[Community Post] European Crypto Weekly Updates - Issue #13

Community posts are hand selected contributions from our network. This week we are glad to feature an extract of Etienne Brunet's European Crypto Weekly Updates newsletter for the first time. To have your work featured here please contact us at [email protected].

Etienne Brunet - July 21, 2019

Hej Everyone,

This is the #13 issue of my European crypto newsletter aiming to give updates on corporates, startups and regulation in Europe.

Everyone is talking about San Francisco as the epicentre of everything in crypto. Well, I wanted to shed lights on Europe and show how exciting the ecosystem is.

Who’s behind this? - Hedgeguard

This section aims to give the opportunity to introduce some of the best European founders. Most people loves their products but don’t know who are the founders behind them. Hello World.

Hi Christophe, HedgeGuard was launched back in 2006 and today it is the first portfolio management system for both traditional and cryptocurrency hedge funds. Can you share a bit about your background?

HedgeGuard has been building Portfolio Management Systems (PMS) for the buyside (hedge funds, asset managers and family offices) for over a decade now. In 2011, we expanded our offering to include an outsourced Middle Office service that combines with our PMS. I joined HedgeGuard three years ago to head up their UK office as well as their Global Business Development team. Previously, I managed a trading team at Millennium in London and was the co-founder of a Macro hedge fund, also based in London. I started my career in the derivatives teams of Société Générale and Deutsche Bank.

The full interview is available on Medium

European Startups

• Binance Jersey, the European subsidiary of Binance, on Friday has announced that listing of British pound-backed Binance GBP Stablecoin (BGBP) on the platform. With this listing, the cryptocurrency exchange is aiming to provide more trading options to its clients spread across Europe [Source]
• The US subsidiary of Bitstamp, one of the largest crypto platforms in Europe, has appointed Caitlin Barnett as its new chief compliance officer. She joins the firm from rival Gemini [Source] Note, Bistamp has made its Bitcoin lightning network node public and shared information on the technology [Source]
• Steve Wozniak, co-founder of American tech giant Apple, has invested in a new blockchain-based company headquartered in Malta. Wozniak is now the co-founder of energy efficiency company Efforce, providing a blockchain-based platform focused on investing in energy efficiency, with its stated goal “to be recognized as the first and main platform in the world for tokenized energy savings.” [Source]
• The good people at B2C2 recently wrote an article on Macro economics [Source] Max, the CEO and Founder, had written previously about crypto capital markets and still today represents one of the most insightful post one can read on this topic [Source]

Corporates

• Bitcoin Suisse, a crypto-broker and pioneer of Switzerland’s “Crypto Valley,” has taken anticipatory steps to comply with a “maturing” regulatory environment, by applying for a banking license with Swiss Financial Markets Supervision Authority (FINMA), as well as a security dealer’s license, mandated by the Stock Exchange and Securities Trading Act [Source]

Regulations / Universities

• France is poised to approve initial coin offerings (ICO) operators and other crypto businesses with its new regulatory approach to the sector. It will enable crypto-related businesses to voluntarily submit themselves to national standards on capital requirements, consumer protection and taxation in return for the regulator’s green light [Source]
• President of the Deutsche Bundesbank, Jens Weidmann argued that global regulators should not suppress the Libra project in its infancy, adding that digital currencies can be attractive to consumers in the event that they deliver on their promise. However, a range of other policymakers do not share Weidmann’s view on Libra, with French finance minister Bruno Le Maire saying that the G7 “cannot accept private companies issuing their own currencies without democratic control.” [Source]
• The Israeli authorities have charged Eliyahu Gigi, a 31-year old Tel Aviv resident, for stealing around $1.7m in several cryptocurrencies under the suspicion of stealing cryptocurrency through a phishing scheme [Source]
• Dmitri Vasilev, the former CEO the now defunct crypto exchange WEX, was arrested Friday in Italy, the BBC’s Russian Service. WEX was launched in 2017 as a successor of also defunct exchange BTC-e, whose alleged operator, Alexander Vinnik was arrested in 2017 in Greece and now facing extradition to the U.S., France or Russia [Source]

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