1. BITCOIN DISRUPTING BANKING; DEUTSCHE BANK TO CUT 18,000 JOBS BY 2022
Throughout history, the banking industry has always been vulnerable to a range of risks, but somehow, it has been able to survive for over three thousand years. But now, traditional banking is increasingly under threat from geopolitical uncertainty and, most significantly, from the advent of new technologies, including artificial intelligence and Bitcoin. As a result, behemoths like Deutsche Bank are now undergoing efforts to radically transform their business model.
[Source: Bitcoinist] ✩✩✩✩
2. Facebook Libra Threat Could Spur Work on China’s National Digital Currency: PBoC Official
With Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency potentially posing a threat to traditional money on various fronts, China’s central bank could hasten development of its own digital cash, according to a People’s Bank of China (PBoC) official.
Speaking at an event at Peking University’s Institute of Digital Finance earlier on Monday, Wang Xin, head of the research bureau at the PBoC, said if Libra becomes widely used for international payments and effectively acts like money, “would it … accordingly have a large influence on monetary policy, financial stability and the international monetary system?”
[Source: Coindesk] ✩✩✩✩
3. Bitcoin derivatives trading go live in public beta on KuCoin
KuCoin cryptocurrency exchange, currently backed by IDG has announced the launch of a platform that will offer Bitcoin derivatives trading. The trading will take place on a newly built platform referred to as KuMEX. The platform is already live in public beta with the first Bitcoin perpetual contract being XBTUSDM. The contract is quoted in U.S. dollars and has a leverage of up to 20x.
According to the announcement, KuCoin was focusing on making the pricing “more fair and rigorous.” The platform utilizes a BTC spot index that provides a volume-weighted average of the USD price of Bitcoin spanning across six crypto exchanges including Coinbase, Bitstamp, Kraken, Liquid, Gemini, and Bittrex.
[Source: FXStreet] ✩✩✩✩
4. Trading Bitcoin Is Illegal in Iran, Central Bank Official Warns
Buying and selling cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC) is illegal in Iran, a senior government official declared, according to a report by local news agency Tasnim News on July 8.
Nasser Hakimi, deputy governor for new technologies at the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), said that bitcoin trading is not legal in the country, citing a related prohibition by a local anti-money laundering (AML) authority, the Supreme Council of Combating and Preventing Money laundering and Financing of Terrorism Crimes.
[Source: Cointelegraph] ✩✩✩✩
5. India isn’t keen on Facebook’s Libra ‘cryptocurrency
Facebook’s new digital currency Libra has received an early jolt from the Indian government. The authorities in Asia’s third-largest economy are no more keen on the social media giant’s project than any cryptocurrency that came before it.
“Design of the Facebook currency has not been fully explained,” India’s Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Garg told Bloomberg on Saturday. “But whatever it is, it would be a private cryptocurrency and that’s not something we have been comfortable with.”
[Source: TheNextWeb] ✩✩✩✩
6. ShapeShift relaunches as new comprehensive crypto asset solution
After eighteen months, ShapeShift, one of the first non-custodial crypto-asset exchanges has launched its new rebuilt platform.
The ShapeShift Platform, builds upon the original product, which was a simple 1:1 tool for crypto asset trades. The service is now a comprehensive interface for holding, buying, selling, trading, watching, and interacting with digital assets.
[Source: CryptoNinjas] ✩✩✩
7. TRON Foundation Addresses Police Raid Rumors
Tron Foundation has just published an official statement that sheds light on the damning video that allegedly portrays police raids at its Beijing-based offices with multiple disgruntled investors accusing the project of being a scam.
It appears that the Justin Sun-run company was mistaken for an almost eponymous Ponzi scheme, and the police were needed to deal with the protesters.
[Source: U.Today] ✩✩✩
8. Bitfinex says it’s paying back its investors — but won’t give any exact figures
Bitfinex, the world’s largest exchange by trade volume, claims it is using an undisclosed portion of the “revenue” generated from a token sale run on its platform to pay back the $850 million debt it owes to its sister company, Tether.
The exchange “borrowed” the $850 million from Tether’s reserves last year when the exchange’s shady payment processor, Crypto Capital, had its funds seized by several foreign governments.
[Source: DecryptMedia] ✩✩✩
9. Bitstamp Launches Its Own Lightning Node to Help Grow Bitcoin’s Lightning Network
European cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp announced on Monday (July 8) that it has launched its own Lightning node in order to help with the growth of Bitcoin’s Lightning Network (LN).
Bitstamp says that it is “very excited” about the Lightning Network, and believes that “it is the next step for Bitcoin and one of the payment systems of the future.”
[Source: CryptoGlobe] ✩✩✩
10. Fidelity International begins exploring blockchain
Fidelity International is exploring the use of blockchain technology, stoking expectations that the fund management company is mulling a foray into the cryptocurrency market.
Staff across various parts of the international business — which oversees more than £317bn in assets globally — are involved in investigating the technology underpinning cryptocurrencies, according to people familiar with the matter.
[Source: FinanceNews] ✩✩✩✩
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