Top Stories This Week Yahoo Finance Integrates Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin on iOS App Yahoo Finance has integrated BTC, ETH, and LTC on its iOS app this week, with a version briefly appearing and disappearing on its desktop version despite Yahoo noting that the desktop, mobile web, and Android version won’t be available for several weeks. A Yahoo Finance press release notes that users that wish to trade crypto on Yahoo Finance will have to link a broker account via integrated third party service TradeIt. “Operation Cryptosweep” Produces More Than 200 Crypto-Related Investigations The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) …

Cryptocurrency exchange BitBay has partnered with a Berlin-based blockchain-powered equity fundraising platform Neufund, according to an August 2 press release. The partnership will reportedly enable investors to buy and sell equity tokens with fiat currencies. According to the press release, Neufund is aiming to become the first end-to-end primary issuance platform for security tokens, specializing in equity tokens. The company backs up its objective with a study conducted by Toronto-based firm Polymath, which says that by 2020 the security token market will hit a value of $10 trillion. Neufund believes that tokenized securities will provide necessary liquidity to traditional investment …

The Research Institute of Information Technology (RIIT) of Tsinghua University (THU) has partnered with a subsidiary of China’s institutional financial firm to establish a blockchain research center, according to an Aug. 1 press release. The RIIT has signed an agreement with Sheng Ying Xin Management Consulting Co., Ltd., a contractually controlled and managed company of China Internet Nationwide Financial Services (CIFS). The two organizations will jointly research and develop basic blockchain technologies and models for building enterprise-level applications in a number of industries. The blockchain-based applications will reportedly address a range of challenges currently facing Chinese companies. The introduction of …

South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has advised local regulatory agencies and companies to work towards developing an integrated blockchain system for stock transactions, according to an official report published August 2. The FSS undertook a detailed analysis of international stock exchange operators’ use of blockchain technology to date, focusing on existing initiatives in the U.S., Japan, UK and Australia, among others. The report concluded that a tamper-proof blockchain-based system would increase the efficiency, integrity and security of tracking and storing transactions. The report added that existing conventional systems that use a centralized ledger are both less efficient and more …

Northern Trust Corp., a leading global asset management firm with $954 billion in total assets under management, is planning to start a custody service for digital assets, Bloomberg reported July 31. The company’s head of corporate and institutional business Pete Cherecwich told Bloomberg that the company has started developing a strategy to secure custody-held digital assets such as cryptocurrencies. He said the firm aims to offer a product similar to existing custodial services while charging lower fees: "The fees right now the custodians are charging are pretty high, not the same fees that we get — ultimately, I believe unsustainable, …

In the blockchain movement’s ideology, the 2008 financial crisis holds a special spot. A critical juncture in the history of global capitalism, it readily provides a bedrock narrative that justifies the very purpose of a decentralized digital currency. This is what happens when we put too much trust in centralized custodians of wealth; this is what the breakdown of centralized trust — taken to the extreme — looks like. The year of 2008 is thus the legendary beginning of cryptocurrency — both the moment of the incumbent institutions’ great meltdown that paved the way for digital money’s being, and also …

The crypto and blockchain industry’s go-to encrypted messenger app Telegram has released a personal identification authorization tool, according to an official statement published July 26. The tool, dubbed Telegram Passport, reportedly encrypts a user’s personal ID information and let’s users securely share their ID data with third parties, which the Telegram post elaborates on as “finance, ICOs, etc.” According to the post, users’ ID data will currently be stored on the Telegram cloud, but “In the future, all Telegram Passport data will move to a decentralized cloud.” The new tool is currently integrated with digital payment operator ePayments, which Telegram …

South Korean watchdog the Financial Services Commission (FSC) has urged lawmakers to hasten their approval of the country’s first cryptocurrency bill, Bloomberg reports July 26. Hong Seong-ki, head of the FSC’s virtual currency response team, has reportedly warned of the security and money laundering risks courted by the country’s domestic crypto exchanges. Bloomberg cites Seong-ki as saying that: “While crypto markets have seen rapid growth, such trading platforms don’t seem to be well-enough prepared in terms of security. We’re trying to legislate the most urgent and important things first, aiming for money-laundering prevention [AML] and investor protection. The bill should …

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) has signed a new blockchain-based loan with civil engineering firm ACS Group, according to the BBVA’s official statement July 19. BBVA, a multinational Spanish banking group, signed an agreement with ACS to provide a long-term bilateral corporate loan of €100 million ($117 million). The new blockchain-powered loan contract will reportedly boost the efficiency in financial processes of the company, allowing for better transparency and traceability of contractual process. Settling the loan on a blockchain allows both parties to independently monitor the stages of a contract, as well as the conditions. The pilot also includes digitization …

The world-renowned Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) examination has added cryptocurrency and blockchain to its curriculum, Bloomberg reports today, July 16. The exam, run by the CFA institute, has reportedly prepared over 150,000 financial sector professionals through its intensive 3-tiered program, which is now set to include crypto and blockchain as part of its Level I and II curricula. According to Bloomberg, CFA said that a “surging interest” across surveys and focus groups was behind its decision. Stephen Horan, managing director for general education and curriculum at the CFA Institute in Virginia, USA, told Bloomberg: “We saw the [crypto and blockchain] …

The world’s largest exchange-traded fund (ETF) provider BlackRock announced the formation of a working group to assess potential involvement in Bitcoin (BTC), Financial News (FN) reports today, July 16. The move furthers a U-turn on BlackRock’s previously critical stance towards cryptocurrency. Following in the footsteps of fellow giant Goldman Sachs, the cross-industry working group convened by BlackRock will among other things focus on whether the company should invest in Bitcoin futures, FN reports, citing “two people familiar with the matter.” In general comments to FN, a spokeswoman from BlackRock said the company had been “looking at blockchain for several years” …

A report from the Financial Stability Committee (AFS) of the German Bundestag has found that cryptocurrencies do not pose a threat to the country’s financial stability, Cointelegraph auf Deutsch reports June 27. The study notes high volatility in crypto markets and states that "they lack general acceptance and transaction costs are often relatively high": "As the sector is still small and banks, insurers, and funds are barely involved, the stability implications of crypto-tokens have been limited so far, despite high price volatility and sharply increased market capitalization". According to the report, cryptocurrencies are primarily speculative objects. The committee defines them …