2 CommentsHere’s what happened this week in Bitcoin in 99 seconds.
Major US exchange, Kraken, reported that it’s raised $100 million in investment from its own “whale” clients. The exchange also disclosed the acquisition of Crypto Facilities, a UK firm focused on derivatives. This news suggests that crypto futures will be coming to Kraken.
Blockstream revealed their new Proof of Reserves tool. The tool provides a safe and standardized way for crypto exchanges and services to prove the existence of their Bitcoin reserves.
An Iranian company, with backing from four banks, has released a crypto, known as PayMon, which is backed by gold. The over-the-counter exchange in Iran is also set to join in hosting the new currency.
Twitter’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, tweeted regarding his receipt of the so-called Lightning Torch. The Torch is a series of Bitcoin Lightning Network payments of increasing value between named individuals. Dorsey passed the torch to Lightning Labs CEO, Elizabeth Stark.
Argentinians can now fund their public transport cards by using Bitcoin. This service is available at 37 locations across the country. Prior to the addition of bitcoin payments, the service only accepted PayPal.
And finally, LocalBitcoins stated that it will comply with the upcoming EU’s AML and KYC regulations. Stricter user verification procedures are expected to be announced in March.
That’s what happened this week in Bitcoin. See you next week.
I did not have any money with Quadriga but I’m wondering if you could provide information on how people could have protected themselves from their bankruptcy. I do have some coins with Coinbase.
Hi Earl,
Well, there’s no surefire solution to this problem. The best policy is of course not to store your coins on an exchange unless you’re actively trading them. It’s far safer to keep your coins in a hardware wallet.
Exchanges with fiat and crypto deposit insurance (I believe there’s a couple like this in the USA, think Coinbase might be one of them) are also a bit safer. Trustworthy audits of an exchange’s reserves also help and Blockstream just released a tool for this purpose. We’ll see which exchanges start using that…