The cryptocurrency market remains range bound with a slight bearish bias. In the past 24 hours, most of the altcoins have lost ground against the greenback. Bitcoin (BTC) declined below the psychological level of $4,000 after crossing that level yesterday as the cryptocurrency did not receive enough support from buyers. Stellar (XLM-$0.1145, up 4%) is the only altcoin that has recorded gains in the past 24 hours.
Both Ethereum (ETH-$138.16) and Ripple (XRP-$0.3151) has lost 1.6% and 0.6%, respectively, in the 24 hours. EOS (EOS-$3.70, -1.5%), Litecoin (LTC-$59.44, -3.3%), Cardano (ADA-$0.04976, -1.6%), TRON (TRX-$0.02279, -1.6%) and IOTA (IOTA-$0.2958, -0.8%) are trading in the red.
Government level initiatives
ADGM and UBF hold forum to explore opportunities available to cryptocurrencies
A bilateral forum on crypto assets and financial technology was held by the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) and the United Arab Emirates Banks Federation (UBF) to draw industry experts to explore the issues and opportunities available to fintech and cryptocurrencies.
ADGM also revealed its regulatory goals and the key features of its digital-asset policy and monitoring methods at the beginning of the meeting. In addition, the list of subjects debated at the forum varied from ADGM’s regulations on crypto-assets and administrative strategy to how banks and regulatory agencies can collaboratively build methods to alleviate regulatory risks related to crypto-asset assets.
Regarding the need for blockchain framework and regulation, UBF Chairman Abdul Aziz Al-Ghurair said: “Given the rapid emergence of new FinTech such as cryptocurrencies and other crypto assets, it is essential that we develop frameworks and regulations that govern these technologies and developments.”
The SEC to conduct a public meeting on distributed ledger technology
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it would hold a public conference on distributed ledger technology (DLT) and crypto-assets on May 31st, 2019. The event, named the Fintech Forum, is organized by the Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology (Finhub).
The news release claims that the forum will consist of specialists from the industry as panel members and is “designed to foster greater communication and understanding on DLT and digital assets issues.”
Subjects to be discussed during the forum include initial coin offerings, cryptocurrency platforms, “DLT innovations, and how these technologies impact investors and the markets.”
The agency revealed that this is the second time the Fintech Forum is conducted, with the first held in November of 2016.
Private sector initiatives
Ping An joins forces with SingularityNET
The Chinese insurance firm, Ping An, has collaborated with SingularityNET, a tech company based on Ethereum (ETH). The partnership will concentrate primarily on Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Computer Vision (CV), and model training under the partnership. SingularityNET estimates that the partnership’s range is anticipated to widen in the future to include diversified industries and programs.
The statement was issued soon after SingularityNET formally unveiled a test (beta) version of its decentralized marketplace based on Ethereum on Thursday, February 28th. At the World Web Forum, the company disclosed a partnership with farm-oriented blockchain software company Hara in January of last year.
Ping An is supposedly one of the top insurance companies in the world, serving 170 million clients and being listed 10th in the Forbes Global 2000 list of the largest public sector enterprises in the world. Ping An and the municipal government of Sanya also entered into a bilateral tactical deal in the construction of “Smart City” featuring blockchain in November of 2018.
AXA XL and Assurely unveil CrowdProtector
Insurance giant AXA XL and technology start-up Assurely, which serves insurers, have unveiled a new insurance scheme that includes both equity crowdfunding and Security Token Offerings (STOs). The latest offering, named CrowdProtector, is engineered for Investors and issuers, presumably protecting new online fundraising strategies such as equity STOs and crowdfunding. The offering also intends to boost the confidence and security of likely investors by ensuring that the issuer is covered.
Ty Sagalow, CEO of Assurely, revealed that there had been a considerable rise in underwriting. The news releases state: “CrowdProtector provides Issuers protection against investor complaints and lawsuits as well as serve as communication to investors that they may get their principal investment returned should the issuer misuse the funds, purposefully misrepresent information in their offering documents, or steal the money.”
The media release also notes that, until recently, acquiring a stake in private firms was possible only to vetted investors, having a personal net worth of more than $1 million or a taxable income of more than $200,000, discarding a considerable number of likely retail investors at the outset.
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