first major digital currency exchange to list ethers for sale. Major exchanges including Coinbase and Gemini follow suit. • JANUARY 2016 – Eleven major banks – Barclays, BMO Financial Group, Credit Suisse, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, HSBC, Nahxis, Royal Bank of Scotland, TD Bank, UBS, UniCredit and Wells Fargo – announce a trial of a permissioned version of the pla€orm. • JANUARY 2016 – The first ethereum startups begin to raise funding for projects as diverse as a decentralized stock market and developer tool suites.