Central Bank Digital Currency and Stablecoin Monthly Monitor
On Tuesday I published my May Monthly Monitor which I’ve narrowed down to focus on just central bank and sovereign digital currencies, and stablecoins. The idea remains to summarize all of the month’s key events in these spaces. Comments welcome!
Norton360 antivirus tool will allow its 13 million customers to mine Ethereum
Cybersecurity firm, NortonLifeLock, has launched a pilot of Norton Crypto, a tool allowing select Norton360 users to “safely” mine Ethereum (ETH) through the product. Norton plans to open up the mining service to all of its nearly 13 million 360 customers in the coming months, in the future, to support mining of other “top” cryptos. Norton emphasized that its service allows users to mine without requiring them to switch off their antivirus software.
Banks test DLT-based platform for intraday FX swaps
A group of 11 banks, including NatWest and Deutsche Bank, have been trialling a distributed ledger technology (DLT) based platform for intraday FX swaps. The trial used technology from Finteum, which has been working on a DLT-based intraday FX swaps platform first announced with R3 and Fnality in 2019. During the trial, the banks engaged in simulated trading and discussion sessions. The plan now is to move to live transactions later this year or early in 2022.
UK FCA further extends the registration deadline for crypto firms
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has again extended the registration deadline for existing crypto businesses in the country because so many applications are still pending review. The new registration deadline is March 31, 2022. The initial deadline was January 10, 2021, and then July 9, 2021. The extension allows existing crypto firms, who have applied to be registered with the FCA, to continue trading. Also, “an unprecedented number” of firms are withdrawing their applications, because they are not meeting the required standards under the money laundering regulations.
*For those interested in intra-day updates and news that didn’t make the Daily Digest cut, please check out my Diigo fintech bookmarks: https://www.diigo.com/user/kiffmeister/Fintech