The Daily: Blackrock Probes Market, Coinbase to List Securities, Bitpay Gets a Bitlicense

In today’s edition of Bitcoin in Brief we cover the news that the world’s largest asset manager Blackrock is examining the crypto market, Coinbase is approved to list security tokens, and Bitpay got a New York Bitlicense. Additionally, the BCH exchange rate is now displayed directly on Google.

Also Read: UK Mosque Collects Four Times More Donations in Crypto Than Fiat

Blackrock Examining Crypto Market

Blackrock, considered to be the world’s largest asset manager with over $6 trillion in assets under management, is probing the crypto market. Reports have popped up yesterday that the NYSE-listed company has created a ‘working group’ to explore how it can take advantage of the hot new alternative investment instruments.

Larry Fink, chairman and CEO, subsequently denied in an interview that the company is setting up any crypto trading capabilities or that Blackrock received demand for it from its clients. However, he did confirm that the company is studying the performance of cryptocurrencies to be prepared for the eventuality in the future. “When it becomes more legitimatized, when it has a true open nature of it that you can identify who the players are on both sides, that’s when we’ll probably look at it,” Fink said.

Coinbase Approved to List Securities

There has recently been a race among crypto companies to acquire licenses to offer securities in the US, with firms such as Coinbase, Circle and Uphold buying up regulated assets. Now the former says that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) have approved its takeover of Keystone Capital, Venovate Marketplace and Digital Wealth, the three entities that Coinbase sought for their licenses. The next step for the company is integrating its own technology into the new subsidiaries, and training up its staff to comply with American securities brokering regulations.

Bitpay Gets a Bitlicense

Bitpay, the digital asset service provider based in Atlanta, Georgia, received a Virtual Currency License from the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS). This ‘Bitlicense’ enables businesses based in the state to leverage Bitpay to accept BCH and BTC for purchases from users globally, and local residents to be able to make purchases with the service.

“This is an important milestone for BitPay to secure the virtual currency license from the New York Department of Financial Services and be the first non-exchange to do so,” said CEO Stephen Pair. “New York state has one of the strictest policies around businesses involved in cryptocurrency and working through the approval processes to obtain a License was important to BitPay. We believe this hard work will pay off as New York presents significant business opportunities for BitPay.”

“DFS welcomes BitPay to New York’s expanding and well-regulated virtual currency market,” said Superintendent Maria T. Vullo. “We continue to work to support a vibrant and competitive virtual currency market that connects and empowers New Yorkers in a global marketplace while ensuring strong state-regulatory oversight is in place.” In total, DFS has now approved ten firms for bitlicenses and charters.

Peter Thiel and Bitmain Invest in EOS Publisher

Block.one, the company behind the development of EOS, has announced the closure of its latest strategic investment round. Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel has led this round, along with other investments from Bitmain, Louis Bacon, and Alan Howard. “As Block.one prepares to announce its future plans, we’re excited to welcome key strategic investors aligned with our values of creating a more secure and connected world,” said CEO Brendan Blumer. “The EOSIO protocol is a great example of blockchain innovation. Its performance and scalability can meet the needs of demanding consumer applications and will pave the way for mainstream blockchain adoption,” commented Jihan Wu of Bitmain.

Bitcoin Cash Is Now on Google

What do you do when you want to check the current price of BCH? Now you can just enter ‘bitcoin cash’ on Google and the search engine will display the exchange rate as the top result.

And last but not least, Robinhood has announced that after BCH and LTC, it has now added for trading on its Crypto app the lovable shiba meme-based cryptocurrency, Dogecoin.

What do you think about today’s news tidbits? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at Satoshi’s Pulse, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com.