Coinbase Archives - The Industry Spread

Dan Yoo Appointed as Coinbase’ VP of Business & Data

September 12, 2019 by Karthik Subramanian Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: Coinbase

Coinbase, one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges in world recently made an announcement stating that it now has new addition to its leadership team. Dan Yoo’s appointment at the firm comes as a relief measure for Chief Operating Officer Emilie Choi who was initially responsible for Business (Biz Ops and Strategy, Corp Dev, Biz Dev) and Data (Analytics, Machine Learning, Data Eng) along with interim HR and Recruiting roles. Following resignation of former Chief Operating Officer Asiff Hirji earlier this year in the month of June, Ms. Choi became Hirji’s successor and also took on the responsibilities of overseeing the firm’s Security, Customer Operations, International, IT, Marketing and Communications, and Payments Risk processes. However, with hiring of Mr. Dan Yoo her burden and workload have been redistributed with Yoo primarily handling Business and Data operations.

In his new role as Vice President of Business & Data, Dan’s top most priorities at the moment are improving customer support and helping the firm on its efforts to scale up their institutional platform aside from responsibilities in dealing with Business and Data operations. Prior to joining Coinbase, Mr. Yoo served as one of the directors for USA’s largest babysitting platform care.com for nearly 2 years. He has also served as Chief Operating Officer for US based cryptocurrency wallet services provider Nerd Wallet for more than three years and served as Vice President of Business Operations and Business Analytics at LinkedIn for nearly five years prior to his tenure at Nerd Wallet. He has also held several other notable high level managerial roles such as Senior VP of Corporate Development at Rhythm New Media, Chief Financial Officer at Parature, Co-Founder and VP at ReliaQuote, a partner at Stone Korean Kitchen and member of Policy owners Examining Committee at North-western Mutual POEC.

Yoo started his career in financial services industry while still pursuing his bachelor’s degree in Management and Finance at Georgetown University. He started as College Agent at Northwestern Mutual and went on to become an investment banking analyst at Merrill Lynch post completing his bachelor’s degree. It should also be noted that he is very familiar with his co-executive at Coinbase Ms. Emilie Choi given their joint tenure at LinkedIn where Ms. Choi was serving in role of VP and Head of Corporate Development handling the firm’s Merger and Acquisition operations and strategic investment deals. Commenting on his new role at the firm, Mr. Yoo stated, “With the hypergrowth at Coinbase, I hope to use my experience of scaling teams and getting them to work effectively together”. While Mr.Yoo comes to coinbase after having held several high level roles at various firms, Ms. Choi his superior joined the firm back in March of 2018 post resigning from her role at LinkedIn having served at the firm for nearly eight and half years. Ms. Choi joined coinbase last year in the role of VP of business and Data before being named as successor for Mr. Hirji.

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Money Dashboard to Triple Staff For Boosting App Development

August 27, 2019 by Karthik Subramanian Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: Coinbase, Crowdcube platform, Money Dashboard

Edinburgh based fintech firm Money Dashboard recently made an announcement revealing its plans to triple its staff to support marketing the app to a wider customer base and also to help develop and support their app. To this extent, the firm recently initiated a crowdfunding campaign via which it has managed to raise a capital of 4.6 Million GBP. As per reports from the firm, this is so far the biggest fintech related funding campaign launched by Crowdcube platform this year.

The firm reached its initial target of 1.5 Million GBP in just forty-five minutes since the campaign was initiated and the project went on to raise a total of 3.6 Million GBP from 3300 contributors. The firm also managed to acquire additional investment from its existing backers Calculus Capital and Scottish Investment bank bringing the overall funding to nearly 4.6 Million GBP. Money Dashboard was established in 2010 and was launched as a personal financial assistant app which connects around 70 financial institutions into a single platform.

The app which is free to use for clients, allows the users to integrate all their accounts be it current or savings accounts, credit cards and loan accounts, etc., from any banks or financial institutions from their list of 70 members firm into a single platform. The firm revealed that it is able to provide its clients with free service as it generates its revenue from market research done based on anonymous banking data. This data from such analysis provides clients who deal with data a critical insight into how businesses such as Uber and Deliveroo are performing (i.e., financial behavioral trends). The firm currently serves more than 200000 customers and has plans to increase its client base to one million users by 2024. It should also be noted that the firm was in news recently over its partnership with Coinbase which allows clients who use cryptocurrency to see and manage their cryptocurrency holdings along with their normal bank accounts under a single platform.

As a part of the firms plans to work towards increasing its customer base and also to improve their app further, they are planning to increase their staff count from current 20 employees to a total of 60 employees. Speaking on this fundraising event, Steve Tigar, Chief Executive Officer of Money Dashboard commented, “We are absolutely thrilled to have secured this latest round of funding, particularly with the backing of over 3,000 people who share our vision. We are now equipped and ready to help people from every walk of life master their money”.

Speaking on the same note, Kerry Sharp, Director of Scottish Investment bank commented, “Having supported Money Dashboard from an early stage, it is great to see the business raising the funds required to implement the next stage in its growth. The fintech sector is a key industry in Scotland’s economy and we look forward to continuing to work with the company, both from an investment perspective and through our account management support, to deliver its long-term growth ambitions”.

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Huobi Joins Circle, Coinbase, R3, Archax in Global Digital Finance

August 2, 2019 by Ricardo Esteves Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: Archax, Circle, Coinbase, Huobi, R3

Huobi, a leading global crypto-assets financial service provider, has joined Global Digital Finance (GDF) as a Patron Member and will join the Advisory Council, alongside global crypto-assets leaders Circle, Coinbase, ConsenSys, and R3 and founding members 11:FS, Archax, CryptoCompare, and Metaco.

GDF is an industry membership body promoting the adoption of best practices and conduct standards for crypto and digital assets and digital finance technologies. The organization includes other members such as DLA Piper, Diginex, Hogan Lovells, Bandman Advisors, Cambrial, Elipses, and Messari.

The Patron Board, which Huobi joined, supports the development of GDF’s global strategy. The operator now co-chairs the GDF Market Integrity Working Group, which is developing principles and best practices in the prevention of market manipulation.

Teana Baker-Taylor, Executive Director for Global Digital Finance, commented:”Integrity and credibility of crypto markets are currently major hurdles for mainstream and institutional adoption of digital assets, as well as a key concern for regulators. The goal of GDF’s Market Integrity Working Group is to devise a set of pragmatic, implementable guidelines that, if adopted by digital asset service providers, will promote a fair, ethical and transparent industry.”

Chris Lee, CFO of Huobi and Huobi’s delegate on GDF’s patron board, said: “As a Patron Member of Global Digital Finance, Huobi is honoured and delighted to work with top institutions all over the world. Through our efforts, We have infinite faith in promoting the development of this industry while addressing major issues surrounding market integrity, compliance, practice standards and business model. Huobi believe blockchain technology could benefit all mankind, and we will
continue to devote ourselves to this case.”

Huobi has adopted the GDF Code of Conduct, including Part I:Introduction and Overarching Principles and Part II: Principles for Token Trading Platforms

Elaine Sun, Chief Compliance Officer at Huobi, said: “We are delighted to join Global Digital Finance and this community-led global effort to set standards to promote client privacy and security, promote balanced regulatory policies and compliance, and promote responsible conduct in regards to lending, leveraging, and
making promises to investors.”

Lawrence Wintermeyer, co-chair of the GDF Board of Directors, added: “Over the past 18 months, GDF has gained credibility with regulators and policy makers through the quality work of the Codes of Conduct, working papers, and responses to policy maker consultations, all of which are all developed through GDF’s open global community collaboration with crypto and digital assets firms and traditional finance professionals.”

Coinbase Shows what Top Crypto Holders are Doing

July 20, 2019 by Ricardo Esteves Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: BTC, Coinbase, cryptocurrency

Coinbase, the leading US-based digital currency exchange, has launched a trading signals service backed by verified transactional data in order to help customers who independently create and manage their own crypto strategy.

Providing objective measurements of cryptocurrency usage based on the aggregated and anonymized activity of millions of Coinbase customers is the goal of the service, which is the first of its kind in crypto, according to the operator.

Trading signals are an addition to the typical market data Coinbase already provides and go beyond price, like the example illustrates:

Trading signal: Top holder activity
What it is: The top holder activity signal is the percentage of Coinbase customers with large balances of an asset (top 10%) who have not increased (bought) or decreased (sold) their positions in that asset through trading over the last 24 hours. This is updated approximately every 2 hours.

“While we can’t predict what crypto prices will do, we can tell you how the largest holders have recently traded with the top holder activity signal”, the announcement said, adding other signals such as typical hold time – the median number of days an asset stays in a Coinbase customer’s account or vault before it’s sold or sent to another address or wallet – and popularity.

Price correlation is yet another trading signal offered by Coinbase which measures how cryptocurrency prices have moved in relation to each other. This can help investors assess the historical diversity of their portfolio and assess potential risk exposure.

“For example, if you want to increase your exposure to potential BTC-related price movements, you could buy cryptocurrencies that are highly correlated to BTC. And if you wanted to hedge your bets against BTC-related price movements, you could buy crypto with a high negative correlation. Further, you could make uncorrelated bets with a crypto that has no relationship with BTC. Keep in mind that regardless of the data, price correlations are historical and not predictive of future correlations”, said the press release.

Coinbase has recently appointed Michael Li as Chief Operating Officer, replacing Asiff Hirji who served as Coinbase’s President and Chief Operating Officer for a period of nearly two years.

In April, Coinbase made the headlines for launching its own Visa debit card in the UK, which allows people to spend their crypto balances direct from their cryptocurrency exchange account instead of pre-loading a specified amount of crypto onto their card.

Michael Li Promoted as Coinbase’s New Chief Operating Officer

June 3, 2019 by Karthik Subramanian Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: Adam White, Andreessen Horowitz, Asiff Hirji, BAKKT, Coinbase, Michael Li, Mike Lempres, Naspers ltd, Timothy Plakas, ZipRecruiter

US-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase last Friday announced that it now has a new Chief Operating Officer. As per the statement released by Coinbase, Michael Li – current Vice President of data at the exchange who has been part of the firm for more than a year now will take up the role of new COO replacing Asiff Hirji. Asiff Hirji has been serving as Coinbase’s President and Chief Operating Officer for a period of nearly two years now.

This move comes soon after news of Timothy Plakas’s resignation from US’s numero uno cryptocurrency firm which could be viewed as a sign that major changes are taking place in Coinbase’s top-level management at the moment. Timothy Plakas has been in charge of looking after running Coinbase’s over-the-counter trading desk.

When speaking about the announcement of Asiff’s resignation, Brian Armstrong – Chief Executive Officer and CEO of Coinbase commented, “We’re incredibly grateful for Asiff’s contributions over the past 18 months. His experience and mentorship helped guide Coinbase through an important chapter in its history. He joined at a critical time when both the company and crypto space were going through rapid growth, bringing his extensive experience to bear when it was most necessary”. However, neither Asiff’s LinkedIn profile nor the statement released by Coinbase has any information on the date of Asiff’s resignation from the company. As per the detail in his LinkedIn profile, prior to his current tenure at Coinbase, Michael Li served as Head of Analytics and Data Science at LinkedIn for more than 7 years. Prior to LinkedIn, LI served as an advisor for Coursera and was Analytics manager at eBay and Business analyst at Capital One.

Aside from his commitment to Coinbase, Li also acts as an advisory board member for business analytics and Santa Clara University. As per details in Coinbase’s LinkedIn profile, the company has yet another CEO aside from Asiff Hirji. As per data from the website, Emilie Choi former Vice President and Head of Corporate Development of LinkedIn is also mentioned as Chief Operating Officer of the firm. Emilie is also a part of the Board of Directors at Naspers ltd and ZipRecruiter. While two officers who once held major roles at LinkedIn are a part of Coinbase now, Aside from Asiff & Timothy, two other members of Coinbase family who held key roles moved away from the firm in recent past. They are – Adam White – one of the exchange’s employees from its debut who moved to ICE backed Bakkt as its new COO late last year and Mike Lempres – Board of Director for Coinbase’s custody trust company also left the firm to join Andreessen Horowitz as their Executive in Residence late last year.

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Coinbase Launches Visa Debit Card in UK, European Card Coming Soon

April 12, 2019 by Ricardo Esteves Leave a Comment Filed Under: Company News, Industry News Tagged: Blockchain, Coinbase, crypto conversion fee, cryptocurrency, digital currency, digital currency exchange, EEA/EU

This is the first debit card to allow people to spend their crypto balances direct from their cryptocurrency exchange account instead of pre-loading a specified amount of crypto onto their card. Currently only available in the UK, Coinbase plans to expand the debit card into other European countries in the next few months.

Coinbase has launched its own Visa debit card that empowers customers in the UK to easily spend the cryptocurrency available on their Coinbase account crypto balances.

Named Coinbase Card, the debit card can be used to pay in-store and online in millions of locations around the world. Available for payments through contactless, Chip and PIN, as well as cash withdrawals from ATMs, the card

Zeeshan Feroz, UK CEO at Coinbase

instantly converts crypto to fiat currency, such as GBP, which is used to complete the purchase.

Zeeshan Feroz, Chief Executive Officer at Coinbase UK, commented:
“Making crypto easier to use and spend is central to our mission to create a more open financial system. Thanks to the launch of the new Coinbase Card, in partnership with Paysafe, customers now have greater flexibility and control over how they spend their crypto, and the ability to realise its value to buy tangible things or experiences.”

Hugh Kingdon, Head of Fintech, UK & Ireland, Visa, said:

“It’s an exciting time in the global payments industry as innovators inject new ideas and technologies to enable seamless commerce for everyone, everywhere. We value the opportunity to collaborate with fintech partners such as Paysafe and Coinbase to develop cutting-edge payments solutions for businesses and consumers.”

The crypto exchange also launched the Coinbase Card app, which enables customers to select crypto wallets. In addition, the first 1,000 customers to join the waitlist will get the card for free instead of paying the £4.95 card issuance fee.

There is no minimum amount users can spend and they can spend up to £10,000 a day and withdraw up to £500 in cash per day. The fee per transaction is 2.49% (1.49% crypto conversion fee + 1% transaction fee) with no additional cost for domestic ATM withdrawals, up to £200 per month; 1% of the withdrawal amount thereafter. The fee per transaction in the EEA/EU is 2.69% (0.20% + standard 2.49%). In the rest of the world, the fee is 5.49% (3% + standard 2.49%).

Latest in line with its expansion strategy, the exchange has made significant inroads into Asia by opening a new office in Japan.

In mid-2018, the exchange introduced a slew of changes enabling instant trading and higher purchase limits for its US clients.

In early 2019, Coinbase acquired Neutrino, an Italian blockchain surveillance company for an undisclosed sum. The operator had previously acquired US exchange Blockspring.

New York State Grants BitLicense to Crypto Exchange Bitstamp

April 10, 2019 by Ricardo Esteves Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: Bitflyer, BitPay, Bitstamp, Coinbase, DFS, Genesis Global Trading, New York, New Yorks State Department of Financial Services, Ripple, Robinhood Crypto, Square, Xapo

Bitstamp USA Inc., a subsidiary of Bitstamp Ltd., was granted a virtual currency license from the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS). Acting Financial Services Superintendent Linda A. Lacewell announced the DFS authorized Bitstamp USA to offer services providing its customers with the ability to buy and sell bitcoin, along with select other virtual currencies, for USD and vice versa.

Linda A. Lacewell, Acting Superintendent at New Yorks State Department of Financial Services, commented: “We are pleased to welcome Bitstamp to New York’s growing virtual currency marketplace. A regulated industry protects customers while supporting innovation and ensuring our financial services sector is a vibrant part of New York’s economy.”

The license also allows Bitstamp USA to facilitate transfers of funds onto the Ripple Network, issuing Ripple Balances in USD, other virtual currencies, and select fiat currencies, including the Australian Dollar, British Pound, Euro, Swiss Franc, and Japanese Yen.

Nejc Kodrič

Nejc Kodrič, Chief Executive Officer at Bitstamp, said: “We appreciate New York’s solid regulatory framework – the nation’s first – to protect consumers using cryptocurrencies and look forward to expanding our growing business in the state. Bitstamp has always embraced regulatory efforts that focus on transparency and accountability to help expand the industry and bridge the gap between the traditional financial and cryptocurrency worlds.”

Bitstamp has become the 19th company to be granted a BitLicense by the New York State DFS ever since the regulator opened the door to the virtual currency market in 2015. The financial watchdog provides licenses to technology-based money transmitters under New York’s money transmitter law; online lenders under New York’s banking law; and virtual currency exchanges under New York’s financial services law.

In January 2019, Robinhood Crypto LLC, a subsidiary of Robinhood Markets Inc., and Moon Inc., doing business as LibertyX, were approved for virtual currency licenses. BitPay received one in 2018.

In September 2015, Boston-based Circle was granted the first BitLicense, Ripple followed in July 2016. In 2017, Coinbase, bitFlyer, and Genesis Global Trading were granted a license. Xapo, Square, and BitPay also hold the authorization from DFS.

eToro Acquires Blockchain Startup to Tokenize Assets on eToro

March 26, 2019 by Ricardo Esteves Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: Blockchain, Circle, Coinbase, EOS, Ethereum, eToro, Firmo, Neo, Polychain Capital

eToro, the leading multi-asset investment platform, has acquired blockchain-powered startup Firmo to act as an internal innovation unit tasked with bringing to life the goal of tokenizing all assets on eToro.

The firm, which enables smart contracts for derivatives to be securely enabled on any major blockchain, will start its research and development of infrastructure for the representation of assets and the execution of trade processes on blockchain infrastructure.

Yoni Assia

Yoni Assia, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of eToro, said: “The acquisition of Firmo will enable eToro to accelerate the growth of our tokenized assets offering. Blockchain and the tokenization of assets will play a major role in the future of finance. We believe that in time all investible assets will be tokenized and that we will see the greatest transfer of wealth ever onto the blockchain. “While our expansion has been largely organic to date, as the eToro business continues to grow we are on the lookout to acquire businesses which will help us stay at the forefront of fintech innovation. We believe that the market is particularly exciting at the moment.

“The Firmo team has done ground-breaking work in developing practical applications for blockchain technology which will facilitate friction-less global trading. The adoption of smart contracts on the blockchain increases trust and transparency in financial services. We are incredibly proud and excited that they will be joining the eToro family. We believe that together we have a very bright future and look forward to pursuing our shared goal to become the first truly global service provider allowing people to trade, invest and save.”

Omri Ross

Omri Ross, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Firmo, commented: “The advent of crypto and the blockchain technology that underpins it has driven an explosion in finanial innovation, however, a number of challenges are preventing mass adoption and integration into legacy infrastructure. Our goal is to enable our users to trade any asset globally with instant settlement by tokenizing assets and executing all essential trade processes on the blockchain.”

Firmo, which was acquired by eToro for an undisclosed amount, is capable of providing a platform to securely deploy financial contracts and work with any blockchain. Its domain-specific contract language ‘FirmoLang’ can be translated onto a number of blockchain platforms such as Ethereum, EOS or NEO.

eToro has rapidly moved into the cryptocurrency space and now offers crypto wallet and trading services in 32 US states as the broker responds to a global survey which found that 69 percentof US investors are interested in cryptocurrencies.

The company has also recently joined the Blockchain Association, joining existing members such as Coinbase, Circle, Digital Currency Group, and Polychain, in order to influence policymakers.

Global Audit Firm, Ernst & Young Launches Tool for Crypto Taxation Calculation

March 5, 2019 by Karthik Subramanian Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: Blockchain, Coinbase, crypto assets, crypto transactions, Cryptocurrencies, Cryptocurrency exchange, Ernst & Young, EY CAAT, financial services, risk management

Big four auditing firm, Ernst & Young has launched an accounting and taxation tool for cryptocurrency holdings and is targeted to both retail and institutional level clients. The tool is called EY Crypto-Asset Accounting and Tax (CAAT) and facilitating accounting & tax calculations for cryptocurrency transactions and services are currently limited to the United States currently.

The tool will take out crypto transactions related information from virtually all major exchanges, and then it will consolidate data from multiple sources. The tool will automate the production of various reports and dashboards, helping to prepare IRS tax returns for crypto assets.

Marna Ricker, EY Americas vice chair of tax services commented on the launch of the new crypto tax tool:

“EY CAAT exemplifies our commitment to exceptional client service in a changing landscape. We are excited to offer an innovative technology specifically to address our clients’ needs in the crypto-asset space. I appreciate the efforts of the EY Foundry and professionals across our practice who have made this breakthrough.”

Michael Meisler, partner and EY global blockchain tax leader also added:

“The initial validation we have received from the market has been phenomenal, but it only represents the beginning. EY professionals and clients alike are eager to leverage this technology. EY CAAT is the hallmark of our efforts in crypto-assets and blockchain from a Tax perspective globally, and we will continue to work hard to make it the product of choice for EY clients.”

The cryptocurrency sector is witnessing a rapid adoption and growth, and with this, the need for an efficient and proper declaration of digital asset tax filing has become necessary. EY is not the only firm, which is targetting this space and building new tools to simplify clients effort.

In January, US’s leading crypto exchange, Coinbase has also ventured into this space and has integrated TurboTax, the tax filing system built by Intuit Consumer Tax Group to professionally handle all the taxation related issues regarding cryptocurrencies.

Chirag Patel, EY foundry leader, also added:

“The world of crypto-assets and cryptocurrency investing continues to evolve. It is the Foundry’s mission to stay ahead of the market as best that we can and to launch new digital solutions and digital businesses to help our clients do the same. EY CAAT is a timely addition to our expanding portfolio of successful new digital businesses at the Foundry,”

Crypto MidWeek Buzz: Bitcoin ownership amassing to ‘whales,’ most North Sea crude now trades via blockchain

February 27, 2019 by William Freedman Leave a Comment Filed Under: Feature Articles Tagged: BCH, Bitcoin, Blockchain, BTC, Cisco, Coinbase, crypto, Cryptocurrencies, EEA, Ripples XRP, XRP, XRP/BTC, XRP/EUR, XRP/USD

Bitcoin’s biggest wallets keep getting bigger. According to a Bitcoin.com report, a hundred of the largest wallets have accumulated thousands coins since the start of 2019. Some of the concentration occurred over the course of half an hour on February 24, when a strengthening crypto market retrenched around 10% before steadying and resuming its upward crawl. “These ups and downs have allowed large BTC and BCH holders to capture coins at a cheaper rate every time prices have dropped and whales have managed to stockpile thousands of coins,” Jamie Redman reports. “The large drop on Feb. 24 was no different and whales managed to get a lot more BCH and BTC immediately after crypto prices were slashed.” His reporting is consistent with earlier findings that, although it’s difficult to tell who owns a wallet unless it’s held on a centralized exchange’s own account, crypto wealth seems to be settling into long-dormant wallets.

If data is the new oil, why do we need blockchain to trade the old oil? Vakt, a blockchain-native firm formed in November 2018 to routinise commodity trading and eliminate text-based contracts, announced that it now participates in most of the trading of crude oil coming out of the North Sea. Initially backed by BP, Shell, Total and a couple trading houses, Vakt now claims to have recently added four new clients, which apparently puts the firm in striking distance of the 60% market share. CEO Etienne Amic, recently hired from JPMorgan Chase, considers that metric to be the “ignition point” that would “incentivize other people to join.” In addition to oil giants and traders, the supply chain-aligned process can also involve pipeline operators, port agents and inspectors, according to the company’s blog. The post also suggests that leading agricultural traders are looking to Vakt to perform similar services for their distribution channels.

Cisco reportedly invests in blockchain R&D. Networking giant Cisco opened its 14^th R&D center in Singapore, the company announced, its first in east Asia. Although Cisco has been a bit cagey about what it intends to develop there, a Cointelegraph article suggests that blockchain, along with Internet of Things, will likely be a major focus, considering the company’s recent forays into this space. “Cisco has been actively developing blockchain technology in recent years. In 2017, the firm joined the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), the world’s largest open-source blockchain initiative in July 2017,” Aaron Wood reports. “In March 2018, Cisco filed a patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a method of confidential group communications based on blockchain technology. The patent intended to address common challenges faced by messaging groups.”

Coinbase supporting XRP. Coinbase, always the last kid in class to finish the exam but first to volunteer to clap erasers, has finally added support for Ripple – the world’s second- or third-highest capitalized cryptocurrency – to its pro-level users. On February 25, the centralized exchange began “accepting inbound transfers of XRP to Coinbase Pro. We will accept deposits for a minimum of 12 hours prior to enabling full trading,” according to its blog. “Once sufficient supply of XRP is established on the platform, trading on the XRP/USD, XRP/EUR, and XRP/BTC order books will start in phases, beginning with post-only mode and proceeding to full trading should our metrics for a healthy market be met.” Initially, this support will be available in the United States excluding, for some reason, New York, as well as the European Union, Canada, Singapore and Australia. Other venues might be added later. Coinbase is currently offering only transfer services, but plans to cascade into post-only, limit-only and eventually full trading.

Old, rich guys in the U.S. still hate crypto. Warren Buffet, the genius who runs turnaround firm Berkshire-Hathaway and is often cited as the most successful living investor, told CNBC that “Bitcoin has no unique value at all. … It’s a delusion.” Of course, this is the same guy who went over a year without buying anything that he believes does have value. Even so, he concedes that “blockchain is important” as a technology.

The best or notgeld. Daimler North America has jumped into the blockchain fray by deploying Hyperledger to improve transparency in its supply chains. Working with contract management consultancy Icertis, the Mercedes-Benz Cars division will leverage blockchain technology to “to fundamentally revolutionize our procurement processes, and could affect nearly the entire value chain,” according to one executive. “Global supply chains are becoming increasingly complex. With our Blockchain-prototype, we are in the first step testing one of diverse possible applications with the aim of increasing transparancy beyond our direct suppliers.”

LOOKING FORWARD: We reported last week on a small settlement in Norway that aspires to be a crypto city, but now we’ve found someone with even more ambition. Bitcoin.com recently profiled 19-year-old Leo Beltran, who wants to make his native Buenos Aires a bitcoin-friendly city. He’s going old-tech, posting fliers around town, but his goal is very 21^st-century. “The thing that made me fall in love with cryptocurrencies in general, and bitcoin in particular, was that it could financially connect people on the internet the same way it connects them in the real world,” Beltran says. “If even a single business contacts me saying that they want to try the technology in their operations, that will already be a big success.” … India might finally be forced to make up its mind about how it’s going to treat crypto. Bitcoin.com reports that the nation’s Supreme Court has given its Finance Ministry four weeks to draw up “a clear regulatory framework.” The framework so far has been less than clear, and the court recently upheld a Reserve Bank of India prohibition banning banks from exchanging rupees for crypto.

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