Blockchain and Bitcoin round-up: 16 January 2018
Post-trade scenarios, a cryptocurrency app and a trading platform – this latest blockchain and Bitcoin round-up stars Swift, DeVere Group and Horizon Software.
Swift and seven central securities depositories (CSDs) have signed a memorandum of understanding to work together to demonstrate how distributed ledger technology (DLT) could be implemented in post-trade scenarios, such as corporate actions processing, including voting and proxy-voting. The group say they will investigate the types of new products that can be built using it, and how existing standards such as ISO 20022 can support it.
The coven of CSDs comprises Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, Caja de Valores, Depósito Central de Valores, Nasdaq, National Settlement Depository, SIX Securities Services and Strate. Called the “CSD Working Group on DLT”, the International Securities Services Association (ISSA) recently “endorsed” the group and included it as part of a new work stream within the association’s existing “Working Group on DLT”. Swift says findings from the use case on digital assets are expected to be published in Q2 this year.
Financial consultancy firm DeVere Group will launch a cryptocurrency app, which will be available in “a matter of weeks”. DeVere Group’s founder and CEO, Nigel Green, says: “Nothing has captured the imagination in this new fintech age quite like cryptocurrencies, specifically Bitcoin. No-one was really talking about it back in 2016. But those who invested in Bitcoin before the beginning of last year have enjoyed an impressive price increase. History will teach us that 2017 was the year that digital currencies came into the mainstream.”
The app is called DeVere Crypto and is available for Apple and Android. It allows users to store, transfer and exchange five cryptocurrencies. These include Bitcoin and Ethereum. I’ll hand you back over to Green again as he is full of some good quotes. He adds that “there is an appetite, a huge and growing one, for currencies that are not controlled by central banks and governments” and “traditionalists who declare cryptocurrencies ‘a fad’ are akin to King Canute trying to command the tides of the sea to go back”.
We’ll end with an event on Horizon Software. The Paris-based firm, a provider of electronic trading solutions and algorithmic technology, has revealed new support for the cryptocurrency market. Its trading platform now provides users with the option of trading Bitcoin as well as other cryptocurrencies, such as Ether, Ripple and Litecoin, so clients can use an algorithmic framework and automation capacities to trade.
Sylvain Thieullent, CEO of Horizon, reckons cryptocurrency market capitalisation will reach $1 trillion in 2018. Horizon also offers native gateways for connecting to cryptocurrency exchanges, including Kraken, Bitstamp, Bitfinex and GDAX.
