Category: Crypto

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Crypto Markets News

SBI Holdings Officially Opened Its VCTRADE Crypto Exchange To The Public

After announcing its launch in June and after months of delays, Japanese financial services corporation SBI Holdings finally opened its crypto exchange platform to the public. With the implementation of the project, the financial institution becomes the first bank to offer this type of service.

Named VCTRADE, the crypto exchange platform began operating on Tuesday, July 17th, according to a statement issued by the company through its website, which reports that the institution launched the process for receiving applications and opening new accounts.

Starting accepting applications to open new accounts with our virtual currency exchange service (VCTRADE) today. Account opening is available for people aged 20 to 70 living in Japan. Applications to establish corporate client accounts are not currently accepted.

SBI Holdings

SBI Holdings put its system into operation last June. However, the procedures were only available to those users who signed up in October, when the call was made.

SBI Holdings VCTRADE cryptocurrency exchange allows XRP (XRP), Bitcoin (BTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) trades against the Yen

In total, more than 20,000 customers answered the call and began trading with XRP (XRP), formerly known as Ripple (XRP), in exchange for Yen, the official currency unit of Japan. Although the company initially offered only transactions with XRP, it later added support for Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

As you may recall, the company issued a press release in June of this year informing that it had completed the requirements and paid all the fees required by Japanese law to start operations. In 2016, SBI Holdings laid out a practical route for the creation of its crypto exchange platform. Almost two years ago, they created SBI Virtual Currencies as a first step to launching the new platform on Tuesday.

Other projects such as SBI Crypto, SBI Wirex Asia, SBI Capital Base, BCause, and Digital Asset Exchange were also announced by the bank last year. Each of these initiatives seeks to cover the entire spectrum of cryptocurrency.

SBI Holdings movements in the world of cryptocurrency have also included the purchase, in March, of 40% of CoolBitX, a Taiwanese company dedicated to cold wallets. Another of the corporation’s announcements consists of the one made in April of this year when it was announced that SBI’s Russian subsidiary, known as SBI Bank LLC, established a working alliance with the R3CEV consortium with the intention of using blockchain Corda for its operations.

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Crypto News

FCoin Cryptocurrency Exchange Buy Back Its FT Tokens To Finance A New Investment Fund

The Chinese cryptocurrency exchange platform FCoin announced the creation of a new investment fund to support a group of previously constituted token funds, selected to continue investing in blockchain technology projects. The capital for this support will come from the repurchase of its FT tokens on the secondary market.

The announcement, dated July 13th, states that the repurchase will be, in an initial phase, 100 million FT tokens. According to information published on FCoin official website, this operation is intended to encourage project fund participants to adopt FT tokens to raise financing capital.

To operate this parent fund, they will establish an “FT Trading Area,” which will be accessible to participants in projects that have managed to raise more than 3 million FT tokens from the fund. However, they noted that they would make further announcements later on on the relevant rules of the “FT Trading Area.”

FCoin cryptocurrency exchange has been the subject of several controversies since its launch last May

FCoin’s business model, where the cryptocurrency trading is, at the same time, used as mining, was questioned by the crypto community as not sustainable over time. Recently, the startup launched a competition to develop a ranking of accumulated deposits, which congested the Ethereum (ETH) network.

The recent significant increase in Ethereum’s fees was analyzed by a Reddit user, who pointed out that it was related to the competition launched by FCoin.

As the user stated in a publication two days ago, 40% of the network was being used by a contract for an ERC20 token called “IFishYunYu,” which has no features. However, a significant number of accounts he calls “mysterious” were sending massive amounts of this token, apparently to transfer individual tokens to the FCoin cryptocurrency exchange, which are distributed in different directions and then returned to the primary address.

That would have meant that in 24 hours around 50 ETH per hour would have been paid in fees.

The high volume of transactions in the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, generated by the FCoin cryptocurrency exchange, are caused by the startup business model, as the ranking depends on the accumulation of deposits on the platform.

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Crypto News

To Become A Wall Street Financial Analyst You’ll Have To Know About Cryptocurrency

The conventional financial world and cryptocurrency have become more and more interconnected since the Bitcoin (BTC) price boom of 2017.

The CFA Institute, Chartered Financial Analyst, will include cryptocurrency-related questions in next year’s tests. The crypto and blockchain topics will be part of Levels I and II exams for financial analysts for the first time, that being a clear sign that the cryptos are here to remain on Wall Street, as Bloomberg said.

CFA Institute, whose three-tier training program educated over 150,000 financial experts, reported that the topics for the 2019 exams would be unveiled in August, giving applicants the chance to start studying for the required 300 hours in advance. Cryptocurrency courses are part of a new unit known as “FinTech in fund management” which was created by CFA Institute at the candidates’ demand.

Conventional financial world and cryptocurrency have become increasingly interconnected thanks to 2017’s Bitcoin (BTC) boom

The traditional financial world and the expanding crypto space have become more and more interconnected in the aftermath of last year’s Bitcoin (BTC) boom.

Bitcoin futures quoted on the Chicago Stock Exchange, firms like Goldman Sachs entering cryptocurrencies market and the repeated news that top Wall Street executives are moving into crypto space are just a few of the reasons why cryptos are becoming the real deal.

“This is not a fad. We saw that the issue was advancing faster and with greater projection than others,” explained Stephen Horan, one of the directors at the CFA Institute in Charlottesville, Virginia.

CFA’s crypto- and blockchain-based content will be featured along with other Fintech-related themes, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data.

“It will be very good for us, as there has been a great expansion and adoption of cryptocurrency in our investment universe,” asserted Kayden Lee, 27, a student of financial economics at Columbia University to Bloomberg. Lee took the CFA Level I exam in June and is know getting ready for the next one.

In short, CFA Institute will include cryptocurrency-related topics in next year’s tests because the conventional financial world and cryptocurrency have become more and more interconnected.

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Crypto News

KashMiner Crypto Mining Device Subject Of A Scandal Between Kodak And Spotlite, Its Two Developers

KashMiner, the crypto mining tool developed by Spotlite USA for the Kodak company, will cease to be one of the photographic multinational’s cryptocurrencies projects as it will not gain the approval of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its legal operation.

The news has been reported by the BBC, which says the denial of KashMiner’s license is due to allegations of fraud led by experts in the field, who claimed that the startup that developed the initiative, the Spotlite, had offered unattainable and misleading profits with the product.

KashMiner crypto mining project was promoted as the first Bitcoin (BTC) mining initiative by Kodak developed by Spotlite. The tool was presented last January at the Kodak booth at the CES Show Technology event in Las Vegas.

The initial rental of the machine was estimated at $3,400, ensuring that the tool could generate a profit of $375 per month over two years from mining on the Bitcoin (BTC) network. Similarly, Halston Mikail, CEO of Spotlite USA, had assured that 80 machines had already been installed in the Kodak building and were fully operational.

Kodak stated they ceased their participation in the KashMiner crypto mining project

Critics of the event called KashMiner a “scam” because, due to the current difficulty of Bitcoin’s blockchain, it was impossible to calculate such high profits from mining activities.

Saifedean Ammous, an economist, told the BBC that anyone who had bet on this tool would have lost the investment because it is impossible to earn the money with such a crypto mining device.

“There is no way your magical Kodak crypto mining tool can earn the same $375 every month,” he said. David Gerard, a writer specializing in cryptocurrency, also considered the idea of Spotlite USA to be risky, calling it “crypto madness.”

In response to the cancellation of the project, a Kodak spokesman confirmed that the project had never been licensed by the multinational, and no KashMiner crypto mining device was installed at their headquarters.

Spotlite USA reported that the company abandoned plans to rent equipment to third parties through Kodak and decided to set up its own private mining farm in Iceland.

Now, Kodak want to sue Spotlite USA on the basis that they used the company’s name in the marketing of the KashMiner crypto mining device, without being allowed to do that.

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Crypto News

Can XRP (XRP) Outperform Bitcoin (BTC) And Ethereum (ETH) In Cryptocurrencies Market?

During December 2017 and especially in January 2018 XRP (XRP), back then known as Ripple (XRP), was one of the top earners of the cryptocurrencies market. In January, the XRP surged significantly, and many crypto enthusiasts and traders predicted that this crypto token would surpass Ethereum (ETH) by market capitalization. However, that didn’t happen. Can XRP (XRP) still outperform Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH)?

Since January, when the XRP traded above $3, the Ripple (XRP) dropped significantly and lost momentum as regarding the trading volumes. However, this fact was due to the many lawsuits involving Ripple, the XRP’s owner.

On the other hand, XRP (XRP) was not very successful within the US markets but managed to sign some important partnerships with various financial and banking institutions in the Middle East, India, and Japan. However, to date, the most successful deal seems to be the one with SBI Holdings with which Ripple managed to launch the VCTRADE cryptocurrency exchange platform.

Can XRP (XRP) outperform Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH)?

Well, if we are to believe SBI Holdings and VCTRADE’s CEO, Yoshitaka Kitao, XRP (XRP), formerly known as Ripple (XRP), would have all that a cryptocurrency needs to dethrone Bitcoin (BTC) and, subsequently, the Ethereum (ETH) which is currently the second-largest crypto by market cap.

But Yoshitaka Kitao is a renowned XRP (XRP) bull and enthusiast so that he might be subjective on this matter. Even more, the companies he manages are way involved with Ripple and its crypto token, so, this would be another reason why Kitao might be subjective.

Additionally, Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple CEO, doesn’t see in Bitcoin (BTC) a robust ecosystem for payments, while Ripple’s platforms and the XRP token provide cheaper and faster transactions, as he said.

As for the Ethereum (ETH), its decline might be caused not by the XRP (XRP), known until recently as Ripple (XRP), but by the fierce competition from EOS (EOS), TRON (TRX), and Zilliqa (ZIL).

That being said, XRP (XRP) could outperform Ethereum (ETH) but not because it is a stronger crypto token. On the other hand, exceeding Bitcoin (BTC) is harder to achieve, at least at the moment, even though the XRP blockchain is faster than BTC blockchain.

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