Binance is looking to create one of the world’s largest blockchain-based travel agencies after announcing the merger of booking platform Travala.com with the flight booking platform TravelbyBit, in which it has invested.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has told officials from the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), energy department and information and communication technology ministries that a new national cryptocurrency mining strategy is needed.

Genesis has joined the race to build a crypto prime broker with the acquisition of Vo1t, a custody service provider. Its technology will be integrated into the firm’s existing offerings.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Binance is Looking to Create a Leading Blockchain-Based Travel Agency
• Iran Eyes National Cryptocurrency Mining Strategy
• Genesis Joins Race to Build Crypto Prime Broker With New Acquisition

At the time of writing, bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $9,092.71 (-3.71%) with a daily Top Tier volume of $5.49 bn. As for ether (ETH), it is trading at $202.06 (-3.03%) with a daily Top Tier volume of $1.23 bn. The MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 10 Index is currently tracking at 2,923.89 (-4.22%).

Binance Is Looking to Create a Leading Blockchain-Based Travel Agency

Popular cryptocurrency exchange Binance is looking to create one of the world’s largest blockchain-based travel agencies after essentially acquiring booking platform Travala.com. Travala has now been merged with the Binance-backed flight booking portal TravelbyBit.

As part of the merger both firms will cross-market their offerings and will later on aim to build an online travel agency allowing users to book from over 2 million hotels and 600 airlines. Binance notably invested over $2.5 million in TravelbyBit in October 2018, with its CEO Changpeng Zhao at the time saying there’s no “better fit than being able to use your crypto when travelling.”

Travala.com has its own connections to Binance, migrating to the Binance Chain last year. Its own AVA token notably jumped 400% in ten days ahead of the merger and was listed on Poloniex last week.

Iran Eyes National Cryptocurrency Mining Strategy

During Iran’s economic coordination event, a seminar for the country’s economic strategy, president Hassan Rouhani told officials from the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), energy department and information and communication technology ministries that a new national cryptocurrency mining strategy was needed.

The new mining strategy would include regulation and mining revenue, according to Iranian news site ArzDigital. It comes two days after the Iranian parliament published a bill proposing applying its strict foreign exchange and currency smuggling regulations to crypto.

Iran was one of the first countries in the world to recognize cryptocurrency mining as a legitimate industry, doing so in July 2019. The government issues mining licenses to companies, giving them the right to mine and sell off cryptocurrencies minted. It currently has a 4% share of bitcoin’s total hashrate.

While it’s unclear why Rouhani wants the country to look into its bitcoin mining regulation, it is possible the President is trying to make sure cryptocurrency miners don’t move too much capital away from Iran.

Genesis Joins Race to Build Crypto Prime Broker With New Acquisition

Digital asset trader and lender Genesis has joined the race to build a crypto prime broker with the acquisition of custody services provider Vo1t. The new service, dubbed Genesis Prime, will leverage its existing trading and lending services with the custody platform, according to Genesis Trading’s CEO Michael Moro.

Speaking to The Block, Moro said:

“In the equity world, the prime brokers are also custodians. You really can't be non-custodial and call yourself a prime broker, it is basically table stakes.”

Genesis’ next steps will involve integrating Vo1t’s technology into its existing platform, to then launch a “one-stop-shop broker interface” through which clients can move through its services. The move sees Genesis join other crypto firms looking to become prime brokers.

FalconX, a firm that raised $17 million from investors including Coinbase Ventures and Accel. BitGo that launched a lending business, is building out its own prime broker offering. Tagomi has, on the other hand, been building out its platform to become a full-scale prime broker.

Flipside Friday

The Flipside Crypto Disparity Ratio is a tool helping you find out which cryptoassets are under and overvalued. The crypto disparity ratio scores cryptoassets based on market capitalization and FCAS ratings, with a score over 1 showing it’s undervalued, and under 1 showing it’s overvalued.

POA Network (POA), a public sidechain based on the Ethereum protocol that will use Proof-of-Authority and allow organizations to build their own networks in their own validators and allow developers to deploy decentralized applications, tops the undervalued list with a score of 1.69.

XYO, an ERC-20 token used for a decentralized network of devices that anonymously collects geospatial data, comes next with a score of 1.57. It’s followed by the Raiden Network (RDN), an off-chain scaling payment solution to perform ERC20 compliant token transactions, at 1.45.

At the bottom comes SingularityNET (AGI), a protocol for coordinating, discovering, and transacting AI algorithms at scale.

On the overvalued side we have the DxChain Token (DX), the world’s first decentralized big data and machine learning network powered by a computing-centric blockchain. Next comes Monacoin, the once-popular cat meme cryptocurrency which has even been used to buy land in 2014, at 0.37.

It’s followed by Populous (PPT), an invoice and trade finance platform built on the Ethereum network that creates a unique environment for investors and invoice sellers. Then there’s the Huobi Token (HT) at the bottom of the list, an ERC-20 token that allows users to receive a discount on fees on the Huobi exchange, among other benefits.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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