Cryptocurrencies and exchanges were the focus this week. Coinbase is getting into the decentralized exchange business with its acquisition of Paradex, potentially opening up thousands of ERC-20 tokens to traders, depending on what the SEC ends up doing with regulations. The parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, Intercontinental Exchange, continues work to implement a system to allow large investors to trade bitcoin directly. And Germany’s Deutsche Boerse is looking at getting into the cryptocurrency game. Finally, the city of Memphis had its first blockchain conference, which included keynotes from FedEx and a hackathon for various market segments that included some great prizes.
Featured stories by Amy Castor, David Hollerith and Nick Marinoff
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Coinbase Takes Another Step Toward Trading ICO Tokens by Acquiring [2]
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase just made an enormous play by acquiring decentralized relayer Paradex[3] this week. Paradex bills itself as a decentralized exchange (DEX), meaning no third party is involved in holding the funds. Instead, users can use the platform to trade ERC20 tokens directly wallet to wallet. Paradex is built on top of the 0x (pronounced “zero x”) protocol[4].
Right now, Coinbase trades four coins: bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), ether (ETH) and litecoin (LTC). Adding ERC20 tokens could significantly boost the number of digital assets it carries. Due to the ICO boom that has taken place over the last few years, thousands of different ICO tokens are now available.
German Stock Exchange Eyes Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies[5]
Frankfurt Stock Exchange parent company, Deutsche Boerse AG[6], appears to have begun work on technology that will allow them to offer their clients bitcoin and
