In a sure sign of the crypto world consolidating its position in the mainstream, two of its leading figures were today honored by Fortune Magazine’s “40 Under 40” feature for 2018. The list represents the magazine’s “annual ranking of the most influential young people in business.”

Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong comes in at number 20, falling ten places from his position last year. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is placed at number 22, just behind Rihanna, down ten places on 2017.

Fortune says that Armstrong plans on making Coinbase “the Google of crypto” and “as relevant to the next wave of the web as Google was to the last.” Recognising that 2017’s bull run had “catapulted [Coinbase] into the mainstream,” Fortune say that the trading platform is now diversifying by “investing in upstarts and making acquisitions—including one that secured it a path to several tantalizing financial licenses.”

Buterin is described by Fortune as a “skinny visionary” who Google tried to hire “to lead its own whispered crypto endeavors.” Neither Armstrong or Buterin have commented on the news.

Also on the list are several figures with links to the cryptocurrency world. Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt, the founders of trading app Robinhood, come in at number 24, while Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, is at number 25.

Still, there is still some way to go before cryptocurrency can claim to be as significant as social media or sharing apps, which dominate the list. The top spot is shared by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Kevin Systrom of Instagram.

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Changpeng Zhao (‘CZ’), the chief executive officer and co-founder of world-leading cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, has published a quarterly recap that reasserted its market dominance in a time where morally-questionable competitors had seemingly been gaining.

Binance with Record BNB Burn

The Binance leader started by declaring that 2,528,767 of its native Binance Coin (BNB) – the equivalent of roughly $32.7 million USD – will be burned for the quarter. This, the fourth quarterly burn ever conducted by the Binance exchange, represents a record amount; an impressive feat, given the strong bearish market conditions that characterized the April, May and June months.

Binance Coin Not the Only Burn Victim

Notably, the highly-respected Zhao took to addressing the unprecedented rise seen in trans-fee mining (or, trade-driven mining); an innovative mechanism adopted by crypto exchanges to distribute native crypto tokens – rather than just holding an initial coin offering (ICO).

Whilst admitting to having initially been interested by the concept made popular by FCoin (FT) owner/ex-CTO at Huobi, Zhang Jian, the Binance CEO recounted how “as [he] learned more,” he soon reached a conclusion that many concerned members of the crypto community have also arrived at: that trade-driven mining “are simply scams to sell [these exchanges’] coin(s), and not great innovations.”

Of course, this is not the first time that Zhao has made known his thoughts concerning trans-fee mining and the profit-sharing scheme that often accompanies it. Via their Weibo accounts, both he and fellow Binance co-founder, He Yi, have previously criticized the controversial “ICO in disguise” model that has risen to prominence thanks to not just FCoin, but exchanges like CoinBene (CONI), Bit-Z (BZ), CoinEx (CET), Coinsuper (CEN), and several others.

Business Booming for Binance

The push for market dominance appears fleeting for these new crypto exchanges, as the Binance juggernaut appears primed for yet another quarter of enviable expansion.

Whilst Zhao’s blog post discloses much more, the Binance leader foreshadowed announcements related to a host of Binance-run initiatives. This includes fiat-to-crypto exchange, Binance Academy, and Binance Chain – the highly-anticipated decentralized cryptocurrency exchange.

News will also be emerging in relation to some recent acquisitions made by Binance. Also teased by Zhao were more details regarding Binance’s ownership stake in a bank. Something, he admitted, he “didn’t plan before.”

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Monday saw Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) payments processor BitPay, Inc. learn that their application to obtain a New York-based virtual currency licence (or, ‘BitLicense’) had received approval from the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS); a feat that few blockchain and crypto firms have achieved since the licenses were controversially introduced midway through 2015.

With the BitLicense in hand, BitPay can now “transact business with companies and consumers based in New York” state, a press release issued on Monday by the DFS explained.

What this means for New York-based enterprises, specifically, is that they are now able to “leverage BitPay to accept Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash for purchases from users globally, and residents with Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash are able to make purchases.”

The DFS highlighted that the licensing decision came on the back of a “comprehensive review of BitPay’s application,” whereby the state department assessed the crypto-payment giant’s “anti-money laundering (AML), anti-fraud, capitalization, consumer protection, and cybersecurity policies.”

BitPay is the first #blockchain payment processor to secure a virtual currency license from the New York Department of Financial Services #Fintech #Bitcoin https://t.co/C5cynOvx4d

— BitPay (@BitPay) July 16, 2018

Who are BitPay?

Founded in May 2011 by Tony Gallippi and Stephen Pair, BitPay has risen to become a world-leading payment processor of the premiere Bitcoin (BTC) cryptocurrency, and its most popular hard fork, Bitcoin Cash (BTC).

With big-name partners like Microsoft and PayPal, the Atlanta-based BitPay – having raised $72.5 million USD over five funding rounds – controls subsidiaries that operate out of Brazil, the Netherlands, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

BitPay Joins Exclusive Club

With BitPay having obtained the highly sought-after virtual currency license, there now exist eight blockchain and crypto-related firms that have had their applications approved by New York State’s DFS in the near-three years since they were introduced.

Notably, last month saw digital financial services firm Xapo, Inc. and payments company Square, Inc. become the sixth and seventh recipient, respectively, of a BitLicense. In May, institutional trading firm Genesis Global Trading Inc. was the fifth to receive application approval.

The rate at which the DFS is approving BitLicenses comes in stark contrast to 2016, where XRP II (June) was the only firm approved. Even last year, it was just Coinbase, Inc. (January) and bitFlyer USA (November) who obtained the exclusive license.

It’s been a big week for alt coins. Coming off the back of Coinbase announcing that they are ‘exploring’ listing XLM amongst 4 other coins, Stellar’s digital currency – Lumens – has now been listed on South Korean exchange KuCoin. Supported trading pairs will include BTC and ETH, with deposits effective immediately.

Stellar (XLM) is now on KuCoin, you can deposit now. Trading pairs include XLM/BTC and XLM/ETH. Withdrawal opens July 18, 2018 at 22:00 (UTC+8), buying starts July 16, 2018 at 21:30 (UTC+8), and selling starts July 16, 2018 at 22:00 (UTC+8). @StellarOrg #KCS #XLM #BTC #ETH #ICO pic.twitter.com/t9ImdaKvZf

— KUCOIN (@kucoincom) July 16, 2018

This exchange news will come as little surprise to supporters of the Stellar protocol and digital currency, which has seen a marked increase in media and market attention. Whilst the 24-hour trading volume may seem low compared to trading behemoths such as Binance, the increased exposure to South Korean and Asian markets cannot be overstated. This listing could be seen as confirmation of the Stellar Development Foundation’s and partner IBM’s continued intentions, with their targeting of the South East Asian and Pacific remittance and exchange corridors.

Since the Coinbase announcement, XLM’s price has climbed from $0.18 to over $0.23. With further project news in the pipeline, including an exclusive from cryptocoinspy, as well the revamped SDEX (StellarX’s) summer launch, the good news seems set to continue for Stellar a little while yet.

A major factor holding back the movement of digital assets into the financial mainstream is the difficulties faced by major financial institutions in trading and holding those assets. Bitfinex, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, is going some way to solving those issues with a new partnership, announced today, with Swiss company Market Synergy GmbH.

Market Synergy specialises in connectivity and security solutions for financial institutions like banks, brokers, and exchanges. It describes its offering as easing “the fragmentation of connectivity in the 24/7 cryptocurrency market” and giving institutions “a secure, robust and reliable network for cryptocurrency trading.”

Bitfinex bespoke network

As a result of the partnership Market Synergy has built what is described as a “bespoke network” solely for Bitfinex business, hosted in a data centre in Switzerland’s “crypto valley.” As well as offering hosting and connectivity to Bitfinex, Market Synergy will also “manage co-location services for Bitfinex’s institutional clients” and offer digital trading through a FIX feed.

Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino said that the exchange was “very pleased to collaborate with Market Synergy” to improve “access to digital assets via Bitfinex.” He added that Bitfinex was “experiencing first hand the immense institutional interest in cryptocurrency trading” and that he was thrilled “to be able to pioneer its development.”

James Banister, Market Synergy’s CEO, said that his company had “spotted a gap in the market for an institutional calibre cryptocurrency connectivity offering” and that the aim was to become “the leading institutional outsourced connectivity provider in the cryptocurrency space.”

Bannister revealed that the two companies had worked together closely on choosing an appropriate infrastructure and data centre, resulting in “a bespoke network with connections to their digital asset gateway for professional traders.”

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On Tuesday afternoon (PT), Changpeng Zhao (Co-Founder & CEO, Binance), shared a tweet that addressed recent comments made by Vitalik Buterin (Co-Founder, Ethereum) that were directed at the role played by centralized exchanges in the immature, nascent cryptocurrency industry; the culmination of which occurred when Buterin joked that he hopes they “burn in hell as much as possible.”

For those unaware, the comments made by Buterin originated from a one-to-one conversation he partook in at as part of a Zug-based conference held last Friday – the very same event Zhao spoke at later that day.

Where Would Crypto Space Be Without Centralized Exchange?

In Tuesday’s uploaded tweet, Zhao took to defending the important role that fiat-to-crypto trading platforms and centralized cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance play in the young sector.

In doing so, the Binance leader identified the following three outcomes that would almost certainly be true if centralized exchanges had never existed: [1] “all coins will have far less liquidity (and market cap/price/influence/impact/etc),” [2] “the industry will be smaller,” and [3] “the industry will develop slower.”

Debunking Decentralization

Zhao made various points in his tweet challenging the notion of decentralization; an operative model that seems to be steadfastly favoured despite potential drawbacks that too often appear to be glossed-over.

Some of these downsides identified by Zhao include safety and the adequacy of extant technological infrastructural. In fact, he argued that “there is no absolute decentralization,” and that Buterin’s “king-like powers” in the space is testament to this.

Got asked a few times, re: “Vitalik’s burn in hell”.

Let’s not wish others to “burn in hell”.  Let’s have a bigger heart, and appreciate the fact that we are part of an eco-system… pic.twitter.com/4QYGKus0Gk

— CZ (not giving crypto away) (@cz_binance) July 10, 2018

Even if Undirected, Snipe “Just Not a Nice Thing to Say”

Evidently, the Binance co-founder assumed what many others concluded after having watched the weekend’s full interview. And that is, that Buterin’s snipe was broadly targeted at the notion of centralization more so than at any one particular centralized, fiat-to-crypto exchange.

Were this indeed the impetus for the Ethereum creator’s comments – thereby upholding the assumption held by Zhao – the Binance CEO shared that it “is fine” for Buterin to possess such beliefs. Notably, Zhao mentioned that he “didn’t bother asking [Buterin] yet” about the weekend’s incident.

Don’t get me wrong, I am all for blockchain/decentralization/freedom. But I would not wish “burn in hell” [sic] on anyone or anything.” – Zhao

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Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has just announced that it has finished the token swap process for TRON’s TRX cryptocurrency. As of today, users will be able to deposit and withdraw mainnet TRX from the exchange.

So far the migration of TRON to its own blockchain has gone well, particularly when compared to the problems faced by EOS, whose own transition has been plagued by delays and teething problems relating to its controversial constitution.

By contrast, TRON’s token migration, dubbed “Independence Day” by the TRON team, started on June 26th, as scheduled. The next big step is the release of the TRON virtual machine, expected on July 31st.

Exchange conversions

In preparation for “Independence Day”, holders of the original TRX, an ERC20 compliant token on the Ethereum blockchain, were instructed by the Tron Foundation to deposit those tokens with a participating crypto-exchange who would handle the process of swapping them into the new TRON mainnet token.

Binance have been particularly supportive of TRON throughout the process, revealing last month that not only would it be enabling the token swap, it would also be adding the option to trade TRX against the US dollar.

The TRON community is already testing the new functionality and initial reports are that everything is working smoothly, though there have been some complaints about the size of the Binance withdrawal fee.

MAX and CoinEgg exchange also complete swap

Today two other exchanges confirmed that they had completed the TRX token migration. Taiwan’s MAX digital asset exchange infomed users that they were now able to withdraw or deposit both the ERC20 or mainnet version of the token.

😍 MAX Exchange has completed TRON token migration, and support withdrawals and deposits of both TRX Mainnet and ERC20 versions.
If your TRX is still the ERC20 version, you could deposit it at MAX and withdraw mainnet version TRX.@Tronfoundation @justinsuntron #crypto pic.twitter.com/6UhaR3pJyp

— MAX Exchange (@Max_exch) 10 July 2018

CoinEgg highlighted to its users that the migration will entail the creation of new TRX addresses and that “the old TRX addresses will be discarded.” All deposits to the exchange should be made to the new addresses.

Though much of the cryptocurrency community’s talk of “mooning” and “lambos” is tongue in cheek, many people would prefer a greater focus on the potentially transformative power of distributed ledger technology, particularly in the developing world. Perhaps surprisingly, one of the loudest voices in promoting the “crypto for good” idea comes from Binance, one of the world’s most dominant digital assets exchanges, and its CEO and founder, Changpeng Zhao.

Yesterday Zhao pledged $1 million to help flood victims in Japan, and today Binance announced that Helen Hai has been appointed as the new head of the exchange’s charitable foundation.

Welcome UNIDO’s Goodwill Ambassador @Helenhaiyu to join as head of @BinanceBCF to use Blockchain for Social Good. Ambassador Hai is WEF’s Global Young Leader.#Binance #BinanceCharityFoundation pic.twitter.com/Mme0aR9Nf9

— Binance (@binance) 9 July 2018

Blockchain for social good

The Foundation’s central mandate is “Blockchain for social good” and Binance says that Hai is a “true believer” in this idea. The transparency of transactions makes charity and philanthropy two of the most exciting use cases for blockchain. It also makes the technology useful in supporting the United Nations’ goals for sustainable development.

Hai brings to Binance a wealth of experience in development economics, particularly as it relates to the African continent. Not only is she a UN goodwill ambassador for African industrialisation, she is also co-chair of the Global Future Council on the Future of Consumption. She was named a “Global Young Leader” by the World Economic Forum in 2015, the same year that she received the African Business Icon Award. In 2016 she was awarded the National Order of the Lion of Senegal.

Binance has been working with Hai since March. In April, Zhao announced that the exchange was partnering with Hai and African blockchain hub CryptoSavannah on a project to help economic development in Uganda, one of the world’s poorest countries. Zhao said that blockchain technology could power a “4th industrial revolution,” one which would result in the creation of “thousands of jobs and bringing investments to Uganda.”

@binance will partner with @cryptosavannah @AggieKonde @HelenHaiyu to support Uganda’s economic transformation and youth employment through blockchain, embracing the 4th industrial revolution. We will do this by creating thousands of jobs and bringing investments to Uganda.

— CZ (not giving crypto away) (@cz_binance) 22 April 2018

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In spite of the doom and gloom that is characterizing the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading markets, the number of headline appointments being seen in the nascent crypto and blockchain industry refuses to wane.

This weekend, another two made high-end signings: Gemini Trust Co. – the digital currency exchange and licensed custodian best known for having been co-founded by the Winklevoss twins – and the foundation responsible for developing the Augur (REP) prediction market platform.

NYSE C-Suite Exec to Join Twins

On Friday evening, Gemini issued a press release revealing that now-former chief information officer (CIO) of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Robert Cornish, is going to be joining Gemini Trust Co. in the role of Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

According to Gemini, Cornish will begin working with brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss “later this month.” In his new position, Cornish “will be responsible for leading Gemini’s technology team and strategy.”

We are excited to welcome our first Chief Technology Officer! https://t.co/9BRW8BdQGs

— Gemini (@GeminiDotCom) July 6, 2018

Top Crypto Lawyer Joins Augur’s Overseeing Foundation

The other major personnel addition in recent days came courtesy of the Forecast Foundation; the entity tasked with developing the cryptographic platform known as Augur (REP) – the open-sourced, decentralized, peer-to-peer oracle and prediction market platform built atop the Ethereum blockchain.

On Saturday, Augur published a blog post welcoming Marco Santori to the advisory board of the Forecast Foundation. The appointment was made official some three years after both Santori and the Forecast Foundation had sustained a loose collaboration, according to the Saturday announcement.

Santori is widely familiar throughout the crypto and blockchain space. Currently, he serves as President and Chief Legal Officer of Blockchain.info. Prior to this, he worked as a partner at Cooley LLC, a legal ambassador for the Delaware Blockchain Initiative, and an advisor to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

As for how the appointment of Santori promises to add value to the Forecast Foundation – and ultimately the Augur blockchain – Saturday’s announcement explained that he “will be assisting the team with strategic advice and guidance over the coming months.”

We’re excited to share that @msantoriESQ has joined the Forecast Foundation advisory board! https://t.co/PEUF0q2g34

— Augur (@AugurProject) July 8, 2018