1.A Big Deal for Ripple as SBI Joins Russian Banks to Invest in SBS Bank

      2.BitMEX’s Bitcoin (BTC) Insurance Fund Is Now Worth $77 Million

1. A Big Deal for Ripple as SBI Joins Russian Banks to Invest in SBS Bank

Ripple partner, a Japanese Corporation, SBI Holdings has reached an agreement with two other Russian and Japanese banks. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and the Russian-Japanese Investment Fund to invest in SBS bank a subsidiary of SBI.

In January 2018, Ripple Inc. entered into a partnership with SBI Group, with the aim of meeting the increasing demand of Ripple’s payment solution in Asia. In June SBI launched its Virtual Currency platform and Ripple XRP was the only currency offered at the launch. They said;

“…we are planning to handle XRP first and then expand it to Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) sequentially.”

The platform was officially launched by the President and CEO of SBI Group, Yoshitaka Kitao immediately after the domain was activated on 1st June. It provides virtual currency exchange and trading service called “VCTRADE.”  The CEO said SBI believes so much in Ripple product, XRP;

“Not only does it have a clear use case, but XRP is also faster, cheaper and more scalable than any other digital asset,” Mr. Kitao said. “I strongly believe it will become the global standard in digital currencies.”

SBI is on the top in online financial service operating in asset management focusing venture capital and biotechnology investment. It will control a greater percentage of the partnership because it has 100% share capital of CB Yar-Bank LLC which is now SBS Bank LLC.

Ripple will have a major hold in this partnership since its decentralized mechanisms would be needed for an environmentally friendly technology.

2.BitMEX’s Bitcoin (BTC) Insurance Fund Is Now Worth $77 Million

Cryptocurrency trading platform BitMEX, which allows investors to leverage their positions up to 100x, has reportedly grown its Insurance Fund to more 21,366 BTC — worth roughly $77.5 million.

According to data recently made available by BitMEX, the Insurance Fund has grown to its current level after starting 2018 with only 162 BTC. BitMEX uses the Insurance Fund to avoid auto-deleveraging in traders’ positions by targetting unfilled liquidation orders before they are taken over by the auto-deleveraging system.

As a result, the Insurance Fund grows from liquidations that were able to be executed in the market at a price better than the bankruptcy price. the more traders get onboard, the larger this fund grows.

While the total dollar amount has been higher in the past when Bitcoin was trading at a higher price, the total Bitcoin held in the fund has steadily grown over the past year.Bitcoin is currently up 1% over the last 24 hours to $3,624, bringing the largest digital currency to a $63.4 billion market cap.