Coincheck resumes NEM trading after hack: Close to 10 months after suffering a major hack of NEM (XEM) tokens and closing, the reopened Japanese exchange Coincheck is now listing NEM, according to Korean news outlet FNNews. Coincheck lost more than $530 million in January 2018 after the theft of more than 500 million NEM tokens. NEM surged 25% based on the news of Coincheck’s support.
Marshall Islands’ crypto agenda survives vote: Plans for a national crypto-currency called Sovereign, or SOV, are still on after the country’s President, Hilda Heine, survived a vote of no confidence launched by eight senators. The Marshall Islands will join the likes of Iran and Venezuela that both have launched plans to have a crypto that acts as a de facto national currency. The IMF has warned the Marshall Islands against the move, while President Heine claims the plan’s opponents are actually backed by Chinese interests.
Blockchain makes strides into South Korean medical sector: Projects based on digital ledger technology have made inroads into the Chinese pharmaceutical industry and now it’s the South Korean medical sector’s turn. One of the country’s largest hospitals says it is developing a blockchain-based medical services platform that it says will allow for a healthcare information exchange between patients and the hospital without the data being stored centrally. Industry players such as IBM firmly believe blockchain will be a game changer for managing and securing data within healthcare and supply chain management.
Big oil goes blockchain: A Shell and Equinor-backed project will seek to modernize energy trading with blockchain, as announced at the S&P Global Platts Digital Commodities Summit. The initiative seeks to move the industry away from paper-based trading contracts and operations documentation to digital smart contracts and is going live this month for the North Sea oil market. “In 2019 we will look at ARA barges, waterborne markets and US crude pipelines,” said Vakt product development vice-president Lyon Hardgrave, who are managers of the project. Deloitte believes blockchain can assist the oil industry in many ways, including cost savings, transparency and cross-border payments.