Fintech Daily Digest

CULedger, a blockchain consortium and credit union service organization, has chosen enterprise software firm R3's Corda blockchain to underpin its forthcoming cross-border payments product.

Stablecoins have hit an all-time high with over $4B USD-pegged tokens now on the blockchain. While Tether dominance remains, new stablecoins that came to market recently have made leapfrogs of progress.

Cryptocurrency lending startup BlockFi is almost halving the interest rates it offers on ether (ETH) deposits, while some bitcoin (BTC) rates will increase slightly.

Around 11PM EST on May 16th, a sell order for around 5,000 BTC appeared on the Bitstamp order book. Over the next 15 minutes, the BTC price on Bitstamp continuously fell - skewing the entire market and triggering hundreds of millions in long liquidations.

Cryptocurrency research firm Diar has indicated that institutional traders recently registered record high volumes on bitcoin (BTC) derivatives exchanges.

By using VAR-SVAR Granger causality and Student's-t Copulas, we find that Ethereum is likely to be the independent coin in this market, while Bitcoin tends to be the spillover effect recipient.

Beijing startup Waterdrop, backed by social media giant Tencent, is seeking new financing at a valuation of more than $1B to fend off its better-capitalized rival, Ant Financial, in the emerging field of health care crowdfunding.

How are fiat-backed stablecoins adapting their strategies to remain competitive?

Crypto startup Circle has laid off roughly 30 people, or about 10% of its staff. The company - which owns the USDC stablecoin in partnership with Coinbase - is looking to cut costs.

In a court transcript Tether admits that it invested some of its reserves in bitcoin. David Miller, an attorney for Bitfinex said: "Tether actually did invest in instruments beyond cash and cash equivalents, including bitcoin."

The Japanese House of Representatives has passed new crypto regulation in the upper house of the National Diet. The amendments to two of Japan's financial laws include adding crypto-asset margin trading.

One of the PBOC's fintech research institutes has posted three new job openings for blockchain talent on the Chinese recruitment website Lagou.com.

The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Abu Dhabi Global Market enhanced its Guidance for the Regulation of Crypto Asset Activities, including updates on stablecoins, crypto-asset custody, technology governance, and AML/CFT standards compliance.

More and more people are ditching cash in favor of cards and digital payments, but that doesn't mean cash it out of the picture, according to a new report from financial tech company Square.

South Africa is looking at creating its very own cryptocurrency, backed on the rand, with talks underway by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB).

South Korea's finance ministry plans to revise an ordinance to allow non-financial firms, such as financial technology firms, to provide mobile payment services overseas.

Consumers routinely supply personal data to technology companies in exchange for services. Yet, the relationship between the utility consumers gain and the data they supply - "return on data" - remains largely unexplored.

The US IRS is working on guidance for "acceptable methods for calculating cost basis, acceptable methods of cost basis assignment, and the tax treatment of forks".

As ABN AMRO drops its exploration of a cryptocurrency wallet product, the Dutch bank says it's seeking to launch a blockchain platform for trade inventory.

The U.S. SEC has again delayed a decision on the VanEck SolidX bitcoin exchange-traded fund proposal.