by BlockEx 1. Russia’s Central Bank ICO Platform To Be Tested By 2 Institutions The Bank of Russia, the country’s central bank, launched a regulatory ICO platform in April to improve the level of transparency and safety for investors. Two local financial institutions, the National Settlement Depository (NSD) and the Sberbank CIB, are now . Level One will launch its token sale on the platform. Sberbank will serve as “issuance coordinator and anchor investor” while NSD’s responsibilities will involve acting as “custodian, recording and settling transactions, along with safeguarding the assets”. The trial will help improve the platform through feedback. jointly testing the platform 2. The First Blockchain Foreign Exchange Transaction Involving Major German Company Just Took Place The first blockchain foreign exchange transaction involving a large German company has just taken place. Commerzbank and Thyssenkrupp, both German, recently . blockchain consortium’s CORDA was also involved in the project. The objective is to save money and time. Furthermore, according to Commerzbank, delays and manual errors would also be cut. Thanks to the nature of blockchain, the need for transaction reconciliation, a major problem for forex trading, would also disappear. Finally, Commerzbank also added that regulatory and technical frameworks are required for the technology to flourish. carried out the transaction R3 3. GMO Internet Group To Launch First Mining Machine Of Its Kind Japanese tech giant GMO the launch of the first mining machine of its kind, GMO miner B2. The machine will be the first one to feature a ‘cutting-edge 7 nm’ process based semiconductor chip’ and will be available from October of this year. However, on Wednesday, June 6th, potential customers will be able to show their interest by attending an information session taking place in Tokyo. The research & development process of this product started in September 2017. Furthermore, in order to be able to mass produce, the device will be available for both in-house mining as well as external clients. The news shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering that last year, the company for cryptocurrency mining. announced set a $90 million budget 4. German Stock Exchange Is Looking Into Offering Bitcoin Frankfurt Stock Exchange’s owner, Deutsche Börse, is , according to senior executive Jeffrey Tessler. While attending an Association for Financial Markets in Europe’s event, Tessler affirmed that the company is currently looking into the possibility. However, he also underlined the importance of conducting a deep investigation into cryptocurrencies and the underlying transactions. As previously reported, American CME and Cboe both launched Bitcoin futures last year. However, none of their European counterparts have done so yet. looking into offering Bitcoin products This news roundup was brought to you by . BlockEx To receive our daily news roundup in your mailbox, sign up here: http://bit.ly/BlockExNewsAndUpdates