Blockchain Banking | Blockchain Technology News

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...

16 December 2021 | Banking

HSBC and Wells Fargo using blockchain to settle forex trades

HSBC and Wells Fargo, two of the world’s largest financial institutions, have started using blockchain technology to settle foreign currency trades.

The distributed ledger technology is being provided by Baton Systems with the aim of increasing settlement speed and efficiency.

Through Baton’s platform, the two banks are settling FX trades with real currencies and real accounts in less than three minutes.

It avoids passing the trades through CLS, a...

14 December 2021 | Banking

Bitcoin processes $187bn more in transactions per quarter than PayPal

The Bitcoin (BTC) network is now processing more volume in terms of transactions than payments platform PayPal, according to blockchain analysis firm Blockdata.

Looking at average transaction volumes, Blockdata says that the Bitcoin network outshone PayPal by $187 billion (£140.4bn) per quarter this year. An impressive overtake for a payments system twelve years younger than PayPal.

Blockdata reported that: “The Bitcoin network processed an estimated average of $489...

1 December 2021 | Banking

French central bank trials CBDC debt market system

The French central bank has completed a pilot of a blockchain-based CBDC designed for the country’s debt market.

The trial was led by Belgian financial services firm Euroclear using a system developed by US tech giant IBM.

After 10 months of testing and participation from more than 500 institutions in France the trial of a CBDC for government bond deals is now over.

BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole CIB, HSBC and Société Générale were amongst some of the...

19 October 2021 | Banking

Fluency valued at £17m with CBDC interoperability solution

Fluency, a CBDC blockchain enterprise platform, has raised £940,000 in seed funding to give it a £17 million valuation.

The company’s Aureum solution is being created to help build and interconnect national CBDC networks with cash retail banking, supporting the transition from cash to a CBDC.

Its smart contract platform enables issuance, distribution and exchange of multiple CBDCs between central banks, commercial banks, merchants, and consumers.

Having...