Bitcoin Daily: BitClave Settles SEC Charges By Agreeing To Return ICO Proceeds; Authentication Startup Magic Notches $4M In Funding

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) unveiled charges against California-based blockchain services firm BitClave PTE Ltd. for allegedly holding an unregistered initial coin offering (ICO) of digital asset securities, according to a press release. The firm has agreed to settle the charges by giving back proceeds from the ICO as well as providing further “monetary relief to be distributed to investors through a Fair Fund” per the SEC.

In other news, the Digital Dollar Project made its first white paper public on Friday, which laid out the need for a tokenized take on the U.S. dollar as well as some possible ways to create the system, Coindesk reported. The paper calls for a digital dollar that follows a “two-tiered distribution architecture.” The Digital Dollar Foundation was rolled out earlier in 2020 and is collaborating with Accenture on the effort.

On another note, authentication startup Magic notched $4 million in funding from investors such as Lightspeed Venture Partners and Naval Ravikant, Coindesk reported. The startup already reportedly works with decentralized exchanges such as RadarRelay and Uniswap. Ravikant, for his part, said per the outlet, “Magic points the way towards a world in which user identity and authentication is decentralized and not subject to control by the tech giants.”

And Ripple wrote in a post on its website that XRP is a “preferred base currency for arbitrage trading.” The company touted “XRP’s low transaction fees, reliability and speed” as an avenue for “sourcing liquidity in cross-border payments.” When transaction fees jumped on bitcoin’s and ethereum’s network during an abrupt market collapse on March 12, it claims that users migrated to XRP for exchange balance transfers.

In other news, Knox and Bitbuy, two Canadian companies, are collaborating to provide insurance to clients on their deposits, Live Bitcoin News reported. Bitbuy Founder and President Adam Goldman said per the outlet, “Our partnership is the result of a collective commitment towards establishing a transparent framework for safekeeping client assets.” Goldman also noted that the two firms are “strongly aligned on the direction of the industry.”