North America: Crypto and Blockchain News Roundup 23-29 November 2018

North America

Welcome to another weekly blockchain news roundup from around the world. Here we present to you all the latest Bitcoin news, continent by continent and country by country.

United States

Federal Reserve Bank Blames Bitcoin Futures Markets for BTC Price Decline: The Federal Reserve has officially blamed the launch of Bitcoin Futures Market for the recent decline in Bitcoin’s price according to a letter published on its website.

According to the online publication, Bitcoin Futures launch on December 17 last year converted the biggest bitcoin bull into a bearish situation. The Fed also goes on to make comparisons with falls in other assets’ prices after the launch of futures markets including the mortgage industry whose uptick was neutralised by the launch of mortgage securities. The dollar issuer then goes on to say that the Bitcoin could have kept rising past $20,000 if the futures had not been launched.

Federal Government Places Sanctions on Bitcoin Addresses: The United States has issued sanctions against several Bitcoin addresses as a first in the country. According to the government, the addresses were set up by two Iranians to help a ransomware scheme.

The sanctions were issued by the United States Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control. People in the US and partnering entities are now banned from sending BTC to these addresses.

Lettuce Outbreak Results in FDA Seeking Blockchain Solution: A recent lettuce E. Coli break has resulted in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to seek a blockchain-based solution for food tracking in a supply chain. 

According to Dr. Scott Gottlieb in a CNBC interview, the FDA had requested that a food safety expert formerly of Walmart to act as a food and veterinary medicine supply commissioner. Dr. Gottlieb continued on and said that the new addition will help the administration to introduce new tools for tracking food, with blockchain being looked at as a viable solution.

Court Overturns Security Designation of ICO by SEC: In one of the first ruling of its kind, a judge of the Southern District of California has declared that the security classification by SEC on an ICO was not justified. 

ICO Blockvest had been walking a tightrope when it came to security designation from the SEC, but never explicitly broke the rules according to the judgment. While the decision is unique and first-of-its-kind, the ICO is still not exonerated as other charges remain on the project.

USD Tether Restarts Direct USD Redemption: USDT is slowly returning back to its best as the stablecoin company has announced that the direct redemption of the silverback is set to be re-enabled after months of issues that even affected the price of USDT against USD in the open market.

Tether currently is the top stablecoin in the market with over $1.8 billion market cap and it is ranked seventh on cryptocurrency market cap tables.

Mexico

Blockchain Association Formed With Consensys as First Member: The Central American country has seen the formation of the first blockchain association with ConsenSys starting the rostrum as the founding member.

According to Forbes Mexico, the new association has members who represent the fintech facet of the industry. Several local exchanges and hedge funds have found a seat on the table including Bitso, Volabit, Lvna Capital, etc in addition to ConsensSys.

Canada

Air Canada Partnering to Develop Blockchain Travel Solutions: Air Canada, the national flag carrier of the country is now partnering with a blockchain firm for developing a distribution system based on Blockchain technology.

Winding Tree, the partnering DLT company has created an open source blockchain marketplace where agents can arrange flights at their own commission rates.

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