Newsflash: Cryptocurrency spreads into NBA, Ripple talks to Trump administration about crypto while Bakkt reveals additional details about their service
Bitcoin came in hot this Monday, “barting” its way back up after recent Tether troubles “went away”, which made everyone forget that just a day ago they were predicting doomsday scenarios for the entire crypto market. Such is life in the cryptosphere. Monday news cycle didn’t fail to entertain either as there were several interesting tidbits to report on:
- Cryptocurrency spreads into NBA
Bleacher Report recently published a story about Spencer Dinwiddie, a basketball player currently employed by NBA’s very own Brooklyn Nets, who has apparently caught the crypto bug. Dinwiddie has apparently taught himself about investing from a young age, as an ACL injury in college made him realize that he won’t be able to enjoy the benefits of having a lavish basketball salary coming into his account each month for the rest of his life. After trying his hand at safer real-estate investing, Dinwiddie created a Coinbase account and purchased his first Bitcoin in the summer of 2017. Revealing he also invested in Tron at one point, this up-and-coming combo guard says that crypto has been “feeding his mind” for the last year and a half. As a natural result of that, this season he plans to debut a signature shoe called K8IROS which people will be able to purchase with cryptocurrency. Other notable NBA players had their run-ins with crypto, from Wilson Chandler of the 76ers to Pat Connaughton of the Milwaukee Bucks. NBA teams themselves aren’t falling behind either as Sacramento Kings and Dallas Mavericks intend on accepting cryptocurrency for ticket payment this year.
- Ripple talks to Trump administration about crypto
The much-maligned “creator of XRP” Ripple seems to be focusing their attention on the US governmental echelon as of late. After booking former US president Bill Clinton to deliver a keynote speech at the Swell 2018 conference, they revealed that talks were had with members of Trump administration about crypto as well. In an interview with Breaker, Ripple’s marketer Cory Johnson said they’ve had meetings with government regulators which have shown unexpected levels of open-mindedness from the country’s leading people. Noting that they’ve spoken to several unidentified politicians, Johnson says that he feels like there is “a lot of homework” being done on the topic of cryptocurrency within the current US government.
- Fidelity opens an institutional platform for Bitcoin and Ethereum
Fidelity Investments, a company which currently provides financial services for $7.2 trillion in customer assets and also performs clearing, custody and investment services for 13,000 institutional advisory firms and brokers, created an off-shoot that will focus on delivering cryptocurrency assets to its institutional clientele. The new crypto-focused platform is called Fidelity Digital Asset Services, will employ 100 people and will handle the institutional demand for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Custody, trade execution and smart order routing will be just some of the services that this newly-created entity plans to offer.
- IOTA’s Tangle powers IAMPASS biometric palm vein authentication for digital identity
IOTA Foundation announced that its open source Tangle technology will power a new biometric authentication system that uses one’s palm vein pattern as a means of identification. Thanks to biometric technology, IAMPASS provides an advanced solution to the problem of auditing individuals in high-security environments like data centers, airports, laboratories, stadiums and other sensitive facilities. The IAMPASS Proof of Concept (PoC) will become a part of IOTA’s ecosystem and will presumably become an important element of the project’s Smart City initiative.
- Bakkt reveals additional details about their team, launch and advocacy
In a Medium post titled “Our team, launch and advocacy,” the much-anticipated exchange platform Bakkt announced the appointment of Adam White, former #5 employee at Coinbase. “As a visionary and a strong operator, Adam is a much anticipated addition to our busy team,” says Kelly Loeffler, the CEO of Bakkt. The post revealed an intent to stay transparent with the regulators as the team is actively working on the exchanges clearing rules which will be submitted publicly with the CFTC for review and comment soon. Bakkt also revealed several critical aspects of their clearing model which are designed specifically to protect their members. You can read more about all of that here.
