Ep. 58. Buying Frappuccinos with Bitcoin

Aug 9, 2018

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Simon and Sarah are with Teana Baker-Taylor, CMO at Coinfloor. We also have a great talk with Jeff Bandman, Principal at Bandman advisors, to take us through the biggest story of the week.

First up we hear from Jeff Bandman on the world’s biggest stock exchange operator launching a Bitcoin market. ICE (the owner of NYSE) made the groundbreaking announcement on Friday, revealing that the new platform — Bakkt — has been developed in partnership with a variety of blockbuster names, including Microsoft, Starbucks, and BCG.Bakkt will integrate with the ICE’s U.S. futures market and clearinghouse to list a physically-settled one-day bitcoin futures product, complete with physical warehousing managed in-house by ICE.

Next up we go over our Twitter poll results, don't forget to vote this week!

Then the trio takes a look at Starbucks clarifying media misrepresentation on its new crypto venture. Starbucks has clarified that it will not be accepting Bitcoin (BTC) or other cryptocurrencies as payment -“customers will not be able to pay for Frappuccinos with bitcoin”.

After that we discuss OKEx moving to protect its futures market with an injection of 2500 BTC into the exchange’s insurance fund from its own capital after a forced liquidation on July 31st threatened to destabilize its operations. The futures contract amounted to a staggering $420 million worth of BTC.

Next the panel discusses Northern Trust opening doors to cryptocurrency hedge funds as part of pervasive blockchain expansion. In addition to adding a number of new blockchain features for managing its private equity workflow, the company, which has almost $10.7 trillion in assets under custody and administration, has also quietly opened its fund administration services to a select group of hedge funds betting on bitcoin and ethereum.

Goldman Sachs Is Considering a Custody Offering for Crypto Funds. A formal offering from an institution like Goldman Sachs would provide a credible backing for crypto funds and could pave the way for more investors to bet on the asset class. Having a custody operation in place could also lead to other ventures, including prime-brokerage services.

We also have a Tweet of the Week on Satoshi Nakamoto that you just can't miss.

All this and so much more on this week's episode of Blockchain Insider. And if you enjoyed our tweet of the week why not send us your best tweets? See if you can get a shout out on the show!

We hope you enjoy the show and, as ever, don't forget to subscribe!

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This week's episode of Blockchain Insider was produced by Laura Watkins and Petrit Berisha. Edited by Holly Blaxill.

Special Guests: Jeff Bandman and Teana Baker-Taylor.

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