The last week of May has been exciting for the blockchain and cryptocurrency world. Perhaps the biggest news is that State Farm and USAA have partnered to test a blockchain for insurance claims payouts. The financial giants are working on developing a system inspired by JPMorgan's (NYSE: JPM) Quorum private enterprise blockchain. The nameless project features a ledger that aims to replace current methods of claims processing, especially subrogation, where one insurer pays bills to another insurer for a claim. State Farm and USAA hope to develop the unnamed project by the end of the year and eventually bring other firms on board.
Here is the rest of the week in review:
Block.one, the multibillion company behind the EOS cryptocurrency, has transitioned into the social media space. The firm announced in a glamorous Washington, DC event on Saturday that it wants to develop the Voice platform, a social media platform that will be both friendly and fair to users. Block.one said social media has not been a good friend to people, referring to the many Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) privacy scandals. Chief executive Brendan Blumer said that EOSIO wants to change the system and allow users to reap the rewards of social media. Voice will run on an upgraded EOS blockchain and will not be governed by impersonal algorithms that control the content users see.
Cryptopia's liquidators announced that the busted exchange now owes $2.74 million to its creditors. The defunct New Zealand exchange failed due to a major hack in January that resulted in the theft of Ethereum (ETH) and other tokens worth up to $16 million. Grant Thornton, the liquidator, revealed Cryptopia owes the money to both unpaid staff and secured and unsecured creditors like Dell (NYSE: DELL). During liquidation, the exchange had around $700,000 in cash and other assets worth less than $300,000. Grant Thornton's report also says it is unclear how much Cryptopia owes to its customers and tax authorities.
Crypto prices jumped again this week to around $274 billion as Bitcoin (BTC) tried to break through and hold $9,000 before correcting lower. For the majors, Bitcoin SV (BSV), EOS, and Ripple (XRP) led the gains, while Binance Coin (BNB) and Tether (USDT) slipped into the red. In the top 100, the biggest losers were aelf (ELF), down 11%, Insight Chain (INB), down 9%, and Decentraland (MANA), down 7%. The biggest winners were MonaCoin (MONA), up a whopping 179%, Maximine Coin (MXM), up 90%, and Bitcoin SV, up 79%. Next week traders will watch if crypto can hold a market cap of $170 billion and if Bitcoin can move to top $9,000 again.
The author owns a small amount of BTC.