From a burst of institutional interest in Bitcoin and Ethereum to new adoption for BTC and Litecoin, here’s a look at some of the stories breaking in the world of crypto.
Bitcoin and Ethereum
The institutional crypto investment giant Grayscale has released its third-quarter report for 2019, revealing a surge of Wall Street interest in Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Grayscale offers a series of trusts that allow institutions to gain exposure to BTC and a long list of altcoins, including ETH, XRP, BCH, LTC, XLM, ZEC and ZEN.
The firm’s latest report shows an exponential jump in growth for BTC and ETH that began early this year.
Grayscale says the biggest surge happened in July, with $75 million pouring into its Bitcoin trust in a single day.
“Quarter billion-dollar inflows ($254.9 million) mark [the] strongest demand for Grayscale products since firm inception: Inflows tripled quarter-over-quarter, from $84.8 to $254.9 million, despite recent declines in digital asset market prices.”
Ripple and XRP
Ripple says MoneyGram CEO W. Alexander Holmes will highlight the impact of digital assets and blockchain technology at the company’s upcoming Swell conference in Singapore.
The two companies partnered in July, with Ripple buying $30 million of shares in MoneyGram at a premium of $4.10 per share.
MoneyGram is implementing Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity solution (previously known as xRapid), which utilizes XRP to power cross-border payments.
In a recent earnings call, Holmes talked about the company’s early experience with XRP.
“I am so excited to announce today that MoneyGram is now live and transacting on the Ripple xRapid platform. We started executing trades earlier this week and all signs point to this being a tremendously beneficial relationship for all parties involved. We are literally settling currencies in seconds, and to quote my friend Larry, ‘This is really cool.’”
Bitcoin and Litecoin
The US-based payment merchant processor Aliant plans to pay its employees part of their compensation packages in both Bitcoin and Litecoin.
Aliant first began supporting crypto payments in September of 2017.
CEO Eric Brown says the initiative shows the company’s commitment to the digital economy.
“The fintech industry is growing and changing rapidly, and this is a way for our employees to be a part of Aliant’s involvement in this shift to digital currency.
Each member of the Aliant team now has a vested interest in cryptocurrency not just as something they work on in the office. The more our team utilizes digital currency, the better our customer user experience will be. This benefits Aliant as a company, and our employees as invested customers.”
