Landmark Venezuelan Hotel to Accept Bitcoin & Altcoins + More News
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.
Adoption news
- One of Venezuela’s biggest hotels, the Caracas-based Hotel Eurobuilding, has begun accepting bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, reports Criptonoticias. The hotel, which is already fitted with a crypto ATM, will accept payment in litecoin, ethereum, dash, binance coin and the tether stablecoin.
- Boerse Stuttgart Group (BSG), the operator of the second-largest stock exchange in Germany, said that their crypto app Bison has attracted some 81,000 active users in its first year of existence. New features have been added since the launch, while a desktop version of Bison and the introduction of bitcoin cash as an additional tradable cryptocurrency are also planned. Since January 2020, users have been able to transfer bitcoin from their private wallets to Bison, and the same will be enabled for other tradable cryptos.
- Dash says it has teamed up with Mexican crypto exchange Tauros to establish a network of 11,000 ATMs that will allow deposits and withdrawals in the Dash-fiat pair. Tauros claims to have established a network of ATMs “throughout Mexico.”
Wallets news
- South Korea’s Dunamu subsidiary RootOne Soft will close its much-vaunted BitBerry crypto wallet business arm, per News Tomato. The company has cited poor cryptocurrency market conditions and “uncertainty about the future of the blockchain industry” as its reasoning. Dunamu operates Upbit, one of the nation’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges. The companies had been hoping to integrate the wallet offering with Dunamu’s Lambda 256 blockchain network.
- Blockchain.com, a provider of crypto-related products such as wallet, has launched a full support and native banking integration for Turkish Lira (TRY) so users can directly deposit or withdraw from their bank accounts to the Blockchain.com Exchange in a matter of hours, says the announcement. They’ll also be supporting trading of TRY for bitcoin, ethereum, and tether.
Exchanges news
- Japanese cryptocurrency exchange DMM Bitcoin has begun offering leveraged trading services for the stellar and monacoin tokens, reports Coin Post. The platform says it will roll out its new services on February 19, with an initial x4 cap. The regulatory Financial Services Agency is likely to reduce that amount to x2 if it succeeds in implementing new leverage caps later this year.
- And rival Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck says it will begin “large” over-the-counter (OTC) trading support for bitcoin cash and litecoin, reports Fisco via Gentosha. The platform currently only offers “large” OTC trading for bitcoin, and says it plans to expand its services further in the near future, with five more altcoins set to be added.
- Bitfinex said it has launched margin trading for Tether Gold, enabling traders to execute more advanced strategies on the metal in a digital form.
- Coinbase launched its Dublin-based Coinbase Custody International, Ltd, in order to expand its crypto custody services to European institutions, writes the exchange. It will provide the same services as Coinbase Custody, while all staking activity performed by Coinbase will transition to Coinbase Custody International.
- Bittrex obtained digital asset insurance for its cold storage system, meant for improving protection by securing named cryptocurrency assets. According to the announcement, Bittrex worked with insurance broker and risk adviser Marsh, and the policy will cover up to USD 300 million in assets in case of external theft and internal collusion.
Blockchain news
- Japanese financial giants Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and SBI Holdings have announced they will co-build a joint blockchain-powered financial services platform for businesses and individuals, reports Nikkei. Sumitomo has also unveiled plans to invest in the SBI-operated MoneyTap app, which uses Ripple’s xCurrent payment solution.
- Australian blockchain energy trading technology company Power Ledger partnered with the U.S.-based Midwest Renewable Energy Tracking System (M-RETS) to launch a Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) marketplace in the country. The press release states that the project is part of the first phase of Power Ledger’s partnership with renewable energy developer Clearway Energy Group, and that by partnering with M-RETS, Power Ledger and Clearway Energy Group will be able to streamline the buying and selling of renewable energy through an integrated online marketplace to trade RECs.
Investment news
- Korean blockchain game development company SuperTree raised a total of KRW 3 billion (c. USD 2.5 million) in Series A investment, which included two large venture capital firms, Korea Investment Partners and SBI Investment Korea. The funds will be used to secure IPs for popular games and develop technologies for blockchain gaming, while focusing on upgrading the development of blockchain game service platform PlayDapp, said the announcement.
Career news
- Jae Kwon, the CEO of Cosmos (ATOM), will be leaving the project to work on another, climate-change related project, called Virgo, according to a Dailydefi tweet and Kwon’s follow-up tweet. Kwon said that he’s not “leaving” Cosmos as it’s already working largely without him, and added that he’ll stay as a member of The Interchain Foundation.
- Blockchain lending firm Figure Technologies named financial services veteran Asiff Hirji as its President. Per the press release, Hirji served as President and COO of crypto exchange Coinbase, while prior to that, he was an Operating Partner with Andreessen Horowitz and President and COO of TD Ameritrade. He held senior leadership roles with TPG Capital, Saxo Bank, HP, and Bain Capital, and served on public and private boards including Citrix and Advent Software.
- Binance hired former head of Europe and the Americas at Huobi and former general counsel to State Street and JPMorgan Chase executive, Josh Goodbody, as Director of European and Latin American Growth and Institutional Business. He will lead regional growth and develop Binance’s institutional markets in these regions, says the exchange.
