Nasdaq Inc. and Citigroup Inc. are among firms that are investing $20 million in Symbiont.io Inc., a startup that’s applying blockchain technology to capital markets.

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Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has announced the launch of the cryptocurrency-to-cryptocurrency over-the-counter (OTC) trading desk.

According to the company’s official blog, the service will allow users to trade larger amounts of many cryptocurrencies listed on the platform, with transactions being settled via their Binance accounts.

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According to people familiar with the matter, Mike Novogratz’s cryptocurrency merchant bank Galaxy Digital is reportedly raising $250 million to build a fund that would offer dollar-denominated loans to crypto firms in need.

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On January 16, during the Gaidar Forum in Moscow, the head of Sberbank, German Gref, made a loud statement. In his opinion, digitalization is the surest “medicine” that can effectively counteract corruption-related crimes in Russia. Gref’s interest in this aspect of digitalization, such as the distributed ledger technology, has been known for a long time. Can blockchain really be the remedy for dishonest politicians?

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The State Duma proposed to introduce a crypto ruble, the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation has taken the initiative to introduce “regulatory sandboxes,” Japan is tightening the rules for ICO registration and intends to imprison the former Mt.Gox CEO for fraud, and the G20 countries have signed a declaration according to which they should solve cryptocurrency regulation- and taxation-related problems in 2019. DeCenter talked about these and other news with Maria Agranovskaya, a Managing Partner at GRAD Legal and Financial Advisory Services.

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✅ Online retailer Overstock’s security token trading platform called tZERO has started trading.
via CoinDesk

❓ According to a new report from cryptocurrency data startup Messari, the market capitalization and circulating supply of Ripple’s XRP may be overstated by billions of U.S. dollars.
via Cointelegraph

🦅 The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) granted a cryptocurrency broker Robinhood and a Bitcoin ATM provider LibertyX the BitLicense.
via CoinDesk

🇬🇪 The Eastern European state of Georgia has become a haven for cryptocurrency businesses over the past couple of years.
via The New York Times

📊 Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), has presented an enhanced cryptocurrency data feed.
via The Block

American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has added resources aimed to assist customers in the United States in paying taxes on their cryptocurrency trades.

Apart from adding a specific educational guideline, the platform has also integrated with popular tax software TurboTax.

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“The joke-currency of the Maduro regime used to continue cheating the people”—this is how Juan Guaido, Venezuela’s self-proclaimed Interim President that has already been recognized by the U.S., described El Petro, the country’s national cryptocurrency allegedly backed by major natural resources.

What awaits the world’s first state-supported digital currency should the opposition come to power?

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This week’s #CryptoCaselawMinute brings you a case related to stolen Tether (USDT), a brief in the Tezos securities litigation, and opinion on choosing a proper jurisdiction to file a lawsuit in.

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On February 11, BitTorrent together with TRON will launch the first large-scale airdrop, during which the holders of the TRX tokens will receive the new BTT tokens for free. According to experts, this campaign will play a vital role in the further development of both BitTorrent and TRON, thus maintaining the interest of traders and investors in both companies and their cryptocurrencies. DeCenter figured out how precisely this event will go through and how many BTT coins will be issued.

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Mobile payments using a QR code generated on a smartphone are one of the most popular technologies among users all over the world. Today, many countries are actively integrating payment systems of foreign companies to increase the flow of tourists. Payment methods that are based on the principles of exclusion of fiat assets, such as the Chinese Alipay and WeChat Pay, spread their influence and introduce a trend for electronic money. Problems arise, however, with the state regulators since the payment technologies use national currencies in their networks. If mobile or NFC payments used cryptocurrencies, many of these issues could be avoided.

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📁 NYSE Arca filed a request to rule changes for Bitwise Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) proposal.
via CoinDesk

🇨🇭 A recent study revealed that the number of blockchain companies in Switzerland and Liechtenstein’s Crypto Valley increased by 20% in the fourth quarter of 2018.
via The Block

👨‍⚖️ A messaging app company Kik is preparing to prove in court that it didn’t issue an unregistered security in its 2017 initial coin offering (ICO).
via ccn

🇨🇳 China’s Center for Information and Industry Development (CCID) released its latest ranking of major cryptocurrencies.
via Cointelegraph

💸 On average, Bitcoin is worth less than the cost to mine it, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co analysts say.
via Bloomberg

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are designing a cryptocurrency that would significantly minimize the data that users need to join the network and verify transactions—by up to 99 percent compared to today’s popular cryptocurrencies.

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Cointelegraph has prepared an article summarizing this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting that was traditionally held in Davos, Switzerland. In particular, the piece presents key takeaways regarding the blockchain and cryptocurrency industries.

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Four leading South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges—Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Upbit—have teamed up to put up a fight against potential cases of money laundering and a number of other illegal activities.

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Over the past two years, the word “crypto” has acquired a powerful morphological significance. By putting it before any word, we get a new device, a new product, or a new technology that immediately attracts considerable interest. But the magic of this word has little effect on serious sectors of the global economy. Maybe the problem is the “raw nature” of the technology? Or it just does not have enough fuel for a good start? In light of such events, many specialists are trying to present the situation in their own view. One of the statements is, “Bitcoin network problems can only be solved by abandoning the PoW protocol.”

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The end of the previous week could have brought more clarity to crypto investors and enthusiasts on the possibility of the Bitcoin ETF approval. The U.S. government shutdown that has started at the end of December, however, led to the temporary suspension in the work of a number of federal agencies. The absence of a decision on a Bitcoin ETF application led to a moderate decrease in demand for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in light of investors’ fears that crypto markets were in search of a new “bottom.” But not everything is so pessimistic as it may seem at first glance. Last week, there was a lot of exciting news making one look boldly into the future and maintain confidence in the increase of Bitcoin price in the coming months.

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💸 The first Binance Launchpad platform’s project this year, BitTorrent (BTT) concluded its $7.2 million public token sale in less than 20 minutes.
via The Block

💰 A new report from Chainalysis suggests that two hacker groups were behind the thefts totaling $1 billion worth of cryptocurrency.
via Cointelegraph

🇮🇳 The Indian government is reportedly finalizing its regulatory framework for the cryptocurrency industry.
via Bitcoin.com

🇮🇷 The Central Bank of Iran is reportedly set to forbid the use of “unapproved” cryptocurrencies for making payments in the country.
via CoinDesk

👩‍⚖️ The owner of Italian cryptocurrency exchange BitGrail that suffered a hack last year has been sentenced to return funds to affected customers.
via Cointelegraph

​​In one of his recent articles, Bitcoin Magazine’s Aaron van Wirdum breaks down what a technology called Taproot is and how it works.

Introduced in mid-January last year by one of Bitcoin’s most respected developers Gregory Maxwell, Taproot aims to expand on Bitcoin’s smart contract capabilities and increase privacy without hurting scalability.

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Charlie Lee, creator of Litecoin:
“Fungibility is the only property of sound money that is missing from Bitcoin & Litecoin. Now that the scaling debate is behind us, the next battleground will be on fungibility and privacy. I am now focused on making Litecoin more fungible by adding Confidential Transactions.”

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The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) and the United Arab Emirates Central Bank (UAECB) have announced a joint digital currency project trial.

The cryptocurrency will be used in blockchain-based financial settlements between the two countries.

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