OmiseGO and ShinhanCard partnership

ShinhanCard, the credit card branch of the Shinhan Bank, one of South Korea’s largest banks, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with OmiseGO. As a result, ShinhanCard plans to use the OmiseGO server and mobile SDK’s to develop new digital transaction means with OmiseGO technology.

With this partnership, Shinhan Bank becomes the first major credit card company in Asia to implement blockchain technology. This is a major victory for OmiseGO and blockchain adoption as a whole. It is likely that other banks will be watching the development and success of this partnership and consider if they themselves would like to integrate blockchain as well.

 

Tax Day may have a negative impact on markets

Tom Lee, a Wall Street analyst, believes that the crypto market will see a massive sell-off in anticipation of Tax Day in America. Lee projects that American households owe around $25 billion in capital gains from selling their cryptocurrencies for gains. He also suggested that exchanges will likely take out their crypto holdings to pay income tax.  Lee believes that Tax Day will have a large impact on cryptocurrencies’ market capitalization, saying: “This is a massive outflow from crypto to USD and historical estimates are each $1 of USD outflow is $20-$25 impact on crypto market value.”

In the United States, the IRS views cryptocurrencies as property, which means they can be taxed accordingly. Tax Day is on April 17th this year.

On a positive note, Lee said that: “Ultimately, we expect bitcoin to find footing after April [17], tax day.” Tom Lee is a believer in bitcoin and believes that bitcoin will reach $25,000 USD by the end of the year and Ethereum will reach $1,900.

 

Coinbase launching venture capital fund to assist early startups in crypto

Coinbase is looking to help new crypto companies get started in the space with its new $15 million-dollar fund. Coinbase plans to invest money from this fund in crypto companies, not specific cryptocurrencies.

Coinbase’s President and COO Asiff Hirji said: “We will invest in companies that are in the space and are aligned with our values,” Hirji added: “By giving them access to capital we hope that they will grow great businesses.”

Coinbase seems to be doing this simply to help grow the cryptocurrency industry and is aware that they may not see any profit from funding start-up crypto companies. They also are aware that they may be investing in companies that could clearly become competitors, but believe such investment is “healthy and good” for the crypto space

 

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