North America: Crypto and Blockchain News Roundup 9th to 15th February 2019

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.

The United States

JP Morgan Launches New Cryptocurrency: JP Morgan, one of the biggest investment banks in the country has launched a new crypto token called JPM Coin. The new coin is more like a stablecoin and will be backed by USD.

The move was surprising because JP Morgan has long called cryptocurrencies unreliable and a scam but the latest move suggests that the mindset is currently changing and the bank is eagerly looking on to join the stablecoin bandwagon.

The coin drew a mixed response from the crypto community with Ripple’s boss Brad Garlinghouse calling it out for its lack of innovation. However, confusion surrounds much of the new JPM coin’s details.

Virginia Police Fund Invests Millions in Bitcoin: Virginia’s Police Retirement Fund of Fairfax County has announced that it will invest some of its money in Bitcoin.

The funds will be invested through Morgan Creek which will use it to invest in companies like Coinbase and Bakkt. More than USD 40 million from these pension funds will be eventually invested by Morgan Creek. This is the first time in USA that a police retirement fund is looking to invest in cryptocurrencies.

UC Berkeley Announces Accelerator for New Blockchain Startups: One of the top public universities in the US UC Berkeley has announced a new accelerator program for new blockchain startups trying to gain a footing.

The 12-weeks long program is being launched with a partnership between Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator, Haas School for Business and Blockchain and Venture Capitalist fund Berkeley X-lab Fund. The program is open for everyone and new startups can apply to it. The selected startups will be mentored by entrepreneurs, students, alumni and investors from the industry.

IBM Looking to Fight California Drought with Blockchain: IBM is looking to employ blockchain to tackle the issue of drought in some parts of California. The project will initially observe one of the largest and at-risk aquifers in the area using sensors and blockchain to record the data.

IBM is joining hands with the University of Colorado Boulder and non-profit The Freshwater Trust (TFT) for this project and looks to test the initial effort for a potential expanded investment.

Canada

Quadriga Investors Still Unsure About their Funds: Quadriga exchange’s curious case is unfolding further as more details are emerging from the case. This week saw a flurry of new information being released to the public.

Quadriga exchange’s case is unique because its owner Gerald Cotten died with access to a cold storage wallet that had a majority of the exchange’s crypto assets. Now those funds are difficult, nearly impossible to access. At first, this week the government announced that it would do as much as it could to help the victims and retrieve funds, but it has proven to be an extremely difficult task.

Cutton’s widow may reportedly have the keys to the cold storage wallet but nothing is certain for now. A local judge has reportedly given the exchange’s operators 30 days to try and access the wallet.

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