Happy Friday the 13th! A Blockchain conference in China is shut down by police, Santander Group has been building an app on Ripple and OKEx joins others in a move to Malta.
Blockchain Conference in China Shut Down By Police
According to local news outlet YMTMT.com, organizers of a China based Blockchain conference had their event shut down by police. The conference organizers have denied rumors that they invited a suspected, fraudulent ICO to the event. Others have reported that the shutdown was due strictly to “security risks”, yet YMTMT reports that conference attendees notified authorities when they saw the alleged fraudulent ICO who “lost them money”. The conference organizers are considering rescheduling the unfinished portion of the conference.
Santander to Launch Ripple Payment App This Week
According to a report by the Financial Times on Thursday and later reported by Coindesk, an app from Santander Group, dubbed One Pay FX, will initially be rolled out for Santander’s customers in four countries — Spain, the U.K., Brazil and Poland. As reported by CoinDesk, the U.K. arm of the Spain-based banking group kicked off the development process in conjunction with Ripple in 2016. Santander Group has also previously indicated in a presentation that the app is based on Ripple’s xCurrent platform, a distributed network designed for instant cross-border transactions. xCurrent does not utilize XRP, the native cryptocurrency derived from Ripple’s blockchain protocol.
The group said it expects to introduce the service in additional countries for small businesses in the coming months, and may also extend availability of the product to other financial institutions.
OKEx exchange has moved to Malta a.k.a. “Blockchain Island”
According to an OKEx press release, the major cryptocurrency exchange OKEx is moving to the blockchain friendly island of Malta. OKEx writes in their press release that after meeting with Maltese regulators about the regulatory crypto framework, they are “confident in the Malta government’s approach and decided to make Malta a foundation for further OKEx growth.” This move comes shortly after the major exchange Binance announced their move to Malta due to regulatory concerns in China. To quote the user WhalePanda on Twitter, “Malta is getting crowded”.
OKEx is the number three ranked cryptocurrency exchange by 24 hour trading volume on CoinMarketCap, currently trading around $1.9 bln over a 24 hour period.
Source: ICO Alert