Cryptocurrencies are the most famous applications of the promising blockchain technology, and these disintermediated digital currencies have put significant power in the hands of the people. However, the central banks, regulators, and governments around the world aren’t always equally enthused about crypto assets.
In a blow to the industry, the government of South Korea has stuck with its legislative proposal to exclude the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry from being certified as venture firms.
First proposed by South Korea’s Ministry for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Startups in August, the revision to the law called for Korea’s domestic blockchain industry, including cryptocurrency exchanges, to be removed from the government’s official classified list of certified venture firms.
Min Byung-Doo, a member of the country’s governing Democratic party and the chairman of Korea’s National Policy Committee, has strongly encouraged the government to legalize initial coin offering (ICO) and impose better crypto-related regulatory frameworks to legitimize the local market.
“Regulation is not bad. Regulation is necessary, it is the only way to legitimize the market and allow investors to build trust towards the cryptocurrency market,” chairman Min said.
Australian cryptocurrency payments startup Travelbybit has seen a cash injection of $2.5 million from a high-profile investor in Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
Crypto unicorn Binance is investing AUD $3.48 million (approx. USD$2.5 million) in TravelbyBit to further expansion of the latter’s network of cryptocurrency payment terminals following a successful implementation in Brisbane earlier this year, Business Insider Australia reported on Wednesday.
Retail brokerage giant TD Ameritrade and high-frequency trading firm Virtu Financial have invested in a cryptocurrency exchange that seeks to bridge the gap between Wall Street and the burgeoning cryptoasset ecosystem.
Bank of America research analysts have predicted that blockchain technology could represent a multi-billion dollar industry down the road, and be of particular benefit for leading companies like Amazon and Microsoft.
The analysts predicted the total addressable blockchain market would eventually hit $7 billion, but there was not a particular timeline for the market growth since the technology is not yet widely used.
The Israel Securities Authority (ISA) has quietly integrated blockchain technology within its internal systems to securely deliver messages and information to regulated entities under its purview.
The ISA, Israel’s national securities regulator, is carrying out the implementation after already embedding a platform dubbed “Yael”, used by the government agency to communicate and relay information to supervised institutions, The Times of Israel reported.
The Swell 2018 event hosted by Ripple, California-based crypto start-up focusing on the banking sector, saw another victory for the company: remittance operator TransferGo implemented Ripple’s xCurrent product for cross-border payments.
TransferGo claims it has 700,000 customers across 47 destinations worldwide and completes 1.5 million transactions per year.