Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire believes that China's developing "cryptocurrency" could propel the yuan to worldwide renown as a global reserve currency. Speaking to CNBC's Squawk Box, Allaire highlighted the budding prospects of the central bank digital currency (CBDC), suggesting that it could act as the "mechanism" for worldwide adoption of the yuan. “I look at this really meeting several goals...
SWIFT, the 11,000-member global payments network, has announced a partnership with enterprise blockchain consortium R3, and the news is already being felt in the cryptocurrency market where the rusty gears of the ripple (XRP) rumor mill have begun to turn at a rapid pace. SWIFT Goes Blockchain with R3 Trial According to the announcement, SWIFT and R3 have developed a proof of concept that links...
Ripple on Wednesday posted 9% gains soon after Swift announced a partnership with R3, a blockchain consortium. At 0800 UTC, the XRP/USD was trading at 0.2934 on Binance. As the market sentiment kicked in, the pair posted three consecutive hourly sessions in green, taking the value to as high as 0.3292. By 1300 UTC, Ripple had risen to 12.2%. In comparison, Bitcoin surged at a modest 1.29%, and...
The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) has announced its decision to launch a pilot Global Payment Initiative (GPI) service which aims to compete with the growing threat of competing blockchain and fintech solutions provided by institutions like Ripple, JP Morgan and Transferwise. Still in its initial stages, the ambitious pilot aims to “build the foundation of a...
SWIFT India has announced a collaboration with financial technology provider MonetaGo to launch a distributed ledger pilot program that will aid the operation of Indian banks. Using infrastructure provided by MonetaGo and SWIFT's standardised financial messages, the proposed blockchain platform will enable banks in the country to improve the security and efficiency of their financial products and...
Major money transfer service TransferWise has indicated that in spite of excitement over the growth of Ripple's global payment solution, it has not seen a compelling case for using blockchain technology to carry out its business -- yet. Speaking to Fortune recently, TransferWise chairman and co-founder Taavet Hinrikus stated that while there exists a lot of excitement over the possibilities...
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse went on Bloomberg TV for an interview about the usefulness of his company’s technology and told the interviewer that “any digital asset in the long-term is going to be valued based upon the problems it’s solving.” Garlinghouse: SWIFT's Customers Think Blockchain Has Promise Ripple is widely believed to be solving the problems of large asset transfers across borders...
Speculation that RippleNet and the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) were planning to integrate may have caused the market cap of ripple (XRP) to briefly overtake that of ethereum to take the second position in the overall crypto market. SWIFT Says it isn't Joining RippleNet This was based on the belief that with the integration, RippleNet -- an enterprise...
USD Coin has been in the spotlight of late and the reasons should not be far-fetched for anyone who has been following proceedings in the crypto ecosystem of late. In less than a month, the company rose in value and notched the 58th position of top cryptocurrencies, according to data on CoinMarketCap. More overwhelming is the circulating supply of the coin which surpassed 125 million with a 24...
Ripple (XRP) rallied again for an intraday high near $0.60 as the San Francisco-based blockchain startup announced the commercial release of xRapid, its cryptocurrency-powered enterprise blockchain product. The announcement makes clear that xRapid is "commercially available and moving into production with multiple customers." The company's update names three business customers for...
Based on a survey conducted by Statistca on 15,000 individuals, Turkey has the highest percentage of population that has invested in the crypto market. According to the data released by Statistica shown below, 18 percent of the country’s investors have purchased cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum in the past few years. Motive of Residents in Turkey to Invest in Crypto Earlier this month...
Germany, Europe's biggest economy, has called for an independent payment system free of the US, which experts have said is extremely positive for Bitcoin. Throughout the past several months, Iran and Turkey were hit hard by US sanctions, excluded from the global financial system. The two countries have been unable to initiate transactions to other countries, restricted from utilizing the global...
According to Toshi Times, Jose Dakak, the principal shareholder of Argentinian bank Banco Masventas, has stated that the bank will drop out from the global financial network SWIFT and begin utilizing the Bitcoin blockchain network to settle international payments. Can Bitcoin Replace SWIFT? Through a strategic partnership with Bitex, a cryptocurrency payment service provider based in South...
This is a sponsored story. Cryptocurrency can allow people to borrow money against pledged assets more easily and at better rates than the traditional banking method. CoinLoan, a new startup, will enable users to receive funds in any currency secured by crypto assets. The system will automatically select the most suitable borrowing option available and make the loan available to the borrower in...
SWIFT, the operator of the platform used by the global banking system, has added 22 new banks to its ongoing blockchain proof-of-concept (PoC), deemed by SWIFT as ‘the new standard for cross-border payments.’ In an announcement today, SWIFT has confirmed the addition of 22 additional global banks to the PoC blockchain endeavor founded by six initial banks in April this year. As CCN reported at...
SWIFT, the operator of the platform used by the global interbanking system, has revealed details of its blockchain proof-of-concept (PoC) trial that sees participation from a number of global banks for real-time cross-border payments. Swift has chosen the Hyperledger Fabric, a product developed by the Linux Foundation-led open-source cross-industry collaborative Hyperledger Project, as the core...
A new malware that steals passwords and bitcoin from cryptocurrency wallets has been discovered by Cyren, an Internet security service provider, according to the company’s blog. The malware targets banking customers, and according to Cyren, is carrying out a massive campaign. The emails inform the recipient of a deposit. The emails originate mainly from bots in the United States and Singapore...
SWIFT, the operator of the platform that facilitates the global interbanking system has revealed a peek at its first blockchain offering, a proof-of-concept (PoC) discussed at its European Operations Forum in Berlin today. As the bedrock of the world’s banking system which uses its platform for international interbanking messages, SWIFT has plenty to lose if the much-heralded Fintech revolution...
Bitcoin's price history has followed Gartner Inc.'s "Hype Cycle" model, a branded geographical presentation of a 5-step process by the well-respected computer research firm, noted Zafar Khan, CEO of RPost, a provider of electronic communications, in a recent blog. This gives some legitimacy to the idea that bitcoin and blockchain are maturing and it might be a good time to consider investing in...
Visa has rolled out VisaB2B, which uses blockchain technology developed in partnership with Chain Inc., challenging the SWIFT messaging network as the dominant method for moving large sums across borders. The article stated that amid dozens of blockchain experiments by banks and other players, VisaB2B is among the first commercial blockchain products to emerge. Some technology analysts have...
A new report from the SWIFT Institute has found that fiat currencies are more likely to crowd out digital currencies such as bitcoin.
Adam Ludwin, CEO of Chain, a company that has developed blockchain protocols for Visa and Capital One, told Fortune Magazine that blockchain’s main purpose is to disrupt financial networks and not the non-financial areas that reports have cited as being disrupted. Ludwin said blockchain is a database for money, and he doesn’t know why people talk about its implications for home deeds, voting...
The hacking heist of $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank demonstrates the vulnerability of many banks’ existing financial security platforms that cry for blockchain-based security. Investigators at BAE Systems, a U.K.-based defense contractor, believe the attackers hacked into the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) financial platform that provides the...
Distributed financial settlement solutions provider Ripple has announced the hire of Marcus Treacher, a veteran in transaction and payment systems banking. Treacher is a former executive at HSBC and member of the Global Board at SWIFT. In a press release, Ripple has announced a new hire in Marcus Treacher, as its new global head of strategic accounts. Treacher is an industry veteran with over 30...
Sometimes it is hard to understand just how little finance institutions actually understand blockchain technology. While blockchain is certainly not a panacea for financial institutions, it's pretty close. And SWIFT is certainly no match. In a recent article featured on the website American Banker, the ability for blockchain tech to render an antiquated settlement and messaging technology called...
The notion of Bitcoin as digital gold is as old as the decentralized crypto-currency itself. Even in original writings, Bitcoin creator(s) Satoshi Nakamoto wrote about how he intended to design a digital gold. For instance, the mining of Bitcoin - which entails computer processes - was intended to mimic the mining of gold. That there will only ever be 21 million bitcoins in existence, as well, is...
The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT), a Belgium-based facilitator of global bank transfers, has launched a cross-border payments initiative to improve bank customer service by increasing transparency, speed and predictability of payments using the block chain. The project, called the Global Payments Innovation Initiative, will focus on business-to-business...
As cryptocurrencies have expanded as a medium of exchange, governments worldwide have struggled with how best to regulate them. While one of the draws of cryptocurrencies is that they are less regulated than traditional currencies, problems associated with these currencies (such as financial crimes and terrorist financing) have encouraged governments to develop regulations. A recent report by the...
NextBank, which bills itself as the first bitcoin-friendly bank and is slated to open in 2016, announced that it has received $1.4 million for 4% of the company from two venture capitalists in Europe and has called off its crowdfunding campaign. Crowdfunding investors can choose to be minority investors or have their contributions refunded. CCN reported last month that NextBank received $0.95...
While Swift CEO Gottfried Leibbrandt acknowledges that block chain technology is here to stay, he believes some of the current fintech being spoken about is “hype” and notes that blockchains in the private sphere are more substantial than it getting to replace existing commercial banking systems. Speaking to the Financial Times, international payments network Swift CEO believes there to be an...
The global financial industry continues to study the block chain with increasing vigor. The SWIFT Institute, a La Hulpe, Belgium-based financial research organization, is seeking proposals for a pair of research grants on block chain capabilities. Each 15,000 EUR grant is for block chain research, one in securities and the other in intraday liquidity. Proposals must be submitted by Aug. 7. In...
Bitspark is a bitcoin remittance company operative under the power of block chain technology. Based out of Hong Kong, they are a pioneer in remittance for the crypto age. Operating a cash-in cash-out platform leveraging bitcoin as the means of transmission, they are taking leading steps in developing remittances for the new age. The most promising FinTech companies in Asia have been chosen, and...
Bitcoin price has taken a major hit since Mt. Gox, but that has not stopped Bitcoin from building a worldwide infrastructure that has led to massive expansion opportunities. It seems to have traded price for a deeper market penetration, in every sector of modern society. Bitcoin has already made a connection with online consumer payment giant PayPal, and now commercial banking may be its next...