more information visit https://MAINBLOQ.io/
About BEQUANT
BEQUANT is a one stop solution for professional digital-assets investors and institutions. Our breadth of products include prime brokerage, custody, fund administration enhanced by an institutional trading platform providing low-latency, liquidity and direct market access.
BEQUANT is dedicated to providing solutions that create market efficiencies by reducing friction while delivering exceptional client services.
The BEQUANT team is comprised of experts from institutional, retail and digital financial services with experience in banking, derivatives, electronic trading and prime brokerage.
Announcing our 30th Exchange Integration: Bithumb Korea
We’ve been busy over the last few months connecting dozens of venues to Mainbloq. We’re thrilled to announce that with the addition of Bithumb Korea we are now connected with 30 exchanges. While we are thrilled with this accomplishment, we don’t see this as an endpoint. We have more exchanges currently in development to continue our goal of connecting the world’s pools of digital asset liquidity.
At Mainbloq our vision has always been to bring the technology available on the street side to the cryptocurrency market. This means seamless liquidity through our smart order router and sophisticated algorithms that can be executed across all of the thirty exchanges—and growing—that Mainbloq is connected to.
“We’re thrilled at the response we’ve seen from our partners—institutions, hedge funds, EMS and PMS providers, etc—” said Ryan Kuiken, CEO of Mainbloq, “and we know we’re still in early days. We have a long roadmap on our horizon to bring the best in class technology to the industry”.
Want to learn more? We love to talk. Go to our contact page and share your information. We’ll be in touch soon. https://mainbloq.io/contact/
The SEC Temporarily Suspended Trading in Bitcoin Generation Miner’s Shares
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is temporarily suspending trading of shares in a little-known, self-described crypto exchange and mining firm called Bitcoin Generation (BTGN).
The regulator announced Monday that it was suspending trading until 11:59 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time on May 10, 2019 (or 03:59 UTC May 11) due to concerns that some information BTGN has made public may be inaccurate.
Specifically, the SEC is concerned about a bond that BTGN “purportedly acquired from an entity based in the United Kingdom”; how much BTGN stock is outstanding; promotional activity related to BTGN; and the “accuracy and adequacy...
Huobi Cloud Aims for 80 More Exchange Partners
Singapore-based exchange conglomerate Huobi Group has a unique growth strategy for emerging markets: partner with local entities and then split the profits 50/50.
Revealed exclusively to CoinDesk, the South African exchange HIZA will launch in May and join a cohort of 150 platforms under the Huobi Cloud umbrella, according to Huobi Group’s senior business director David Chen.
“We will help them get their trading volume up and we’ll expand our business when the market is more mature,” Chen said, adding that up to 80 like-minded partnerships are currently in the pipeline.
Recent expansion isn’t unique to Huobi, however. Global exchange giants like Binance are opening independent subsidiaries in emerging markets like Uganda, or investing in local exchanges the way Bittrex did with the South African exchange VALR. Similar to Bittrex, Huobi Group offers partners like HIZA access to its global order books for prime liquidity.
Interestingly, the partnership approach allows Huobi to minimize the regulatory risks of working in under-developed markets – where banking relationships require local knowledge and repercussions for unintentional missteps remain uncertain.
“They [HIZA] own their customer data, it’s not Huobi that owns it, otherwise it would be Huobi’s responsibility,” Chen said.
He added that Huobi Group has earned $1.5 million in net profit since October 2018 from Cloud partnerships that have already gone live. One such...
Are Stiffer Bitcoin Regulations Brexit’s Surprising Side-Effect
By CCN: The prolonged process for withdrawing from the European Union may have resulted in great uncertainty, but the UK’s financial watchdog is sure about what it wants post-Brexit – more muscle to oversee bitcoin and the crypto industry at large.
According to the Financial Conduct Authority’s business plan for 2019/2020, the regulator will urge Her Majesty’s Treasury to boost its enforcement powers in the crypto sector ahead of Brexit. Per FCA’s chief executive, Andrew Bailey, UK’s EU withdrawal is the body’s most pressing and urgent challenge.
Andrew Bailey on our Business Plan 2019/20 https://t.co/4Juptx0QcY pic.twitter.com/d5guGsyJtV
— FCA (@TheFCA) April 17, 2019
The financial watchdog intends to first hold public consultation first, though, before its enforcement powers can be increased:
“Following our consultation on cryptoassets we will publish a Feedback Statement and finalised Perimeter Guidance. We will also provide technical advice to the Treasury on extending the perimeter for utility and exchange tokens and on extending our financial crime provisions to certain activities related to cryptoassets.”
Is FCA Too Eager to...
Winklevoss Reach Settlement With Charlie Shrem
The Winklevoss twins reached a settlement with Charlie Shrem on April 16, 2019, declaring that their case against him has been dismissed with prejudice and will not be reopened.
The twins, who founded the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange, originally sued Shrem, the founder of early bitcoin company BitInstant, in November 2018, alleging that Shrem stole 5,000 bitcoin from the pair in 2012. They asserted that Shrem agreed to build a stockpile of cryptocurrency for them at their expense but then came up short by nearly $60,000 in bitcoin at the contemporary market rate, keeping this portion of the hoard secret until its worth grew to the tens of millions of dollars.
As the...
Overstock’s tZERO Exchange to Launch Bitcoin Trading App This June
Overstock’s security token platform tZERO is going full crypto.
Until now, security tokens had been the startup’s priority, but this summer, tZERO plans to launch its own mobile trading app for buying and selling bitcoin and, possibly, ether, CEO Saum Noursalehi told CoinDesk Thursday.
The app for IOS and Android devices is scheduled to launch in June and is being developed by Bitsy — a crypto startup in the portfolio of Overstock’s venture arm Medici Ventures.
“That’s part of the reason we acquired Bitsy — to accelerate time to market for our mobile app,” Noursalehi told CoinDesk, adding:
“They have an app for trading crypto, primarily bitcoin, in a beta-phase, they built a wallet and key recovery mechanism, and this will be the foundation of the mobile app for tZERO. They are also working on some cool stuff like biometric login.”
The app, he added, will allow users to hold custody of their crypto without relying on a third party, and will plug into a network of exchanges through tZERO’s partner, institutional trading platform SFox.
tZERO’s app will connect to SFox’s network of exchanges via its...
Rakuten to Launch Their Crypto Wallet March 30th
Rakuten Inc. just announced their intention to terminate “All Bitcoins Inc.” and launch their own “Rakuten Wallet” on March 30. Businesses launching crypto wallets is nothing new, following companies like Line, KIK and KakaoTalk. The news comes after Rakuten completed their filings as a virtual currency exchange company (VCEX.)
The company stated:
Rakuten Wallet will contribute to the sound growth of the market as a virtual currency exchange company and will further enhance security and provide enhanced services so that more customers can use it safely and with confidence.
Rakuten will be filing another VCEX application for Rakuten Wallet in September 2019.
Rakuten Inc. (4755: JP) holds a market capitalization about one-tenth the size of GM’s profits, number ten on the Fortune 100 list.
What Does Rakuten Do?
Earning cashback on purchases can make large purchases a little more enticing if you pair it with decent discounts. Rakuten aggregates discounts and helps customers receive cash back on their online purchases.
Their offerings have struck a not-so-nice chord...