Euroclear, one of the world’s largest securities depositories, says it will push forward with building a pilot blockchain-based platform for the issuance and settlement of European commercial paper (ECP). The news was reported by EuroClear on June 19.

Euroclear settled €791 trillion ($885.48 trillion) in securities transactions and held an average of €28.8 trillion ($32.24 trillion) in client assets in 2018, according to results published this March.

The financial services titan has today revealed that it successfully completed a proof-of-value study for an ECP-focused blockchain platform together with the European Investment Bank, Spain’s Santander and “Big Four” auditor EY.

The blockchain platform will reportedly serve end-to-end for issuing and settling ECPs — unsecured short-term debt instruments issued by banks or corporations, which represent a $1.2 trillion market.

The press release notes that “based on the initiative’s success, Euroclear intends to move on to pilot phase soon.”

A disintermediated blockchain platform would provide time efficiencies by replacing cumbersome bilateral processing between market participants with a consolidated system, according to the press release. Euroclear has reportedly further outlined that:

“Other key benefits of this blockchain solution would be full transparency and traceability of ECP issuance related activities [...] making ECP same day issuance a new market standard.”

https://cointelegraph.com/news/euroclear-eib-santander-and-ey-to-pursue-blockchain-pilot-for-ecp-settlement

Social media giant Facebook has released the white paper for its long-awaited cryptocurrency and blockchain-based financial infrastructure project today, June 18.

According to the paper, Facebook’s global stablecoin, dubbed “libra,” will operate on the native and scalable Libra blockchain, and be backed by a reserve of assets ostensibly “designed to give it intrinsic value” and mitigate volatility fluctuations. 

These assets consist of a basket of bank deposits and short-term government securities that will be held in the Libra Reserve for every Libra that is issued.

The website for the digital asset, calibra.com, was briefly down around 5AM EST, about when it went live.

The new cryptocurrency will be governed by a not-for-profit, Switzerland-based consortium — the “Libra Association” — which counts Mastercard, PayPal, Visa, Stripe, eBay, Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz and Uber among its founding members.

Facebook ostensibly plans to expand the association to around 100 members by the time of Libra’s launch in the first half of 2020. The white paper notes that:

“While final decision-making authority rests with the association, Facebook is expected to maintain a leadership role through 2019. Facebook created Calibra, a regulated subsidiary, to ensure separation between social and financial data and to build and operate services on its behalf on top of the Libra network.”

The Libra Association is itself governed by the Libra Association Council. The council’s members initially are the founding members, each of which runs a validator node on the network and was notably required to make a minimum investment of $10 million to seal the position. Each $10 million investment secures an entity one vote on the council, per Facebook.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/facebook-releases-cryptocurrency-white-paper-for-libra-currency

Major money transmission network MoneyGram has entered into a strategic partnership with blockchain-based payments firm Ripple, according to a press release on June 17.

As part of the two-year agreement, the two firms will become partners in cross-border payments and foreign exchange settlements with digital assets. As part of the agreement, MoneyGram will be able to draw up to $50 million dollars from Ripple in exchange for equity.

MoneyGram will purportedly use Ripple’s xRapid liquidity product, which allows money to be sent in one currency and instantly settled in the destination currency. In using Ripple’s XRP token for such transfers, xRapid can purportedly settle such transactions faster than with fiat currencies or other major digital assets.

MoneyGram Chairman and CEO Alex Holmes said:

“Through Ripple’s xRapid product, we will have the ability to instantly settle funds from U.S. dollars to destination currencies on a 24/7 basis, which has the potential to revolutionize our operations and dramatically streamline our global liquidity management.”

According to its website, MoneyGram is the second largest payments firm in the world, operating in over 200 countries. Much of MoneyGram’s business is in the global remittances market, the value of which is estimated to be worth $600 billion.

In March, India’s Federal Bank (IFB), a commercial private bank, partnered with Ripple to use its network for cross-border remittances. The partnership was part of an initiative to apply new technologies to IFB’s remittances network, having also launched two platforms in the United Arab Emirates for making payments to India.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/ripple-to-invest-up-to-50m-in-moneygram-following-new-partnership

Last week, an annual forum featuring Russia’s top people from the economic sector was held in St. Petersburg, and cryptocurrencies were a hot topic there. Notably, government agents and state-controlled businesses were vocal about their interest in blockchain, but seemed to distance themselves from digital tokens.

Meanwhile, the regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies is still missing in the country, despite the fact that local authorities have been tasked to prepare the needed amendment a while ago. So, where is Russia heading in terms of crypto and blockchain?

Brief introduction to Russia’s relationship with cryptocurrencies
Russia’s stance on cryptocurrencies has been mixed and fluid, as demonstrated by how the “CryptoRuble” — the national stablecoin project — has been unfolding. First, the prospect of  using a substitute for conventional money was deemed “illegal” by financial ombuds. #moderation man Pavel Medvedev. Then, the Kremlin supposedly decided that a pet stablecoin could “minimize the amount of anonymous transactions,” or even help evade Western sanctions, thereby greenlighting the project. However, the CryptoRuble ended up on the back burner in the end, as the current status of the project is unclear. It was last mentioned in the news in January 2019, when a government official declared that it could go live “in a 2-3 years,” although the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) was acting “very conservatively” about the idea.

Cryptocurrencies at large are in a similar situation. In October 2017, President Vladimir Putin claimed that cryptocurrencies “cause serious risk” and are used for crime, citing the CBR’s decision to block websites selling digital assets. Just a month prior to that, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov argued that the authorities had to accept the idea of the digital currencies market:

“There is no sense in banning them, there is a need to regulate them.”

https://cointelegraph.com/news/russia-is-getting-serious-about-blockchain-but-remains-on-the-fence-about-cryptocurrencies

Crypto enthusiasts living in the United States will have no trading options for a many cryptocurrencies when the major crypto exchange Binance becomes unavailable for them in September, according to a report by CryptoPotato on June 14.

The report draws this conclusion based on the following table, which shows which cryptocurrencies will still available for U.S.-based traders after Binance discontinues its U.S. service:

The foregoing exchanges listed are Coinbase, Bittrex, Poloniex, Kraken, HuobiUS, and eToro.

The report also highlights that, in addition to the cryptocurrencies with no trading outlet in the U.S.—the all-white rows—there are also a number of tokens listed on only one exchange after Binance drops off, including ARK, BTT, IOTA, PIVX, and ZIL.

These “endangered” exchange tokens, as well as the (temporarily) extinct tokens, will likely witness a large drop in volume, according to the report.

These “endangered” exchange tokens, as well as the (temporarily) extinct tokens, will likely witness a large drop in volume, according to the report.

However, veteran cryptocurrencies such as XRP, DASH, XLM, ETC, ZRX, and ZEN should survive Binance’s departure with little issue, since they are listed on four or more of the aforementioned exchanges.

As recently reported by Cointelegraph, Binance updated its terms of use on June 14 to exclude trading on the platform in the U.S., which comes shortly after its announcement of a U.S.-exclusive fiat-to-crypto exchange.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) remarked on the recent changes, implying that the restructuring will be useful in the long run:

“Some short term pains may be necessary for long term gains. And we always work hard to turn every short term pain into a long term gain.”

https://cointelegraph.com/news/united-states-residents-will-lose-access-to-many-altcoins-starting-in-september

Major crypto exchange Binance announced today, June 14, that it has updated its terms of use, which notably includes a restriction of services to United States-based individual and corporate traders. The restriction follows yesterday’s news that the company is launching a separate, fully regulated fiat-to-crypto platform for the U.S. market.

Today’s announcement provides a timeline for the new terms to come into effect, specifying that:

“After 90 days, effective on 2019/09/12 [12th September 2019], users who are not in accordance with Binance’s Terms of Use will continue to have access to their wallets and funds, but will no longer be able to trade or deposit on Binance.com.”

While the use of a virtual private network could ostensibly allow U.S. users to circumvent the new restrictions, withdrawals for non-verified users remain capped at up to 2 bitcoin (BTC) per 24 hours— worth $16,482 to press time. Sums above this threshold would require users to provide evidence that they are complying with the platform’s Terms of Use.

In a tweet published yesterday, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) said of the new exchange’s evolving global structure:

“Some short term pains may be necessary for long term gains. And we always work hard to turn every short term pain into a long term gain.”

Earlier this month, it was reported that the decentralized exchange (DEX) developed by Binance will use geo-blocking to restrict website access to users in 29 countries, including the U.S.

As Cointelegraph has previously reported, CZ revealed in September 2018 that the company intends to launch five to ten fiat-to-crypto exchanges — two per continent — within one year, without specifying the exact locations.

The firm has to date launched fiat-crypto platforms in Uganda, Singapore and Jersey, with support for a limited range of cryptocurrencies.

As reported yesterday, Binance is establishing its U.S. platform in partnership with BAM Trading Services, which is approved by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

In June, Binance revealed that it would be issuing its own stablecoins pegged to different fiat currencies, but with the exception of the U.S. dollar.

In the wider crypto sector, the Huobi Group — operator of the flagship Huobi Global crypto exchange — launched a U.S.-based strategic partner trading platform last year, initially dubbed HBUS, but later rebranded to Huobi.com.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/binance-to-stop-serving-us-traders-following-announcement-of-us-dedicated-platform

Cryptocurrency enthusiast John McAfee's crypto trading platform was immediately targeted by hackers with a denial of service (DOS) attack following its launch, according to an official Twitter post from McAfee on June 12.

According to the post, the web servers for the “McAfeeMagic” trading platform, were hit with a cloaked High Orbit Ion Cannon (HOIC) DOS attack. Cybersecurity website Imperva describes an HOIC DOS attack as stressing a network by “flooding target systems with junk HTTP GET and POST requests.”

However, McAffee tweeted the same day that the website was operational again. According to the same post, the McAfeeMagic trading platform allows users to trade on 8 crypto exchanges, shadow trade professional crypto traders, and make fiat-to-crypto conversions with an over-the-counter (OTC) desk.

John McAffee also intends to roll out his own “McAfee Freedom Coin” token this fall. McAfee describes his design for the coin as a scheme to make it only intrinsically valuable, with no value derived from any other asset:

“... It is not based on any commodity nor is it connected to the value or behavior of any external item or entity. The value of the coin will always be zero in relation to any other currency yet it's natural market value is free, completely, to grow.”

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the Ethereum network experienced serious issues due to DOS attacks back in 2016. Malicious users overloaded the network with transactions, causing the Ethereum network to introduce a hard fork in its blockchain to continue operating.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/mcafee-trading-platform-suffers-dos-attack-upon-launch

London-based crypto data provider CryptoCompare has launched an Exchange Benchmark product that ranks over 100 crypto spot exchanges worldwide. The news was revealed in a press release shared with Cointelegraph on June 12.

According to CryptoCompare, the new product has been launched in response to growing industry concern sparked by research indicating that a significant number of crypto exchanges globally have been using wash trading and other strategies — including spoofing and incentivized trading schemes — to artificially inflate trade volumes.

The press release outlines:

“The problem has been getting worse with lower quality exchanges (ranked C-F) increasing market share by 30% in the last 12 months, demonstrating the need for a ranking methodology that does not rely on aggregate volumes.”

In order to tackle this problem and provide a more reliable insight into exchange trading volumes, CryptoCompare has designed its Exchange Benchmark deploying both a qualitative (due diligence) and quantitative (“market quality based on order book and trade data”) approach, the press release notes.

Rather than relying on aggregate volume data, the benchmark reportedly uses “correlation-of-volume-to-volatility and standard-deviation-of-volume” as inputs to over thirty metrics.

Using the benchmark’s metrics to analyze data for the month of May 2019, CryptoCompare reveals that it deems the most top ten trusted exchanges globally to be (listed in order): Coinbase, Poloniex, Bitstamp, bitFlyer, Liquid, itBit, Kraken, Binance, Gemini and Bithumb.

The press release notes that the benchmark will feed into CryptoCompare’s aggregate indices to establish reference rates for top tier exchanges in a bid to provide investors and traders with a high-integrity dataset. Together with the product, a more detailed insight into the firm’s exchange benchmarking methodology has been released by CryptoCompare’s research unit.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/cryptocompare-launches-exchange-benchmark-in-response-to-concerns-over-false-volume-reporting