Both companies will operate independently and work together in ensuring more mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency by bridging the gap between fiat and digital assets. 

Swipe is available in 31 countries and has over 60 million locations where their debit card could be used as payment. They also listed BNB on their platform, this will help create more liquidity to BNB by making it available and spendable to Euro in all locations currently supporting Swipe Visa Debit Card. 

Binance Card

Binance exchange had earlier announced earlier in April their plan on introducing a Binance Card that could be used to shop and pay with cryptocurrency anywhere in the world. 

Today Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao announced the beta testing of the Binance Card. 

He showcased the first use of the Binance Card and also started that he is taking part in the card beta testing. 

Kucoin CEO Johnny Lyu said

“As one of the most globalized cryptocurrency exchanges, KuCoin has been expanding its fiat gateways. Now, our P2P Fiat Market supports Chinese Yuan (CNY), Indonesian Rupiah (IDR), Vietnamese Dong (VND), Canadian Dollar (CAD), and US Dollar (USD), the 5 mainstream fiat currencies. We also support 50 fiat currencies like EUR and AUD through our partnerships with Simplex, Banxa and PayMIR. In the future, we will continue to further our work towards globalization, enabling more users worldwide to enjoy the services we provide here at KuCoin, ultimately helping more users enter the crypto world.”

This is indeed huge news for the cryptocurrency world because USD is the most recognised inter-currency PayPal has an estimated 325M users. Latest data from Coinhills shows that among other fiats, USD is the leading fiat or paper money used to purchase Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency by over 63.21%. The combination of USD and PayPal should provide a nice amount of interest from PayPal users in Bitcoin and through the platform without having to worry about moving funds around to other platforms and encounter more fees.

Kucoin also plans to celebrate the first anniversary of the P2P Fiat Market on its platform, they hope to launch different campaigns that will create awareness of the P2P Fiat Market and the USD.

Benefits of this Service

The Bitmex corporate services or program allows a customer to ensure that the account is a legal property of the corporate entity and not just an individual or employees account.

The account will provide additional enhanced security which will allow access and control through authorized signatories of the account.

The Bitmex Corporate will have access to Bitmex account Audit features and support among other things.

The Exchange plans on adding Multi-User login capabilities and instant transfer features later in 2020. The announcement also stated that anyone with an account not owned by an individual could switch over to the corporate accounts.

Speaking on the plans to expand its business by setting up a mining Farm, Ebang representative stated

We will soon establish our own mining farms with [a] flexible cooperation model […] as well as mining pools to sell our computing power and we will also start to set up [a] cryptocurrencies trading exchange

They plan on exploring the “application of blockchain technology into financial services, education and healthcare industries.”

Ebang plans on raising $125 million and as such the company values every publicity it gets, one o f which is the Nasdaq listing. The company’s representative said that the publicity Nasdaq offers will help them enhance their brand and attract more talent. They could also set up a cryptocurrency exchange since they are a publicly traded company.

Credit is the most important point for establishing the cryptocurrencies trading exchange, and a Nasdaq listed company regulated by U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission should be able to strictly control the compliance and safety of the transaction

According to their official announcement released on the blog on Wednesday, they are looking at adding such digital assets  like Aave, Aragon, Arweave, Bancor, COMP, Digibyte, Horizon, Liverpeer, NuCypher, numeraire, KEEP Network, Origins Protocol, Ren, Render Network, Siacoin, SKALE Network, Synthetix, and Vechain.

“Today we’re announcing that we are exploring the addition of a range of new assets. As part of the exploratory process customers may see public-facing APIs and other signs that we are conducting engineering work to potentially support these assets. 

Coinbase is always continuing to explore the addition of new assets for their customers around the globe. They also stated that those assets may not be listed or become available if any of the local jurisdictions or regulatory authorities does not approve it. Coinbase listing process involves that they list assets on a jurisdiction by jurisdiction basis meaning that coins to be listed are subject to applicable review and authorizations 

Our decision to support any asset requires significant technical and compliance review and may be subject to regulatory approval in some jurisdictions. We therefore cannot guarantee whether or when any above-listed asset will be listed on a Coinbase product in any jurisdiction. As per our listing process , we will add new assets on a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction basis, subject to applicable review and authorizations. The omission of assets from this publication does not disqualify any such asset from active review and potential listing.

Coinbase’s goal is to offer support for all assets that meet our technical standards and which comply with applicable laws. Over time we expect our customers around the world will have access through Coinbase platforms to at least 90% of the aggregate market cap of all digital assets in circulation.

Indian Rupee (INR), Argentina peso (ARS), Philippine peso (PHP), United Arab Emirates Dirham (AED), Azerbaijani Manat (AZN), Chilean peso (CLP), Colombian peso (COP), Costa Rican Colon (CRC), Dominican peso (DOP), Georgian lari (GEL), Kazakhstan tenge (KZT), Moldovan leu (MDL), Namibian dollar (NAD), Peruvian sol (PEN), Qatari riyal (QAR), Uruguay peso (UYU) and Uzbekistan som (UZS). 

Those fiats can be used to purchase cryptocurrencies on Kucoin exchange.

How to Do It

Kucoin has over the years accelerated its fiat expansion, the exchange has introduced 3 platforms that help them achieve this which are ; Simplex, Banxa and OTC trading desk. 

To access this services for fiat, exchange users are to visit the “Buy Crypto with Credit card” page on the kucoin website, select Simplex platform and set the payment to any of the above mentioned fiat and buy Crypto directly from you’re card.

Kucoin has support for over 50 fiat currencies as USD, EUR, and AUD. 

Kucoin CEO Johnny Lyn stated. 

KuCoin has been committed to promoting the mass adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, and an easy channel to transact from fiat to crypto will largely contribute to this. KuCoin is one of the earliest mainstream exchanges to support Simplex. Also, in addition to fiat gateways like Simplex and Banxa, we are investing a lot to develop our OTC Trading Desk service. Through continuous efforts on fiat channels, KuCoin welcomes more newcomers to embrace and make contributions to the crypto world.

The feature is released on the Nighty version of Brave and only available to North America right now. The Nighty version of Brave functions as a testing and development sandbox for brave to implement new programs and products features, so this means that the newly-released Brave together is in a trial version and  Brave is expecting feedback from individuals that are able to text it right

Demand for Video Calls 

The global pandemic created a big demand for video calls, families who were far away from each other use this means to speak and see each other, business organisations use this to hold meetings and it serves many other needs. With this demand Zoom received a large number of users.

With the high usage of zoom, many have stated that Zoom is not private and has security challenges and as such individuals demand an end-to-end encryption video calling platform. Zoom plans to release a new end-to-end encryption video call service later this week as reported by Coin telegraph. Brave seems to have done that before them although in a trial version.

Whether this will be a major competitor with Zoom or other video call systems out there is not known yet but some people expect it to be at some point. Brave is a browser that has come to be loved by it’s users for the Privacy feature and also the fact that you earn it’s native token BAT for using it to browse the internet unlike Chrome and other large browsers out there.

Other Utilities 

Recently Binance exchange announced that Brave users can now purchase cryptocurrency from the exchange through the browser, this is done through the Binance widget that allows for Quick purchase of cryptocurrency. Outside of this to understand why we feel Brave browser has a chance against Chrome or any other browsers out there, check out this article that gives reasons to use Brave browser.

And if you should be interested in owning the browser app then you can use this link to download one right now. 

Other important features that the brave browsers presents us with is the fact that it blocks all those unwanted Ads. Yes, all those ads you have to click your way through on other browsers, with the Brave Shield it becomes way easier.

If Brave browser would still incentivise the use of this new feature when launched then we could have about 8 million of Brave users potentially using the Brave Together feature and it will be only a matter of time before other individuals start using it.

Here is a copy of the draft bill written in Ukrainian, an English copy would be uploaded when found.

Reasons for the Bill

Micheal Chobanian, the President of Bitcoin Association Ukraine, said that exchanges are not allowed to own bank accounts.

The new draft bill will help the Crypto industry get recognised as legal and not harmful, this will by extension help all other Crypto companies in Ukraine and other parts of the world.

The bill states that all involved in the Crypto industry ranging from Crypto firms like exchanges, issuers and users have a legal right to open and operate a bank account even owning accounts in other financial institutions.

CRITERIA 

The draft law explained that local firms that aim at operating a Fiat to crypto exchange or business will have to register first with the ministry.

Andriy Khavryuchenko, tweeted out that the Ukraine Bill on Virtual Asset makes all Crypto wallets in Ukraine illegal, unless they register in the Digital Transformation office. 

So basically if you operate without a registry, conducting transactions with Fiat and crypto without registering with the Digital Transformation Office, the Law sees it as an illegal activity.

Another criteria to lookout for is that any crypto firm that aims at registering and becoming legalized must ensure Anti Money-Laundering or AML, and  they must have KYC service among other things.

Ukraine has been looking at making a law that will regulate crypto assets for over 4 years now. Its first attempt to regulate crypto was back in 2015, this was when Verkhovana Rada of Ukraine announced plans to define the legal status of BTC by 2019. The authorities are working on at least three separate bills with one focused mainly at cryptocurrency taxation in Ukraine. 

Bitwise Investments, an asset management team in a recent study of trading volumes, had urged to rank exchanges without including any wash trading. The recent study conducted by them suggested that 95% of volume on exchanges was fake. The report singled out these 10 exchanges as those with real volume, the exchanges include: Binance, Bitfinex, Bitflyer, Bitstamp, Bittrex, Coinbase pro, Gemini, itBit, Taken and Poloneix. 

How it’s Done. 

Messari uses up to 10 third-party statistics in order to determine the true trading volume of an exchange, this includes: exchange rankings, ratings, and liquidity estimates from CoinGecko, CoinMarketCap, CryptoCompare, CryptoWatch (Kraken), Nomics, and FTX’s volume monitor, plus on-chain transaction data from Chainalysis and other on-chain data providers, and anecdotal data from top traders.

When this methodology change was applied, Messaris’s result had Houbi, OKEx, Liquid, Bithump and UPBit in top 10 by Real Volume. On their blog it’s stated that Binance tops the list with real volume across  most listed assets.

How accurate is this method?

Commenting on how accurate this methodology is, Messari CEO Ryan Selkis said 

This is a necessary change, but one that may seem counterintuitive at first glance. I can assure you, though, that it is more accurate, if less precise, than alternatives.

He also said that it’d be reviewed quarterly…

Importantly, we will review our methodology quarterly in order to add or remove constituent exchanges, and tweak volume adjustment parameters.

It seems all cryptocurrency data display and research platforms are interested in hunting down wash trading for good, at this rate it’s only a matter of time before they’re all wiped out.

The lawsuit accuses HDR global trading, the parent company of Bitmex Exchange for illicit money transfers, money laundering, wire fraud, interstate transport of stolen property and violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The lawsuit alleges that Bitmex failed to secure a money transmitter licence from the U.S. and has been conducting transactions worth 3 billion dollars daily from the US based office in San Francisco. 

Since it’s not a recognized money transmitter this makes such funds illicit. The lawsuit also alleged that Bitmex was involved in market manipulation which earned them billions of dollars in illicit profits. BMA alleges that Bitmex trades against customers, ties its futures indices to illiquid spot market and uses technical glitches as a staged act in order to liquidate its users and traders.

One example of this technical glitches happened on the 19th of May 2020 where the site had gone on maintenance in the middle of people’s trade.