Bitcoin Daily: US Bank Regulator Says Licensing Crypto Firms As FIs ‘Makes Sense’; Korean Luxe Retailers Pay Rewards Via Blockchain

U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) Chief Operating Officer Brian Brooks said he thinks digital currency firms could go under a federal licensing program in the event they offer what could be called payment services, CoinDesk reported.

Brooks said at virtual conference, “Crypto is one of those areas where we have to ask ourselves, does it make more sense to think of crypto projects as local projects or global projects. If they’re global, then the rationale for a single national license makes more sense. Increasingly, it looks a lot like crypto is banking for the 21st century.”

He provided remittances, stablecoins and some tokens as scenarios in which digital currency upstarts might appear more akin to banking services.

Meanwhile, MiL.k, a blockchain loyalty system, and Korean luxury retail chain Shinsegae Duty Free have joined forces to allow rewards points to be managed on the blockchain, Cointelegraph reported.

Users can exchange Shinsegae rewards points for the MLK digital currency after they connect their accounts. Then, MLK can be traded for loyalty points at other companies like a travel accommodation system. Beyond Shinsegae Duty Free, Japanese retail company Rakuten reportedly lets clients trade Rakuten Group rewards points for three digital currencies through its digital currency exchange subsidiary as of late last year.

The MiL.K platform, for its part, is ERC-20 token compatible and is created on Hyperledger Fabric.

In other news, Crypto.com has received insurance valued at $360 million to cover the possible loss of tokens that are kept in offline vaults, CoinDesk reported.

The digital currency finance company got a hold of the cover through Ledger Vault that provides $150 million of pooled insurance to customers and boosted the cover with a $100 million direct policy in addition to $110 million of BitGo digital asset custody insurance.

As it stands, one exchange based in Washington state touted approximately $300 million of cover for offline accounts with another two companies promoting coverage of $200 million and higher.

Digital currency insurance, for its part, has been challenging during the last couple of years, including for large exchanges.