The Daily: TCAP Explores Market, Tutanota Accepts Cryptos, Huobi Launches Cloud

In today’s edition of Bitcoin in Brief we cover stories about one of the largest inter-dealer brokers in the world exploring the cryptocurrency market, a privacy-focused email service that now accepts several cryptos, a new white label exchange offering and a cloud mining service that abruptly ended BTC contracts.



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TCAP Explores Market

TP Icap plc (LSE:TCAP), one of the largest connectors between banks’ traders in the financial, energy and commodities markets, has reportedly set up a ‘working group’ earlier this year to explore how it should approach cryptocurrencies. The crypto working group includes some of TP Icap’s most senior executives and was established under former CEO John Phizackerley, according to “people with knowledge of the matter” cited by Financial News London. This could be another indication that mega banks are looking to enter the crypto dealing market and that the networks that serve them are preparing for that day. Last week it was reported that Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager, is probing the crypto market with a similar working group.

Hashflare Stops BTC Cloud Mining

Hashflare, a cloud mining service which has been operating for a few years already, has announced it stopped its active SHA-256 contracts due to continued BTC mining unprofitability. The company explained in a Facebook post that: “For over a month our users encountered a situation when the payouts were lower than the maintenance fees, resulting in zero accruals to the balance. As of 18.07.2018, the payouts were lower than maintenance for 28 consecutive days.”

The team seem to think they can recover from this, writing “We expect that the cryptocurrency market situation will stabilize in the nearest future and we will be able to offer our users new advantageous solutions.” However, the reputation of Hashflare might be too tarnished for that, as many clients are complaining that the company offers no refund for their money invested in the contracts nor an alternative mining option to divert their resources to. People are also suspicious that the company has added KYC/AML requirements right before this announcement, preventing those who wish to remain anonymous from withdrawing their funds.

Tutanota Now Accepts Several Cryptocurrencies

Tutanota, an open-source end-to-end encrypted email with over 2 million users, has announced that the service has started integrating cryptocurrency support. As a first step, users can now donate to Tutanota with BTC, BCH, ETH and XMR. The developers are now also testing how easily they can automate the processing of crypto payments in order to add an option to pay with cryptocurrencies. “We at Tutanota have always been in support for cryptocurrencies because we welcome the idea of a decentralized payment method that works independent of centralized payment processors such as banks or credit card institutions”, the team stated. “We very much welcome the idea of an anonymous payment option as well. With Tutanota we want to provide an anonymous email service for journalists, whistleblowers and human rights activists who need the extra protection they get from the built-in encryption of Tutanota.”

Huobi Launches White Label Exchange Service

Did you ever want to launch your own crypto exchange but didn’t have the technical capabilities to set it up? Now you have a new option. Huobi, the Singapore-headquartered trading venue, has launched a new service for companies that wish to offer a white label exchange of their own. Called Huobi Cloud, the business will rely on Huobi’s existing platforms, providing services for setting up OTC exchanges and currency exchanges with little to no IT capability requirement. The company explains that clients can share the order integration system, wallet system, asset management and clearing system of the Huobi Global platform, connecting to its depth, liquidity, and market data.

What do you think about today’s news tidbits? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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