Fintech Daily Digest

Tether has started issuing its stablecoin USDT on the Tron (TRX) blockchain, an upgrade from the OMNI protocol-based USDT.

The Central Bank of Russia is analyzing the impact of issuing a central bank digital currency in a paper published on April 18. The intention is to better understand possible use cases for CBDCs.

A growth in the liquidity of crypto-assets will boost interest in and feasibility of using the underlying technology for tracking purposes. An effective use of blockchain technology would make it much harder to launder money using crypto than digital fiat currency.

All the stablecoin attempts that exist today (i) have enormous risks of breaking, (ii) are centralized or (iii) are extremely complex in relation to their monetary policy. That is, they are the exact opposite of the reason for Bitcoin to exist.

The TRON - Tether partnership will add another stable coin to the cryptocurrency sector. This latest example in the proliferation of stable coins will add use cases for digital currency and help increase mainstream adoption.

Over 220 banks are signed up to JP Morgan's blockchain-based Interbank Information Network that will go live in Q3. The IIN speeds up inter-bank payment compliance resolution processes that can delay payments by weeks.

Forbes features 50 big US companies leading the way in adapting blockchains to their operating needs through industry consortiums and other proprietary projects.

Nex Group and Baton Systems have built a real-time settlement system for foreign exchange trades, using distributed ledger technology (DLT) to cut the traditional two-day post-trade cycle down to as little as three minutes.

The Chilean government introduced a new crypto-asset and fintech regulation bill to Congress.

Ambisafe is launching a project which will purchase SpaceX shares and then tokenize them to be traded on a secondary market. (SpaceX shares are restricted securities and cannot be traded on public exchanges.)

Anchor Tokens mirror global economic growth by tracking a proprietary monetary measurement unit based on the value of fiat currencies, national GDP and bond yields from more than 190 countries.

Japan's equivalent to Amazon, e-commerce giant Rakuten, has started accepting account registrations for its new cryptocurrency exchange, Rakuten Wallet.

Unqork is a platform that allows users to drag and drop prebuilt modules into a useful workflow to quickly create financial services applications without the need for developers to create any code, to radically accelerate client acquisition and onboarding.

Bitcoin spenders can now use the lightning network to shop at e-commerce sites like Amazon. Crypto payment processing startup Moon has announced that any lightning-enabled wallet can now also be used through Moon's browser extension.

The blockchain offers a way to remove intermediaries from the equation and make the tokenization and transfer of assets peer-to-peer and far more liquid and tradable and also help reach different assets not amenable to securitisation.

Crypto-asset taxation in major bitcoin strongholds is complicated. Contradictory or non-existent laws, excessive red tape, and maddeningly vague guidelines have conspired to make the tax-paying process more arduous than it need be.

The International Monetary Fund and World Bank have been exploring blockchain together by creating a Learning Coin.

On average, it costs 9.3% to send the equivalent of $200 to the Africa according to a new World Bank report. However, the cost drops by as much as 90% when money is sent through cryptocurrency-based fintech companies like Bitpesa.

Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange by adjusted volume, has launched its decentralized trading platform (DEX). A DEX enables users to trade P2P, using smart contracts to automate deal matching and asset liquidation.

So far, most central banks remain a long way from issuing CBDC of any kind. But given that technology has been progressing fast in the settlement and payment areas, as well as DLT, it is possible central banks may increase their interest in retail and wholesale CBDC proposals based on DLT and consider actual implementation seriously in the near future.