Bitcoin Daily: Mastercard Gets Crypto Patent, BitPay Receives ‘BitLicense’ In NY

SBI Holdings’ own crypto trading platform, VCTRADE, has gone live, according to Cryptovest. At launch, the platform will reportedly support trading of the Japanese yen with Ripple’s XRP. The news comes as the platform was formally unveiled in June following beta testing last year.

In other news, BitPay has received a digital currency license from the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) that is called a “BitLicense,” Cryptovest reported. With the license, BitPay will be able to provide companies in New York with clearing and settlement services for bitcoin and bitcoin cash.

And the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is advising investors to be wary of crypto projects, Cryptovest reported. The Commission said that “buying digital coins or tokens only because you expect to sell them at a higher price later is the definition of speculation and carries considerable risk.”

On another note, Mastercard was awarded a patent for a way to expedite digital currency payments, according to CoinDesk. The idea is that payments that are based on blockchain can take approximately 10 minutes to process, while fiat transactions can be processed through networks in “nanoseconds.”

Mastercard’s idea is to offer a user accounts to allow cryptos to move through existing fiat currency systems. Furthermore, “payment networks may be able to evaluate the likelihood of fraud and assess risk for blockchain transactions using existing fraud and risk algorithms and information that is available to payment networks.”

In other news, Qiwi Blockchain Technologies (QBT) has an idea to reward staff: to incentivize them with a custom token, CoinDesk reported. The company intends to create a token linked to its profit, and a partner at the firm told the outlet that up to half of the net profit may go to the program.

And GMO Internet has rolled out a web bank called Aozora Net Bank, CoinDesk reported. The new company, which is a joint enterprise with Aozora Bank Group, plans to offer new services by integrating information technology (IT) and FinTech. In addition, the bank said it would work “to develop a new settlement system utilizing blockchain technology” with GMO Internet.