1.ETC Labs Introduces Dedicated Team to Focus on Core Ethereum Classic Projects

Ethereum Classic Labs incubator has launched a new Ethereum Classic development team ETC Labs Core. The company has unveiled this in a blog post published Jan. 14.

According to the announcement, the new team will be working on core ETC projects, supporting the coin’s blockchain and providing tools for decentralized application development, mining, and services.

in the first quarter of 2019 the team will purportedly focus on reviewing Ethereum’s Constantinople hard fork, which is set to happen around Jan. 16. This will be done prior to finalizing the Ethereum Classic Improvement Proposal 1045, which will introduce support for some parts of Ethereum’s Byzantium and Constantinople upgrades on the ETC network.

ETC is currently trading at around $4.37, up by 2.57 percent over the last 24 hours, according to Market. The altcoin’s market capitalization is around $469 million, making it the 18th largest cryptocurrency as of present time.

2.Malaysia Starts Regulating Cryptocurrencies Today

Malaysia’s finance minister has announced that the order to regulate cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings as securities has come into force. Crypto service providers and exchanges are required to obtain authorization from the country’s Securities Commission, which will work with the central bank to ensure compliance.

Malaysian Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said on Monday that his country “will regulate initial coin offerings (ICOs) and the trade of cryptocurrencies,” Reuters reported, adding:”An order to recognize digital currencies and digital tokens as securities will come into force on Jan. 15, under the regulation of the Securities Commission Malaysia [SC].”

The order is known as “the Capital Markets and Services (Prescription of Securities) (Digital Currency and Digital Token) Order 2019.” Cryptocurrencies, ICOs and their related activities must comply with relevant securities laws and be approved by the commission, the minister explained.the Securities Commission Malaysia confirmed that it “will put in place guidelines to regulate offering and trading of digital assets.”

Bank Negara Malaysia has published a list of companies that have declared themselves as cryptocurrency exchanges or service providers, but emphasized that it has neither licensed nor authorized these businesses. Among companies on the list are Belfrics Malaysia, Bit Malay, Bitpoint Malaysia, Bit Trade Enterprise, Bong Technology, Bxm, Luno Malaysia, Openbit, Udax International, Upbit Malaysia, and Xbit Asia.