CRYPTO SQUARED: Square won a U.S. patent for a payments platform that enables seamless crypto-to-fiat transactions. The firm has also said it would be releasing a new "Lightning Development Kit” for bitcoin wallets. Full stories here and here

BLOCKCHAIN LEAP: Hacker Noon is putting its money where its pen is, embedding blockchain features into its new publishing platform. Annotations on Hacker Noon’s blog-styled content will now be hosted on users' spare storage space and a decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) database system. Full story

SDX EXITS: Several executives, including two founding team members, have left the blockchain-based digital asset trading venue SDX owned by Swiss stock exchange operator SIX Group, since the beginning of the year. Ivo Sauter, SDX’s head of clients and products, and Sven Roth, its chief digital officer, both left their full-time positions in January. Alex Zinder, an architecture lead at SDX, also left this month. Full story

WEIGHING IN: The Blockchain Association has filed an amicus brief arguing that Telegram made sufficient efforts to meet SEC criteria with its ICO, adding that the regulator's court action could harm Telegram’s investors. Yesterday, the Chamber of Digital Commerce also filed a brief supporting Telegram’s argument that “digital assets may be the subject of an investment contract without being a security.” Full stories here and here

CLIMATE ROLE? Hyperledger announced a new working group that will explore how blockchain can help the world meet climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement. Launched in Davos, the climate group will enable participants to share findings on how distributed ledgers can help governments and companies coordinate on reducing emissions. Full story