Binance Launches BTC Options Trading on Mobile; Wirex Hits 3M Users & Becomes Profitable; Facebook's Libra Plays Nicely with the Regulators

Last week (13-18 April) in the Blockchain & Crypto world was yet another interesting one - Square’s Cash App is allowing US citizens and residents who don’t usually file a tax return to direct forthcoming government stimulus payments to their mobile app; Binance has officially launched Bitcoin options on its futures trading platform; Wirex has hit 3 million users and became profitable; Andreessen Horowitz looks to double down on crypto with new $450M fund, and more!

About this and more, in the newest issue of Weekly Blockchain & Crypto Digest. Enjoy!

Square's Users Can Route Stimulus Payments to BTC-Friendly Cash App

Square’s Cash App is allowing U.S. citizens and residents who don’t usually file a tax return to direct forthcoming government stimulus payments to the mobile payments application.

The move comes after the company failed to convince the United States Treasury to let it distribute the stimulus funds to segments of the U.S. population.

Within hours of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) green-lighting the distribution of stimulus funds to citizens who don’t file tax returns on April 10, Square users can accept payments issued under Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act directly into their Cash App balance.

A post on Square's website explains that the app will provide “routing and account numbers that you can use to deposit your stimulus payment directly to your Cash App balance.”

On the same day, Square launched an online portal to make it easy for non-tax paying users to request payments to their Cash App account from the IRS. A similar portal will be rolled out on April 17 to also allow taxpayers to request that the payment is made to their Cash App balance.

Binance Officially Launches Bitcoin Options Trading on Mobile App

Top cryptocurrency exchange Binance has officially launched Bitcoin options on its futures trading platform. Confirming hints earlier this month, the rollout was announced this morning, April 13. It is, for now, limited to the exchange’s mobile app.

Options contracts offer traders the chance to purchase either a right to buy (a call option) or sell (a put option) on a given asset at a specified “strike price.” Binance is offering the American, as opposed to the European, version of the derivative, in which traders can exercise their rights — i.e. settle the contract at the chosen strike price — at any time before or on the expiry date itself.

For Binance’s BTC/Tether (USDT) options contracts, traders first transfer their USDT holdings from their spot wallet to their futures wallet and choose an expiry date, ranging from 10 minutes to one day.

In a note to traders, Binance indicates that a fixed value premium must be paid at the start, meaning that any prospective profits on trades will be net, i.e. profits minus the premium. The exchange cautions that:

There is no guarantee that your options purchase will execute at a profit after the premium has been deducted. Most options purchases will not be profitable, but a minority will be very profitable. Please use at your own discretion.

Cargill and Rabobank Use Blockchain for a $12M Intercontinental Wheat Trade

Dutch multinational banking and financial services company Rabobank recently announced the settlement of a $12 million intercontinental commodity trade using blockchain technology.

Rabobank and other logistics companies collaborated with the United States-based agricultural behemoth Cargill and agri-commodity trader Argocrop International to manage the trade transaction of wheat from North America to Southeast Asia. They used the Singapore-based blockchain platform called dltledgers for streamlining the process.

It was reported that completing a similar cross-continent trade using traditional processes could take up to a month. 

However, the firms involved in this wheat trade used dltledgers’ blockchain platform for end-to-end digital trade executions and digitalizing the document and trade execution process. This helped them slash the settlement time to just five days. Jennifer Davidson, the trade execution lead at Cargill, stated:

We see this transaction as the latest example of how working together and using technology to solve challenges can improve trade, as well as traceability, food safety, nutrition and more.

Rabobank’s key facilitators, Mario Cortinhal in North America and Olivier De Jong in Singapore said that they were able to minimize the time spent on processing documents due to the effectiveness of consensus-driven smart contracts.

Wirex Hits 3 Million Users & Becomes Profitable

London-based crypto payment processor Wirex has revealed that it now has over 3 million active users, highlighting the popularity of its crypto-supporting visa card among customers.

Wirex is a company licensed by the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) which allows crypto users to spend their crypto and fiat currencies using a dedicated Visa card and mobile app. The service has been rolled out in 130 countries, with the card accepted at over 46 million locations.

Wirex CEO Pavel Matveev said that more and more mainstream users “who are not typically hardcore cryptocurrency users” were being drawn to the card over traditional bank offerings thanks to features such as “Cryptoback,” which rewards Wirex users with up to 1.5% back in Bitcoin for each in-store transaction.

“If we compare usage before Cryptoback existed and afterwards, there is a 100% increase in the number of in-store transactions per customer after,” he said.

The increase in demand has translated into the company achieving profitability, as was publicly announced earlier this month. 

Andreessen Horowitz Looks to Double Down on Crypto With New $450M Fund

Private venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz may have plans for another crypto asset fund. 

Established by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz over 10 years ago, the firm looks to start its second crypto investment fund, hoping to garner $450 million in capital for the endeavor, Financial Times said in an April 14 article, citing sources familiar with the situation.

Also going by the name a16z, Andreessen Horowitz provides tech companies and visionaries with funding. The outfit has three funds used for investment in startups and the like, including the $350M Crypto Fund. 

Andreessen Horowitz made headlines in 2018 when it raised $300 million for the crypto-specific fund. A part of Facebook's Libra Association, the firm is also involved in that project's funding, the Financial Times article noted. 

Crypto Finance AG Raises $14.5M

Crypto Finance AG, the operator of several institution-oriented crypto businesses, has raised 14 million Swiss francs ($14.5 million) in a Series B funding round led by well-known investors from across Europe and Asia. 

The Zug-based business will use the funds to continue developing professional crypto asset infrastructure, management and trading services, founder and CEO Jan Brzezek said on April 16.

As reported, one of Crypto Finance AG’s three subsidiaries is the crypto investment fund, Crypto Fund AG, which received Switzerland’s first crypto asset management license from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority back in 2018.

Crypto Finance AG, a holding company of Crypto Finance Group, also operates two further subsidiaries; Crypto Broker AG and Crypto Storage AG, the latter of which provides storage solutions and tokenization infrastructure.

Libra Made Changes to Play More Nicely With Regulators

After a rocky road with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, key decision-makers at Libra have gone back to the drawing board to re-tool their cryptocurrency platform to be more palatable to regulators.

First of all, Libra has applied for a payment system license from Swiss regulator FINMA (Swiss Financial Markets Supervisory Authority). This is a huge milestone on the way to some publicly usable Libra payments system, but there is still work to be done. Libra’s licensing process will continue to require input from other central banks and financial regulatory authorities around the world. But the traction is positive for now — Libra is on its way to being able to offer monetary and banking services.

There are also a number of underlying technical changes taking place. First, Libra’s multi-currency stablecoin LBR will be backed by new stablecoins, instead of by fiat currencies living in a bank account somewhere. Libra co-creator David Marcus tweeted that “the most notable evolutions” are “the creation of single currency stablecoins,” like USD, EUR, and GBP, in addition to the Libra coin.

This updated design is made possible by a smart contract that ties together the fixed nominal weights of underlying stablecoins. It also happens to limit Libra’s flexibility, since adding or removing a currency from the basket would require issuing or retiring another digital token.

The second major update is to the Libra white paper, which has been retooled in light of the previously described technical changes. The first version described Libra as a permissioned network controlled by the Libra Association, and the plan was for it to go permissionless in the next five years.

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But the revised white paper outlines a more compliant roadmap for Libra’s future, limiting what people can do on the network. Unhosted wallets will be subject to balance and transaction limits, for example, and the network will only be accessible to regulated crypto companies at the start.

Where Libra was previously stuck in regulatory purgatory, the gears appear to be turning more methodically lately.

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About: I am a business developer, sales professional, FinTech strategist, as well as Cryptocurrency and Blockchain enthusiast. I'm highly passionate about Financial Technology and Digital Innovation, and strongly believe that it will change the world for the better. Apart from my daily job at a global payments startup where I'm leading company's expansion into Europe , I'm an active member of FinTech community and a TechFin evangelist.

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