Monex, Japan’s 3rd largest brokerage firm have purchase the cryptocurrency exchange, Coincheck for $34M. Coincheck was hacked in January and $530M was stolen. reuters
Coinbase, the big American cryptocurrency trading application have announced a VC fund to support startups in the crypto space. techcrunch
The head of macro investing at the Soros family office indicated they are planning on trading cryptocurrencies. bloomberg
The Reserve Bank of India have banned banks and financial institutions from working with cryptocurrency exchanges. rbi
Capital
BitPay, the payments startup that allows merchants to accept bitcoin and bitcoin cash raised $40M in a series B round. recode
Chainalysis, the crypto data intelligence company raised $16M in a series A round. techcrunch
Adoption
Five American leading healthcare insurance companies have announced a blockchain pilot to investigate how data can be shared over the blockchain. unitedhealthgroup
The Mexican government is testing tracking public contract bids over the blockchain to eliminate corruption. coindesk
The Central Bank of Russia announced they are looking at using a blockchain software built on the ethereum blockchain to transmit payments and financial messages in the Eurasian Economic Union. tass
Market:
In cryptocurrency terms it was a quiet week for the market with the overall cap hovering between $245B and $280B. The market rallied on Tuesday, but it wasn’t supported and it ended the week 3% down overall. Bitcoin was down 2% for the week finishing at $6,620 USD. Ethereum was also down 2% finishing the week at $367 USD.
