Across the globe, blockchain is becoming more prevalent than ever. There is no better way to understand how much it has truly grown than with the recent announcement of BnkToTheFuture, a startup that will let investors trade equity stakes in companies involved with the blockchain. Across the Pacific, blockchain was displayed at Accenture’s fourth Annual fintech Innovation Lab in Hong Kong this past week, and the first-ever public blockchain was announced by startup CommerceBlock. Continue reading to find out what else is going on in fintech today.

Blockchain Market Opens Up

Bloomberg Technology recently reported the opening of a market allowing investors to trade equity stakes in companies involved with the blockchain. The company, BnkToTheFuture plans to open a market in the second quarter and will use a blockchain ledger to keep record of those investments for clients. Read the full story here.

Citi Discovers Blockchain

Now, more than ever, banks must stay ahead of technology in order to keep up with the fintech startups. How are some doing so? Banking giant Citigroup recently rolled out a program, D10X, which stands for “Discover 10 times”, encouraging Citi employees to think like entrepreneurs in the hopes of getting ideas for new products and services quickly to market. One of their recent projects included the launch Citi Connect for Blockchain in collaboration with Nasdaq. Read the full story here.

First-Ever Public Blockchain Announced

Blockchain technology will now no longer be restricted to only commercial banking customers. CommerceBlock recently announced the rollout of their platform, which is built for anyone who wants to build and use financial products. The CommerceBlock network provides a combination of trust minimal trade, decentralized contract execution, on-chain derivatives, and asset-backed token issuance to the public blockchain. Read the full story here.

Hong Kong Innovation Lab Leads with Blockchain

This past week at Accenture’s fourth annual FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific Investor Day, dozens of startups enthusiastically demonstrated their own versions of blockchain and other financial services technology platforms to some of the worlds top banking executives.  Just some of the companies debuting their technology include Blocko, Covergo, and Stash, which feature platforms. Read the full story here.