Crypto-powered Plastic Surgery, Blockchain Industrial Parks + More News

Sead Fadilpašić
Last updated: | 3 min read

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.

Source: Adobe/Photocatcher

Adoption news

  • A South Korean company wants to offer crypto and blockchain-powered plastic surgery, and is targeting so-called “medical tourists” – overseas travelers to South Korea who visit in order to undergo cosmetic surgery. Per Asia Kyungjae, the firm – MediBeu – says that its token has been listed on South Korea’s Namebit exchange, as well as the Seychelles-based BitForex trading platform. The company says that by making use of its tokens, overseas travelers will be able to cut out “unnecessary exchange process-related fees.”
  • China is set to develop more regional blockchain hubs, reports Sina. The media outlet states that “over 10 local government authorities” in less-urbanized parts of the nation have thus far stated that they are working on large-scale blockchain initiatives including the provinces of Shaanxi, Ganzhou, Jiangxi, Shandong, Fujian, Gansu and the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region. The media outlet adds that “40%” of this number have revealed the wider details of their initiatives, and states that the number of “blockchain industrial parks” in China will reach 44 by 2025.
  • Ripple, an American blockchain company focusing on payments technologies, is now part of the ISO 20022 Standards Body, the global data standard for modern payments. Per their announcement, Ripple is the first member to focus on Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). ISO 20022 is an open standard for payments and messaging between global financial institutions.
  • Crypto analyst group TokenAnalyst has announced that it would stop supporting its platform and APIs. Per their announcement, after two years of existence, TokenAnalyst will close its doors, while some of the team members will be joining crypto exchange Coinbase.

IEO news

  • Tron CEO Justin Sun has announced that his new stablecoin JST sold out in 4 minutes, 26 seconds. The stablecoin is pegged to the USD and is the first token launched on the partly Sun-owned crypto exchange Poloniex’s new Initial Exchange Offering (IEO) platform LaunchBase. Poloniex has also announced that JST tokens have been distributed, and that once JST is listed on Poloniex, full trading, withdrawals, and deposits will be enabled.

Exchanges news

  • Bitfinex has launched bitcoin (BTC) dominance futures. According to the announcement, the product tracks the change in price of BTC relative to a basket of seven tokens: ETH, EOS, LTC, XRP, BCH, XTZ, and XLM.
  • CoinSwitch.co, an aggregator of crypto exchanges, has announced that CoinSwitch Kuber, a cryptocurrency exchange mobile application exclusively for users in India, will launch to the public on June 1.

Tax news

  • South American crypto exchange Buda has published a crypto tax guide for Latin American countries. The guide outlines measures that crypto traders in Chile, Colombia, Peru and elsewhere need to follow if they want to stay out of trouble with the tax authorities, although its authors note that in some regions, such as Argentina, cryptocurrency tax laws are still in development.

Mining news

  • A US Nasdaq listed public crypto mining company Riot Blockchain has announced that its BTC inventory increased by 13% since March 31 to BTC 929 as of April 30, and the company produced 108 newly mined BTC with its new Bitmain S17s.
  • Crypto mining company Argo has mined BTC 319.2 or its equivalent in April, compared to BTC 333.8 equivalent in March, raising the total amount of BTC mined in the first four months of this year to the company’s record level of BTC 1,237, a 122% increase over the previous four months, reports StockMarketWire.

Crime news

  • South Korean police investigating the Nth Room case want changes made to the country’s laws. Investigators are currently attempting to trace crypto wallets and payments made to Nth Room admins’ wallets. Per Fn News, police have hit a range of legislative roadblocks that are preventing them from accessing wallets, but are hopeful that Seoul will green-light legal reforms will be introduced to help them with their search. Some media outlets have reported that up to 26,000 people may have paid admins in cryptocurrency to gain access to a Telegram chat room containing graphic rape videos featuring underage victims.