on the crypto
OKCoin said it will become the first US-based cryptocurrency exchange to list Blockstack PBC's (STX) token stacks.
OKCoin's new plan
OKCoin, an exchange with a daily volume of around $ 30 million, announced that the STX token will be listed on January 14, 2021, upon completion of the launch of Stacks Blockchain 2.0.
“After our compliance team carefully reviewed Blockstack's decentralization statement and PoX mechanism, we concluded that the company has successfully switched from a security token to a utility token, and therefore OKCoin can and do make STX available for US users for the first time, ”according to OKCoin chief compliance officer Megan Monroe-Coleman.
This assumes that the US Securities and Exchange Commission does not oppose the STX transition. In addition to buying, trading and a scheduled airdrop of STX for OKCoin users, the STX listing will allow OKCoin users to earn bitcoins (quotation BTC) as a reward by placing their STX on Stacks' Blockchain 2.0 network. It will be the first token to do so, said Haider Rafique, OKCoin's chief marketing officer.
The STX token
Blockstack and the related platform's STX token utility rose to fame in 2019 when the company launched the first SEC-approved token sale in the securities market. But the company, which has withdrawn from a central role in issuing new STXs, argued that the token should no longer be considered a security and should become tradable by investors in the United States.
By taking a step back, Blockstack aims to compete with Google with a suite of decentralized applications that aren't involved in any data collection like the one conducted by the tech giant from Mountain View, California. Blockstack even launched an anti-Google branding campaign in 2019: “Can't be evil”. To date, however, adoption has remained niche.
OKCoin's goal
OKCoin's Monroe-Coleman said retail users and investors in the US may be "more confident in the legitimacy" of Blockstack's transition from a "regulated security token to an open-source decentralized blockchain protocol."
The partnership between OKCoin and Blockstack is a result of the two companies' shared values of participating in and supporting Bitcoin's core development, said Rafique, who also worked closely with the team behind Blockstack at his former company Blockchain.com.
Version 2.0 of the Stacks blockchain will require miners on the network to send bitcoins to mine a block. OKCoin, founded in 2013, moved its core business to San Francisco after the Chinese government cracked down on the crypto sector in 2018.
The exchange has since redefined itself as a regulation-friendly exchange with approved licenses in countries including the United States and Japan. The exchange also launched a funding program earlier this year to support developers of Bitcoin Core, whose open source code enhances the network.
