“Coinfloor To Delist Ethereum”
Coinfloor, the U.K.’s longest-running cryptocurrency exchange, plans to delist ethereum next month, citing an unclear future of hard forks and the need for onerous technical support for the second-biggest coin by market capitalization. The company will also delist bitcoin cash, the splinter currency founded two years ago in the aftermath of bitcoin’s heated scaling debate. Starting Jan. 3, Coinfloor will support only bitcoin, whose eleventh anniversary happens to fall on that day. The plan comes ahead of the launch of ethereum 2.0, tentatively planned for early 2020, which will begin the process of shifting the network away from the energy-consuming proof-of-work (PoW) consensus
mechanism to proof-of-stake (PoS).
“State Street To Collaborate With Gemini”
State Street Corporation has announced a new joint project in collaboration with cryptocurrency exchange and custodian Gemini Trust Company that aims to combine digital asset holdings with State Street’s back-office reporting. Per the press release, this pilot performs reporting scenarios on a user’s holdings within Gemini Custody. Initially, the project will support two cryptocurrencies “chosen for liquidity reasons,” and will consolidate the reporting of digital assets in Gemini’s custody with their traditional
counterparts serviced by State Street.
“Fidelity To Expand Its Crypto Business Into Europe”
One of the world’s largest fund managers has formed a new UK entity to sell cryptocurrency services to European clients. Fidelity Digital Assets, the cryptocurrency arm of Fidelity Investments, has offered custody and trading tools to financial institutions in the US since 2018. State regulators in New York gave it a green light on November 20 this year, paving the way for sales to Wall Street investors. Fidelity’s UK entity, incorporated on December 16, will give the fund manager a platform from which to sell digital asset services to European businesses, including hedge funds and family offices. It does not currently
hold any regulatory permissions.
“R3 Closes The Largest Open-account Trade Finance Trial On Corda”
R3 has closed what it’s calling the largest open-account trade finance trial ever conducted on its Corda platform. This trial included more than 70 organizations from more than 25 countries. Upwards of 340 participants from those organizations were involved and came out from sectors like financial services, information technology, telecommunications, logistics, the maritime industry, real estate, hospitality and the automotive industry. The trial tested working capital applications developed by TradeIX and focused on the receivables finance product on Marco Polo’s platform, TradeIX announced Thursday. Accounts receivables financing, also called factoring, is where a business sells account receivables to a third party at a discount
in return for immediate cash payment.