In this guest post, Max Hasselhoff, integration engineer from Bytecoin and long-standing crypto enthusiast, takes a look at some of the biggest stories happening in the sphere of crypto technology integration.

Hey, I am Max, Integration Engineer for Bytecoin, one of the oldest cryptocurrencies on the market. I am happy to share some of my views, as an industry insider, on what’s happening in the crypto world. This is Max’s Corner, I hope you enjoy it.

This week I wanted to take a look at some of the biggest stories happening in the crypto world, focusing on developments connected to the integration of crypto technology into more traditional sectors of finance and vice versa. At Bytecoin we have been following these stories closely as we explore the possibilities presented by blockchain bridging.

Cboe Resubmits VanEck ETF Proposal to SEC

The biggest news from this week came when VanEck revealed that the SEC proposal for their SolidX Bitcoin ETF had been resubmitted by Cboe. If you’ve been following this you know that just last week VanEck’s proposal was pulled from consideration. It was getting close to the deadline for a decision to be made and the government shutdown was making it less and less likely that it was going to get approved.

Well, now the shutdown is over and the proposal is back on the table. This proposal is really significant as it has a lot of of potential market ramifications. If approved, it could serve as a catalyst to reignite what has been an extended bear market.

However, enthusiasm should be measured as the new deadline for this decision is over 200 days away. As we saw in the last window of opportunity to approve this ETF, regulators may well punt on this.

Ex Starbucks CEO Schultz Considers Running for President

Howard Schultz has been in the news a lot the past week as he signaled that he was considering running for president in the upcoming election. Schultz said that if he did run it would be as an independent. Given his stature, he could shake up the race.

The significance of his potential run to the crypto community was put in the spotlight after he made some comments about cryptocurrency regarding its future role in the market. Schultz said that he thinks the blockchain has the potential to become a significant feature, but he thinks it would have to do so in a different iteration than what we see now. Schultz believes that blockchain technology will have to get integrated into the more traditional structures of the financial market.

Sсhultz’s take on this echoes similar sentiment that has been expressed recently in the crypto community. There has been a push towards bridging crypto with more traditional financial sectors as evidenced in the rise of stablecoins and corporations creating their own tokens.

New Bitcoin Backed Stablecoin Goes Live

A new kind of stablecoin called “Wrapped BTC” was released. The premise behind this coin is to take the stability and power of Bitcoin and graft it to the Ethereum blockchain.

Wrapped BTC is similar to what we have been exploring with the gateway project.

The team behind Wrapped have said they launched their project to bring greater liquidity to the Ethereum blockchain network. Bitcoin’s relative stability is also expected to improve the Ethereum Network’s capabilities in terms of hosting d’apps. We will be watching this very closely.

Boerse Stuttgart Rolls Out New Crypto Trading App

In a significant development out of Europe, Boerse Stuttgart, Germany’s second largest stock exchange, has released its own mobile app for cryptocurrency trading. This is part of the trend we mentioned earlier in regards to Sсhultz’s comments on crypto being integrated into the more traditional sectors of finance.

Right now the app is only available in Germany, but they are looking to make a version that can be used throughout Europe. Boerse has said that they are hoping to get more involved in crypto this year, and we hope that this move will inspire other institutions to follow suit.

Venture Capital Funding Reaches New Heights in 2018

One undeniably good sign from the past year is the amount of money venture capitalists have poured into the crypto industry. Financial technology companies raised nearly 40 billion dollars of funding this year, a new record and an improvement of 120 percent from the previous year.

This, despite the bear market, is a reason for optimism. As long as investors keep lining up to spend record-amounts of money investing in the future of the industry, this industry will keep innovating and transforming the economy of the future. For now, this is a sign that the dream of the crypto future that got us all started is still alive and well.