In addition to buying, selling, sending, receiving, and storing cryptocoins, tZERO Crypto App comes with biometric authentication for added security and ease of use. There are also plans for a private key recovery system to allow users to restore their assets in the event that they lose their private keys or mobile phone.

Coinbase added about eight million new users in the past year… and the number of users on the crypto exchange is now over 30 million to date, with over $150 billion traded in cryptocurrency. Founded in June 2012, Coinbase is one of the most popular crypto exchanges globally, with adjusted trading volume of around $350 million.

Coinbase is a major American crypto exchange and wallet service… And its CEO has a vision of a more universal entity driving adoption to crypto. Coinbase’s future mission is to help grow the global crypto economy by connecting people in the market and expanding crypto community to help people use cryptocurrencies for more than just buying and selling.

STOs are regulated and monitored, so while they may resemble ICOs on the surface, they remain fundamentally different. The STO sector has been recognized by many as a growing trend… And qualified investors are being greeted with fantastic opportunities that would not have been made available in the past. Here are some companies that recently stepped up to the STO plate.

Fidelity’s cryptocurrency investment arm—Fidelity Digital Asset Services (FDAS)—filed an application with the New York Department of Financial Service to be allowed to offer crypto-custodial services in the state. The approval would also allow FDAS to compete with the likes of Coinbase, Gemini and Paxos… and could mean mass crypto adoption is on the way.

Last week, Blockstack announced the first-ever SEC-qualified Reg A+ token offering. Already, the Props Project has announced the second. The Reg A+ platform lets companies raise up to $50 million from retail investors, as opposed to only from accredited investors. Security tokens incorporate the SEC’s existing regulations… While ICOs now raise 58 times less than they did just over one year ago, STOs have raised nearly $1 billion to date—with data suggesting enormous potential.

Fidelity Digital Assets—the crypto-focused branch of the major asset manager—is looking to boost its team with the addition of 10 new blockchain professionals. The new positions include a range of leadership roles, including a vice president, director, and leading software engineer… as well as non-senior positions like a blockchain software engineer, product designer, and others.

The largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, is reportedly looking to launch a captive insurance company in partnership with insurance brokerage firm Aon. Coinbase and Aon see the insurance subsidiary as a potential solution to the alleged shortage of insurance available to cryptocurrency exchanges… And such a solution allows the company to keep the money that would be normally spent on insurance premiums.

The Singaporean government’s taxation agency is proposing to remove the goods and services tax from cryptocurrency transactions that function—or are aimed to function—as a medium of exchange. The agency has also set out detailed parameters on how digital payment tokens are defined. Examples of digital payment tokens are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash, Monero, Ripple, and Zcash.

Financial institutions are entering crypto with a quickening pace, setting the tone for the remainder of 2019 and 2020. What makes these years different from ones prior is the speed of professionalization taking place in the markets. In addition, these financial institutions are supporting a variety of blockchain projects focused on commodity trade finance and shipping.

Top cryptocurrency exchange Binance is launching an open blockchain project called “Venus,” which is focused on developing localized stablecoins worldwide. The exchange says it’s seeking partnerships with governments, corporations, technology firms, and other cryptocurrency and blockchain projects in order to develop a new currency ecosystem that will empower both developed and developing countries.

Banco BTG Pactual SA, Latin America’s biggest standalone investment bank, has teamed up with Dubai asset manager Dalma Capital to sell more than $1 billion worth of security tokens.The partners have a pipeline of deals for tokenization (the process of transforming real assets into tradeable digital contracts). Dalma plans to tokenize property and sports clubs, while BTG has already sold real estate-backed tokens.

Catherine Coley has been appointed as CEO of Binance’s upcoming U.S. crypto exchange. Coley will be responsible for rolling out Binance U.S., as well as expanding the exchange’s marketplace in North America. Prior to joining the firm, Coley was an executive at San Francisco-based distributed ledger tech startup Ripple. Before entering the blockchain and crypto space, Coley worked for Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong and London in the institutional foreign exchange market.

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon is the latest to hop on the bitcoin/blockchain bandwagon. Solomon told French financial newspaper Les Echos that Goldman Sachs is “absolutely” considering its own cryptocurrency — following the lead of rival JPMorgan, which is testing its JPM Coin. Solomon says you should assume that all major investment banks are considering making a foray into crypto.

tZERO has officially launched its cryptocurrency trading app. The app immediately features two currencies—Bitcoin and Ethereum—with additional assets in the pipeline. Investors will be able to access private keys even if their mobile phones are lost, and a private key recovery system can restore funds or digital currencies.

When does it make sense to digitize financial assets by using a security token? Max Kops, who launched his new book Assets on Blockchain, shares his insights. Security tokens have the purpose of digitizing financial assets in a way that makes them liquid and easy to transfer. This happens by moving the assets from banks onto the blockchain, where many platforms, providers, and wallets can integrate with each other.

In addition to Libra, Facebook will be releasing a security token. The Libra Investment Token (LIT) will be a free-floating asset similar to a stock. There are strict requirements over who can purchase these tokens. For example, one needs to have either $1 billion as a traditional company or in managed cryptocurrency assets. Each LIT will be a stake in Facebook’s cryptocurrency project.

Bitcoin broke into the mainstream in late 2017. At the time, its historic surge to nearly $20,000 was driven mainly by retail investors. Now, however, the public is still largely on the sidelines… And the number of Google searches for “bitcoin” is only around 10% of what they were in 2017. In other words, retail investor FOMO has not even started yet, which may suggest that BTC price could go much higher than before.