Crypto Briefs is your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptocurrency and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
Blockchain news
- Chinese companies have topped new global blockchain patent tables, reports media outlet East Money, quoting data from IPR Daily. The latter has compiled a list showing that Alibaba’s Alipay e-pay subsidiary sits in the #1 slot, with 2,344 blockchain-related patent filings, followed by IT giant Tencent with 1,296 and Shenzhen-based insurance firm Ping An with 765. Non-Chinese companies feature further down the table, and include IBM in seventh spot and Mastercard in 15th.
- Blockstack PBC, the company building core protocols for decentralized computing network Blockstack, has launched the Stacks 2.0 Testnet. According to the press release, this public testnet will allow blockchain developers and miners to participate in the deployment of Blockstack’s new consensus mechanism, called Proof of Transfer (PoX), as well as trial Clarity smart contracts. Meanwhile, working towards the mainnet, Blockstack PBC will work alongside potential miners and testers through testnet phases to prepare the network for the Stacks 2.0 upgrade by independent miners in mid-2020, it says.
Career news
- CEO of US-based physically-settled Bitcoin futures trading platform Bakkt, Mike Blandina, has stepped down from that role to join JPMorgan Chase & Co, American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company, to work in payments, reports Reuters, citing a memo. Per the press release by Bakkt’s parent company Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), David Clifton has been appointed as Interim CEO of Bakkt, Clifton joined ICE in 2008, serving previously as Associate General Counsel, M&A.
Exchanges news
- South Korean market-leading crypto exchange Upbit has announced a new partnership deal with Chainalysis, per a press release. Under the terms of the agreement, Upbit’s overseas branches in South East Asia, under the Upbit APAC umbrella, will begin using Chainalysis-developed Know-Your-Transaction (KYT) solutions in a bid to drive up safety and meet ever-evolving regulatory compliance guidelines.
- Huobi Japan is hopeful of winning the right to list its native Huobi Token next month, per Fisco (via Gentosha). The move would be a first for Japanese exchanges, which now need to meet stringent listings regulations imposed by the Financial Services Agency, the government agency in charge of the nation’s crypto industry, as well as the self-regulatory Japanese Virtual Currency Exchange Association.
- South Korean exchange Bithumb and other blockchain technology and crypto-related companies have raised over USD 81,000 in cryptoassets for the Korean Red Cross. The exchange ran a campaign that saw the platform’s customers, employees and partners raise and hand over donations in bitcoin (BTC), XRP and ethereum (ETH), reports Hanguk Kyungjae. One blockchain company also handed the Korean Red Cross a consignment of protective face masks.
- Fintech BTSE has launched a new tool that offers traders a multi-currency settlement option, dubbed the BTSE OTC RFQ (Request for Quote). Per the press release, traders can use the tool to get a quote on a fixed and agreed-upon price before purchase, thus being able to move through larger orders without drastic price changes and avoid the price ‘slippage’ that happens when executed prices turn out different from expected prices.
