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Put $1.4m unmarked bills in a bag and bring it to the drop point. If anyone follows you the deal is off! In the old days, that’s how a ransom used to go but in today’s world, the University of California fell victim to ransomware and transferred the amount in crypto in exchange for a tool to unlock data encrypted by hackers.

While some are using technology for the worst, BitMEX is stepping up in an effort to become a “world-class financial technology company,” - an effort being led by their newly appointed Non-Executive Chairman who was the former Deputy CEO of the second largest bank in Hong Kong. What is also admirable, is the announced new innovation of the “retrievable transfer” created by Kirobo out of Israel, which aims to help the 55% of people who find sending cryptocurrency stressful.

As we adapt and innovate in the space it seems many more are becoming comfortable with diversifying their portfolios to include digital assets; a point proven by the $190m round closed for a Bitcoin Institutional Fund out of New York.

And as minds begin to change, it seems service providers do to. Kingdom Trust experienced a loss this past week, losing 21Shares’ Bitcoin ETP to Coinbase, but Wirecard had a win when they were approved by the FCA to operate in the UK (although the company is still facing insolvency proceedings elsewhere). With Wirecard’s bankruptcy issues unsolved, Tezos may on the other hand, be settling the class action lawsuit against them for a hefty, $25m and in doing so, avoiding SEC action. 

But, in a world where there are more unsolved cases than solved, central bank digital currencies are still undergoing debate as to whether they will give the Fed too much power and further, if the new travel rule will be good, bad or both for crypto. Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan has started to experiment with the digital Yen.

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