Facebook  'acqui-hires' distributed ledger startup Chainspace, Cheddar reports; founded by University College London researchers, Chainspace has focused on faster Blockchain transactions and applying the tech outside of the payments space; Chainspace is now shutting down after losing four of its five white paper writers, although none of the tech was acquired by Facebook - Link

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has acquired British futures startup Crypto Facilities for more than $100M; Kraken users can now trade spot and open positions for exposure to future prices; Crypto Facilities is registered with the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), opening up more markets for Kraken in Europe; the acquisition also gives Kraken access to CME's CF Bitcoin Reference Rate, an index for pricing U.S. futures offerings which Crypto Facilities and CME jointly worked on - Link

Only a week after its launch on Binance Launchpad, BitTorrent (BTT) has been listed on Singapore-based exchange KuCoin with trading pairs for Bitcoin and Ethereum; BTT is the native currency for BitTorrent which was purchased by Tron last summer; the token allows for faster download speeds and, soon, premium products - Link

Facebook  'acqui-hires' distributed ledger startup Chainspace, Cheddar reports; founded by University College London researchers, Chainspace has focused on faster Blockchain transactions and applying the tech outside of the payments space; Chainspace is now shutting down after losing four of its five white paper writers, although none of the tech was acquired by Facebook - Link

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has acquired British futures startup Crypto Facilities for more than $100M; Kraken users can now trade spot and open positions for exposure to future prices; Crypto Facilities is registered with the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), opening up more markets for Kraken in Europe; the acquisition also gives Kraken access to CME's CF Bitcoin Reference Rate, an index for pricing U.S. futures offerings which Crypto Facilities and CME jointly worked on - Link

Toronto-based Coins 4 Clothes, a charity which gives out Bitcoin Cash for donations of lightly used clothing, is expanding to new cities in Canada; Coins 4 Clothes launched exactly a year ago and has already led to 3,200 articles of clothing being donated. Coins 4 Clothes has other options for charitable donations too, such as provision for vulnerable women and children and homeless aid organizations - Link

Swiss mortgage bank Hypothekarbank Lenzburg AG agreed to let Switzerland-based crypto bank Seba Crypto AG use its Finstar software for conventional and crypto related purposes; the software, which should be ready Q2 2019, will allow for the processing and storing of transactions made with cryptocurrencies; Seba CEO Guido Bühler believes the agreement is a large step toward integrating traditional and digital payment systems - Link

Bitmain's mining hashpower has continued to drop, falling from 42% in the first half 2018 down to 26% last month; Bitmain owns mining pools BTC.com and Antpool; the company has had a string of recent failures, including difficulties listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, office closures in Israel and Amsterdam, and the shutdown of a mining facility in Rockdale, Texas - Link

Private shares of crypto firm Circle are going for as little as $3.80, down from $16.23 last May, on a SharesPost, an accredited investor platform for private share exchanges; Circle's Poloniex exchange, furthermore, is down since its acquisition by Circle, trading only a fraction of other major exchanges daily volume; Circle Trade, the over the counter (OTC) market, is leading the way for the firm with a notional trading volume of $24B in 2018 - Link