Fintech Daily Digest

Changchun Mu, new head of the PBOC's Digital Currency Research Institute. He has said that China's CBDC will be supported across major e-payments platforms such as WeChat and Alipay.

Gemini launched Gemini Clearing that will allow OTC trading for its users. The new service will be accessible by everyone both retail traders as well as institutional investors.

DTCC has issued a white paper "Governing DLT Networks, Distributed Ledger Technology Governance for Private Permissioned Networks."

Fewer people have been sending Bitcoin to major exchanges in recent months, according to crypto data tracker TokenAnalyst. After peaking in 2017, the number of unique addresses sending the world's most-popular cryptocurrency to exchanges such as Binance and Bitfinex has been declining, it found.

Paxos Trust Company launched PAX Gold a crypto-asset redeemable for physical gold approved by the New York State Department of Financial Services. Each token is backed by one fine troy ounce of London Good Delivery Gold.

Binance, in partnership with the Paxos Trust Company, is launching a dollar-backed stablecoin in the U.S. with the blessing of the New York Department of Financial Services.

WhatsApp posted a job opening for a public policy manager who would "work closely with Facebook's Africa Public Policy team to ensure blockchain technologies and digital payments can play their part in improving Africa's socio-economic development." The job listing does not mention Libra, "

FedNow will promote financial system resiliency. As we discovered in 2008, big banks can fail. The Fed cannot. Unlike Facebook's proposal, which would have used a distributed ledger to move funds, risk in the TCH network is heavily centralized. Any failure to fund the joint account or compromise of the ledger could impact the entire system. Instead of criticizing the Fed, the big banks should be applauding FedNow as parallel system that could serve as a backup to their own.

Mastercard has joined Marco Polo. Founded by startups R3 and TradeIX, the blockchain-based network promises real-time connectivity, greater visibility for trading relationships and lower barriers to accessing capital.

The issuance of the Marshallese sovereign (SOV) was announced in an essay by The Honorable David Paul - Minister In-Assistance to the President and Environment of the Marshall Islands - published by Coindesk on Sept. 4.

Beginning Jan. 10, 2020, companies or persons involved in the conversion of crypto to fiat currencies or offering crypto deposit services will be required to self-register with the De Nederlandsche Bank.

We reached out to experts in the crypto and blockchain industries, central bank officials and researchers to answer whether or not we need a blockchain-based national digital currency if decentralized cryptocurrencies already exist.

Oxfam International, a U.K.-based non-profit with a global reach, just spent a month testing MakerDAO's stablecoin DAI as a vehicle for helping disaster victims.

The Kiva Protocol, launched on Wednesday by the Sierra Leonean government and Kiva, the Silicon Valley microloan company, is a biometric system that links a person's thumbprint with their identity. It will allow the west African country to create a universal credit bureau for the first time, with its backers hoping it will spur lending by banks reluctant to loan to people without credit histories.

Binance launched two futures testnet platforms to allow potential users to explore each product and its offerings ahead of the official launch.

The BTC- and ETH-based perpetual swaps, are extremely similar to those innovated by BitMEX. The BFX products also offer 100x leverage and use the same interest rate mechanism. However, while BitMEX settles exclusively in BTC, BFX products settle in Tether."

Sygnum has become the world's first regulated Digital Asset Bank - a first for Switzerland, the finance industry and indeed the world.

Van Eck and SolidX plan to start selling shares in a limited version of a crypto exchange-traded fund. The companies are employing a rule that will exempt the shares from securities registration, but the shares can be sold only to certain institutional buyers.

Dutch Firms offering services for the exchange between virtual money (cryptos) and regular money, and crypto wallet providers are expected to become subject to DNB integrity supervision as of 10 January 2020.

"Central bankers should work to develop digital currency interoperability, and a system of decentralized exchange through which businesses in different countries can use smart contracts to create automated escrow agreements and protect themselves against exchange rate volatility."