[Community Post] European Crypto Weekly Updates - Issue #17

Etienne Brunet - August 18, 2019

Hi Everyone,

This is issue #17 of my European crypto newsletter aiming to give updates on corporates, startups and regulation in Europe. Everyone is talking about San Francisco as the epicentre of everything in crypto. Well, I wanted to shed light on Europe and show how exciting the ecosystem is.

Who’s behind this? - Jita Digital

This section aims to give the opportunity to introduce some of the best European founders. Most people loves their products but don’t know who are the founders behind them. Hello World.

Background: Jerome is one of the most impressive founder I’ve met in London. In addition to being one of the most savvy security auditor in London, he has created one of the few companies that are actually building blockchain solutions used by startups, corporates and funds. And without VC funding. And yes it is profitable. Enjoy.

Hi Jerome, you are one of the most experienced crypto operators in London I know. You used to lead product and revenue at Mycelium, one of the top blockchain wallets. You are now running your company Jita. You are behind some of the most exciting blockchain enterprises in the industry and have worked with top projects. Can you share a bit more about Jita, your background and your team?

Sure, I come from an engineering and technology background. I created Jita in 2015, initially focused on blockchain for microfinance. I was convinced that blockchain could improve transparency, increase transactions speed and accelerate business. Later, we pivoted to an industry agnostic product development strategy. We now help introduce blockchain into every possible industry! However, we do have a focus on finance related applications. Our team is fully decentralized, based in London, Lisbon, Barcelona, Belgrade, Dublin and Toronto.

We combine top blockchain and computer security expertise with strong design, UX and front-end talent. The whole team is always aligned with the best interests of our clients.

The full interview is available on Medium

European Startups

• Crypto lending firm Nexo (UK) has paid its token holders a total of $2,409,574.87 in dividends, reaching an annualized dividend yield of 12.73%. Nexo has a user base of over 250,000 [Source]
• Binance’s fiat-to-crypto conversion branch for euros and British pounds, Binance Jersey, has entered into a partnership with the crypto investment service Caspian, which provides trading, portfolio and risk management on its platform [Source]
• Bitfury Group has launched its artificial intelligence (AI) division, the company’s top official told Reuters in an interview - The press does not add too much details on what is the offering. My guess is that it would be on top of Bitfury Crystal AML/KYC tool and will help for forensics analysis. What’s interesting is that Bitmain has also been active in A.I.but more on the HW side with Server, Face recognition etc… From BTC mining to A.I. [Source]
• The team at TokenAnalyst made it again on Bloomberg explaining that the liquidation of cryptocurrencies tied to an alleged ponzi scheme has been among the assorted reasons cited by market pundits for this week’s slide in digital assets. A closer looks suggests that may not be the case [Source]

Corporates

• The CEO of Switzerland’s SIX Digital Exchange (SDX), Halblaub, the cryptocurrency-focused arm of the the country’s principal SIX Swiss Exchange is departing the company. Halblaub’s temporary successor will be Tomas Kindler, who will take place as the firm’s CEO on Sept. 1. SIX is known for being one of the first stock exchanges in the world to offer a Bitcoin and crypto exchange product. [Source]
• British banking giant Barclays has reportedly cut ties with United States crypto exchange Coinbase. Meanwhile, Santander denied blocking Coinbase deposit in the UK. No one is really sure why Barclays decided to stop its relationship with Coinbase. Banking in Europe is difficult. If you are looking for some tips / recommendations don’t hesitate to email us. [Source]
• WiV Technology has selected EY to provide technology services to help develop its fine wine investment trading blockchain platform. The main added values include: Helps value and protect the provenance of fine wine investment Provenance and security are tracked on the blockchain and verified through secure storage in a bonded warehouse. Token holders may obtain asset financing against the wine value - Can’t wait to have a collateralized Chateau Margaux loan [Source]

Regulations / Universities

• Cryptocurrency exchange Binance will compensate the white hat hacker who compromised Binance Jersey’s Internet domain name and Twitter account. If there any white hats reading this, you can try your luck with Binance and be compensated using this link [Source]
• Luxembourg’s financial regulator, the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), says that a seemingly crypto-related entity called Cryptominingoptionsignal claims to be licensed in Luxembourg, but is not - I just thought the name of the company was hilarious [Source]
• The U.K. Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld complaints over a bitcoin ad placed by crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX (HDR Global Trading). The ad, placed on Jan. 3, 2019, purportedly to celebrate the tenth anniversary of mining of the first block of bitcoin on the same date in 2009, showed a graph spread across two pages, according to the ASA. [Source]
• The UK pension and welfare agency has identified blockchain technologies as something that could disrupt payment industry ‘“We are starting to see the first full production implementations, such as Santander’s One Pay FX. The benefits include reducing time, cost and failure rate associated with making transactions whilst data is stored on a secure immutable ledger.” - It’s never too late, I guess [Source]

Fundings

• On August 12, the team at Nickel AM (crypto fund) announced the launch of their Digital Asset Arbitrage fund. They focus on managing assets for institutional investors using computationally intensive, low-latency arbitrage strategies. Congrats guys! [Source] (Note, This communication and any investment or service to which this material may relate does not constitute an offer or solicitation to invest in the Fund.)

Click here to read the full newsletter & subscribe

Community posts are hand selected contributions from our network. To have your work featured here please contact us at research@messari.io.