Major ShapeShift, Crypto Boom at Revolut, Interest In Ethereum Peaks + More News

Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.

Exchanges news

• ShapeShift said it has integrated decentralized exchange protocols and is sunsetting its 6+ year business of trading with customers. ShapeShift’s users no longer need to provide personally-identifying information to them. Also, the platform said it will not transact with customers as they will be trading directly with decentralized protocols that now support only ethereum (ETH) and ERC20 assets. The company expects that bitcoin (BTC) and several “other leading chains” to be supported for decentralized trading in Q1 2021.
• Today, at 07:32 PST, Coinbase confirmed that it’s experiencing connectivity issues. The company “resolved Coinbase core functionalities” at 08:58 PST.
• The under-fire South Korean crypto exchange Coinbit said it has completed a compliance check and is aiming to put its problems behind it in a bid to have a successful 2021. Some of the exchange’s executives were last year hit with fraud charges, but, per Sports Kyunghyang, Coinbit offered a “deep apology” for the events of last year, also issuing a compliance declaration that it would abide by strict ethical codes of practice in the year ahead. The firm added that it had “been faithfully complying” with an investigation conducted on the trading platform.
• One River Asset Management has made “one of the largest digital asset trades in history,” according to the announcement by Coinbase, with whom the company worked to invest the undisclosed amount into crypto. The initial trades were completed over the course of five days and executed at different speeds to work through varying market conditions, said the exchange. As reported, One River Asset Management invested over USD 600m in cryptoassets and planned to bring its holdings of BTC and ETH to about USD 1bn as of early 2021.

Adoption news

• Revolut said it has attracted 300,000 new crypto customers over the last 30 days, while around 100,000 of those signups came since the beginning of 2021, Business Insider reported. Also, crypto trading startup Luno said that it recently surpassed 6 million customers and has seen a surge in activity in recent days, the report added.

• According to preliminary Google data, interest in “ethereum” has already surpassed its peak, seen in January 2018. Interest in “bitcoin”, also according to preliminary data, reached 59% of its peak in December 2017.

• International Game Technology plc, which builds slots and other tech for casinos, has been awarded a patent that covers a means for crypto users to pay for their bets with BTC, ETH, and bitcoin cash (BCH). According to this US Patent and Trademark Office filing, users of the company’s method would pay by transferring cryptocurrency into their gaming accounts where the crypto would be converted to fiat after payment of a fee.