Blockchain Banking | Blockchain Technology News

‘Most of crypto is going to go away’ says JPMorgan blockchain lead

JPMorgan head of blockchain and digital assets, Umar Farooq, has stated that the majority of crypto assets on the market today are “junk” and that it will take time for real crypto use cases to emerge.

During a panel at the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Green Shoots Seminar on 30 August, Farooq also said that regulation in the digital asset space was not keeping up with the industry’s advances.

In his view, this is holding bacl many traditional finance...

30 August 2022 | Banking

Chris Dixon, a16z, says crypto can shift power away from Big Tech

After raising a record-breaking $4.5 billion (£3.8bn) for its latest crypto fund earlier this year, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has said it sees the ongoing market downturn as an investment opportunity.

Chris Dixon, the founder of a16z’s crypto arm, believes cryptocurrency has the ability to disrupt the power imbalance between consumers and big tech companies like Meta and Twitter.

In an interview on FT's Tech Tonic podcast, Dixon said that power on the internet...

24 August 2022 | Banking

Ripple: Most financial institutions plan to use crypto within three years

A report by Ripple suggests that most financial institutions plan to start using crypto within the next three years.

Despite the bear market, financial institutions remain interested in the cryptocurrency space. Just this week, $10 trillion asset manager BlackRock launched a spot Bitcoin trust while saying that it’s also exploring “permissioned blockchains, stablecoins, cryptoassets, and tokenization.”

While BlackRock is exploring the potential financial benefits...

12 August 2022 | Altcoins

Digital dollar would destroy commercial banking sector, Wall Street warns

US banking lobbyists have argued against the Federal Reserve – the country’s central bank – developing and introducing a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Having released a report on the potential of the “digital dollar” in January, the Fed invited and received thousands of comments from individuals and organisations alike.

Chief amongst these were profound criticisms and warnings from Wall Street and national banking groups.

The Washington-based...

24 May 2022 | Banking

Vitalik Buterin criticises Canada’s protest response as “dangerous”

Decentralised blockchains are not all about being the “Wild West” of the technology industry. In many ways they can keep governments in check and “bring the rule of law back”, says Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin.

Buterin, who grew up in Canada, laid out his position on governments overstepping their authority in response to Ottowa’s trucker protests during a Coindesk interview at the ETHDenver conference.

Truckers have spent the better part of a month...

22 February 2022 | Banking

JPMorgan enters the metaverse alongside new report on its potential

JPMorgan is officially the first major bank to enter the metaverse, having opened a lounge in blockchain-based virtual world Decentraland.

That’s right. The United States’ largest bank has a virtual space called the Onyx Lounge fitted with a portrait of Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s CEO, a walk-in presentation on cryptocurrency, and even a roaming tiger.

Named after the bank’s suite of permissioned Ethereum-based services, the Onyx Lounge was revealed alongside a...

16 February 2022 | Banking

Bank of America expects US CBDC launch between 2025 and 2030

The Bank of America (BoA), the US’ second largest bank after JPMorgan Chase, believes a central bank digital currency (CBDC) for the US dollar is “inevitable”, Bloomberg reports.

According to BoA digital asset strategists Alkesh Shah and Andrew Moss, CBDCs represent the next step in the advancement of electronic currencies.

The bank expects a digital US dollar to be rolled out between 2025 and 2030.

Plans for an American CBDC have been bubbling to the...

25 January 2022 | Banking

NatWest Markets establishes new blockchain team

NatWest has created a new digital team within its capital markets business to upscale its blockchain strategy.

Leading the team will be Chris Agathangelou, who was recently appointed as NatWest’s head of digital capital markets.

The team will focus on delivering credit and rates products to issuers and investors through digital channels and currencies that are underpinned by distributed ledger technology.

With financial markets increasingly embracing...

17 January 2022 | Banking

Sberbank unveils blockchain ETF despite Russian government’s stance

Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, plans to launch the first blockchain exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the former Soviet Union despite Government opposition to cryptocurrencies.

The new ‘Sber Blockchain Economy Fund' will give investors access to the blockchain space without the direct need to buy and store digital assets.

It does this by tracking the state-owned bank’s Blockchain Economy Index, which includes securities of companies that deal with cryptocurrency and...

5 January 2022 | Banking

SEBA Bank makes it possible to digitally own physical gold

Digital assets banking platform, SEBA Bank, has launched a Gold Token, a regulated digital token for investment in and delivery of physical gold on-demand.

SEBA Bank issues a token backed by what it describes as responsibly sourced gold, providing a cost-effective access to the precious metal, and sets a new standard in the stablecoin sector.

The SEBA Bank Gold Token is a landmark development in investment products, enabling investors for the first time to own a...