Crypto Market Summary: Week of 30Jul18

Business update this week shows large firms expanding to offer blockchain-related services, in addition to use of DLT in BAU workflows.

Business:

Binance acquires Trust Wallet
Commonwealth Bank of Australia successfully used a private blockchain built on the ethereum network to track a trade of almonds from Australia to Germany. Available data include shipment status, interior conditions of containers, documents and financial transactions.
Agricultural Bank of China issued a $300k collateralised loan on blockchain. The blockchain nodes include other commercial banks, local government office and local central bank branch.
IBM and CLS Bank opens app store, LedgerConnect, which lists financial blockchain apps/ solutions targeted at banks. The app store currently offers apps built on Hyperledger Fabric, but can also support solutions based on other platforms.
Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) Courts is setting up a blockchain network to share information amongst different courts.
Binance Labs made an investment in Libra Credit. Libra Credit makes BNB-backed loans denominated in fiat or crypto.
Custody bank Northern Trust is building tools and services for hedge funds to trade crypto.
Boerse Stuttgart, Germany's 2nd largest stock exchange, is developing an ICO platform for token sales, issuance, trading and custody.

Markets:

Thomson Reuters, in partnership with CryptoCompare, will provide order book and trading data on 50 tokens on its Eikon platform. Thomson Reuters already publishes sentiment data on 100 cryptocurrencies, gathered across c.400 data points and analysed using AI.

Reg:

Bermuda, Malta, Gibraltar and Liechtenstein have/ will have laws that supports cryptocurrency companies and projects.

Tech:

Ethereum community has to decide on the way forward with a piece of code describing mining difficulty by early 2019, which was originally put in place as part of migration from PoW to PoS, due to migration delays.