According to NASA, the World Meteorological Organization and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce, the last 10 years leading up to the end of 2019, as well as the last winter, has been confirmed as the warmest decade on record. Yet, nature produced another warning for humanity in Australia with the severe 2019–2020 bushfire season that led to the burning of 21% of the country’s forested area. With the devastating coronavirus pandemic spreading across the globe and disrupting the way we live our lives, this gives us an indication of …

Most of the fundraising in the cryptocurrency space shifted from the Americas to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), and the Asia Pacific regions (APAC), according to a recent report by Big Four auditing firm PwC. According to PwC's 2nd Global Crypto M&A and Fundraising Report, during 2019, fundraising efforts in the crypto space obtained 18% less funding, while funds in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the space decreased by 40%. As funding decreased overall, APAC and EMEA's share of the pie got larger. While APAC and EMEA saw 44% of combined fundraising and M&A deal value in 2018, …

The head of the digital innovation and blockchain unit at the European Commission (EC), Pēteris Zilgalvis, explained the concise benefits of distributed ledger technology (DLT) in an interview to The Banker, a subsidiary of the Financial Times. In the interview, published on April 3, Zilgalvis talked about the benefits and challenges of the technology. According to him, blockchain provides a powerful framework for data sharing, something that can't be done by normal databases: “We think that it presents an excellent technology for situations where different stakeholders need to collaborate but, due to competition or legal reasons, they do not want …

These are perilous times, and it hasn’t escaped anyone’s notice that the United States Federal Reserve is doing its part to alleviate the suffering — which began with the coronavirus pandemic and has spread to the global economy. It’s printing more money. “There is an infinite amount of cash at the Federal Reserve,” Neel Kashkari, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, told Scott Pelley of CBS on March 22, adding: “We will do whatever we need to do to make sure there is enough cash in the financial system.” The U.S. Federal Reserve itself reinforced that message …

The European Commission (EC) is offering grants to blockchain developers and other specialists for solutions that adapt technologies from civil to defense applications. On March 24, the EC published a European Defense Industrial Development Program tender calling on small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) to propose rapid, cost-effective solutions — focused on new approaches and proposals for technologies or concepts that have previously not been applied to the defense sector. Combinations of blockchain with “digital twins” for logistics purposes As regards blockchain, the EC provides an outline to guide applications to the program, which stand to benefit from its 2019-20 254 million euro …

Responding to crypto-related regulatory framework from the European Union, the World Federation of Exchanges, or WFE, called for clarity between digital asset and crypto asset classifications. “We believe there could be value in adopting a single EU classification which covers both: digital-assets and also crypto assets, as a subcategory,” the WFE wrote in response to questions posed in a March 20 report. A new industry charts murky waters Blockchain and crypto have only been around for just over a decade, so terminology and regulation surrounding the space is still developing. At present, the public labels Bitcoin, stablecoins and other assets …

The Netherlands-based Public Health Blockchain Consortium (PHBC) has announced the release of a blockchain-based system designed to track the movement of individuals not infected with high-risk viruses. The impetus behind the development is to help healthy people avoid potentially life-threatening diseases. The PHBC announced the release on March 19, detailing that the blockchain-based platform will monitor systematic, continual and anonymous verification of communities and workplaces, which are not afflicted by dangerous viruses, including the Coronavirus. Recording virus data on blockchain “The blockchain stores a workplace's or community's protection certificate from security organizations or government bodies to assure that all persons …

Spain’s National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) has halted short selling in an effort to secure local stocks from the recession caused by the coronavirus epidemic. The ban will last one month, starting from March 17, with possible extension for additional periods not exceeding three months, Bloomberg reported on March 17. In an email to Bloomberg, the CNMV explained that it made a commitment to take such action: “Due to the extreme volatility taking hold of European securities markets, including those based in Spain, their performance in the context of the situation arisen as a result of the virus COVID-19 and …

Major European financial institutions are jointly launching a blockchain-based platform for the investment fund industry. The system was initially incubated by the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and its affiliate Fundsquare, which, alongside Clearstream, Credit Suisse Asset Management and Natixis Investment Managers, have announced a Series A investment round for “FundsDLT.” FundsDLT for cost reduction According to a March 17 announcement, the FundsDLT platform is based on Ethereum’s (ETH) blockchain and allows asset managers, distributors, asset servicers, and the supply chain to reduce costs. The cost reduction is achieved by removing redundant activities while providing transparency and allowing digital fund distribution. A …

The Commercial Court of Nanterre’s Feb. 26 ruling that Bitcoin (BTC) is a fungible, intangible asset sent some ripples through the French crypto community, and beyond. This may seem surprising, given that this was a lower court decision and, moreover, one that did not declare BTC a currency or fiat money — as some news stories reported — but just a fungible asset like money. The ruling is “an important milestone for further development of the crypto market, particularly in France,” Roman Matkovskyy — associate professor at the Rennes School of Business — told Cointelegraph. “The French court’s characterization of …

The first round of negotiations between the United Kingdom and the European Union to determine their future, post-Brexit relationship took place between March 2 and March 5 in Brussels, Belgium. The outcome of these negotiations will shape the way the two work together following the end of the transition period, currently scheduled to extend through Dec. 31. For the financial technology sector, the discussions surrounding the future U.K.–EU regulatory relationship as it relates to financial services will be particularly important to watch, as the outcome will determine how fintech services are bought and sold between the two. The negotiations also …

European businesses may soon have a new jurisdiction in which to experiment with security tokens while regulators evaluate the pros and cons. France’s markets regulator, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers — or AMF — is considering a regulatory sandbox meant to study the impact of security tokens in the European Union. The AMF announced on March 6 that it proposed a European “Digital Lab” regulatory sandbox allowing local regulators to waive requirements related to security settlements. The regulator hopes that such measures would result in the development of security token market infrastructure that could lead to a secure legal environment. …