“BBVA, the second-largest bank in Spain, with about $840 billion in assets, is poised to enter the cryptocurrency trading and custody space. The Spanish bank will begin its crypto offering out of Switzerland, said a source.
There are still some compliance hurdles so this will not be in December, but I expect they [BBVA] will be live next month.”
See Also: Standard Chartered CEO: Digital Currency Adoption ‘Absolutely Inevitable’
See Also: German bank launches crypto fund covering portfolio of digital assets
“The business intelligence company said in a press release it will ‘invest the net proceeds from the sale in bitcoin in accordance with its Treasury Reserve‘ after first making way for business expenses.”
“The platform said traders and investors will have direct access to listed companies – also including Google, Facebook, Netflix, Pfizer and others – without having to use an external broker or pay additional fees.
Launched in a collaboration with DigitalAssets.AG, the tokenized shares can be purchased in fractions using either U.S. dollars, tether and bitcoin. The listings also open up access in countries without access to U.S. stock markets.
Traditional clearing systems are inefficient and complex and trading small volumes can be expensive and take days, all of which is totally unnecessary given the technological advances that have been made in the last decade.”
“Institutional investors will play an important role in securing the future of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), according to Erik Voorhees. Voorhees said governments have a greater incentive to censor Bitcoin if it’s used primarily by retail investors. With large institutions in play, there may be a natural “bulwark” against government overreach.
Voorhees said Bitcoin’s adoption curve will grow substantially over the next five to ten years. In that time, Voorhees estimated that half the world could have exposure to BTC.”
See Also: G7 Officials Stress Need to Regulate Digital Currencies: US Treasury
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“The S$12 million (US$8.99 million) program from the National Research Foundation (NRF) will support research and development of real-world use cases for the technology. The Singapore Blockchain Innovation Programme is expected to interact with up to 75 companies ranging from multinational corporations, large enterprises and IT firms to come up with 17 blockchain-based projects.
Blockchain technology helps to embed trust in applications spanning logistics and supply chains, trade financing to digital identities and credentials.”
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“There are now more than 1 million addresses holding 1 ETH, a number that has grown by 12% in the last six months. While traditionally Ethereum’s price was strongly correlated with Bitcoin’s, the recent boom in DeFi and the advent of Eth 2.0 has given the project’s rise a distinct flavour.
Speaking of DeFi, the number of individual addresses involved in decentralized finance has just surpassed 1 million. The number is a ten-fold increase since the start of 2020, which is mirrored by the amount of money locked up in DeFi protocols. On January 1, there was $700,000 stored in contracts using platforms like Uniswap, now there’s more than $15 billion.
And if that wasn’t enough to get the Ethereum champagne corks popping, transaction volume surpassed $40 billion in November.”
“Scholz said in a statement that Libra’s rebranding as Diem was merely a cosmetic change.
A wolf in sheep’s clothing is still a wolf. It is clear to me that Germany and Europe cannot and will not accept its entry into the market while the regulatory risks are not adequately addressed.
In his statement, Scholz also stressed the importance of ensuring currency monopoly remains in the hands of nations.“
See Also: Consideration phase for digital euro to go well into 2021, says ECB exec
“The international partnerships mean the California company now has access to additional payment methods including Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, SEPA, FasterPay, Australia Post and more.
The blockchain industry has been evolving so fast that we no longer need to wait for the banking industry to adopt crypto. We are building the entire banking functionality into our own products and platforms at any jurisdiction, and for any type of user.”
“Alex Gladstein of Human Rights Foundation suggested that Bitcoin can push back against surveillance capitalism and social credit systems. Gladstein pointed to the immense growth of China’s surveillance state and its reputation-based “social credit system,” which is gradually coming to life.
In this peer-to-peer electronic cash system, we have our defense system. We have our way that we’re going to defend humanity.”
“The DOJ named him as a mastermind behind one of the first cryptocurrency exchanges, BTC-e, and indicted him on allegations of ‘computer intrusions and hacking incidents, ransomware scams, identity theft schemes, corrupt public officials and narcotics distribution rings.’
[The court] alleged that, in particular, he helped to develop the Locky malware.”
The Disrupt 