Ripple And Zcash Investing In Privacy-Focused Crypto Startup

It has been reported that the firms behind the projects XRP and Zcash has invested in Bolt Labs, a new crypto project that aims to deliver instant, cheap and private payments by adding a layer of anonymity to existing networks.

The involvement of Ripple’s fundraising arm, Xring, revealed its participate through a blog-post that was made last April 17 while Zooko Wilcox as confirmed with Forbes that his company contributed to Bolt Lab’s seen round in which he is also an appointed advisor.

The new scalability solutions from Bolt Labs can be compared to the second layer scalability of the Lightning Network (LN)but unlike LN channels are private by default and payees information is not leaked.

According to the startup’s website the company will leverage zero-knowledge proofs based on the research of leading scientist and cryptographers.

The company believes that with its approach it will make it easier for everyday payments and purchases to be made with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Zcash.

Bitmex Partnering With Trading Technologies International

Professional trading infrastructure firm Trading Technologies International (TT) and HDR Global Trading, Bitmex’s parent company, has partnered together to augment both of their services.

TT will offer various market access tools and services to Bitmex traders on the other hand TT traders will be able to trade on Bitmex and gain access to crypto products.

According to Rick Lane, chairman and CEO of TT, his company believes that with the new partnership the trading volume of Bitmex will grow not only from trades coming from their platform but new users who are looking into leveraging professional trading software.

Arthur Haye on the other hand believes that the new partnership will not only extend BitMEX’s unique services to TT traders but will advance mutual vision to unlock access to cutting-edge cryptocurrency products.

This development comes after an impressive performance of BitMEX which is widely considered as the second largest cryptocurrency trading platform in the world by transaction volume.

Countries Now Wants To Issue Bitcoin Bonds

Three countries have formally acknowledged their interest in issuing a sovereign Bitcoin bond capital.

These countries include Afghanistan, Tunisia and Uzbekistan, which has been mulling the possibility of a Bitcoin bond.

Afghanistan’s bonds can be tied to metals such as the country’s $3 trillion lithium industry which development has been hampered by international restrictions on borrowing.
Newly installed central bank governor Marouane El Abassi in Tunisia has a very progressive stance on blockchain and has already a working group studying the feasibility of a Bitcoin Bond.

Abassi states that Bitcoin and Hyperledger’s Blockchain technology provides central banks an efficient tool to combat money-laudering, manage remittances, and fights cross-border terrorism.

In Uzbekistan their Bitcoin bond can be tied to cotton futures.

However the international Monetary Fund (IMF) has a more cautious approach with this emerging asset class with its director, Christine Lagarge saying that a supervised testing would be a preferable first step to approach such a nascent industry.

Telegram’s TON Partnering With Wirecard

It has been reported that Telegram Open Network (TON) will be partnering with Wirecard to develop digital financial services.

Ton labs is telegram’s specific team that is in charge of the development of telegram’s blockchain project while Wirecard is a German financial services provider.

Alexander Filatov, managing partner of TON labs states that his company is excited to work with one the world’s most dynamic and innovative financial technology companies.

The details of the partnership has remained unspecified with Wirecard revealing that more information will be forthcoming through a series of announcement in the future without sharing any specified dates.

Wirecard’s executive vice president of group business development, Georg von Waldnefels, believes that TON labs immense experience in highly scalable technology and decentralized solutions and strong global growth of Telegram messenger will be the key to the success of the joint program.

US SEC And FINRA To Discuss Cryptocurrencies In June

According to news reports online The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) will be meeting to discuss matters about cryptocurrencies at a broker-dealer meeting st on June 27, 2019.

The event is called the 2019 National Compliance Outreach Program for Broker-Dealers which has been sponsored by the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examination Division.

It will be held in the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago with the primary focus on investor protection and regulatory hot topics such as cybersecurity and digital assets.

Attendance to the said event is free but will be limited to only 250 people who can attend and will be streamed live online through the SEC’s website.

It seems that Jay Clayton, SEC Chairman, is making good is promise to focus on giving more regulatory guidance on the crypto space.