28.03.2024

London-Based Cryptocurrency Exchange LBX Faces Compulsory Liquidation

Dragon Payments Limited, formerly known as London Block Exchange Limited and trading as LBX, has been placed into compulsory liquidation following a winding up order that was made against the company on January 31, 2020.

This is a legal term for when someone applies to the court in the U.K. asking to close down a company if it cannot pay its debts.

London-based cryptocurrency exchange LBX is the latest digital asset trading venue to face critical difficulties and is now being liquidated. Despite rising crypto prices, which typically lead to an influx of new traders, some regulated exchanges have struggled to survive amidst rising legal fees, compliance costs, and other overheads.

LBX Placed Into Compulsory Liquidation

According to a notice that replaced the platform’s front page, Paul Cooper and Paul Appleton, both of David Rubin Partners, were appointed joint liquidators of LBX on February 4, 2020 by order of the U.K.’s Secretary of State. The joint liquidators and their team are said to be working toward resolving client concerns as a matter of priority, including the recovery of any sums of money owed to them, and ask that all claims for repayments should be addressed to them directly.

London-Based Cryptocurrency Exchange LBX Faces Compulsory Liquidation

LBX had opened in November 2017 for OTC trades and was based in London’s Canary Wharf commercial district. The multi-cryptocurrency platform provided crypto exchange services to retail consumers and institutional investors via an online platform and through a mobile app. It followed very strict know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering procedures as it was also an e-wallet services provider registered with the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

In October 2018 we reported that LBX launched a service offering access to an account where clients can store, manage and transfer their fiat currency and cryptocurrency holdings. Aimed at the business sector, LBX Pay offered a banking-like solution to those involved in the cryptocurrency industry such as ICOs, traders and funds. The service enabled clients to convert holdings from fiat and cryptocurrency without having to move funds between accounts or service providers.

MakerDAO Is Helping 60 Kids in Brazil Learn the Basics of Blockchain

Nearly 120 youths, ages 14-24, now gather weekly in Rio de Janeiro for free courses about financial literacy, computer programming and blockchain technology.

World Bank research field coordinator Erick Baumgartner told CoinDesk he went to three high schools in the crime-riddled Pavuna district to recruit students for the nine-month program, which started in May.

“Even for classes that are happening right outside their houses, we’ve already had two days when they couldn’t come to class because of police operations”, Baumgartner said. “When shooting starts, people can’t go out of their houses.”

In order to serve this marginalized community of aspiring developers, the World Bank partnered with a slew of organizations ranging from MakerDAO to Banco Maré and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, plus the Brazilian education startup Blockchain Academy.

Only half of the students passed the computer literacy test to take the blockchain-focused course at the end of the program. They’ll be learning web programming basics, how to make ethereum-based smart contracts and a little about Hyperledger.

“The final purpose of all these efforts is to give them a real opportunity to be hired”, Blockchain Academy co-founder Rosine Kadamani told CoinDesk. “By the end of the training program, students are going to participate in a hackathon with MakerDAO, to have the opportunity to create something more concrete, something that could be helpful for themselves.”

DeFi-lanthropy

MakerDAO says its goals for the program are altruistic. Nadia Alvarez, MakerDAO’s head of business development in Latin America, told CoinDesk she hopes students learn about “solutions” beyond banks and traditional financial institutions.

“What we want is to give them information to develop their curiosity around the blockchain and other financial options they have”, she said.

Kadamani added that the program offers a well-rounded education, including the risks of decentralized finance (DeFi), so that students can decide for themselves whether crypto loans suit their specific needs.

As for the students themselves, 17-year-old Luiz Felipe Rangel Silva told CoinDesk that although his family has a bank account they mostly use cash. Concepts like blockchain and payment apps are foreign to him, beyond brief mentions of bitcoin he heard on the news.

“I’m always interested in learning and being better prepared for jobs, also learning how to make websites and software”, he told CoinDesk, adding that students were restricted from using the computer lab at his school, to curtail theft. This will be his first programming course.

MakerDAO’s Alvarez and the World Bank’s Baumgartner both referred to this program as a pilot, which they hope to expand next year if participant feedback proves it helped them gain job opportunities. Kadamani, of Blockchain Academy, noted the program is still seeking crypto-industry partnerships, with companies looking to hire or to contribute to the curriculum.

Speaking of why MakerDAO sponsored the program, Alvarez concluded:

“It’s an incredible opportunity to create new solutions thinking of the actual needs of people in different countries.”

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