BOBBY IS BACK: More than a year after he sold one of China’s longest-running bitcoin exchanges, Bobby Lee, co-founder of BTCC, is back. Announced Thursday at CoinDesk’s Invest: Asia event in Singapore, Lee’s new venture, Ballet, is rolling out a hardware wallet supporting multiple cryptocurrencies. To differentiate its product and spur adoption outside crypto circles, Ballet will generate public addresses and private keys for users in advance. Lee believes this design will make it easier for cryptocurrency newcomers. Full story
ISSUED AND SETTLED: Spanish banking giant Santander says it has become the first institution to use a public blockchain to manage all aspects of a bond issuance. Revealed Thursday, the company not only used a token on ethereum to represent the $20 million debt issuance, but settled it with another set of ERC-20 tokens representing cash held in a custody account. Why that’s important: Imagine asking someone a question on WhatsApp and waiting for them to mail a postcard with the answer. Santander, in this analogy, conducted both parts of the conversation digitally. Full story BINANCE IN THE USA: The largest crypto exchange by volume is making its U.S. debut next week. Binance.US said Wednesday that the platform will open registration and deposits on September 18. According to a company blog posting, Binance will roll out multiple products across the U.S. After registration, six cryptocurrencies will be available for deposits: bitcoin, ethereum, XRP, bitcoin cash, litecoin and tether. Trading will begin later at an undisclosed date. Full story ABSOLUMENT PAS! France's finance minister has said the EU should block Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency because it poses a threat to the sovereignty of national currencies. Bruno Le Maire reportedly said at the opening of an OECD conference on blockchain and cryptocurrencies: “I want to be absolutely clear ... we cannot authorize the development of Libra on European soil.” Full story KLAY SALE: South Korean messaging giant Kakao’s “klay” token – the native cryptocurrency of its recently launched Klaytn blockchain – is soon to make its first official exchange listing on Upbit. Ground X, the firm set up by Kakao to develop the Klaytn network, announced the news in a Medium post on Sept. 5, saying klay will list on Upbit’s Singapore and Indonesia platforms by the end of this month. Upbit Singapore revealed on Sept. 6 that klay will be listed following price discovery via a Dutch auction – in which the price is reduced until buyers are found – on Sept. 18. Full story | 