– Goldman Sachs is putting on hold plans to open a desk to trade cryptocurrencies
– Crypto mining has been accepted as an industry by Iran’s major authorities
– ShapeShift introduced a membership program
– The crypto ATM market is expected to grow from $16.3 million in 2018 to $144.5 million by 2023
– Cboe is looking to launch ETH futures
Business Insider reports that Goldman Sachs is putting on hold plans to open a desk to trade cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, referring to people familiar with the matter. But for now, the firm is considering a plan to offer custody for crypto funds, according to Bloomberg.
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Abolhassan Firouzabadi, secretary of Iran’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace, said that crypto mining has been accepted as an industry by Iran’s major authorities, including the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, the Central Bank, the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade, the Ministry of Energy, as well as the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance. However, the final policy for legislating mining industry hasn’t been declared yet.
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ShapeShift, one of the oldest and most popular cryptocurrency exchange platforms, introduced a membership program entitled ShapeShift Membership. While ShapeShift is known as “the exchange without accounts”, the newly developed account-based membership model will be integrated in order to ” lead over time both to better pricing and a superior user experience”.
Announcement states that the membership program requires the provision of “basic personal information” and is currently optional, though it will become mandatory in the near future.
Membership program will allow users to experience higher trading limits, rewards on trading volume, better pricing, private market and trade data, and early access to new coins, products and services.
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The crypto ATM market is expected to grow from $16.3 million in 2018 to $144.5 million by 2023, according to a report published on ResearchAndMarkets.com. The key drivers for such growth are increasing acceptance of cryptocurrency across industries and growing opportunities in developed markets, such as the US, Germany, and Japan.
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Cboe Global Markets, the exchange behind the first market for bitcoin (BTC) futures, is looking to launch futures for ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, people familiar with the situation told Business Insider. The product may launch by the end of 2018.
CBOE will reportedly base its ETH futures on Gemini’s underlying market. The operator also based its BTC futures on the New York-based crypto exchange run by the Winklevoss twins.