The crypto and blockchain industry is about a fundamental redesign of the basics of how civic society will ultimately function, according to Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire. The CEO provided his stance at a recent panel within the 2019 Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, D.C. on April 10. Allaire discussed both the potential and the issues associated with crypto and blockchain-related developments in a panel dubbed “Money and Payments in the Digital Age.” Moderated by the IMF’s managing director Christine Lagarde, the CFO of Consumer & Community Banking at JPMorgan Sarah …

Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO of payments company Circle, has said that as the sector continues to see new market entrants, stablecoins using an open standards approach will prevail. Allaire made his remarks during an interview with Fortune’s crypto-focused segment The Ledger on March 19. As reported, Circle launched its USD-backed, ERC-20 stablecoin USD Coin (USDC) last fall, via the consortium Centre, which counts crypto exchange Coinbase and mining firm Bitmain as members. Centre is also the name for the token’s open network and open source protocol, which provides interoperability in a bid to secure wide ecosystem support for the …

Goldman Sachs-backed cryptocurrency finance firm Circle announced that it closed the acquisition of SeedInvest, a crowdfunding platform and registered operator of a broker-dealer. The news was reported via a post on Coinbase’s official blog published March 4. Cointelegraph first reported about the ongoing acquisition in October last year, noting that the deal will enable Circle to expand SeedInvest’s offerings to support cryptocurrencies, including fiat stablecoins and issuing and offering tokenized securities. At the time, the acquisition was put on hold until the United States Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) approved the deal. According to the announcement, the acquisition concluded after …

Goldman Sachs-backed cryptocurrency finance firm Circle is reportedly looking to raise $250 million of funding in a combination of equity and debt. The source of information are claims made by an anonymous person familiar with the company’s plans, as cited in a report by technology news website The Information on March 2. According to the article, Circle — which generates revenue from trading fees on its cryptocurrency exchanges (Poloniex and the institutional offering Circle Trade) — has seen a decrease in its proceeds after the overall crypto market crash lead to decreased trading volumes. Still, in an interview with The …

Blockchain finance company Circle will use digital financial services company Nice Actimize’s market monitoring tools to fight manipulation, a press release confirmed on Feb. 27. Nice Actimize, which forms a branch of Israeli enterprise software giant Nice Ltd., offers professional client tools in the areas of financial crime, risk and compliance. Circle will use Actimize’s Cloud Markets Surveillance (CMS) to proactively prevent and detect malicious trading activity on its own platform, including insider trading, layering and even so-called pump and dump schemes. “Adapting innovative technology solutions, such as the financial markets compliance solutions from Nice Actimize, to meeting the potential …

Several major crypto and traditional finance companies have replied to the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) request on crypto asset mechanics as late as Feb. 25. The CFTC published its inquiry in late December 2018. In it, the regulator’s LabCFTC initiative, focused on fintech innovations, sought public comments on the main principles of the Ethereum network. The watchdog’s reported aim was to understand similarities and distinctions between different cryptocurrencies and the “technology, mechanics, and markets for virtual currencies beyond Bitcoin.” In particular, the request for input focuses on Ethereum (ETH), along with opportunities and risks associated with its …

Institutional investment is increasingly being seen as the future of crypto trading, with both Binance and Bittrex launching their own dedicated over-the-counter (OTC) desks in January. The desk launches come after Morgan Stanley published a bullish report in November, showing a strong pattern of institutional investment for Bitcoin. The latest developments indicate that some of the world’s largest exchanges are receiving increased demand from institutional investors, for whom OTC represents a lucrative opportunity. Cointelegraph takes a look at the latest launches and OTC news. Binance launches dedicated OTC desk On Jan. 23, the number-one ranked cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced the …

Recently, Forbes published the fresh edition of its “Fintech 50” list, counting the world’s top financial technology firms. Notably, there are just six crypto and blockchain companies featured this year, while the 2018 list contained 11 players from the field. Given that the notorious crypto boom of 2017 has been followed by the relentless bear market, it is hardly surprising. Nevertheless, while there is considerably fewer crypto companies featured this year, less than half of them — Ripple, BitFury, Coinbase — have made the list before, which means that new blood arrived regardless of the market condition. Veterans Ripple What …

Over 5.5 billion USD Coin (USDC) tokens have been transferred on-chain as of Jan. 31 2019, according to a report released by the Centre consortium on Feb. 6. The Centre consortium was founded by crypto finance firm Circle and United States-based crypto exchange Coinbase. USDC s a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin released by Coinbase and Circle in October of last year. According to the report, by the end of January 2019 over 86,000 USDC transactions have been completed on the chain. The document also claims that over 550 million units of the stablecoin have been issued by the aforementioned date, out …

Chuck Kimble, who helped to launch the USD-pegged stablecoin USD Coin (USDC) at crypto finance company Circle, has reportedly joined blockchain firm Celo as head of strategic partnerships. The development was reported on Feb. 6 by Celo’s Medium page. Celo is a blockchain startup working to create a mobile-based crypto-payments network — using fiat-collateralized stablecoins — by mapping phone numbers to wallet addresses with a decentralized address-based encryption algorithm. Kimble’s role as head of partnerships at Circle spanned nine months, according to his LinkedIn profile, which has not yet been updated to reflect his new position at Celo. During those …

The Forbes 2019 “Fintech 50” list of the world’s top financial technology firms published on Feb. 4 features six blockchain companies, little more than half the amount listed in the 2018 edition. Released in February of last year, Forbes 2018 “Fintech 50” list contained 11 blockchain- and crypto-related companies. In the introduction to this fourth edition of the list, Forbes writers note that while “crypto prices and ICOs collapsed, overall investment in fintech surged in 2018,” stating that “big fintechs are getting bigger.” The introduction also points out that 20 of the startups are making their appearance on the list …

This year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting has finished, and it’s time to recap the highlights. The forum — held in Davos, Switzerland, as per tradition — lasted from Jan. 22 to 25. Similar to the last year, cryptocurrencies were one of the major talking points in Davos. In general, it seems that the “Blockchain before Bitcoin” attitude prevailed this time, as the overall positive outlook on the technology coincided with a significant portion of crypto-bashing. WEF announced Global Council on Blockchain, co-chaired by BitPesa founder As one of the most important takeaways from the forum, the WEF appointed …