FRAUDSTER WARNING:Scammers have been sending fake versions of CoinDesk's daily newsletter to try to trick recipients into visiting a suspicious "XRP giveaway" site. If you received this message, which copied our logo and design and even used our executive editor's name in the "from" field, know that it did not come from us. (Note that the actual sender's address is not a CoinDesk.com domain.) Please forward to fraud@coindesk.com and/or nik@coindesk.com, and block the sender if received.
BASELESS CLAIMS? Binance is neither licensed to operate, nor is it regulated in Malta, the country's chief financial watchdog said in a statement Friday. The Malta Financial Services Authority explained it was responding to press reports referring to Binance as a "Malta-based cryptocurrency company." Full story
JOINING LIBRA: Digital commerce platform Shopify announced it has become a member of the Libra Association in a blog post Friday. The company joins the Facebook-led stablecoin project roughly a month after Vodafone pulled out of the organization to focus on its own digital payments system. Full story
PICTURE PROTECTION: The organization that created the popular JPEG picture format believes blockchain could be used to verify images, protect copyright as well as flag fakes and image theft. The Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) said blockchain has "great potential" as the basis of a system that would use a combination of encryption, hash signatures and watermarking in an image's metadata to protect copyright. Full story EXPLOIT PAYOUTS: Nexus Mutual, the London-based crypto insurance company, has paid out $31,000 in claims to accounts that lost funds in the bZx exploit earlier this week. Full story
BEAT THE RETREAT! Bitcoin is flashing green close to $9,700 at time of writing, but the bulls are not out of the woods yet. Prices are still trapped in a bearish channel on the 4-hour chart and a pullback to $9,400 looks possible with the daily money flow indicator having turned bearish for the first time since early January. Full story
ETH 2.0 UPDATE: Ethereum 2.0 is the next iteration of the world’s second-largest blockchain, incorporating novel protocol designs such as proof-of-stake and sharding. But where do things stand with the tech overhaul now? We took the question to ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin at ETHDenver last weekend. See the video
Scam alert