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Cryptocurrency is Now Completely Integral to FX Trading Integral, the Palo Alto headquartered institutional FX cloud platform, has expanded its market data offering for cryptocurrencies to include fourteen major cryptocurrencies. It now covers bitcoin, bitcoin cash, Ethereum and more, connecting to sixteen major exchange sources across the U.S., Europe and Asia, including Japan and Hong Kong. “An accurate, stable, and reliable reference price is a requirement for any market maker,” said Harpal Sandhu, CEO of Integral. “The Cryptocurrency Market Data Service connects to the most price sources and applies the most advanced price discovery algorithm available.” Founded in 1993, Integral maintains offices in California, New York, London, Tokyo, Singapore and Bangalore. It is the financial technology partner of many banks, brokers, and investment managers who rely on it to design and deliver their FX operations. Among its over sixty FX client banks around the world, it lists the U.S’

Researchers and Gold Dealers Believe That When Bitcoin Prices Recently Dropped In Value Investors Rushed Towards Gold Financial executives and researchers believe bitcoin and gold have an interesting relationship. Over the past year, cryptocurrencies spiked while  gold markets slumped , and when gold prices jumped, digital assets dropped in value. Analysts have seen the inverse relationship more clearly over the past two weeks, when the bitcoin market had its most significant drop in value since January of 2017. For instance,  Daniel Marburger,  the director at precious metals firm Coininvest, detailed in an  interview  that on January 16 he sold 30 kilograms of gold for bitcoin. “We have been inundated with emails, and the phones have been ringing continually with customers asking how they could turn their cryptocurrency into gold,” explains Marburger. It is an unprecedented time and shows the sway from bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies back to a solid, robust investment in

Implementation of Crypto Measures On Tuesday, the South Korean government officially released a document containing the  guidelines  for cryptocurrency regulations it previously promised. The announcement was made by Vice Chairman of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), Kim Yong-bum. The meeting where Kim Yong-bum announced cryptocurrency regulatory measures. This document details the government’s Special Measures for the Elimination of Virtual Currency Speculation which was first announced on December 28. In addition, the government also announced on Tuesday its anti-money laundering (AML) guidelines, prepared by the Korean Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), an FSC division, for all banks dealing with cryptocurrency accounts to follow. Converting to Real-Name System A large part of the government’s special measures concern the new government-mandated real-name account system. This system will replace banks’ current practice of virtual account issuance. Virtual accounts ar

Clayton Lays Into Bad Lawyers Jay Clayton The last six months have witnessed a spate of traditional companies adopting the blockchain moniker in a bid to make themselves relevant and to shore up sagging share prices. Sometimes, as in the case of  Kodak , those companies have halfheartedly committed to an ICO. And at other times, as in the case of the  Long Blockchain Corporation  (formerly the Long Island Iced Tea Corp), there’s not even been the slightest attempt to actually do anything with blockchain technology. In a  speech  delivered on Monday, SEC chairman Jay Clayton made no bones about the absolute state of the crypto space, opening his remarks by saying: Market professionals, especially gatekeepers, need to act responsibly and hold themselves to high standards. To be blunt, from what I have seen recently, particularly in the initial coin offering (“ICO”) space, they can do better. Most disturbing to me, there are ICOs where the lawyers involved appear to be, on the on

Swiss Bitcoin Church ICF Zurich, an evangelical church from the largest city in Switzerland, has begun accepting voluntary offerings from its parishioners using cryptocurrency. According to its website, the church accepts donations directly via  bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), ether (ETH), ripple (XRP) and stellar  lumen (XLM) . “Digital currencies and the blockchain technology will change our daily lives more and more in the next years,” the spokesperson of the church, Nicolas Legler, told Swiss news agency Idea. “Cryptocurrencies will be implemented, be it Bitcoin or other currencies controlled by the State. We are convinced that this technology will soon belong to our daily lives. Twenty years ago, no one would have believed that internet would determine our lives so much,” he added. “We also accept donations in Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ripple and Stellar Lumen.” Preaching to the Young According to an evangelical European news portal, this church is  known  for i

Ghost Towns on the Blockchain Blockchain as a technology is still in its infancy. The next generation of chains, side-chains and off-chain layers are either under construction or fresh out the gate. It will take time to see whether their claims of high throughput and scalability stand scrutiny. An examination of the blockchains that have been in operation for several years makes for dismal reading. Outside of the top six, blockchains are seeing very little action. Ethereum was the clear leader in number of transactions per second at the time of writing, reporting over 980,000 transactions in the past 24 hours, versus bitcoin’s 240,000. One way to report that statistic would be “Ethereum nears 1 million transactions a day”. Another would be “Blockchains haven’t even reached 1 million transactions a day”. Moreover, a closer examination of ethereum’s numbers shows that the number of ‘real’ transactions may be significantly lower. Blockchains Upon Blockchains As many as 10% of

Blocking Payments Overseas South Korean card companies have been working on blocking payments to overseas cryptocurrency exchanges, local media reported the Credit Finance Association of Korea revealing. The association is a non-profit organization with 68 members: 8 credit card companies, 21 leasing companies, 21 installment financing companies, and 18 venture capital companies. An official of the association was quoted by Yonhap last week: Credit [card] companies are voluntarily blocking payments to overseas virtual currency exchanges. “We will continue to prevent transactions from being carried out if a foreign [cryptocurrency] exchange is registered as a merchant,” the news outlet further quoted the association. 8 Card Companies Onboard The association explained that “eight domestic credit card companies are in the process of suspending credit / check card transactions so that they [users] cannot buy virtual currency at overseas virtual currency exchanges with dome

Bitflyer Launches in Europe Bitflyer  announced  its European exchange launch on Monday. Its announcement states: Having been granted a Payment Institution (PI) license to operate in the European Union, it has become the first bitcoin exchange to be regulated in Japan, the US and Europe, making it the most compliant virtual currency exchange in the world. The company’s European exchange, headquartered in Luxembourg, was launched through Bitflyer Europe S.A., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Tokyo-based Bitflyer Inc. The company has been granted a PI license by the Luxembourg regulator, Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF). Pierre Gramegna, the Luxembourg Minister of Finance, commented, “We’re delighted that one of the most successful Japanese startups chose Luxembourg as their EU platform.” Bitflyer CEO Yuzo Kano with Luxembourg Minister of Finance Pierre Gramegna. (Photo: Business Wire) More Cryptocurrencies Coming Soon For the grand opening, Bitfl

What Tax Rates Apply To Crypto Exchanges? The South Korean government is working on how to tax cryptocurrency exchanges. The Korea Times  quoted  an official of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance revealing on Monday, “Virtual money exchanges will have to pay taxes. But we have yet to decide the exact tax rates as we are in talks with the National Tax Agency.” Yonhap, however,  reported  that “The government said Monday it will collect up to 24.2 percent of corporate and local income taxes from South Korea’s cryptocurrency exchanges this year.” The news outlet also quoted an official saying: Virtual currency exchanges should pay the corporate tax on income earned last year by the end of March and the local income tax by the end of April. Following media reports, the government posted a notice on its website quoting the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, stating, “In relation to virtual currency taxation, we are currently considering the method to secure taxation data…it ha