Data from CoinDance shows that Bitcoin volume has reached an all time high in Hong Kong on LocalBitcoins, the peer to peer exchange. Despite the price fall, the number of Hong Kongers who are turning to Bitcoin is ever increasing. There is an ongoing anti-government protests in HongKong which has lasted for over 4 month and the situation shows no sign of dying down. Last week’s volume of $12.3 million has surpassed even the highest weekly volume recorded during the December, 2017 peak. Usually it is the sanctioned countries such as Iran and Venezuela consider the use of Bitcoin. Whereas Hong Kong is not an underdeveloped country. It is a world financial hub which represents nearly 3% of China’s entire economy. The reason behind the Bitcoin trend in HongKong is simple. People living in tumultuous regions are showing a greater willingness to trust in Bitcoin as a secure store of value.

Nordic Store, a local retailer in Iceland, recently purchased goods from the Iceland branch of IKEA and the transaction was settled on the Ethereum blockchain. The e-invoice was paid using a supply chain payments company, Tradeshift's platform and an Ethereum-based tokenized form of the Icelandic króna created by Monerium, a licensed e-money issuer on blockchains. Monerium and Tradeshift suggested that settling invoices in electronic fiat using smart contracts is a new innovation and is ready for mainstream markets. Gert Sylvest, co-founder of Tradeshift said “Programmable money regulated by governments will become the foundation for e-commerce payments because they enable so-called ‘smart contracts.’ Smart contracts have many use cases. For example, they can be used to generate ‘Smart Invoices’, which are invoices that basically settle themselves.”

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) found Block.One in violation of federal securities laws by conducting an unregistered security token sale. Block.One has raised $4 billion over a one-year period sale of EOS ERC-20 token, which is one of the biggest initial coin offering (ICO) in the history of cryptocurrency. The company has settled its charges and paid $24 million in penalties, which represented 0.58% of the total amount raised. In its own press release, Block.One said the settlement only applies to the sale of the original ERC-20 token it sold, which is no longer in circulation or traded, and will not require the token to be registered as a security with the SEC. EOS holders swapped their Ethereum based tokens with the proper EOS tokens when the EOS blockchain went live. The settlement resolves all ongoing matters between Block.one and the SEC.