Blockchain continues to disrupt the financial services industry by enabling new products that promise to transform banking and payments. Binance, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has announced plans to invest in a venture that seeks to become the world's first "decentralized bank," an emerging concept that would involve an ownership structure based on blockchain-based tokenized equity products. The bank will seek to establish itself in Malta, a jurisdiction that has become increasingly friendly to the blockchain industry.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority recently announced plans to launch a blockchain-based trade finance solution in partnership with a Chinese fintech firm and a group of 21 banks, with the goal of improving access to banking services for new businesses. In Singapore, a technology firm issued a press release this week launching a permissioned blockchain network "built for the trade communities to boost overall efficiency, security and transparency for global trade" by enhancing security and efficiency in the management of trade-related documents, to include applications for trade finance.
In the U.S., a major technology firm has announced a partnership with a blockchain startup, Stronghold, and a state-chartered trust company, to build a new cryptocurrency that would be backed by U.S. dollars held in bank accounts insured by an institutional provider of deposit insurance. The new cryptocurrency would be hosted on the Stellar blockchain protocol and would be the latest development in the competition to create a so-called "stablecoin" that is able to avoid the price volatility issues experienced by most cryptocurrencies.
In the payments space, two major U.S. credit card companies recently had patent applications published that seek patent protection for blockchain-based solutions to improve payment processing systems. Also this week, BitPay, one of the world's largest providers of merchant cryptocurrency payment processing services, became the eighth company to receive a virtual currency license from the New York Department of Financial Services. This will allow New York-based businesses to use BitPay to receive payments in bitcoin.
To read more about recent blockchain developments in the financial services industry, see the following:
- Crypto Investors Try Forming First Regulated Bank, in Malta
- Binance Exchange Backs First-Ever Decentralized Bank in Malta
- Hong Kong Monetary Authority to Launch Multi-Bank Blockchain Trade Finance Platform
- Singapore's GeTS Launches World's First Cross-Border Blockchain For Trade Linking ASEAN and China's Digital Silk Road
- IBM Is Helping Launch a Price-Stable Crypto With FDIC-Insured Funds
- American Express Thinks Blockchains Could Help Prove Payments
- Mastercard Wins Patent for Speeding Up Crypto Payments
- DFS GRANTS VIRTUAL CURRENCY LICENSE TO BITPAY, INC.
- BitPay Receives BitLicense from New York Department of Financial Services
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