What happened in the industry over the past week? Just for you, we have collected all the news that must not be missed.

In 2018, fintech investments increased to $55 billion. The lion’s share of investments was allocated to blockchain projects. Meanwhile, almost ⅔ of deals occured in China and Hong Kong, with over $25 billion investments in those regions. In 2018, there were 348 investment deals made in China, which is 2.5 times more than the number of deals in 2017.

Anonymous cryptocurrency ban discussed in France

Eric Bert, head of the finance committee of the National Assembly, proposed a ban on the circulation of anonymous cryptocurrencies (Dash, Monero, Zcash and Bitcoin Private) in France. Traditional concerns were raised against anonymous cryptocurrencies: trouble identifying users, high possibilities of fraud, money laundering, etc. By the way, Japan already banned anonymous cryptocurrencies in June 2018. Even though Japanese legislation is rather lenient towards the crypto market, and many stores accept cryptocurrency payments.  

Ethereum new block creation speed reaches historical low

Today, it takes 12.5 seconds to create a new block, even though the time was recently as high as 21 seconds. This acceleration might indicate an increase in daily coin emissions: right after the hardfork, this indicator was 12 800 ETH, and it has now reached 13 600 ETH. It is predicted to stabilize at a level of 13 000 ETH. What’s more, last week Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin proposed to increase user commissions to finance the work of developers.

Binance Coin rally continues

It may seem that the crypto market is no longer prone to coin price increases after a conference or even an AMA with a group of developers. And yet, the coin released by Binance BNB exchange is still in its golden age - during a recent conference with the CEO of the exchange, Changpeng Zhao, the coin’s rate increased by 15%. The rate has increased by more than 140% since early 2019. What’s more, the price of BNB has stopped correlating with Bitcoin.

During the livestream, Changpeng Zhao talked about common reasons for delisting. The CEO noted that the exchange was interested in keeping in touch with all the projects it listed, but some projects ignored their communication. He explained why he doesn’t warn token emitents about delisting in advance: this kind of insider information might result in market manipulations. According to Zhao, the practical use of BNB tokens is much higher than that of most other cryptocurrencies. Changpeng finished the stream by calling BNB the new Bitcoin.

By the way, BNB isn’t the only cryptocurrency to successfully survive the ‘crypto winter’: there are several new cryptocurrencies that have also grown since the start of 2019. For example, PLATINCOIN (PLC) has increased by 32% since early 2019, Wanchain (WAN) - by 33%.

Huobi exchange announces new crypto platform launch

The platform - Huobi Prime - is intended for listing new assets. It will be based on the HT token and will apparently represent an alternative to Binance Launchpad. Details about the new platform are currently unavailable. There is a trend towards exchanges becoming the main organizers of ICOs.

Russian crypto asset investors may have to identify themselves

A Russian bill on digital financial assets may include a provision that will oblige cryptocurrency investors to undergo a special identification process. Afterwards, they would receive a kind of visa that will allow them to conduct operations with cryptocurrencies. What’s more, last week the State Duma approved a draft of a Civil Act on tokens. The new bill regulates the emission, accounting and circulation of digital financial assets. These include any tokens or cryptocurrencies that share similar qualities to investment securities, company shares, monetary claims, as well as rights to property and real estate issued based on blockchain.

On the president’s orders, these bills are set to pass by July 1, 2019.