Morning News: Twitter’s Crypto Ban, S Korean Exchanges in Major Moves

Twitter Confirms Crypto Advertising Ban Coinnest to Begin Crypto-to-crypto Trading Bithumb Looks to Enable Crypto Pay at 6,000 Stores and Restaurants GDAX to Support ERC20 Standard

Catch up on the most essential cryptocurrency and blockchain news stories breaking in Asia and the Americas while the rest of the world was asleep.

Twitter Follows Facebook and Google with Crypto Advertising Ban
Twitter has, as previously forecast on Cryptonews.com, issued a ban on advertising. The ban follows on from similar moves from both Facebook and Google – and has sent crypto markets into a tailspin. The ban will encompass Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and token sales advertising, the company told Reuters on Monday. According to the report, a new Twitter policy “will be rolled out over the next 30 days,” with bans on both exchange platforms and wallet services that are not public companies listed on major stock markets. In Japan’s case, only exchange platforms licensed to operate by the regulatory Financial Services Agency (FSA) will be allowed to advertise their services on the social media site. Markets in most cryptocurrencies fell as the news broke.

S Korean Exchange Coinnest to Begin C2C Trading
South Korean exchange platform Coinnest says it will begin supporting bitcoin-to-altcoin and altcoin-to-bitcoin transactions on April 9. Coinnest says its move will see it become the first exchange in the country to offer any form of coin-to-coin (C2C) cryptocurrency trading, as other platforms currently only support Korean won-to-crypto and crypto-to-won transactions. The company also says it is looking to add a range of new tokens – despite a pledge to refrain from adding new token made last December along with other South Korean exchanges. Coinnest says it will also boost security with a range of new information protection protocols. A spokesperson for the company told the media, “We expect further transaction diversifications to follow.”

S Korea’s Bithumb Looks to Enable Crypto Pay at 6,000 Stores and Restaurants
South Korean exchange platform Bithumb has penned a deal with e-commerce and mobile payment firm Pay’s that could eventually see it enable crypto payment at 6,000 brick-and-mortar stores across the country. The two companies will develop a pilot scheme for crypto payment in the first half of this year. If successful, partners including dessert cafe Solbing, the South Korean arms of Yankee Candle and restaurant Todai and coffee shop chain Café Droptop could begin accepting crypto payments by late 2018. The company also recently announced a deal with WeMakePrice, another e-commerce and software development platform, and is hoping to enable a total of 14,000 stores across the country to accept bitcoin and altcoin pay through a range of partnerships with mobile pay providers and tech ventures.

Coinbase Announces GDAX Support for ERC20 Standard
GDAX operator Coinbase has announced that its exchange platform will begin offering support for the Ethereum ERC20 technical standard “in the coming months.” The ERC20 standard is used as the basis for a range of Ethereum-based tokens, including EOS, Maker and Tronix, although the company claimed it has not yet decided what tokens GDAX will provide support for. Coinbase announced, “[ERC20 support] paves the way for supporting ERC20 assets across Coinbase products in the future, though we aren’t announcing support for any specific assets or features at this time.” GDAX currently provides support for Ethereum, as well as Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin.