Global banking giant JPMorgan has launched a new programmable payment option for its institutional clients using its proprietary blockchain platform JPM Coin. The feature, first shared by Naveen Mallela, who leads JPMorgan's blockchain initiative Onyx, is available to all its institutional clients.

Well-established centralized cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex has suffered a security breach that saw hackers steal around $114 million from its hot wallets. On-chain data showed that various wallets across multiple blockchains were affected.

Ripple’s Chief Executive Officer Brad Garlinghouse has said that he believes the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has lost sight of their mission to protect investors,” and questioned who the regulator is protecting.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• JPMorgan Launches Programmable Payments on JPM Coin
• Poloniex Loses $114 Million in Hot Wallet Hack
• Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse Slams SEC for Losing Sight of Investor Protection
• CME Options Volumes Reach New Highs As Institutional Interest Soars

JPMorgan Launches Programmable Payments on JPM Coin

Global banking giant JPMorgan has launched a new programmable payment option for its institutional clients using its proprietary blockchain platform JPM Coin. The feature, first shared by Naveen Mallela, who leads JPMorgan's blockchain initiative Onyx, is available to all its institutional clients.

The new feature allows institutional clients to set up real-time, programmable treasury operations and paves the way for innovative digital business models. Mallela celebrated the introduction as a crucial development in JPM Coin's journey, referring to the added programmability as the "holy grail" for their blockchain network.

The Onyx team has said that the feature has been a goal for the payments industry for years and that it caters to blockchain-based accounts on the JPM Coin system. It allows clients to program transactions using an “If-This-Then-That” interface.

German tech firm Siemens AG reportedly became the first institutional client to utilize the new programmable payments feature, with other major firms, including FedEx and Cargill, expected to adopt it by the end of the year.

Onyx highlighted that the feature enables programmable payments to automate several functions with one of them being dynamic funding, which lets users set up a variety of rules for automatically funding an account when there is a shortfall.

Poloniex Loses $114 Million in Hot Wallet Hack

Well-established centralized cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex has suffered a security breach that saw hackers steal around $114 million from its hot wallets, with on-chain data showing various wallets across multiple blockchains were affected.

The hack was seemingly first flagged by security firms PeckShield and Cybers, before Poloniex disabled deposits and withdrawals for maintenance. The hack was later confirmed on social media by Poloniex investor Justin Sun.

Blockchain data shows that an Ethereum wallet that has been tagged as “Poloniex hacker” sent $114 million worth of various tokens from Poloniex in over 350 transactions, while a Tron network wallet sent around $42 million to various wallets.

Poloniex has been a key player in the crypto exchange market since its inception in 2013. Over time, the platform has undergone a significant change in ownership, first being sold to Circle in 2018 for a reported $400 million, before being acquired in 2019 by investors including Justin Sun, the founder of the cryptocurrency platform Tron.

After the hack, the Poloniex hacker used some of the funds to buy Tron’s TRX, pushing the cryptocurrency’s price up by more than 25%.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse Slams SEC for Losing Sight of Investor Protection

Ripple’s Chief Executive Officer Brad Garlinghouse has said that he believes the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has lost sight of its mission to protect investors,” and questioned who the regulator is protecting.

Back in 2020, the SEC charged Ripple and two of its top executives with conducting a $1.3 billion securities fraud through the sale of XRP to retail investors, with the agency saying Ripple did not register the continuous offer and sale of the tokens, depriving investors of adequate disclosures.

In a significant legal win for Ripple in July, a judge declared that XRP is not inherently a security, and after this, the SEC was denied a request for an interlocutory appeal. In October, the SEC dropped its allegations of securities law violations against Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Ripple executive Chris Larsen.

Garlinghouse said in a recent conversation that he believes it’s positive for the cryptocurrency industry “that the SEC has been put in check in the United States.”

He added he hopes that the U.S. will adopt a more proactive approach to crypto regulation, where Congress passes federal laws for digital currencies instead of seeing the SEC rely on lawsuits to shape its rules.

CME Options Volumes Reach New Highs As Institutional Interest Soars

Last month, trading volumes on the CME exchange has surged 73.5% to $57.4 billion, marking the highest levels since November 2021. Bitcoin futures trading volumes jumped by 73.4% to reach $44.1 billion, while ETH futures experienced a 60.6% rise, amounting to $10.2 billion, the highest since April 2023.

On top of that, the trading volumes for BTC options and ETH options skyrocketed, registering increases of 142% and 107% respectively, reaching $1.75 billion for BTC options and $532 million for ETH options.

This rise to new all-time highs for these instruments signals a growing institutional interest in BTC and ETH.

Dig deeper into the world of cryptocurrency trading with CCData’s latest Exchange Review report.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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