Coinbase Custody expanding?
Hello once again! We have another industry recap for you, once again with some juicy news from all over the cryptocurrency world. Finally, it seems that Bithumb is recovering from the hack that happened in June, but there is also plenty to discuss when it comes to Coinbase Custody and other product from that exchange. You certainly don’t want to miss out on what they’re doing at the moment. Furthermore, there are some interesting developments from the London Stock Exchange which is being joined by a crypto company for the first time, plus there are some information that Wall Street might be willing to explore cryptocurrencies, too. Therefore, we have a lot on our hands, so let’s start our weekly analysis already. Read on!
Bithumb slowly recovering
First, we will head on to South Korea. On August 4, Bithumb announced that it will be restarting its operation on that same day, albeit not for all available cryptocurrencies. Only Bitcoin and nine altcoins were greenlit for deposits and withdrawals at first, and the rest should be made available in the following days. The cryptocurrencies in question are Ethereum, Ripple, Ethereum Classic, Mithril, Monero, Zcash, Litecoin, Qtum and Bitcoin Cash, so pretty much all of the major coins are covered. Many others are still not operational, though, as Bithumb is trying to protect its clients from suffering from big price fluctuations. Hopefully, everything will return to normal soon because the exchange is now in a losing race with UPbit for the position of the leading trading site in the country. But you know who doesn’t have problems like that? Coinbase.
Coinbase Custody and other news
Yes, this part of our article may be slightly bigger than others. It seems that big players in the industry are trying to address security issues which are the biggest deterrent for institutional investors when it comes to this kind of trading. We already wrote that ICE will be the custodian of assets on their new platform, and it seems that Coinbase Custody may be seeing quite an expansion. The company has announced that it is considering adding as many as 40 different assets to add to this service, although the final decision has not been made yet. Ripple, Monero and Telegram are among the assets being considered, but it should be pointed out that we’re talking only about storage here. There are zero indications that any kind of instruments are being considered for them.
Apart from this potential expansion of Coinbase Custody, we have to mention that this exchange is back in Wyoming. This state had a policy in place since 2014 which demanded that all exchanges hold a reserve of digital currencies in fiat money for traders there. Now that this rule is no longer in the state law, Coinbase has returned. This means that they have a license for trading in this state once again, which is extremely important to note because even without this legislation which required a double reserve, the requirements in the United States for this kind of companies are very, very strict.
There are news for this exchange’s European clients, too. More specifically, for those in the United Kingdom. They will be happy to know that Coinbase will from now on have support for their currency (namely, the British pound), which will make money transfers of that kind much faster. You will now be able to sell and purchase coins for GBP during the same day via their bank accounts, which was impossible prior to this because every transaction had to be converted to euros first. All of this is backed by UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, so you can be absolutely sure the system checks out. And since we’re in the UK, we might as well hop over to the London Stock Exchange. Stay tuned and learn about the crypto revolution there.
News from stock exchanges
We all know cryptocurrency mining is big business. This was confirmed once again on the third day of August when the London Stock Exchange announced that Argo Blockchain will be the first crypto company to join it. Argo thus continues its meteoric rise to fame, since the company was only founded near the end of last year. They offer mining services for Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Bitcoin Gold and Zcash, and their shares are currently worth 16 pence each. In other words, the company is worth about 47 million GBP. We should also mention that these guys have some serious backing, as their shareholders have already come up with about 25 million pounds, according to a document issued by the LSE. Certainly, it will be very interesting to see how the price will behave on the exchange, and you can be sure that we will cover all major developments related to it.
On the other side of the Pond, major investors are warming up to the idea of investing in cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. We already wrote about Blackrock making its moves, but now giants like JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and even some auditing firms are expressing interest. Everything seems to be pointing to a surge of cryptocurrency value, but we’ll just have to wait and see what the future brings. For now, though, this will be enough, so allow us to give you a short overview.
Conclusion
Coinbase has been the main star of the crypto world last week. Not only could Coinbase Custody get a significant upgrade, but the company has made some very significant moves in different parts of the world, too. First, they are back to Wyoming after the state changed some of its legislation concerning exchanges, and they also introduced support for the GBP, which means all transactions executed with this currency will now be much faster. In other news, Bithumb is slowly recovering from the hack they experienced about a month and a half ago, but they still don’t allow deposits and withdrawals for all coins. Hopefully, the exchange will become fully operational soon. Finally, there are also some news from the LSE and Wall Street, which will also spark some interest in the crypto communities. Check us out next week when we’ll have more interesting news, and until then keep reading our other articles. Cheers!