20/09/2018: Biggest Stories in the Cryptosphere

1. Brazil Antitrust To Investigate Banks After Service Refusal To Crypto Exchanges

The Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) is set to investigate major banks in the country following their joint refusal to offer services to crypto exchanges. The banks in question are “the Banco do Brasil, Banco Bradesco, Itau Unibanco Holding, Banco Santander Brasil, Banco Inter and Sicredi”. The Brazilian antitrust watchdog revealed that it’s being alleged that the banks shut down jointly the accounts of crypto traders and brokerages. The investigation was prompted by the Brazilian Association for Cryptocurrency and Blockchain complaining a case of abuse of power. However, banks denied the claims and said that the accounts were shut down due to a lack of data required for anti-money laundering (AML) duties. The same approach has been adopted by Chilean crypto exchanges BUDA, Crypto MKT and Orionx. We previously reported that they brought their discontent with the Chilean Association of Banks (ABIF) to court, demanding a better environment for the crypto market to grow in.

2. Poland’s Biggest Bank Launches Blockchain Product

Poland’s largest bank PKO Bank Polski has collaborated with British firm Coinform on the development of a blockchain solution for customers documents. The launch was announced today through a press release but the plans first came out in March. Coinform’s Trudatum will provide paperwork issued with blockchain to five million account holders and customer data security will increase overall. Vice President of the bank’s management board Adam Marciniak said that the technology will also give a competitive edge to the Polish banking sector over others. Coinfirm CEO and Cofounder Pawel Kuskowski also added that this is a sign of the country’s desire to welcome innovation in the financial industry as well as to set trends. The first issuance will be made with data from the European Union’s PSD2 privacy directive.

3. Messaging App LINE Wants To Create a Crypto Token Ecosystem

We previously covered the launch of messaging app LINE’s own cryptocurrency, LINK. The tokens would be spent on the dApps service provided by LINE. It has now been reported that the giant wants to create a crypto token ecosystem and take advantage of its 164 million users concentrated in four countries. The idea is for these users to be able to spend their tokens in their everyday life, for example in restaurants and on online content. The company hopes that millions of them to migrate to the crypto-economy. The project was revealed today during the CoinDesk’s Consensus: Singapore. There, LINE also discussed its LINEAR NETWORK. The platform would support dApps, which would “exist on their own so-called “leafchains” while being capable of interacting with other offshoots”.

4. Australian Watchdog Fights Misleading ICOs

The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC), is focusing on the fight against misleading ICOs. The corporate watchdog mentioned that it has already taken steps with some projects. Among the main infractions, were named a lack of Australian financial services licenses and deceptive marketing messages. Despite the small size of the market in the country, the main concern for ASIC is for the public to lose trust. Still, the Australian watchdog acknowledged that, even if some ICO projects don’t qualify to be launched on the market, some are “genuine businesses using this structure”. The news comes two weeks after we discussed the corporate plan for 2018–2022 published by ASIC. In the document, the watchdog stated that it would keep an eye on ICOs, along with other emerging technologies.

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