Blockchain Banking | Blockchain Technology News

National Australia Bank to launch 1:1 AUD stablecoin

National Australia Bank (NAB) plans to launch an Australian dollar-pegged stablecoin on the Ethereum network in mid-2023.

The move would make National Australia Bank the country's second ‘Big 4’ bank to launch such a coin, after rival bank ANZ minted 30 million tokens of its A$DC stablecoin in March 2022.

Much like ANZ’s coin, NAB plans to use its AUDN stablecoin to streamline cross-border payments and support carbon credit trading, according to a report from...

19 January 2023 | Banking

Visa will ‘actively contribute’ to web3 development

Visa refuses to become a dinosaur and will “actively contribute” to developing the web3 and crypto ecosystem.

Aside from maximalists, few experts believe that crypto poses an existential threat to fiat currencies. Legacy payment processors like Visa and Mastercard have increasingly been joining the web2-era disruptors like PayPal and Square in supporting the web3 and crypto ecosystem.

Greater public adoption of “crypto” will likely come through CBDCs (Central...

20 December 2022 | Altcoins

Italy selects Algorand for national banking guarantees platform

Italy has chosen Layer-1 blockchain Algorand to support the development of an “innovative digital guarantees” platform for the country’s banking and insurance sectors.

With a launch date pegged for early 2023, this will be the first time a European Union member state has used blockchain technology for banking and insurance guarantees, according to an Algorand announcement.

Bank or insurance guarantees are when an institution that gives out loans promises to cover...

14 December 2022 | Banking

Goldman Sachs ready to buy crypto firms after FTX bankruptcy

In the midst of FTX’s collapse and tanking crypto company valuations, leading financial services firm Goldman Sachs is eyeing up investment opportunities while prices are low.

During an interview with news outlet Reuters, Goldman Sachs executive Mathew McDermott said Wall Street are closely following the fallout from the collapse as calls for regulation in the industry grow stronger.

McDermott said the firm believes investment opportunities are now “priced more...

6 December 2022 | Banking

Russian Sberbank integrates blockchain with MetaMask

Russia’s largest bank Sberbank has given its blockchain platform access to the Ethereum blockchain through an integration with software wallet MetaMask.

The bank’s proprietary blockchain platform is now compatible with Ethereum applications and smart contracts, meaning developers can work interchangeably between either network.

Sber Blockchain Lab, the bank’s web3 arm, has also announced a MetaMask integration to further support interoperability between the...

2 December 2022 | Banking

Singapore central bank approves Circle and Paxos stablecoins

The Singapore central bank (Monetary Authority of Singapore) has approved licences for two stablecoin issuers, Circle and Paxos, to operate in the city-state.

US-based Circle, the issuer behind USD Coin (USDC), was granted approval for a major payments institution licence, meaning it can issue cryptocurrencies and facilitate domestic or cross-border payments.

Also a US firm, Paxos develops the Pax Dollar (USDP) and has received a licence to offer digital payment token...

3 November 2022 | Banking

BIS declares cross-national Asian CBDC pilot successful

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has declared a multinational central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot a success.

More than £20.5 million was transacted during the month-long testing phase between commercial and central banks in Hong Kong, Thailand, China, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Initially £11 million worth of value was issued amongst participants, which then facilitated 164 foreign exchange transactions and cross-border payments between the...

28 September 2022 | Banking

‘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...