Kiffmeister’s Fintech Daily Digest 01/29/2020

~ kiffmeister
  • Trading volumes in bitcoin options listed on the Intercontinental Exchange’s Bakkt platform have completely dried up, even while CME’s options product is seeing strong interest. As per Bakkt’s data, not a single bitcoin options contract was traded last week on Bakkt, withactivity last registered on Jan. 17, when 20 lots had changed hands. 
  • The Financial Services Agency of Japan issued crypto-asset related regulations for public consultation. They would impose a 2x leverage limit, which is stricter than the 4x leverage limit imposed by the Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association, the industry’s self-regulatory organization. It also includes a requirement for crypto-exchange to store more than 95 percent of its clients’ assets in cold wallet. The consultation period would end by mid-February to be implemented by June 2020.
  • The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) will launch a blockchain-based, P2P payment and money transfer platform in the next few months. Project Bakong (https://bakong.nbc.org.kh) was launched on a trial basis in July with the support of 11 banks, with many more expected to join.
  • When cryptoasset exchanges get hacked and large monetary amounts get stolen, news tends to spread fairly quickly. However, articles tend to focus largely on the monetary amount stolen. Rarely do they explore the deeper consequences and fallout resulting from these shocks. In this feature, Coinmetrics use both on-chain and market data to analyze four of the largest Bitcoin exchange hacks and look at the deep consequences of each, both positive and negative.
  • “It may be a little early to be hitting the panic buttons on blockchain not reaching its potential and then falling off the radar only to be a wasted opportunity, but cracks are showing. What needs to be achieved may not be a full level adoption and operational relevance of blockchain this year, but without a big breakthrough stride there could well be questions asked at the end of the year as to where next for the technology.”
  • “The face of insurance is changing. Again. Led by data, digitalisation and a need to engage the customer, there are already many shifts underway. This current round of technology-driven change differs from those of the past, not least because of the speed and scale involved. Harnessed properly, these powerful forces offer new hope for the insurance industry to remain central to the lives of its customers. Swiss Re’s Sigma report Data-driven insurance, ready for the next frontier? explains what’s going on and presents a potential roadmap for progress.”
  • Standard Chartered has invested an undisclosed sum into Contour, a Corda-based blockchain trade platform, to streamline transaction settlement processes.
  • The white paper, Privacy 2020: 10 Privacy Risks and 10 Privacy Enhancing Technologies to Watch in the Next Decade, identifies ten technologies that are likely to create increasingly complex data protection challenges. Over the next decade, privacy considerations will be driven by innovations in tech linked to human bodies, health, and social networks; infrastructure; and computing power. The white paper also highlights ten developments that can enhance privacy – providing cause for optimism that organizations will be able to manage data responsibly. Some of these technologies are already in general use, some will soon be widely deployed, and others are nascent.
  • In a new report, the R3 Team has outlined the key trends and predictions that business leaders, enterprise architects, and application builders should consider in 2020 as they evaluate or re-evaluate their blockchain strategies.
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Published by kiffmeister

The Kiffmeister is a former Senior Financial Sector Expert at the International Monetary Fund.