In this week’s daily editions of Bitcoin in Brief, we showcased stories about politicians trying to enforce their will on the cryptocurrency ecosystem around the world, thus pushing companies that are big enough to join the money-in-politics game.
Also Read: Malta Stock Exchange to Develop Two New Platforms for Security Tokens
Bitmain Expands R&D in Israel
On Monday, we reported that Bitmain Technologies Ltd., the Beijing-headquartered bitcoin mining hardware (ASIC chips) producer, plans to expand its research and development center in Israel and expects to triple its workforce in the country. Bitmain explained that it would recruit more than 40 researchers, programmers, engineers and marketing personnel to its development center in Ra’anana, to be added to the 15 employees there today. And in exchange-related news, we reported that Poloniex launched an official mobile app and Cobinhood added USD fiat trading.
Blackrock Probes Market
Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager with over $6 trillion in assets under management, made headlines on Tuesday by probing the crypto market. Reports have popped up the day before that the company has created a ‘working group’ to explore how it can take advantage of the hot new alternative investment instruments. CEO denied that Blackrock is setting up any crypto trading capabilities or received demand for it from its clients. However, he did confirm that the company is studying the performance of cryptocurrencies to be prepared for the eventuality in the future. In other interesting news, Bitpay was granted a New York Bitlicense and Coinbase claimed to get an approval from SEC and FINRA for its securities license acquisition – a claim it later walked back from.
Jersey Introduces Requirements for ICO Projects
On Wednesday, we reported that the Financial regulator of
