Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong spilled out his thoughts about the Blockchain and Crypto industry in a blog post. As per his estimation, 1 billion users will join blockchain by the end of decade as more and more use cases are being invented. As we write, blockchain is already implemented in Financial sector with many firms accepting cryptos instead of fiat. Latest example is the BurgerKing Food giant.
Also, privacy would be one of the main aspects to be developed in the coming decade. Brian claims that as https was made default on all websites, privacy coins will eventually enter the mainstream adoption. We might see more Central Bank Digital Coins in the market says, Brian.
The Malta-based, Binance exchange makes the best efforts to choose high-quality coins and improve user trading experience. In a bid to improve liquidity further, the Binance exchange has decided to remove USDC trading pairs that are not widely used. A blog post announced this delisting.
The pairs to be delisted are ALGO/USDC, FTM/USDC, ONT/USDC, XLM/USDC, USDS/USDC. The trading will cease from Jan 7, 2020. However, only the trading pairs will be removed from the platform. The assets will still be there available for trading against different cryptos.
The calendar turned a new leaf, yet Facebook proposed Libra cryptocurrency is not out of the scrutiny. Libra continues to receive negative responses, this time from German Central Bank’s President Jens Weidmann. The Bundesbank President "wants to slow down the Facebook proposed crypto through regulations" claims a local report. As per the report, Weidmann believes that this crypto, tied to different currencies, will prove risky to users.
The Bundesbank President further urged Central Bank & Government to focus on developing their payment networks. As a digital Euro is in the talk, Weidmann feels that a secure network will curb any future negative backlash. Recently Libra was under the radar as Swiss President claimed it to be a “Failed Project”.
Ethereum's latest hard fork has proven beneficial for the network. As Muir Glacier upgrade completes, network statistics are generated. As per this statistics report, ETH Block mining time has reduced by 25% to only 12 seconds from 17sec.
Muir Glacier hard fork had another important update for delaying the impending IceAge. As a result, the no.of mined Ethereum coins has increased from 10,000 ETH to 12,000 ETH. The Ethereum hard fork will further make the inflation rate around 5% the report says. The network has another hard fork planned in September 2021 to switch from PoW to PoS that claims to reduce the inflation rate to 0.22%.
The US Subsidiary of Binance has become a member of the Executive Committee of the Chamber of Digital Commerce. The aim of this incorporation is to work closely with policymakers, regulatory agencies, and industry peers. Further, the exchange claims to bring education, advocacy, and industry-wide regulatory development forward with the Chamber.
Binance US is part of a 40 member Executive Committee and carves America's way to access broader digital assets. The other members include Bittrex, BitPay, open-source software publisher Block.one, EMURGO, the official commercial arm of Cardano, etc.
Binance is keen on making Bitcoin Futures trading as flexible as possible for the customers. The exchange has enabled Isolated Margin Mode for Bitcoin Futures trading as of Jan 3, 2020. Traders can easily switch between Cross Margin Mode and Isolated Margin Mode.
As per Binance Academy Glossary, "Isolated Margin is the margin balance allocated to an individual position. Isolated Margin mode allows traders to manage their risk on their individual positions by restricting the amount of margin allocated to each one. The allocated margin balance for each position can be individually adjusted."
Burger King, an American multinational chain of hamburger fast food restaurants is now accepting cryptocurrencies as a mode of payment. Earlier, the fast-food chain had its own crypto known as Whoppercoin. However, now customers can pay with popular cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash, Binance Coin, Ethereum and Stablecoin Tether.
As of now, Venezuela branches of Burger King can avail of this feature. The Instagram account of this chain of restaurants announced the partnership with Cryptobuyer's point of sale policy. The new payment system will be available in the 40 Venezuela stores, which are expected to occur in 2020.
Bloomberg, the mainstream media interviewed Antoni Trenchev, CEO of NexoFinance about Bitcoin's journey in the last decade. Trenchev poured out his views on how Bitcoin has fared and 9000000% increase since 2010. According to Nexo CEO, Bitcoin is an “incredible asset” uncorrelated to the overall market. He further compared BTC to gold asset & claimed if Bitcoin margins even a part of Gold's value; then BTC price will reach $50k against USD by the end of 2020.
However, Bitcoin is still trading in the bearish zone. Today, BTC prices have seen some relief with an unexpected 6% surge. But, it is yet to see how BTC fares in the long run.
Cryptocurrency miner Argo Blockchain has announced that it is installing new 3,616 Bitmain machines to increase its mining capacity by 75%. The team took to Twitter to announce that the company has already taken delivery of 3616 Bitmain Antminer T17s machines. However, more 6384 T17s machines are on its way till January end. The new machines are said to increase the mining capacity by 204% by the end of 2020 Q1. Moreover, the already installed machines are expected to be operational by January 10, 2020.
Recently, Argo blockchain has changed its CEO. With Peter Wall becoming the CEO, the firm aims to become the World’s largest Publicly-listed Crypto Miner.
Binance enters the Year 2020 with a new feather in its hat. The malta-based exchange on Jan 3, 2020, added Euro trading pairs to the platform. The trading pairs are BTC/EUR, ETH/EUR, BNB/EUR, XRP/EUR, EUR/BUSD, and EUR/USDT.
Binance also has plans to support 180+ fiat currencies in 2020. In a New Year welcoming blog post, the CEO of the exchange stated his visions for the coming 12 months. Binance.com has added support for 19 fiat currencies - USD, GBP, EUR, CNY, RUB, TRY, NGN, UAH, KZT, & IDR already. More are yet to come
OKEx Exchange native token $OKB has been listed on the leading cryptocurrency payment technology payment provider, Alchemy Global Payment Solutions. Alchemy payment solutions provide hybrid fiat and crypto payment systems. The payment solution provider now makes OKB available for offline payments.
OKEx team got onto Twitter to announce this latest development of the token. The tweet further adds that OKB is already available for offline payment in Singapore as of writing. Moreover, a short video depicts an OKB offline payment use case. The exchange hopes to expand the use-cases of OKB offline payment.
Ethereum network has successfully completed its latest hard fork, although no official announcement is made. Muir Glacier activated on 2nd Jan 2020 at Block number 9,200,000. This hard fork brings in EIP 2384 improvement proposal. The upgrade will delay the difficulty bomb (known as "ice age") that was increasing the average mining block time. Further, the update proposes to delay the difficulty bomb for another 4,000,000 blocks (~611 days).
The Muir Glacier hard fork was planned spontaneously due to a miscalculation in Istanbul hard fork. Along with EIP 2384; EIP 2387 also is included in the latest Ethereum hard fork.
Binance, the Malta-based cryptocurrency exchange, is gaining a major fan following in the Thailand region. The exchange founder Changpeng Zhao took to Twitter to announce the news. The tweet says that Binance is ranked 7th on Google Thailand Top Ten Searched 2019. Among general topics like tasting, shopping, use; election results 2019, etc, the search term Crypto Binance has made its place on the 7th.
This is a great achievement that shows crypto has now become a household day-to-day usage name. Albeit, it's a start. Nevertheless, that day will come when crypto terms will be in daily users' Google search globally.
The South Korea Ministry of Economy and Finance confirmed that the Profits from individual virtual asset transactions are not a listed income. Furthermore, they are not taxable under the current tax law.
South Korean Government is keen to study the crypto regulation approaches of major countries of crypto taxation. An official of the ministry said that discussions have already been taking place, adding that the revised bill is expected to be drawn up by the first half of 2020. The major setback of tax amends is acquiring transaction records from crypto exchange to levy exact taxes.
Bitcoin Cash is expected to see some crucial developments in the near future. The upgrades are considered to be the largest privacy improvement on the BCH Network. One of them is the CashFusion protocol. As per a Reddit announcement, this protocol will add an extra layer of privacy on top of the user's BCH-based network activity. Electron Cash developer Jonald Fyookball announced that the protocol is working fine in the alpha testing phase. A beta release is yet to be made official.
The next crucial upgrade is TOR integration on the BCH network. Users can add extra privacy over their BCH activity. The Tor is compatible with Cashfusion protocol.
Two JP Morgan leads Stuart Popejoy and Will Martino founded the Kadena blockchain project in 2016. After 3 years of rigorous development, the hybrid blockchain project will see the daylight on January 15, 2020. Moreover, Kadena will bridge the gap between private and public blockchain claims the announcement. The project can process 750 transactions per second, way more than Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchain. As per the announcement, the blockchain will be compatible with existing private and public blockchains.
eToro, the world's leading social trading network has just hit a total of 12 million users as per eToro's 2019 rewind video posted on Twitter. Etoro CEO Yoni Assia shared his thoughts on an interview with news.Bitcoin.com. He basically gave a walkthrough of the rewind video on what eToro has achieved in 2019.
eToro has 1000+ new tradeable assets in 2019. The trading platform also started a CopyTrader feature, especially for traders. Understanding the crypto industry, the eToro platform has ventured into the industry with a cryptocurrency exchange, eToroX.
TRON Foundation bagged the "Most Innovative Blockchain 2019" award at the Jinse Finance's “Keeping Pace with the Time” Award Ceremony. The award ceremony hosted on Dec 27, 2019, featured more than 100 blockchain enterprises, 300 influencers and many more. TRON, China's No 1 blockchain, was awarded the title looking at the growth graph the foundation depicted.
Some of the reported achievements include growth in DApps from 117 to 169. The subsequent DApp transaction volume and active users also saw an enormous rise. The Medium announcement further stated that TRON will strive diligently to live up to its reputation of China's No 1 public chain.
Despite harsh crypto industry returns in the last Crypto Winter, Israeli Blockchain companies have increased by 32% in the 2019 calendar year. As of December 2019, the no. of blockchain companies increased to 150 instead of 138 in 2018. This is according to a survey by the Israeli Bitcoin Association. The survey further shows that 2017 saw only 53 total blockchain & crypto companies.
Moreover, in 2018, out of 113, only 63 companies continued in 2019. This means 87 companies have been incubated and flourished in 2019. The numbers are inspiring and Israel crypto industry plans to flourish further.
US Subsidiary of Binance had earlier opened Beta testing for mainly developers to test the iOS apps. The latest update regarding this testing is that the exchange will release the apps to the general public for testing. The exchange with assistance from TestFlight has set up a testing environment easily accessible to any user.
The Binance US team got to Twitter to announce this news. As per the tweet, any customer with iOS devices can download the app and start testing. The app supports many languages including English, French, Korean, etc.
Swiss president has strong views of the Facebook developed cryptocurrency, Libra. Ueli Maurer, Switzerland’s finance minister, and outgoing president commented on the Libra calling it as a Failed Project. According to him, “I don’t think (It has a chance in its current form), because central banks will not accept the basket of currencies underpinning it.” Ueli further states that currency needs rework.
Libra has been seeing regulatory hurdles since its whitepaper inception.
Facebook-led digital currency is currently seeking regulatory consent in Switzerland. But it seems the hurdles are still the same. It will be interesting to see what this Facebook-led digital currency has still in store for itself.
The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) has set their eyes on blockchain implementation for businesses. They are in plans to start guidance for companies to inculcate blockchain knowledge and in turn develop the technology.
"The guidance is aimed at executives in financial services & companies using blockchain technology in their supply chains," said COSO’s chairperson Paul Sobel. “I want to make sure that we’ve got that properly controlled because it is a very different view of the world when you have distributed ledgers.” he continued. The guidance is expected to release in the 2020 first quarter.
Poloniex exchange, on Sunday, has announced to roll out the lowest fees for traders on its platform. Coming Jan 8, 2020; exchange introduces a new fee schedule wherein spot and margin trading fees are reduced. TRX hodlers have added benefits to this exchange. The platform has also started Poloniex Plus and Poloniex Market Maker to provide further discounts. The VIP program and market maker program allows traders to enjoy rebates on maker fees, higher withdrawal limits, etc.
The Poloniex exchange's topmost investor Justin Sun got onto Twitter to applaud the exchange on its innovative fee schedule. His tweet further explains the benefits of TRX hodlers.
The Indonesian subsidiary of the Huobi Global cryptocurrency exchange announced the launch of its fiat-to-crypto trading gateway for Indonesian customers. The Huobi clients can now trade between Indonesian Rupiah (IDR) and Tether (USDT). With this gateway, clients can buy USDT using IDR and trade more than 250 cryptos that the platform supports.
Senior director of Huobi Cloud David Chen commented: "By continuing to add new fiat/crypto pairs, we want to make it frictionless for investors anywhere in the world." As of now, the platform has fiat gateways in Argentina, South Korea, and Indonesia. Moreover, Turkey and Russia fiat gateways will be added in 2020.
As per an email to verified customers, the Bitfinex exchange has noted that it is increasing the KYC verification system. The email urges verified customers to produce their additional information including address proof. Moreover, Bitfinex also asks the user to share details on the source and use of funds. The details will be retained securely and confidentially, claims the exchange.
“While we do allow unverified customers on our platform to engage in limited trading activities, we always work to ensure that all customers – both verified and unverified – are respecting the same ground rules,” the email concluded.
Crypto in India is still yet to be adopted on a full scale. Yet, as well as based on DLT. The platform will ensure super-speed, efficient and easier transactions. NPCI ventured into the distributed ledger technology realm to create a payment system that allows for high-speed, super-secure transactions in India.
Vajra Indian blockchain payment system wishes to bring cryptography security and faster transactions to the Indian payment system. Minimal transaction processing time serves as the prime advantage of Vajra.
US Congressional Candidate Pete D’Abrosca is convinced that Bitcoin is a wise investment in 2020. He took to Twitter to claim to invest wisely in BTC coming 2020. Pete is hopeful to get elected from North Carolina's 7th District. Pete isn't the first to add Bitcoin or other crypto-related elements in their election propaganda.
US Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang has claimed that he will regulate crypto laws if he gets selected as president. This is in order to global adoption of Blockchain in his territory. Even Trump has strong views about Bitcoin, though negative. But Crypto seems to have made his list too.
Poloniex, the U.S. based digital asset exchange has achieved a new milestone. The exchange is only one in the category of "Only Verified Top 50 Gainers" for the last 30 days of the Coin360 market analysis tool. Poloniex exchange has earned 58.04% in the last month making it only gainer as per the Coin360 market analysis of one month.
The team got on to twitter to announce this great news. However, the exchange falls back as the weekly gainer. It has only gained 41.49% in 7 days of the performance. Coinbase Pro has excelled with 100% gains.
Binance exchange has yet added a new feather in its cap. The Malta-based exchange has listed a new Fiat support to the exchange. The Binance customers can now buy cryptos using the Turkish Lira (TRY). The Binance exchange had recently added EUR, NGN, RUB and many fiat support. With the earlier announcement, the trading pairs of BNB/TRY, BUSD/TRY & BTC/TRY were added.
Extending this news, the exchange tweeted on Christmas that TRY trading pairs will add a few more cryptos like ETH, XRP. The trading pairs ETH/TRY, XRP/TRY, USDT/TRY and USDT/RUB are now open for trading on the exchange.
A blockchain tax return tool will soon become a reality. Thomson Reuters Tax & Accounting has collaborated with Verady to develop a tool to track crypto transactions. Once added to the GoSystem TaxRS, this blockchain tax tool will assist the government in the Tax return procedure.
The tool will help streamline classification, organization, and accountancy of digital assets. It accurately tracks cryptocurrency trades and reports the same on tax returns. This tool will act as a great innovation for tax returns. Although security and the trusted data source is an issue, Verady solves the problem.
Justin Sun, Founder of TRON Community has applauded his developers in a series of tweets. He has elaborated on a new privacy feature added to the TRON Network. Though the security layer is not yet developed, the developers have added it to the TRON testnet. Justin terms it as "key to shielded transactions and layer-2 extension".
Users will be able to add this privacy enhancement to TRC10 and TRC20 tokens in the future. Moreover, $TRX, $BTT, and $WIN tokens will be excluded from this feature. Their transaction ledgers will continue to be public; adds Justin.
British Virgin Islands-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex has announced that users can now buy cryptocurrencies using debit and credit cards. Third-party payment solutions provider Mercuryo and OWNR Wallet are aiding the crypto exchange to allow users to purchase using cards. As of now, card purchases allow Bitcoin, tether and ERC20 tokens. However, these features are allowed to only verified customers. Bitfinex accepts Master card and Visa debit and credit cards. However, the minimum purchasing account with a credit card is $25.
Bitfinex exchange has also removed the deposit fees when a user deposits funds under $1000 US Dollars.
Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase Exchange is constantly making efforts to revolutionalize the crypto world. Latest we hear he has secured a patent to send cryptocurrency through email. Isn't it exciting! Sending Bitcoin by just a click of email without memorizing the Bitcoin address. The patent filed in March 2019, was rewarded this December.
The working is fairly simple. The email address will be linked to your wallet address. Once the sender makes a request to send crypto payments to an email address, the system automatically sends the desired amount. The patent also presses on the security issue and claims to resolve it.
The United States-based pure crypto to crypto exchange, Poloniex has reduced its KYC verification for entry-level account holders. Users can now start trading by signing up with just an email and password. Although creating an account in Poloniex has become very easy, the entry-level account has limitations until KYC verification is completed.
With Level 1, users will have access to unlimited trading, unlimited deposits, and $10,000 per day in withdrawals. But the 2 Factor Authentication security layer has limitations while providing security. Justin Sun, on Twitter earlier tweets, an account can be set up on Poloniex within 20 sec.
KT, the South Korean telecom company, is selected by the Korean government to issue a local blockchain-based currency in Busan. 'Dongbaekjeon', with annual issue amounting to 300 billion WON is a blockchain-based local currency. This currency is reported to go live on Dec 30, 2019, as per a local news report. Further, the report claims that Dongbaekjeon will revitalize Busan's local economy and ease the management burden of small businesses.
There are several ways to access this currency namely through a mobile app, Hana Bank or Busan Bank window. However, it cannot be traded immediately at local supermarkets or other retailers.
Coinfloor, the oldest crypto exchange of the United Kingdom, decided to go back to being the "Only Bitcoin" Exchange. The UK's crypto exchange will delist other cryptos on the exchange from January 2020. At present, Coinfloor supports Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Bitcoin Cash. However, only Bitcoin will be supported by its 11th Anniversary on this exchange.
Obi Nwosu, founder and CEO of CoinFloor, explained the reasoning behind his company’s decision to focus only on BTC. "No other cryptocurrency comes close to bitcoin’s track record, industry support or brand recognition, so focusing on bitcoin made perfect sense."
The US subsidiary of the Binance exchange has launched its own iOS apps and are asking the customers to beta test the apps. The Binance.US team took to Twitter to announce the launch of these apps. The US customers are asked to fill a questionnaire and the downloadable links will be sent to them personally. The team wants to rule out possible flaws with this user testing. Based on the response, the team will debug the apps & release it to the general public. However, the team has announced only iOS apps. Further, there is no news about Android apps.
Kraken Exchange, one of the top 5 exchanges as per CoinGecko has acquired Circle's OTC Desk as per its blog post. The post reads " Kraken is acquiring one of the most recognized OverTheCounter desks in crypto, Circle Trade. " Through this acquisition, Kraken exchange plans to provide support trading partners globally, especially in Asia. Also, it will lead to deeper liquidity of assets and improved advanced tools for traders.
Circle, the Boston-based cryptocurrency firm is one of the earliest players in the digital assets field and its OTC desk was once the most profitable business in the market. Kraken confirmed the sale when reached for comment.
Pakistan President Dr. Arif Alvi expressed his concerns in a meeting of the Taskforce on Emerging Technologies here at the Aiwan-e-Sadr. As per his statement, the emerging technologies of Blockchain, Internet-of-Things(IoT's), Artificial Technology, etc. will disrupt the economy. The quotes says "Beware of Blockchain". He further urged that the country should prepare itself for digitization as it is unavoidable.
Pakistan saw many emerging technologies and startups that played a major role in building Pakistan's digital economy. However, still, there are many sectors to be explored. Building an innovation ecosystem will also be an essential ingredient, he added.
Accenture, with its brand name in digital technology, has turned towards blockchain to enhance global trade experience for its customers. The company has partnered with the Dublin-based distributed ledger technology company TradeIX as per a Tuesday announcement.
The current trade finance process involves a lot of paperwork and is tedious to do. TradeIX plans to digitize this manual process and Accenture could provide ERP solutions for this cause. “Our goal is to scale this capability to help organizations achieve touchless payable and receivable processes within a secure and trusted environment — ultimately transforming how they conduct business with each other,” says Accenture's Blockchain Services MD.
Japan's crypto exchange, Coincheck has decided to pull the plug off its controversial margin trading. The exchange posted a blog post on Dec 16, 2019, explaining that the service will be terminated in March 2020. Even though the transaction will cease from March 13, 2020; balance transfers can be completed till the end of the month. Until that deadline, users can transfer Yen balances to their own trading accounts on Coincheck.
The exact reason for this abrupt decision is still not clear. The customers are skeptical of this decision as the exchange had opened the margin trading after its initial ban.
The crypto liquidating firm Sibex has partnered with New York-based cryptocurrency company Paxos to allow gold trading on the blockchain. The goal of this partnership is to improve peer-to-peer (P2P) over the counter (OTC) trading for physical gold. Paxos offers PAX Gold, a digital asset-backed by digital gold.
Daniel Haudenschild, CEO of SIBEX, commented: “As a regulated and established player in the finance space, PAXOS has been instrumental in the democratization of the industry. We are always looking for ways to expand and diversify our service offerings. So it was a natural progression for SIBEX to expand towards gold as an investment.”
An American television personality and pro-Bitcoin John Stossel tweeted a few hours ago explaining his point of view on Bitcoin. He took a dig at the Government too. "I bought #Bitcoin because I don't want all my savings in dollars. What if my government prints lots of dollars and they become worth… pennies?"
Further his debate video explains what Peter Schiff feels about the merits of a decentralized digital asset. The tweet saw many pro-bitcoin replies. John's statement seems to be true as analysts note that FED plans to print dollars equivalent to the Bitcoin market cap.
Friday, Dec 13 saw phase-one deal of the US-China trade deal. Following this, shares of Apple (AAPL) have increased considerably. The shares rose 1.36% on Friday to an all-time high of $275.30. The new tariffs will be applied from Sunday. Following this, Apple will manage to waive 15% tariff that would have been applied to some of its products.
This comes as a relief for Apple makers as most of Apple's supply chain is in China. Apple's China revenue fell 15.9% to $43.7 billion this year. With this trade deal, the profit margin is expected to increase.
Ripple based money transfer startup SendFriend is supposed to save 80% remittance fees. David Lighton, the co-founder and chief executive of SendFriend explained how XRP impacts the payment process. As per Lighton, traditional money transfer firms usually charge up to 10 percent of the total amount being transferred from end to end. However, when SendFriend's customers use XRP money transfer, the percentage is reduced to 2%. To increase the speed and reduce the cost of this process, the platform leverages RippleNet’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL).
The Platform uses Ripple’s xRapid product for cross-border payments, converting between the United States dollar, XRP and Philippine pesos.
Fintech investments have seen a great rise in 2019. Many startups have emerged attracting Venture Capitals to invest more in fintech sector. Singapore and Vietnam countries have emerged as winners in South-East Asia Fintech Investments. Singapore companies have received 51% of the total investment in South East Asia. Vietnam is second with an investment of 36%. Next in the line is Indonesia with 12% while remaining 2% is made up of Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Meanwhile, Coming to individual fintech company, VNPay, a Vietnamese e-payment solutions provider was at the top. The total capital accounted for US$300 million this year.
The Malta-based exchange, Binance will now include asset balances and transactions in C2C fiat accounts while calculating VIP levels and daily BNB holdings. The calculation will be upgraded from 14/12/2019 on the Binance exchange. Earlier, BNB held in the Binance wallet was not included in the daily BNB calculation. Now, with this upgrade, hourly snapshots will occur at random times. The calculation will further affect the Trading Fee VIP rating system and referral program. Fiat transactions will also be added to the VIP level calculation. Each VIP level has different levels of calculations and different taker/maker fees.
African Government is all set to launch a stablecoin pegged to 1:1 to Nigerian Naira. The stablecoin ABCD will be launched on Binance's native blockchain, the Binance Chain. Ghana-based cross-border money transfer startup Bit Sika & Linova Capital – crypto-focused investment firm will launch this stablecoin. Furthermore, 9 exchanges including Busha and Bitmama supports this Africa stablecoin.
ABCD's mission is to leverage the liquidity of Naira and other flexible digital currencies. Moreover, this stablecoin will be the first of its kind as it is pegged by Naira and built on Binance Chain.
FirstBlood eSports platform has come up with its own blockchain, "Dawn". This blockchain is built on COSMOS Network. FirstBlood allows amateur players to earn rewards after playing Dota2, PUBG. It allows more than 200,000 users to gamble cryptocurrency directly with one another.
FirstBlood CEO Joe Zhou was searching means to decentralize the esports wagering and he found a solution in Tendermint & Cosmos. Built on Cosmos and bridged to Ethereum, FirstBlood's Dawn will let players earn, wager, and stake the new DAWN token. In conclusion, Dawn is termed as a global, self-governed and open-sourced blockchain for gamers.
UK based crypto exchange CEX.io has now listed Cardano crypto on its exchange. After countless customer request, the exchange has opened its door to ADA coin. CEX.IO users can now deposit ADA and buy the token with a Visa or Mastercard. As of writing, users can trade ADA against the USD in the initial phase, making it the first trading pair for Cardano. The exchange is in plans to add more trading pairs for ADA in the near future. Withdrawals are due to open today. Though, time is not cleared when ADA can be withdrawn.
Tether, the fourth coin as per market cap, is going through media scrutiny. The statistics of intotheblock claims that 64% of Tether supply of 4,108,044,456 USDT is controlled by only 119 finite addresses. It seems that traders believe in Hodling USDT instead of trading them. Moreover, the transaction volume over one hundred thousand US dollars ($100,000) was over three and a half billion US dollars ($3.52 billion) in one week’s span. The report further claimed that though traders hodl USDT, the average holding period is 21.2 days.
Moreover, Justin Sun is celebrating as Tether trading on TRON exchange reaches 91M.
Bitmex, one of the world's most popular cryptocurrency exchanges, has added support for the Bech32 (native SegWit) address format. The Dec 12, 2019 announcement reads: “The key advantage of Bech32 addresses is that transaction fees will be saved when Bitcoin already sent to a Bech32 address is spent. Therefore this upgrade will not directly result in fee savings when customers withdraw from BitMEX. However in the next transaction, when the withdrawn BTC is spent again, our customers may benefit from lower transaction fees.”
Earlier, even Bitfinex has added support for this Bech32 address.
Swiss Crypto Bank, SEBA has proposed its plans to expand in 10 countries including Switzerland. After one month of a fully operational branch in Switzerland, SEBA now eyes countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, the U.K., Italy, Germany, France, Austria, Portugal, and the Netherlands.
Guido Bühler, chief executive of SEBA Bank, said: “With our services, we want to redefine the customer-bank relationship and give clients a simple but the most secure banking experience both in the new and old financial world.” The goal of SEBA is to bridge the gap between crypto and banking.
The US subsidiary of the Malta exchange Binance is all set to expand and add support to 18 new tokens. The Binance.US team has added 25 tokens till now since its inception. And new tokens are to be added. Among the tokens listed on the platform are Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), XRP, Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Tether’s USDT, their native Coin (BNB), and more. The US branch is exploring possibilities of cryptos such as Tezos (XTZ), Komodo (KMD), TRON (TRX), NEM (XEM).
Recently, Binance.US has adopted a Digital Asset Risk Assessment Framework to shield users from fraudulent blockchain projects and combat financial crimes.
German Fintech SolarisBank has stepped into the world of cryptocurrencies with the launch of Solaris Digital Asset. The bank is currently testing Solaris Digital Assets' first product. The white-label custody, first product, combines maximal security with instant accessibility to meet the demands of today’s digital asset industry. However, This is not the first step towards crypto by the SolarisBank. Earlier in 2018, It launched solarisBank Blockchain Factory, a banking infrastructure provider.
The launch of these digital assets comes after the news of Facebook launching its stablecoin Libra. Moreover, even SAGA Foundation has launched its SAGA Tokens.
Co-founder & Partner at Morgan Creek Digital, Anthony Pompliano is a Bitcoin Proponent and has a strong faith in BTC. As per his latest tweet, Pomp claims that "Bitcoin is a pension that actually works." Interestingly, Pomp had urged pension funds to buy bitcoin this same time last year. He had submitted to the post in his daily newsletter OffTheChain and also on Medium.
BTC has the potential to save us from the current pension crisis. We just need one or two courageous individuals to make the first move claims the BTC influencer. Alternatively, Pomp also raised his bar and targets BTC price to reach $100,000 by Dec 2021.
The concern that the U.S.-China Trade War would drag until next year is affecting world stock prices. The U.S. crude oil prices fell on Wednesday as the inventory rose to a surprising level. Although The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated the rise in inventory by 1.41 million barrels; but the actual crude inventory rose by 3.72 million barrels.
Brent futures fell by 45 cents, West Texas Intermediate crude slipped by 36 cents. The demand has slowed down due to the trade war. The U.S. is ready to export crude oil on an annual basis from the coming calendar year.
The US Patent Office has granted a patent to the sportswear brand, Nike, to produce a blockchain-based sneaker "CryptoKick". Nike stated that it intends to generate unique ID's for each sneaker and tokenize them. Moreover, The tokens would be ERC721, Ethereum based. “When a consumer buys a genuine pair of shoes, a digital representation of a shoe may be generated, linked with the consumer and assigned a cryptographic token, where the digital shoe and cryptographic token collectively represent a ‘CryptoKick,’” the patent said. Nike looks forward to bringing out apparel (e.g., "CryptoThreads"), headgear (e.g., "CryptoLids"), and sporting equipment (e.g., "CryptoGear") in the future.
The Bitcoin Bull, John McAfee got into a candid chat with videographer friend Robert King discussing Bitcoin. In the chat, John put forth his point of view on how Bitcoin is the new world currency. As per his statement, Fiat currency or Gold/Silver has no backing whereas Bitcoin is backed with a Proof-of-Work. He also explained details about Bitcoin Mining and why Bitcoin could replace the Fiat currency.
As we know, John Mcafee is an all-time supporter of Bitcoin. Meanwhile, he is still confident that Bitcoin will reach $1 million USD by the end of 2020.
Swiss Startup Amun has got clearance to offer its products to retail clients in Europe. Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (SFSA) granted permission to the firm this Tuesday, Dec 10, 2019. “[The approval] gives us wide access to sell directly and market directly to basically all retail in Europe,” Amun CEO Hany Rashwan said. Furthermore, with this approval, the firm can list its crypto ETP's on other exchanges. The listing on other exchanges will occur in 2020, Rashwan said. AMUN's mission is to help investors more safely and easily invest in crypto asset classes through our crypto ETPs. This approval is a step forward.
The Legislative arm of Ukraine, The Verkhovna Rada, has passed an amendment to legalize crypto payments in the country. The anti-money laundering (AML) law complies with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards. The law mainly handles the maintenance of virtual assets and virtual asset service providers (VASP’S). It provides clear guidelines for traders and businesses on how to properly conduct a transaction in the future. In conclusion, crypto payments are now a legal entity in Ukraine.
This AML law saw strong support in the final hearing on Dec 6, 2019, with over 240 deputies favoring it.
A U.K. based blockchain firm Saga is launching an alternative token to Facebook’s digital currency proposal Libra. Saga's advisory board includes Nobel Prize-winner Myron Scholes. The firm hopes to build a global currency that complies with all crypto regulations. However, the firm doesn’t plan to launch its token in the U.S. yet. It claims SGA doesn’t currently have the regulatory clarity required to do so.
The firm claims that "SGA is the first digital currency that replicates the mechanics of central bank national currencies and applies them on a global scale". SGA tokens are available to the public on the parent exchange SAGA.
Earlier we reported Bakkt launching USD cash-settled Bitcoin Futures on the ICE futures platform. The ICE Singapore platform has seen great records since this launch. The platform traded over 1,000 Bakkt Bitcoin (USD) Cash Settled Futures contracts since the launch. The Bakkt team took to twitter to announce this exciting news.
The ICE Futures platform is a leading operator of global exchanges and clearing houses and providers of data and listings services. This new Bakkt contract is cleared by ICE Clear Singapore and regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
TRON Exchange has seen a positive response in this December month. The exchange had seen registered users count increase from 4190559 to 4262802 by over 100,000. The official Twitter account of TRON took to twitter to announce this growth trend. The reason being the publicity surrounding the TRON exchange. Earlier, TRON & Poloniex partnered. CEO Justin Sun got into a Twitter feud on the social media platform and many such instances. These circumstances have made TRON's and TRX's popularity increase.
The amount of dApps added on the TRON chain has grown from 636 to 643. The TRON Network claims that dApp on TRON is seeing a fast growth compared to other networks.
Bakkt Bitcoin Cash Settled Monthly Futures will be settled against physically delivered Bakkt Bitcoin (USD) Monthly Futures contract from December 9, 2019. The Intercontinental Exchange will roll out two trading options Bitcoin (USD) Options and Bitcoin (USD) Cash Settled Monthly Futures. Bakkt will be big for being the first platform to offer futures settled in actual Bitcoin. Moreover, Users will be able to trade on two new markets on the platform.
Incidentally, Bakkt’s biggest competitor, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), is also launching Bitcoin options on Jan. 13.
Malta-based digital asset exchange OKEx is introducing Tiered Maintenance Margin Ratio System for Spot Margin Trading. The spot margin trading will go live from 07:00-08:00 Dec 9, 2019 (UTC). This spot trading will lower the leverage risk and increase borrowing limits claims OKEx exchange. Full description of how this new maintenance margin ratio is different from the earlier version is explained on their official website.
The tiered maintenance margin ratio system brings in new features for users. The features such as a new tiered liquidation system, Higher limits by about 10x, etc.
The People's Bank of China has collaborated with four major state-owned commercial banks, the three major telecom operators, Huawei to test its digital Yuan. The PBOC will test this digital currency in two cities in the initial phase. The cities being Shenzhen and Suzhou.
As per the report, PBOC is inviting partners to strategize the implementation of the digital currency electronic payment (DCEP). Through the pilot program, industries such as transportation, education, commerce, and medical care are targets of the Digital Yuan. The exact date this digital currency made public is yet to be revealed. China is said to have accelerated its digital currency program, prompted by Facebook’s Libra project.
U.S. Federal Government does not want to launch its own digital currency until the next 5 years. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell announced in a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington. “Chair Powell and I have discussed this at length- we both agree that in the next five years, we see no need for the Fed to issue a digital currency,” Mnuchin said. As per a report on this hearing, it identified six “potential emerging threats and vulnerabilities” to financial stability. Unless a solution to these vulnerabilities is found, a digital currency might not be effective.
As per the Fintech Investment market 2019 report, the Fintech Investments might reach $152.94 billion USD by 2026. The report analyses the market status, market share, growth rate, future trends, market drivers, opportunities and challenges, risks and entry barriers, etc. The report claims that major global major leading industry players like Eaton, Grundfos, Tornatech, etc. will receive greater investments.
The global Fintech Investment market 2019 research is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the industry. It provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications, and industry chain structure.
Morgan Stanley Analyst claims Tesla shares to reach $500 and increase 50% once the anticipated CyberTruck is successful. The analyst Adam Jonas has predicted that Tesla would sell 100,000 Cybertrucks by the end of 2024. “We believe this is a fairly optimistic assumption, given that a pre-order only requires a $100 refundable deposit,” Jonas wrote.
However, this is something different. Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas earlier 6 months ago had said Tesla shares could be worth $10 one piece in a worst-case scenario. Now he has raised his bull case to $500.
BlockFi, the crypto lending service has entered the crypto market with the new exchange. The exchange boasts of trading with an unusual, zero-fee model. The team has received a recent $18.4 million in funding for further growth. Earlier BlockFi only accepted crypto deposits and allowed to take out equivalent US Dollars against these cryptos as loans. From now on, users can buy/sell cryptos on the exchange. The BlockFi exchange is a result of a survey that showed users tend to buy cryptos. The firm boasts that the profit model will be different. However, it is yet to see how the liquidity of the exchange will be handled in the future.
Apple has had a rather successful year, the next one is also expected to be a good year. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says Apple’s 2020 lineup will feature five new phones. The lineup includes 5.4-Inch, Two 6.1-Inch, and 6.7-Inch Models With 5G. The higher-end models may be released by the end of 2020 with a Qualcomm X55 modem.
Interestingly, Kuo also predicts that Apple devices in 2021 will not have any ports. The charging and syncing will be entirely wireless. Apple has not yet published its roadmap for 2020 yet. However, Kuo has a reputation for being correct.
The British Virgin Islands in partnership with LIFElabs.io has plans to roll out a national digital currency. BVI~LIFE™ Digital Currency is a Government initiative to strengthen the financial technology sector in the country. Furthermore, The digital currency will be based on LIFEtoken pegged 1:1 to USD Dollar.
"The foundation of digital currency is the necessary groundwork for the British Virgin Islands to continue to serve the global economy as it has in the past with the onset of the blockchain revolution,” explained Sanjay Jadhav, LIFElabs.io CEO.
Moreover, many other countries like Russia, Bhutan are coming with their own national currency
The U.S. government panel of senior financial regulators has warned against stablecoin and cryptocurrencies risk on the world economy. The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) had published an Annual report on Dec 4, 2019. According to the regulators, disruption of the stablecoin system will affect the payment system adversely if stablecoin are to be made a mode of payment. Moreover, The FSOC are doubtful of how Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can take over the fiat currency system. The FSOC said, “Some early efforts have not resulted in the anticipated efficiency gains and other promised benefits. As a result, they have been scaled back, refocused, or abandoned.”
The European Central Bank is all set to launch its own digital currency in view of cash depletion in cross-border retail payments. The ECB published a mandate on Wednesday claiming that innovation of technology has resulted in short of cash payments as digital payment solutions are garnering more importance. As a result, ECB plans to release Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) so that the general public can use ECB services even if fiat currency would lose its credit eventually. The central bank further claims that CDBC might change the way how the money will change hands in the future.
South Korean Company, Bloom Technology announced a new technology to speed-up the blockchain process on Dec 3, 2019. The new Lotus Chain Technology will speed the blockchain process and reduce transaction processing times to fractions of a second. The CEO, Lee Sang-Yoon claims that One single blockchain transaction will take less than 0.23 seconds. Although the technology is still under development, Bloom Technology recently carried out a public test to show off its speed. The 635 nodes participating in the test completed a single blockchain transaction in 0.13-0.23 seconds. Korea Blockchain Association Vice-Chairman Moon Young-bae praised the firm on its success on Lotus Chain Technology.
The Malta-Based Exchange Binance has announced its acquisition of Chinese startup DappReview today on Nov 3, 2019. With this acquisition, Binance’s Trust Wallet founder, Viktor Radchenko, said: "Binance hopes to develop the dapps ecosystem and foster greater blockchain adoption".
DappReview is a DApp user insights and market data analytics firm that tracks blockchain-based Dapps performance. After this acquisition, DappReview will handle the technical sector while Binance manages the non-technical fields like Marketing. Moreover, The DappReview will release a new analytical tool by Q1 2020. Binance will now have a wholly-owned subsidiary based in Beijing.
Blockchain Adoption is taking over the world. Sri Lanka’s financial sector and the IT industry are in plans to adopt blockchain for the Central Bank KYC process. This Know-Your-Customer platform will be developed using the blockchain technology. Sri Lanka will further evaluate the possibility of adopting Blockchain Technology to further advance its financial sector.
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) has also decided to develop a Proof-of-Concept of a Shared KYC Facility. The CBSL invites tech companies to develop this POC. However, only companies with 2 years of track record can apply for this national project.
The largest crypto tracker, CoinMarketCap has expanded its crypto assets list. The team got onto Twitter to announce this new listing. The CoinMarketCap has added Aerotoken (AET), Guider (GDR), TAGZ5 (TAGZ5), VERA (VERA), Demeter Chain (DMTC) to their other digital assets list. These are new tokens and their market capitalization is not yet set. As a result, their position is not yet determined. However, the CMC will update these details soon.
The CoinMarketCap (CMC) team is taking steps to make the crypto tracking a flexible and secure experience. Recently, CMC also added Liquidity metrics to fight off the fake market volume data.
The malta-based exchange, Binance has now added new trading pairs surrounding Russian Ruble. The users can now trade RUB against Binance native token, BNB; Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple (XRP). The trading has opened at 2/12/2019 at 1:00 PM (UTC). The RUB deposits are already opened on the Binance website as we write.
Earlier last month, Binance had announced its RUB support. The exchange has also added other fiat currencies like UAH, KZT, NGN, and Euro. Binance is also in plans to add most of the 180 Fiat currencies to its trading list.
Bitflyer exchange, topmost currency exchange in Japan, have now added Ripple (XRP) to its multi-currency list. BitFlyer users in Japan can now buy and sell XRP via the exchange’s web platform & mobile wallet apps.
The exchange claims that they have not added a new currency to their exchange for 2 years. The exchange now supports BTC, Ethereum, etc along with XRP. To promote XRP usage on the exchange, BitFlyer has started a launch campaign. The exchange will reward 100,000 yen (~$912) to ten customers who would trade at least a total of 5,000 JPY (~$45) worth of XRP.
The Malta-based crypto exchange, Binance has added a new feather in its cap. The exchange has announced it's 13th project early this week. Troy Trade is a global prime broker specialized in crypto trading and asset management. Moreover, Troy provides services like spot & margin trading, derivatives, data, custody, lending, and staking.
As per the announcement, TROY will have have an AirDrop session for its launch. Further, a pool of 30,000,000 TROY tokens (approx 150,000 USD) will be split and airdropped to all launchpad participants. The timeline says 4th December TROY tokens will be available for the public.
Recent crypto updates are coming from Russia. The country plans to put a ban on crypto payments. As per a report in Izvestia, the Central Bank of Russia might impose this ban in the coming days. As of now, there is no punishment on trading Bitcoin and other cryptos in Russia.
Russian Regulators plan this ban to curb the crypto-related crimes in the country. However, there is no official announcement yet. However, Lawyers disagree with this approach. They believe that the ban might hinder Russia's Economic growth. Antonina Levashenko, head of the Russia-OECD Center for RANEPA, has warned that the bill could foster the development of a gray market.
Europe, one of the Financially stable Economy has now decided to venture into digital currency. ECB explores the development of digital currency to rival Libra and Bitcoin. Benoît Cœuré (Member of ECB) told in a conference in Brussels that Digital Currency will provide flexibility to Banks even if Cash runs out.
Last year, Benoît had quoted Bitcoin to be the evil spawn of the financial crisis. Now, under Mr. Cœuré’s guidance, the BIS plans to create a central bank digital currency for wholesale use between banks. Earlier this month, France had proposed a bill that Europe launch digital currency that has now got the necessary clearance.
Belgium's largest blockchain giant, SettleMint, has plans of expansion in India. The firm already has operations in other countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore. The headquarters of SettleMint will be based in Indian Capital City, Delhi.
CEO Matthew Van Niekerk claims "India is a hotbed of blockchain technology activity" and this expansion will be beneficial for the firm. Recently India has been in the news for its largest crypto exchange WazirX's Acquisition by Binance. Also, the nation has plans to issue a national level blockchain framework.
Cardona Foundation has started a new payment gateway AdaPay in collaboration with COTI. The payment solution is already Live where users can accept ADA payments and settle them against 35 fiat cryptocurrencies.
The app will simplify accepting and settling ADA payments. Further, it will enable merchants to manage all transactions in real-time. The team was in plans to introduce AdaPay since October that finally took a stable form.
COTI is the first enterprise-grade fintech platform that empowers organizations to build their own payment solution. Interestingly, ADA price has seen steady growth since the news surfaced.
The multicurrency exchange, Binance along with TravelByBit has announced the idea of cryptocurrency-backed rewards card. The TravelByBit app will allow bookings with the help of crypto in 2020 and rewards will be credited to these cards. The cryptos supported will be BUSD, BTC, BNB, and ONT. The card can also be used as prepaid debit cards.
The card is not yet released. However, Binance plans to release the rewards card in Southeast Asia, Australia, and Europe in the initial phase. Other countries will soon follow once the card is launched. With Binance having access worldwide, TravelByBit hopes to make crypto payment a feasible solution for its users.
Thailand has plans to develop its own blockchain-based tax system. Initially, Thailand's internal tax department has targeted oil exporters for the initial phase of this tax refund system. Blockchain tech will allow the department to access and verify data related to oil exports quickly. This system will speed up the refund process.
Director-General Patchara Anuntasilpa claims to implement the system until mid next year. The department is in talks with Krungthai Bank (KTB) to set this system. The country further plans to add e-bank guarantees and annual fee payments distribution licenses.
The US-China trade war has reached its final stage with negotiations coming to an end. Donald Trump, the US president said that Washington was in the “final throes” of work on a deal to avoid war with Beijing. The trade talks have affected World Stocks in an exciting manner. The world stocks have hit their all-time high since the last 2 years. Coming to individual stocks, Alibaba shares have increased by 7% while MSCI’s 49-country main world share increased by a marginal 0.1%. Also, the European shares have reached their 4 years high as the trade closes.
Ethereum price has been in the bearish trend for a long time. The coin has seen some small relief but the Jan 2018 price surge has never been repeated. Seeing the ETH trend, Analysts point towards a further bearish market. Crypto Analyst Mac got onto to Twitter with a new prediction. As per his findings, $ETH won't see prices anywhere near $1000 again.
The Analyst is a firm believer in Bitcoin and hopes to see BTC across $50k. This analysis seems to hold true in the event of Ethereum revamping itself into Ethereum 2.0. Unless demand in Ethereum increases, the ethereum price analysis is likely to come true.
South Korea will now legalize Cryptocurrency in the country. The National's Assembly passed the bill on Tuesday. As per this bill, cryptocurrency will now be categorized as digital assets in the country. The move is to legalize crypto and enhance investment opportunities. The Financial Services Commission (FSC)'s Financial Intelligence Unit will register all crypto-related business as a digital asset to prevent illicit practices such as money laundering.
As of now, the bill is still in draft. The judiciary committee and the National Assembly still need to discuss and pass the law. The move further justifies South Korea's Blockchain Adoption viewpoint.
American state, Wyoming plans to pass 8 more blockchain laws in 2020. Caitlin Long, founder of Wyoming Blockchain Task Force explained the detailed plan to incorporate these laws in a live interview with BlockTV. The state already has around 13 blockchain laws. The basic structure of Wyoming Crypto Law divides assets into Digital securities, Digital consumer assets, and Virtual currencies.
Wyoming is the only state in America that considers crypto-assets as money. It further plans to regulate the technologies, support their progress, and mitigate possible risks.
Avant-Garde Trading Securities and Voyager Digital crypto-asset broker has partnered to develop an API for crypto trading. The platform is set to be unveiled in the first quarter of 2020. Once unveiled, the platform will offer clients stocks, options, futures, forex, and crypto.
Voyager Digital CEO Steve Ehrlich says “Our partnership with Avant-Garde Trading Securities is part of this transformation and will connect investors to the best crypto-asset platform out there today." The platform further will provide zero-commission trading. Recently. Voyager had partnered with Market Rebellion to provide zero-fee crypto trading
BitBay Exchange will no longer support Monero from February 2020. The exchange has made this decision to block the possibility of money laundering and inflow from external networks. Monero has already been delisted from many of the other crypto exchanges like OKEx Korea.
The deposits of XMR will be stopped by 29/11/2019 on BitBay exchange. However, Monero can be traded until Feb 2020 on the exchange. Monero withdrawals are available till May 2020. Also, due to the upcoming Monero fork on 30th Nov 2019, XMR withdrawals will be blocked on the exchange from 29.11.2019 to 5.12.2019.
With all the negative publicity of the Shanghai office, the Binance exchange has some positive news for the crypto market. The exchange has launched the ETH/USDT futures contract with a range of 0 to 50x leverage. The futures contract are live now, however, on the Binance Testnet. The team got onto twitter to announce the positive news.
Binance Co-Founder, Changpeng Zhao commented, "Better get rekted on the testnet." He claims that many contracts are on their way. So play with the testnet contracts and understand the concept better. Recently Binance also acquired Indian crypto exchange, WazirX.
With China jumping into blockchain development and adoption, it has opened a new pavement for many countries. Earlier we have reported that South Korea has plans to adopt blockchain just like China. Now, the latest report is the S.Korean government will invest 45 billion (arnd $45million) won for blockchain research and development in 2021, similar to what China plans. However, this amount is only 20% of China's investment, which is $2 billion USD.
Korean Government plans to secure the core technology of blockchain that is the foundation of the data economy. Initial investments won’t begin until early 2021.
GiveBitcoin.io officially launched its APP after months of planning on November 21. 2019. This site allows customers to gift Bitcoins to their peers even if their friends or family do not know Bitcoin. This service teaches the other person about the topmost crypto and its purpose. Additionally, there is a time lock feature, which is useful for crypto hodling. The user can buy the cryptos easily using credit cards and gift BTC to their friends.
GiveBitcoin handles all of the paperwork and works with Prime Trust, a regulated technology-driven trust company that provides financial infrastructure solutions. This ensures that all gifts of Bitcoins are secure and 100% owned by the recipient.
The U.S. Finance's largest financial media company will now list down the crypto market data accumulated from Coinmarketcap. The users of the Yahoo Finance site can see the real-time price of the cryptocurrencies on the site itself. Verizon Media, which owns Yahoo's financial company, and CMC announced the partnership on November 21.
Additionally, the CoinMarketCap indices, Crypto 200 (including Bitcoin) and Crypto 200 EX (excluding Bitcoin) will be available on Yahoo Finance. The financial media company will soon host CMC daily newsletters and blogs. Further, CMC expects to produce more educational videos, which will hopefully add to the educational content already available on the finance site.
The cryptocurrency compliance startup TRM Labs has been benefited by Paypal's series of funding. Paypal has raised a $4.2 million funds with Initialized Capital, Blockchain Capital, and Y Combinator as investors. The total fund raised, however in total, has reached $5.9 million.
TRM Labs, this startup, has helped the crypto market to analyze fraud and money-laundering on the blockchain. TRM Labs is a team of 20, according to Castaño. Moreover, the San Francisco-based company says it will use the new funding for product development, hiring and expanding to new geographies.
U.S. market welcomes a new crypto brokerage platform, TradeStation Crypto. TradeStationGroup, U.S. subsidiary of Japan's Monex Group announced the launch of its highly anticipated brokerage platform. This platform caters to the requirements of crypto traders. To begin with, It will work as an aggregator of multiple liquidity pools. Further, it presents them all in a consolidated data feed for the users. With TradeStation Crypto, traders in approved states and countries can trade Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Ripple (XRP).
In addition to trading, institutions can take also an advantage of TradeStation Crypto's professional-grade services.
Ukraine’s Digital Transformation Ministry, Blockchain4Ukraine has proposed a bill to tax the crypto income. Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO) organization and 12 other members came together to draft this bill. Ministry said that the bill defines crypto as a valuable property. It further adds that the crypto gains will be seen as income. 5% tax will be levied on these gains till the initial 5 years. However, the Ukraine government is lenient enough to not apply an 18% standard tax rate in the initial phase itself. Also, the crypto asset sales are not liable for Value Added Tax(VAT).
China is on a fast sprint to incorporate blockchain and cryptocurrency in its infrastructure. Preceding President Xi's Blockchain Adoption speech, many new evolvements have occurred in the crypto space. Further, The latest update is that China will roll out its digital currency - digital Yuan by May 2020 said a local investor. Edith Yeung of Proof of Capital says the Chinese government will "definitely" deploy the currency in the next six to 12 months.
China's virtual currency will be a digital manifestation of the national currency Yuan. Earlier, China had declared the plans to launch a digital national currency, Yuan.
Bison Trails, one of the 21 founding members of The Libra Association, have raised $25.5 Million in Series A funding. The round was led by Blockchain Capital, with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Coinbase, Consensys, and several others. The Libra member is a renowned Blockchain Protocol Provider.
Joe Lallouz, CEO of Bison Trails, said: “As the only blockchain infrastructure firm in the Libra project, we’ll contribute to building the new system with Facebook.”
To begin with, Libra has faced many difficulties from the time of its inception. This news is like a drop of water in the parched Sun.
UK Government passed a law this Monday stating that crypto-assets are legally equivalent to property. The law further paved a path for the blockchain industry to bloom in the UK. The panel, led by the senior High Court judge Sir Geoffrey Vos noted that crypto-assets “have all of the indicia [signs] of property”. This statement has definitely addressed uncertainty around crypto-currencies and their underpinning systems.
Many countries are trying to regulate crypto laws. Even the US plans to take a regulated firm decision towards cryptocurrencies. Presidential candidate Andrew Yang chalks out his plans to regulate crypto laws in the US.
BitoPro, Taiwan's largest crypto exchange will launch BitoDebt, the very first regulatory-compliant debt purchase platform on November 26th, 2019. However, the platform will allow only Level 2 BitoPro users to manage their own wealth. Users will also get a “Repurchase Agreement” to make sure it is legal.
Titan Cheng said that this platform helps to attract risky people into the market, mainly because the platform provides a buyback clause. If the debtor cannot return it in full, the debt purchase platform will buy back the debt to protect the user's rights. BitoPro CEO confirms that BitoDebt is a professional legal credit subscription platform.
The payment solution provider, VISA has come up with a blockchain-based system LucidiTEE to handle sensitive data. The R&D department of VISA has published a whitepaper which details about LucidiTEE. The system enables parties to jointly compute on private data. It uses protocols to ensure that all computations provide fairness and comply with policies, even when any subset of parties act maliciously. This will further help banks and other financial institutions to transfer the details to and fro.
Visa is a global payments technology company. It connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions, and governments to fast, secure and reliable payments.
2020 U.S. Presidential election's hopeful contender, Andrew Yang plans to regulate crypto at a national level if he is crowned. Andrew has provided his plan details in his blog post. He further adds that the regulations will clearly define what a token is and when it is a security.
"I'm Andrew Yang, I'm running for President as a Democrat in 2020 because I fear for the future of our country. " says his introduction. He believes with proper regulations and tax implementations, the high rate of crypto frauds can be limited. He further wants to promote the nationwide adoption of cryptocurrencies.
Vietnam's top fiat/crypto exchange Bvnex is set out to expand its services to customers around the world. Their blog post announced that along with BTC, BNB, ETH, the exchange has now listed Okex exchange native coin, OKB. The trading pair OKB/VNDT is available for trading from November 18, 2019. Bvnex will also host a trading competition with up-to 20 OKB as a reward. OKEx confirmed the listing through a tweet.
This Vietnam's exchange further plans to add two trading pairs until the November end. The pairs will be XMX/USDT (Nov 22, 2019) and KAL/VNDT (Nov 28, 2019).
Richard Heart, the Hex founder, declared a date for the upcoming Bitcoin Hex snapshot. Finally, The Pumpamentals.com snapshot will occur December 2nd, 2019, at the first Bitcoin block mined after 00:00:00 UTC said Richard in his live chat.
HEX is the first high-interest savings account on the Blockchain. Bitcoin Hex is now known as Hex. Furthermore, It is the first High-Interest Blockchain Certificates of Deposits. The goal of Hex is to reward holders of the coin for staking for longer periods of time, similar to a classic bank CD. The Hex snapshot was earlier estimated to occur in October 2019.
Walmart’s Canada branch has developed a delivery tracking system which will further enable to automate payments. The blockchain-based system will be built in association with DLT labs and will be live on 1st February 2020. The main focus of this is to reduce the cost of the operation of around 400 retail stores across the country.
According to senior vice president of Walmart, John Bayliss; the supply chain delivers to over 5000 partners all over the world. He believes automating the process will reduce the overhead cost.
Walmart has taken a keen interest in blockchain. The retail giant was earlier in plans to launch a stable coin like Libra.
Coinbase Card, the exchange's native debit card will now support 5 new assets and get launched in 10 new countries. The exchange got to their blog to announce this expansion news.
Earlier, the Coinbase card supported BTC, ETH, BCH, and LTC. Now, XRP, BAT, REP, ZRX, and XLM can be traded using the Coinbase Card. Also, customers of Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Hungary, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Sweden can now avail the Coinbase Card service.
"Spending crypto as easily as money in your bank account is exactly what Coinbase Card lets you do. " says the blog post.
John McAfee is taking diligent steps for his decentralized exchange McAfeeDEX. The exchange is now live on TRON Blockchain. Early November, the bitcoin bull had announced his intention to launch McAfeeDEX on TRON. The date was set to November 8, 2019. However, some technical glitches caused delay in the launch of the exchange. John McAfee just tweeted that the McAfeeDEX is live on TRON blockchain after 8 days of its initial launch date.
Additionally, he also plans to add Binance Coin, EOS and NEO to McAfeeDEX. He wants to make his decentralized exchange similar to Binance but free.
The blockchain-based payment service provider PumaPay has partnered with a cryptocurrency exchange Fox exchange. This exchange is basically a cryptocurrency conversion exchange. Pumapay claims that with the Fox exchange, users can manage the crypto conversion within record time and with the best conversion rate. Additionally, the exchange will also provide liquidity and the best suitable trade routing. PumaPay hopes to improve the wallet service with this partnership.
PumaPay is among the most outstanding Crypto Payment Solution of 2019. The innovative payment solution provider is enhancing its features so as to provide maximal support to the users. The App is available on both iOS and Android.
In a colloquy with Cointelegraph, Elixxir President Jim Dolbear announced plans to launch a privacy-oriented xx-coin. He claims that this currency will support dApps and payments on the xx-network. Elixxir will reveal details of the xx coin distribution in a few days.
According to the CEO of Elixxir, David Chaum, the digital currency is quantum resistant. He further added that “The xx coin and xx network will serve smartphone users and dApp developers by harnessing both the metadata-shredding anonymity and privacy of Elixxir, as well as the security, speed, and scalability of Praxxis.”
Poloniex exchange is on an expansion spree as it enters the Asia Pacific region with a new domain name pwang.com. The exchange tweeted regarding this update. pwang.com is now online and the pwang.com domain redirects to the Poloniex exchange. The tweet further adds, "This domain will improve APAC user’s experience of navigating to our exchange and increase the speed of getting access to it. Try NOW!"
Poloniex is expanding and wants to be in ranks with the multicurrency exchange, Binance. In the future, the exchange hopes to be on top of Binance.
British-based digital banking app Revolut plans to raise $500 million for Global expansion including the US and Japan. As per a Reuters report, the crypto-friendly investing app Revolut has already been successful in the U.K. It now eyes global expansion.
“We want to raise at least $500 million in direct equity and potentially. Maybe at a later stage, make it up to $1 billion in a convertible (debt),” Revolut CEO and Co-Founder Nikolay Storonsky said. “We have done soft marketing with investors. We are continuing to do it, so hopefully, in the next several months, we’ll get it done.”
Bitfinex exchange is all set to launch gold-backed stablecoin within the first quarter of 2020 says Bitfinex CTO, Paolo Ardoino. TheBlockCrypto hosted a podcast wherein Paolo Ardoino was the main guest. The main topic of focus was on the exchange transparency and its future plans.
The Bitfinex exchange CTO, while talking in the podcast, discussed the host of new products which also includes “gold-backed stablecoin” or “Tether Gold”. However, the details of the same are unclear at the moment. He says "It's important that people can see the farther value of having cryptocurrencies rather than just trading back and forth between Bitcoin and USD or whatever."
The US state of Wyoming has introduced a new set of rules to regulate the digital asset custody platforms. The rules are for its rules for its so-dubbed “blockchain banks,” covering areas such as forks, airdrops, and staking.
Wyoming Blockchain Task Force president Caitlin Long announced the news through a series of tweets. With this announcement, Wyoming has become the first country to unveil Crypto Custody Rules for ‘Blockchain Banks’. "A qualified custodian shall maintain customer digital assets, funds and other securities which are not digital assets,” she further noted.
Bithumb Global announced it's highly awaited native token Bithumb Coin(BT). Javior Sim, Co-founder of Bithumb Global announced the news at a conference. "The token allows transactions within BithumbChain which enables a plethora of different use-cases," explains Sim further.
Bithumb Chain is a decentralized open-source protocol of Bithumb Family. It is not yet released to the crypto industry yet. However, 25% of BT tokens depends on Bithumb Chain development. Although only news of Bithumb Coin is out, the scams related to these tokens already started. The Bithumb Global has urged people not to believe any such claims of BT Tokens
A day earlier, Canada had launched US Dollar backed stablecoin, CUSD. Today, the news is that The Royal Bank of Canada is all set to launch a whole cryptocurrency trading platform. The trading platform will allow users to buy/sell digital coins, including Bitcoin and Ether explain a Logic report. Further, users can create their crypto accounts in the country’s largest bank.
RBC would be the first Canadian bank to launch a cryptocurrency exchange or offer its customers crypto accounts. The bank has applied for 4 patents in Canada and the US which explains how RBC plans to integrate cryptocurrencies into its operations.
Many of us have used AirBNB facilities. How easy will it be if we can pay Bitcoin and other cryptos for using Airbnb? Isn't it? The Bitcoin shopping app, Fold has made this possible. Airbnb payments can be done using the widely used crypto through the Fold App, as per a tweet. Additionally, every AirBNB user will receive a 3% cashback on his every Bitcoin payment through Fold. Isn't this exciting!
The App already supports Amazon, Uber, etc. Airbnb is the latest in its kitty. However, the App is customized to regions like the US, Australia, Canada, with Europe being added in the near future.
Canada has launched yet another stablecoin. The only difference is this new stablecoin is backed by US Dollars instead of the Canadian Dollar. A month later into releasing the Canadian backed currency, CADT; the country now announces CUSD. The stablecoin is termed as CUSD to symbolize its US Dollar backing. The CUSD stablecoin is expected to be used globally, by both individuals and businesses alike. The country aims to strengthen Canada and America cross border payments and trades.
CUSD and CADT are developed by Blockchain Venture Capital Inc. ("BVCI"), a Canadian company.
China is the country that has garnered a lot of crypto media attention. President Xi spoke about Blockchain Adoption in the country, the Chinese Government is actively participating in the implementation of Blockchain. According to a report by IDC, the Chinese Government will invest $2 billion on Blockchain technology. The report further claims that the country's expenditure growth rate will increase by 65.7% from 2019 to 2023.
"The official recognition will further push the applications of blockchain technology and power fast spending growth in the sector," said Xue Yu, a researcher with the IDC.
Monero, the privacy-oriented coin is gearing up for the upcoming hardfork on November 30, 2019. Community members dEBRUYNE and ErCiccione released this information. Additionally, there was also a code freeze for October 24 and the official release of v0.15 on October 31. This hard fork will introduce a new Proof-of-Work, RandomX.
The crypto industry is preparing up too for this hard fork. Exchanges like KuCoin, Changelly have put out an official announcement on their websites. It states that these exchanges have withheld XMR Deposit addresses. Whereas, Huobi, Bittrex, and others are yet to acknowledge the hard fork.
The TASS news agency reported that the Central Bank of Tunisia will release a digital currency. The Russian developers, Universa Blockchain will issue this virtual currency. The Tunisian Dinar (E-Dinar) is officially launched in test form at the Forex Club of Tunisia. Also, a transfer of one dinar took place between the head of the central bank, Marouane El Abbasi, and a representative of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Very little is known of E-Dinar at this time. However, it is expected that the test will run for at least several months. Following that period, further functionality will be added.
Russia is actively looking into Central Bank-backed cryptocurrency confirmed the head of the Central Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina. She delivered a speech at the 468th Federation Council meeting, Duma. The statement further said that Russia is testing out digital currencies pilot projects that have worked in other countries. However, the central bank won't allow private currencies to be circulated. They believe that private currencies could be a threat to the country's financial system.
However, a few weeks ago, Russia had said ‘No Obvious Need’ for cryptocurrencies. With the advent of time, Russia has come to understand the power of crypto.
Istanbul, the long-awaited Ethereum Hard fork, has finally got a specific date. The hard fork is scheduled to occur on Dec 4, 2019, at its 9069000th block. The team led by Péter Szilágyi confirmed the date through a tweet.
The hard fork is being developed in phases. Péter also said that Geth v1.9.7 (Quad Kicker) was out. This release will initialize the hard fork at the 9069000th block. Earlier a Görli Testnet was the latest one to be activated on 30 October. With this hard fork, Serenity, the Ethereum 2.0 transition will be complete.
Huobi Exchange is expanding globally and revising the platform. Earlier, the exchange announced that global Huobi will no longer support US customers. Now, Huobi Argentina is planning to open a blockchain data center in Argentina. Moreover, this center will be the largest of its kind claims Huobi. The subsidiary of Huobi plans to invest $100M to develop this data-center.
Huobi Global announced in September 2019, its Argentina subsidiary as a platform to buy cryptocurrencies using Argentina pesos. However, the platform will go live by November end.
As per the Square Cash App's Q3 2019 report, the app saw a total of $148 million of Bitcoin sales in 2019. The Square company had redesigned its Cash App’s customer interface. Since then, Bitcoin and Cash Card sales have seen a significant rise on this platform. The report stated: “First-time Bitcoin buyers have approximately doubled and Cash Card orders have seen a meaningful uplift.” The Q3 2019 sales record is 245% higher than that of 2018 sales. The company partly credits the bitcoin performance to this record sale.
Cash App is a mobile payment service, allowing users to transfer money to one another using a mobile phone app. However, as of January 2018, the app started supporting bitcoin trading.
Coca-Cola is the latest food and beverage supply to implement blockchain in its working structure. The bottlers within the organization are using a blockchain developed by the German software company SAP.
As per a report, Coke One North America (CONA) has to handle about 160,000 orders daily. CONA manages a platform to oversee multiple franchises that manufacture, bottle and ship orders of Coca-Cola products daily. CONA expects to reduce the order reconciliation duration to a few days earlier which used to be 50 days. The blockchain will further give real-time insights on transactions on Coca-Cola's network. Additionally, It will generate over $21 billion in revenue per year.
As new crypto BSA laws by Congress are introduced, US customers will face a tough time to trade cryptocurrencies. Exchanges like Binance, Poloniex, Bittrex are already offering separate businesses specifically for the US region. The latest addition is Huobi Global Exchange. The exchange will shut down operations in the US from Nov 13, 2019. Moreover, the user accounts will be frozen and US users will not be able to trade using this platform as per the blog post. The exchange has warned US traders to close position, return borrowed funds, and start withdrawing assets. Those who purchased Huobi's prepaid cards will be refunded in USDT, the post added.
However, Huobi Exchange in partnership with San Francisco-based HBUS (Huobi.US) provides trading features to the US only from 2018. Users can open accounts on this platform and transfer the funds there.
Libra is a vast and diverse project. However, it is facing restrictions from the day of its proposal in June 2019. Facebook, a giant social media community, has backed the project.
However, the crypto industry has some regulation issues with Facebook handling Libra. This is because the social media firm has reported mishaps in handling personal data. The Ethereum Co-Founder Joseph Lubin commented in a recent interview that Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency Libra “suffers from its greatest asset” i.e. Facebook itself. According to Joseph Lubin, Facebook with the concerns of trust and personal identity should not manage any cryptocurrency project.
“My only hope for them to actually launch Libra was to launch it in a bunch of small-and-medium-sized nations and bide their time and eventually, launch it in European… and the American nation that is resistant,” said the Ethereum Co-Founder.
The Vietnamese bank, TPBank with the help of RippleNet blockchain technology, will now provide successful international money transfer. The Tien Phong Commercial Bank (TPBank) claims to be the first Vietnamese bank to apply blockchain technology for overseas remittances. It further claims that customers can transfer money from Japan easily within minutes which used to take a few hours earlier.
RippleNet “immediately” updates information and status of each transaction to all parties. Moreover, it executes money orders quickly, “error-free and with low cost,” said TPBank. The CEO of TP Bank, Nguyen Hung, commented, “TPBank is also working with SBI on applying blockchain to international transactions". SBI Ripple Asia hosts several Asian banks to facilitate better financial infrastructure. RippleNet, a platform developed by this SBI Ripple Asia intends to provide a global payment network solution.
Dx.Exchange, an EU regulated P2P crypto and fiat exchange, is all set to shut down its services 9 months after its launch. The exchange started operating in Jan 2019 and offered to tokenize real-world assets such as Tesla and Apple stocks as well as ETFs like QQQ and SPY all built on the blockchain. However, as of Nov 3, 2019, the exchange has stopped all deposits and trading. They have urged the users to withdraw the money within Nov, 15 following a set of steps.
However, the exchange claims that this closure is temporary. Dx.Exchange hopes to get a merger or outright sale of the company instead of shut down. But if the merger or selling does not commence within a stipulated time, the company will permanently close its operations.
China is in plans to make its cities as smart cities. On Monday, November 4, China announced an independently developed identification system based on blockchain technology. The aim is to offer better connectivity and data sharing between these cities. Moreover, This system is being developed in line with international standards. The system is already available for cities nationwide as of Nov. 3.
Three institutes in the city of Shijiazhuang came together to build this identification system that will assign a unique ID to all the smart cities. Moreover, “Its underlying technology combines blockchain services and smart city construction,” says Zhang Chao, one of the developers. China began smart city construction in 2016. Now the country has been embracing Blockchain at a rapid pace after President Xi Jinping's Blockchain endorsement speech.
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) manages the United Kingdom’s tax, payments, and customs authority. As per the announcement, the HMRC has updated it's cryptocurrency taxation guidelines for businesses and individuals.
The report says that HMRC does not consider Bitcoin and other altcoins to be either currency or "stock or marketable securities”. Companies that buy or sell tokens, mine, exchange tokens for other assets or provide goods or services in return for tokens have to pay for one or more different types of tax. The tokens traded for debt recovery are also taxable.
BTSE, a digital asset and spot futures trading platform, started Monero Futures trading on its platform. As per the announcement, the Monero Futures 2.0 provides more liquidity as it gives investors the opportunity to apply different techniques while trading. The XMR Futures gives users a flexible, customizable, and personalized experience.
BTSE is one of the first and only exchanges in the world to offer Monero futures trading. The users would be given $100 for their first deposit on the XMR Futures platform. Even User’s KYC is not required. Additionally, the exchange platform also offers up to 100x leverage on Monero futures.
Bispex, cryptocurrency prediction market platform is all set to release it's own Bispex token. The platform intends to launch this token on other crypto exchange beginning this November. According to Bispex CEO Ashish Babar, the token will prove to be pivotal in the platform, as it will act as its native utility. Bispex will soon be open to the general public. The exchange wants to list its token on 20 crypto exchanges by the end of 2020.
Bispex is a prediction market platform that focuses on cryptocurrency price changes. The exchange allows to predict and win cryptocurrency for making accurate forecasts.
Earlier, John McAfee announced his intention to launch the decentralized exchange, McAfeeDEX on TRON blockchain. He tweeted the exact date of availability. McAfeeDEX will be integrated on TRON Blockchain on November 8, 2019. He further added that TRC10 and TRC20 tokens will be supported by the exchange. The bitcoin bull further said that EOS, Binance Coin and Neo will be added by the first quarter of 2020. "McAfeeDEX will be Binance, but Free" claims McAfee.
With only upcoming McAfeeDEX and TRON integration news, TRX coins price had seen a great rise. It will be interesting to see the TRX price after this exchange is live on TRON.
Radar, the startup behind decentralized exchange Radar Relay has announced DEPLOY service. This service will allow blockchain developers to launch their own service or application like wallets, DeFi apps on Bitcoin and Ethereum nodes.
DEPLOY is the NodeOps platform that offers off-the-shelf reliability, scalability, and customization of blockchain infrastructure. Moreover, the Radar team has specifically designed this service after taking feedback from the developers. DEPLOY is a simple way to build blockchain applications.
South Korean multinational conglomerate company Samsung has added a new token to its blockchain wallet. Now, Elrond (ERD) token is available to trade on their wallet. This partnership is mutually beneficial to both Samsung and ERD token claims Elrond.
Samsung users can access ERD token and Elrond decentralized applications(dApps). Similarly, Elrond can access Samsung's user database for its development. One ERD token is currently worth $0.001774. Samsung currently supports BTC, ETH and added TRON early this week.
Popular crypto exchange Huobi global is expanding the exchange platform's white-label service in the middle east. The firm declared on Thursday 31st Oct that Huobi Cloud, a platform that assists organizations with building their very own trades, is currently accessible to the Middle East market. As indicated by the organization, online payment suppliers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) area would now be able to offer crypto exchanging to their current users.
"UAE has demonstrated an extraordinary hunger to connect with and embrace blockchain innovation," said Huobi MENA office Co-founder Mohit Davar. "Today Huobi gives a diversity of digitized resource benefits comprehensively on a uniform stage for crypto admirers to invest all under one secure, advantageous and entrenched trade." Mr. Davar further added.
Jeffrey Sprecher, The CEO of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) addressed Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE) Q3 2019 Earnings Conference Call on October 31, 2019, 8:30 AM ET. He said Bakkt is in talks with all financial institutions for adopting bitcoin derivatives.
The bitcoin derivatives platform, Bakkt saw a huge jump in the trading volume of its bitcoin futures in Q3 2019. The token is trading around $10.25 million. Bakkt also plans to expand in the consumer payments space. As per Sprecher, the bitcoin derivative platform is growing into the options market. It will be among the first that offers the space transparent price discovery. Overall, Bakkt will see a great boom in the near future and financial institutions want to benefit from it.
Binance.US is expanding and integrating interesting features to attract users. The platform now allows Binance users to pay BNB as trading fees from Oct 31st, 2019. Moreover, the users will receive a 25% discount when paid the fees in BNB.
To add further, Binance.US will now charge 0.1 percent fee for both maker and taker trades starting from Nov. 1. Binance.US has also announced the details of its tiered trading fee discount program. To expand the user base further, the platform has launched an 8 tier VIP program, each tier having its own benefit. The details are chalked out on their official website.
Earlier, Binance had announced about supporting crypto - to - fiat trading, the first fiat being Ruble. The exchange platform announced that the Russian Ruble is now available to trade on the exchange. AdvCash will aid Binance Exchange to deposit and withdraw RUB on Binance wallets. Further, they can be used to buy bitcoin, ethereum, and XRP. AdvCash supports Russian Bank Cards, although the payment solution provider will charge 3% for each deposit, and 2.5% plus 50 RUB for each withdrawal.
Advanced Cash (AdvCash) is a payment system that allows sending electronic payments to 200+ countries.
Market Rebellion is a leading provider of trading education, content and tools for independent investors. The firm entered a partnership with Voyager, a crypto-asset broker to provide zero-fee crypto trading on Oct 30, 2019.
Steve Ehrlich, Voyager Co-Founder, and CEO said, “Demand continues to rise for digital assets and there is a clear desire by independent traders to participate in this emerging asset class. We are delighted to roll out our highly efficient and state-of-art trading infrastructure with such a top tier financial education provider. Now Market Rebellion will not only be able to offer insights on crypto trading to their members, but they'll also be able to provide a way to execute trades with zero commissions." The company also launched its zero-fee crypto trading service to Android users amid successfully implementing it on iOS.
China has taken the Blockchain Adoption quite seriously. The Chinese Government is diligently working towards faster adoption as President Xi Jinping endorsed the idea. The latest in their to-do list is releasing of Informational and Educational videos. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CCPPD) platform Xuexi.cn has launched about 25 educational videos targeting Blockchain Technology. Furthermore, the videos elaborate on blockchain security, big data needed to get acquainted with cryptocurrency.
For now, all eyes in the cryptocurrency industry are in China. Moreover, even the U.S. is struggling to catch up with China's pace of blockchain.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey invests $10 million in the token offering platform Coinlist. The Twitter and Square CEO is a bitcoin advocate and has placed a bet on the cryptocurrency. Moreover, the CoinList platform intends to develop a crypto exchange named as CryptoTrade and a new crypto wallet. “Crypto needs a trustworthy platform for launching new projects,” Mr. Dorsey said in a statement. “Furthermore, CoinList leads the industry in that role, and trading is a logical next step.”
Square Crypto, a Bitcoin-focused initiative by the Square financial services firm had been launched recently by the Bitcoin Advocate - Jack Dorsey. Furthermore, the main aim of Square Crypto is that cryptocurrency eventually becomes a daily-use currency for masses.
Chinese cryptocurrency miner Bitmain Technologies has secretly applied for an IPO in the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The report says that German multinational Deutsche Bank is the main sponsor of this secret IPO application. Bitmain has not yet revealed the amount it intends to raise. However, an earlier report had mentioned that Bitmain expects to raise $300 million - $500 million in its US offering. Furthermore, Bitmain had applied for a $3 billion IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX). However, the IPO had to be scrapped.
Bitmain has hired Zheng Hua, the former representative of Nasdaq China, as a consultant.
The auditing and consulting giant Deloitte have integrated QEDIT's privacy solution into its blockchain platform. QEDIT will implement its privacy-improving zero-knowledge proof cryptography to the Eduscrypt. Eduscypt platform uses blockchain technology to verify the authenticity of the data, allows organizations to track, share and validate professional qualifications more quickly. The problem was that data on blockchains are public, so storing confidential data was not possible. Deloitte wanted to provide security and thus this collaboration. The announcement was made at the ZKProof Community Event in Amsterdam on the 29th of October 2019.
Zero-knowledge proof cryptography is mainly used in digital coins, like zCash. Furthermore, The feature allows verifying particular data without knowing the data.
Nigeria is welcoming new Agrotech Investment startups like Farmcrowdy, Thrive Agric. The latest in the list is ReQuid. The Nigerian fintech startup launched this October 2019 has already gained popularity in the Investment sector. This startup allows you to invest in the Agriculture sector and Cash Out at any time. ReQuid provides investors access to aggregated investment opportunities across Africa. It further lowers the minimum amount for Investors to invest in Agriculture as low as N5,000 per unit. The fintech has its own App that helps you to liquidate the investment even before maturity.
The team ReQuid has also been named as the overall winner of the inaugural Nigerian Stock Exchange hackathon, XKathon. The Nigerian fintech also received a grand prize of Five Million Naira (N5,000,000).
The Central Bank of Bahamas is all set to launch the country’s first fiat digital currency - Project Sand Dollar - to overcome cash dependence. This project, introduced in March 2019, is being fast-forwarded since the hurricane Dorian hit the Islands. The CBOB feels digital currency would rule out the cash overflow or crunch during a natural calamity.
The digital fiat currency will be stored in e-wallets. Users can access the Bahamas currency through a smartphone application. The CBOB plans to launch a card to aid further transactions. As of now, Project Sand Dollar will be introduced in Abaco. However, by year-end, even Exuma will be able to access the digital currency.
Jim Cramer, in his Friday Night's Mad Money Program, wants to replace Netflix in his FAANG acronym with Microsoft. FAANG comprises Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet Inc. (Googl). However, as Netflix prices are on a negative trend, Jim thinks of swapping the stocks. The news has accelerated Microsoft's share price growth. Prices are above the rising 40-week moving average line. MSFT has a bullish prediction, a potential price target of $181 is being projected.
Jim Cramer is an American television personality. He is also the host of CNBC's Mad Money and a co-founder of TheStreet.com
South Korean chat app giant Kakao’s Klaytn, which was launched in June 2019, is all set to welcome the Binance exchange as one of its Council members. The Klaytn network, Ground X already have 24 members in their council including LG Electronics, Union Bank of the Philippines, etc. As per the report, Binance is the first blockchain to join the Ground X council. The crypto exchange will also take part in the consensus node operation.
Jason Han, the CEO of Ground X said this partnership will help in “mass blockchain adoption globally”. Klatyn further plans to bring user-friendly blockchain services to millions
Real Estate market is observing mixed response as 38 stocks out of 50 were in the green while 12 were in the red. Tuesday morning, The Nifty Realty index was up at 0.04%. IndiaBulls Real Estate was up by 4.52%, DLF was up by 2.75% and Brigade Enterprises up by 0.71%. On the other hand, Oberoi Realty slid down by 4.82%, Sunteck Realty slid down by 3.12% and Mahindra Lifespace Developers by 0.28%.
The NIFTY 50 is the flagship index on the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. It tracks the behavior of a portfolio of blue-chip companies to analyze their liquidity.
Bitcoin Halving is a nearing as per Analyst estimation. As 18th million bitcoin was mined last week, scarcity of Bitcoin increases. And scarcity enhances value. Analyst Jason A. Williams, a colleague of Anthony Pomp, believes that the next Bitcoin Halving will occur in May 2020. It will further increase Bitcoin value to $55,000 i.e. 100 trillion USD.
Jason tweeted about Bitcoin Halving late Sunday. As per him, Bitcoin Halving which takes place every 4 years, will skyrocket the BTC price at the next occurrence. Even John McAfee predicted that BTC price will reach $1 mln by 31 December 2020.
CEO of Xiaomi, one of the world's largest smartphone producers announced their plans to launch 10 new 5g supported phones by the end of 2020. CEO Lei Jun explained while speaking at the World Internet Conference in the eastern Chinese town of Wuzhen. The 5G support will not be limited to high-end phones.
With the US-China trade war, China's smartphone market has grown competitive. In 2019, Xiomi occupied only 11.8% of the China market as compared to 13.8% earlier. As a result, Xiaomi's share prices have decreased considerably. 5G launch is a way to conquer the market again.
Binance is exploring fiat support and will soon add Russian ruble pairs within 2 weeks. Binance CEO addressed the Open Innovations conference in Moscow, Russia on Monday. He announced support for fiat trading at this conference. However, on October 16, EUR and GBP support are added to Binance API.
Along with fiat trading, Binance DEX Added BTCB/BUSD Trading Pair. Also, the exchange has earlier increased leverage to 125x with the Futures Launch.
Bitcoin.com acquired O3 labs, a Tokyo software development company that specializes in digital economy gateways and app development. The acquisition amount is not disclosed yet. However, O3's team will be undertaken by Roger Ver's cryptocurrency company.
O3 labs are into developing blockchain network applications. With this acquisition, it will create “intuitive and easy-to-understand user experiences” that will bring Bitcoin.com services across multiple devices. This is the first acquisition of the Roger Ver's cryptocurrency company under CEO Stefan Rust, who took over the role in August from Roger Ver. Bitcoin.com is also preparing for a futures contract launch of Bitcoin Cash on Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)-regulated exchange.
HTC, a Taiwanese electronics company unveiled a cheaper version of Blockchain-based smartphone, Exodus 1s. The clients can run a full BTC node on their portable phone. HTC's new "cryptophone" will hit the markets by December 2019. The device will work as a smartphone as well as a Bitcoin cold wallet. The wallet is integrated with Zion, HTC's very own electronic wallet. HTC will further isolate the Android system and the crypto area to enhance security.
As of now, Exodus 1s can only be bought using cryptocurrencies. The pre-order price is 0.15 BTC or 4.78 ether tokens.
British parliament delayed a crucial vote on a Brexit withdrawal deal until Oct 31. This was considered to be a great blow to the Brexit deal's effect on lesser Economic disruption. The pound fell 0.7% to $1.2911 and was off about 0.4% to 86.46 pence per euro. However, Asian share prices have seen an uptrend. Japan's shares rose by 0.19%. Chinese shares rose 0.13%, while Japan's Nikkei rose 0.28%. U.S. stock futures ESc1 rose by 0.27% in Asia. Shares in Hong Kong also got a lift. Although, Treasury prices fell in Asia.
The US-China trade war is also an equal contributing factor in this Asian share price variation.
South Korea's economic growth in this quarter is not as expected. The Korean Finance Minister, Hong Nam-ki addressed a group of 20 nation's finance minister and central bank governors in Washington. He said that South Korea's economic growth would most likely be the same as estimated by the IMF and the OECD. Earlier South Korean Government had expected the growth to be around 2.5% while the IMF and the OECD had stated it to be 2.1%. Hong claims the U.S. China Trade war has lowered the import demands in China. This has affected its neighboring countries.
Hong further added they are in plans to promote their services sector to boost the economy. Korean government wants to focus on biotechnology health businesses.
Ripple published the quarterly XRP Markets Report to provide transparency and regular updates of the XRP market. However, the report shows that Ripple Q3 2019 sales have drop-down drastically by 74%. The Q3 total sale amounts to $66.2 million. The price of XRP declined by 35.4% as declared in
Ripple Q3 2019 sales report. This may be one of the reasons for the drop in sales.
However, Ripple claims that uptick in FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) and the spread of misinformation about XRP is the main reason for Sales drop. The team encouraged the crypto industry to think above this FUD as the company is taking steps to address this misinformation and FUD.
Facebook's dream of launching its stablecoin, Libra seems to be farfetched and unacceptable to the masses. From the time of the announcement, Libra is facing the brunt of Government and other financial institutions. JPMorgan CEO, Jamie Dimon said that Facebook’s not-yet-released Libra is “a neat idea that will never happen.” He addressed a speech at the Institute of International Finance conference on Friday, Oct 18. The CEO further compared Libra to their native coin JPMCoin, claiming that the Libra initiative had no uniqueness. He also revealed that JPMorgan is spending over $11 billion on technological developments this year.
Earlier this week, Libra association was officially found to take Libra developments forward. However, the team met a hunch when key partners started to withdraw their support.
UK-EU Brexit Agreement generates volatility. As the deal is still in talks and not finalized, volatility drops down. U.S. market is affected largely as per the Wall Street report. VIX dropped 33% as its volatility index was in the red region. Boeing shares dropped more than 6%. Of the 11 major sectors in the S&P 500, six were in the red.
Larry Kudlow the President head of the Economic Council conducted a meeting with President Trump. He also advised Trump regarding the US-China trade war and the upcoming recession alongwith the Brexit deal affects. The UK-EU Brexit deal is positive and certainly creates positive sentiment. However, in the end, it is not material for most investors, which will weaken the economy.
ACINQ, a Bitcoin Lightning developer, unveiled their 2nd generation Lightning Wallet, Phoenix on Oct 18. The company is in plans to make its payment system scalable and instantaneous. Phoenix allows making payments in less than 3 minutes. The features also include setting up the wallet, receive money, make on-chain and off-chain payments and do a full seed-based backup restore. A video along with the post explains more about these wallet functions, all accessed via a user-friendly interface.
Earlier this month, ACINQ had received $8 million from a French bank - Bpifrance bank. The company also plans to develop its native LN Wallet, Eclair.
Netflix, the American media-services provider, and production company earlier saw a rise in share prices as International Subscribers increased. However, as per the latest reports, the Netflix share price growth has become stagnant. The stocks closed at 2.4% on Thursday as compared to an 11% gain on Wednesday.
Netflix management blames the stock decrease on less domestic subscription. Though International subscriber count is increasing, the U.S. domestic subscription is not as expected. The stock further declined on Friday. The Management further accepted competition form AAPL and Disney+ and have started taking precautionary measures.
American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) share prices are rising as the company is in talks with Elliott Management for solving investment issues. The telecommunications giant shares have seen a 0.69% rise on Oct, 18 pre-market tradings. Elliot has reportedly funded $3.2 billion to AT&T. The estimation is that AT&T share prices will surge by about 65% by the end of 2021.
AT&T stocks have overall gained 32.5%. October 17 saw 0.05% and stocks closed at $37.81 However, analysts expect the price to increase the target price to $36.50. But based on the current scenario, the company’s net profit is estimated to fall by 1.5% by the year-end.
Ripple CEO is all in favor of supporting budding fintech companies. In a recent interview, Brad Garlinghouse claimed that Ripple signs more than 30 deals a week with financial institutions. This week, Ripple partnered with Finistra, fintech firm for blockchain payments. Further, he added that the company already has 200 financial institutions globally. Ripple currently owns around $15 billion worth of its native cryptocurrency XRP and is no need to raise funds for itself.
Garlinghouse also spoke about the Libra project. He said that the project would have been successful had Paypal led it inside of Facebook.
A day earlier, prices of Crude oil had seen a downtrend over China's GDP slowdown due to U.S.-China Trade. However, this claim was countered by bullish signals from both the Chinese and U.S. refining sectors. The Brent oil prices now increased by 1% or 35 cents to $60.26 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures edged up by 66 cents, or 1.2%, to $54.57. Both crude oil is supposed to be at a steady price throughout the next week.
As U.S.-China Trade negotiators are working on nailing down a Phase 1 trade deal, the share prices are assumed to increase further.
The cybersecurity outfit, Avast shared its third-quarter results this Friday morning. The reports show that Avast share price is up by 6.2% than its earlier quarter. The cybersecurity firm reported "good" third-quarter growth with a net total of £170 million. Avast's adjusted revenue climbed 5.0%, or 6.6% excluding foreign exchange, to USD220.3 million.
Avast has a great increase in demand for VPN and privacy software. The increase in demand and sales have raised Avast share prices. Currently, shares in Avast are trading at 391.6p per share. Q3 fiscal year results up until Oct 18 seems impressive. Shareholders hope the share price to increase still by the end of 2019.
The UK government has announced Sh1.15 billion support for Kenyan fintech companies. Lord Mayor of the City of London, Alderman Peter Estlin confirmed around £11 million funding during a Nairobi visit this week. The funds will be channeled to Kenya via the Catalyst Fund. The Catalyst Fund supports business development and investor opportunities for early-stage fintech companies in emerging markets. With this fund, 30 or so Kenyan Fintech companies can connect with international investors and mentors.
The British High Commissioner to Kenya, Jane Marriott acknowledged the UK government's support. He further hoped to develop their fintech company further.
Every country now is thinking of a national digital currency along with Fiat currency. The latest addition to the list is the government of Wales. The currency termed as Celyn will coexist with the Pound sterling. The Welsh government wants to create an ecosystem for enterprises and firms.
As of now, the currency will be available only for small-size enterprises. With the advent of time, Celyn might replace the Great British Pound. Welsh Government is in talks with Circular Economy Wales to develop the currency. Wales is not alone; earlier, even Canada, Bhutan and China have introduced their digital currency.
Emaar, the Burj Khalifa and The Dubai Mall developer, is all set to launch a new blockchain-based referral and loyalty platform. The token is termed as EMR and will be released by the end of 2019. The platform will reward the customers with tokens for their loyalty and business referrals. These tokens can be redeemed in Emaar’s real estate, hotels, e-commerce operations, and malls. Also, the tokens can be traded with other users.
EMR tokens are accessible or can be redeemed using Emaar's dedicated mobile application on Android and iOS. It is said this is the first product of its kind being launched in the world.
U.S. China trade war is still having adverse effects on the World Economy. The worst affected is China itself. The third quarter saw China's economic growth slowing by 6%. The reason being termed is limited domestic demand and the downturn in global trade. Meanwhile, the dollar price was the weakest since the commencement of the Trade war.
Asian stocks got hit too. Japan’s Topix slid 0.2%, Shanghai Composite fell by 0.6%. The pound was at $1.2844, down by 0.4%. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.2% to $53.82. Analysts say that these Asian stock numbers are less than what was estimated. Investors look to a potential U.S. China trade war deal between President Donald Trump and Xi Jinping next month.
The IT giants Infosys, TCS, Wipro have declared their Q2 results for the fiscal year 2019-20. As per the reports, the collection has a mix response. Wipro saw a 35.1 percent rise in its net profit, while Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) saw a 1.8 percent year-on-year (YoY) rise. On the other hand, Infosys Q2 profit falls 2.2% YoY, however, it meets the Wall Street estimates.
Wipro posted a net profit at Rs 2,552 crore in Q2 results, TCS net profit is Rs 8,042 crore for Q2FY20 while Infosys posted a profit of Rs 4,110 crore. The IT giants declared these results on 11th October after the financial quarter ended in September 2019.
Earlier, we have reported about 18 millionth Bitcoin Mining. Today, October 18, 2019, will see the mining before the 15th hour of the day. To be precise, The 18 Millionth Bitcoin will be mined sometime before Midnight (IST). Only 3 million Bitcoin are left to be mined, which is estimated to happen in 2140.
APomp's tweet followed many comments. Most comments were related to 3 million bitcoin left. However, some were concerned about the transaction fees for further mining. The transaction fees are estimated to increase drastically. All-in-all, it will be interesting to see the Bitcoin price and how the mining will affect them.
Bitcoin Bull, John McAfee says "Stop HODLing, Start Spending Your Bitcoin" in his latest interview with Crypto Potato. This interview was to be held in June however, McAfee was not available back then. Even now, he gave an interview remotely from a location he terms as "Cage".
McAfee believes personal responsibility is very important in Bitcoin trading. "You’re responsible for your choices. I don’t think no central authority needs to get rid of anything". John McAfee is on the run for 5 months and manages all his activities from the Cage. He has also predicted Bitcoin’s price to reach $1 Million by 2020.
Galilieo Financial Technologies led by Clay Wilkes just now raised $77 million in venture funding. The round was led by Accel Partners. The company runs the backend integrations with financial institutions for some of the biggest names in financial technology. The Salt Lake City-based startup is planning to greatly expand its geographical reach beyond North America. The Company is in plans to open in Mexico.
Analysts say that the Galileo Foundation has been in profits for all its tenure as Galileo charges an amount on its every transaction. Galileo is also working on new products such as cash management and wealth management accounts.
Indiabulls Housing Finance share prices are experiencing an uptrend after Crisil confirmed the companies ratings. According to CRISIL report, IBHFL maintains strong liquidity with cash and cash equivalents at around 20% of total assets. Currently, the shares saw an 18% hike, however, shares had hit a 52-week low of Rs 165.95, falling 4 percent earlier this week. The CRISIL reaffirmation is a Boon to the company shares.
CRISIL is an agile and innovative, global analytics company driven by its mission of making markets function better. The company is India's leading rating agency.
Bitpanda exchange is growing and adding new cool features. The latest in the list is Bitpanda Pay. This service will allow users to send money to any IBAN in the European Union and pay bills directly from your Bitpanda account. As of now, the payment service supports EUR, USD accounts and BTC, ETH, BCH cryptos. The team seeks to add more currencies in the future.
Bitpanda Payments had earlier received EU Payment Service Provider License in April 2019. Bitpanda Pay is the exchange's first service based on license. Furthermore, the Bitpanda exchange is all set to roll out its iOS exchange in November 2019.
Binance, earlier in July had hinted towards allowing 20x leverage on Futures platform. Now, the Binance futures exchange increased the leverage to 125x with the launch of bitcoin (BTC)/tether (USDT) contracts. Users can adjust leverage between 1x or 125x.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao announced on Twitter on Friday, Oct 18, 2019. Additionally, Binance API is also available to trade with this adjusted leverage. Users can trade up on Binance to 125x leverage from their blog/website with the help of API. The crypto industry reacted differently.
The oil industry is facing the brunt of the crude stock. Thursday, Oct 17, 2019, recorded further slide in Oil prices as US inventory was prepared. Brent crude oil prices reduced by 39 cents while U.S. WTI crude oil was down by 43 cents.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) said crude inventories rose by 10.5 million barrels, now they are 432.5 million barrels. With oil stock in abundance and Oil demand lesser than usual, the Oil prices are seeing a downward trend. This situation may continue as the US-China Trade War is still not concluded. Hopes are set on the Brexit deal. Let’s see how the deal affects on Oil prices.
MasterCard is about to enter Southeast Asia's fintech community by collaborating with ASEAN Financial Innovation Network (AFIN). It will be the second corporate founding member of AFIN. The ASEAN platform will now be able to support more fintechs. MasterCard further plans to involve its START PATH program into AFIN’s API Exchange (APIX) ecosystem. Start Path is one of the best startup engagement programs.
AFIN is a not-for-profit membership organization created by MAS, IFC, and ABA to promote FinTech-Financial Institution collaboration and support financial inclusion. APIX platform is an online marketplace for financial institutions to collaborate with innovative fintech solutions
Netflix, an American media-services provider, and production company revealed its Q3 stock earnings. The company reported an 11% spike in their share prices in post-market trading as the international paid subscription has increased to 6.26 million. Wall Street analysts were expecting lesser subscription. Currently, Netflix shares amount to $314.50
Netflix shares are about 7% year-to-date as reported on Wednesday. However, Netflix estimates to get a total of 7.6 million subscriptions by the end of 2019 Q4. Analysts say the streaming company will face competition from Walt Disney Co’s Disney+ and Apple Inc.’s AAPL. Both Disney+ and AAPL have subscription plans lesser than Netflix
Stock market changes on the Go. It is hectic for users to check stock prices by searching via a browser or an app. What if your favorite stock prices are displayed on your home screen? MoneyControl's new feature, Stock Pin does the same thing.
With this feature, users can mark their favorite stocks. The app will then display stock changes in real-time. No need to open the app and search anymore. For now, the user can add up to four stocks/indices/futures. However, it will be increased in the future. StockPin alongwith MoneyControl Pro has paved a new trading way for users.
Bitcoin is depleting slowly. There are only 21 million Bitcoins that can be mined in total. Crypto influencer Anthony Pompliano tweeted that Friday, Oct 18 will see the 18th Million bitcoin mining. Only 3 million will be left to be mined before mining stops in the distant year 2140. Pomp further started a Hashtag "#3MillionLeft" to analyze market sentiment towards Bitcoin. The twitter comments say that Bitcoin prices will tend to increase. Currently, Bitcoin is trading at $7960.02.
Anthony "Pomp" Pompliano is a Co-founder & Partner at Morgan Creek Digital and also runs a column on crypto news for institutional investors.
Bank of America Corp, BAC saw a sudden rise in share prices. It rose by 1.8% in premarket trading. The market analysis had reported a steady fall in BAC share market prices. However, the fall was lesser than expected. Alternatively, revenue also increased. Total revenue rose to $22.81 billion from $22.72 billion. Currently, BAC is trading at $30.28
The reason behind this unexpected rise is being credited to Warren Buffett wanting to boost Berkshire Hathaway's stake by 10%. The stock has gained 2.6% in the last 3 months. There are several bullish claims that BAC prices will climb higher in the coming days.
As per Tuesday, Oct 15th report, Bank of Canada plans to launch its own Digital Currency. With this digital currency, Canadian Government aims to replace fiat currency. The report further explains that the coin will be globally available. It will initially coexist with paper money and other coins and will then replace them completely. The digital transaction will help the government to keep track of money spending.
Governor Stephen Poloz introduced this proposal in a presentation titled “Central Bank Money: The Next Generation” to The Logic. Canada is not alone, even China and Bhutan have introduced their digital currency earlier.
South Korea plans to bring Trade Finance on the Blockchain by 2021. According to an Oct 14 press release, South Korea’s Finance Minister, Hong Nam-ki announced the blockchain transition. A council will be organized for this. It will include banks, banking & trade associations, and the Korea Trade Network (KTNet). The trade finance related documents will be shared on Blockchain. The council will analyse the documents for transparency.
Nam-ki also plans to build a digital trading platform to streamline logistics-related trading activities. Furthermore, the Korean Government has initiated a digital trade foundation. This will reduce trade finance related costs by 90%.
On Tuesday, eToro has introduced a new tool, Crypto Twitter in partnership with TIE. This tool will help traders to analyse Bitcoin trends and invest efficiently using Tweets.
TheTIE-LongOnly CopyPortfolio, Crypto Twitter will analyse cryptocurrency-related tweets by scanning 850 million tweets every day. Joshua Frank, co-founder, and CEO of the TIE, said that Machine learning and natural processing technology will further aid the tool.
eToro does not have any additional charge to use Crypto Twitter. Though the analysis tool is a great leap towards understanding the crypto market, investors should still study the market in the initial days.
Swedish Fintech Klarna has announced a partnership with Samsung Electronics. It will give more flexibility to UK users while shopping on the Samsung website. The collaboration chalks out three payment options.
- Buy now, pay within 30 days
- Buy now, pay in three monthly installments
- Buy now, spread the cost up to four years
Samsung was in plans to make the payment system flexible to their customers. Nick White, Online Director at Samsung UK & Ireland said that Samsung met its partner in Klarna. The payment company shares Samsung's vision and it would also continue to support Samsung.com's upgrade programme.
In a dramatic turn of events, WeWork, real estate company is deduced to run out of money in Mid November 2019. WeWork had earlier seen the $12 billion investments and were in plans to launch an IPO to raise more funds. However, SEC found out serious shortcomings while WeWork IPO filing. The company has around $47 billion dollars in lease obligations.
WeWork has now two choices for the bailout. Selling a controlling stake to SoftBank for $10 billion or $5 billion financing package by J.P. Morgan. The reports say that, WeWork intends to choose J.P Morgan over SoftBank. Both the companies are outside partners of WeWork.
Singapore fintech startups are blooming and Investors are taking a keen interest in this industry. The report says that investment has hiked 69% from the year 2018. Although the year 2019 is still in its last quarter, analysis reports $735 million investments up until September 2019. These numbers exceeds the year of 2018 total investments which was $642 million.
However, the number of fintech deals fell from 2018 i.e 133 to 94. Investors are making larger deals in lesser startups. Additionally, Central Bank is planning to give five new digital bank licenses to non-banks. This analysis is based on data from CB Insights, Pitchbook & Tracxn.
The leading Cryptocurrency Exchange Binance announced to support the staking of ONE token on Binance, starting on 2019/10/16. Binance will distribute these rewards proportionately to users each month based on their daily average ONE holdings. As per the blog post, users must hold at least 175 ONE in order to qualify for staking rewards. The initial distribution of ONE staking rewards will be calculated through to the end of 2019/11/15, with the total amount distributed equally to the staking rewards accrued on holdings during the period. ONE rewards are calculated daily (hourly snapshots) and distributed monthly prior to the 20th of each month.
Crypto.com, the pioneering payments and cryptocurrency platform, announced today that it has added PAXG to Crypto Earn, allowing users to enjoy up to 8% p.a. on their deposits. Basically, PAX Gold is an asset-backed digital token where each token represents one fine troy ounce of London Good Delivery gold. Crypto Earn now supports 15 coins for holders to maximize their returns, including BTC, ETH, LTC, XRP, BNB, TUSD, PAX, USDC, MCO, BAT, LINK, CRO, MKR, DAI with the addition of PAXG. Interest is paid out weekly in the coin deposited with flexible, 1-month or 3-month terms available. Users earn more by staking at least 500 MCO.
BitGo has announced that it will support the Tronix TRX asset in its hot wallet and custody solutions in early November. This means that any exchange partners, prime brokers, and futures platforms that may want to custody TRX have a viable option to do so in a safe and compliant way through BitGo. This integration has come on the heels of increasing demand that BitGo has seen for TRX to be supported on the BitGo platform. BitGo’s support of TRON marks a milestone in enabling further institutional adoption for TRX. BitGo welcomes any inbound interest from financial services providers that may have interest in custodying TRX.
The Leading Coinbase exchange has received an e-money license from the Central Bank of Ireland. The license will enable Coinbase, which keeps its non-US headquarters in London, to process payments, issue e-money, and handle electronic money wallets. Coinbase says that the e-money license will not only strengthen the company’s operations in Ireland but throughout Europe as well.
Coinbase CEO Zeeshan Feroz, announced the news in a blog post on Friday, saying that the license will help the exchange expand its Irish operations, as well as allow it secure passports for customers across the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA).
Cryptocurrency exchange Gate.io announced a Startup Discount Offer with wink token as the next project on October 16. Gate.io claims to provide more Startup token sales with discounts. The trading service will be enabled once the project fulfills its fundraising goal. However, to participate in Startup Sale, users will need to be a VIP. Participants will have a higher purchase limit with more GT holdings. To decrease volatility, the platform will apply the Call Auction Mechanism. Here, traders can place orders freely, but the orders will not be active immediately. When the auction is finished, users cannot place/cancel any orders. After the call auction data collection, the platform enables trading activities.
Telegram plans to postpone the launch of its cryptocurrency after SEC obtained restraining order to stop Token sale in the US. The SEC claims that the company sold unregistered securities. Telegram has responded to a recent court order by the SEC in a letter to investors in its token sale.
The platform told its token investors, they are surprised that the SEC chose to file the lawsuit. However, Telegram has tried to communicate with the regulator and solicit feedback over the past 18 months regarding its TON blockchain project. Telegram is telling its investors that it will Pause for some time to receive more clarity on the legal status of the TON project.
US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a lawsuit against Telegram on 11th October 2019 to stop their token distribution. According to SEC, Telegram has acquired $1.7bn of GRAM tokens from one of it's Initial Coin Offering. The messaging app plans to distribute these GRAM tokens on the blockchain by October 30. However, SEC claims that Telegram has acquired these tokens by committing fraud and violating the law.
Telegram has raised the GRAM tokens with SAFT. SEC says that the ones who purchase the GRAM are about to sell it back to Americans. This is against the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933. SEC claims that the messaging app wants to flood the Crypto industry with GRAM Tokens.
UK tech firm Block Matrix has raised $2 million investment to develop a Bottle Pay app that lets you send bitcoins via social media. Users can send bitcoins to their connections even if they don’t have a bottle pay account via their social media accounts.
Founder of Block Matrix Pete Cheyne added that the bottle pay app will break the barriers that enable everyone to access the bitcoin. Moreover, the platform lets people authenticate into the app from an account they already have and trust. Further, the platform is looking forward to increase the number of active users before obtaining the next investment.
Australia's 120-year-old Perth Mint has announced backing a new digital token PMGT. The main aim is to allow investors to trade precious metals in real-time. On Friday, InfiniGold introduced the Perth Mint Gold Token (PMGT). Moreover, 1:1 by GoldPass certificate backs PMGT.
The Government of Western Australia 100% guarantees the PMGT.
PMGT allows users to have a legal right over government-guaranteed physical gold stored at Perth mint. Moreover, professional services firm Ernst and Young designed The gold-backed token. PMGT provides an alternative to traditional gold investment products like ETFs.
South Korean blockchain startup ICONLOOP received 10 billion won (~over $8 million) in a Series A funding round. Many Fintech such as Korea Technology Finance Corporation, T.S. Investment was a part of this investment. As per the financial statistics, this is an investment that is first from the ICONLOOP launch in 2016.
The startup has many plans. The platform intends to launch a new decentralized identity (DID) service called “my-ID”. It will be a digital authentication service. The startup intends to expand the ID to fintech and e-commerce industries.
Bloq Cloud platform has collaborated with ETC Labs to provide blockchain infrastructure services to ETC Network. The BloqCloud Connect, connect service of Bloq will offer blockchain connectivity to developers. They can start to build their applications on the blockchain easily.
Furthermore, ETC Labs has decided to provide these services free for developers for the first 2 years. ETC Labs and Bloq plan to launch service in Q1-2020. BloqCloud further plans to provide access to serverless computing resources (BloqCloud Compute).
A growing crypto industry demands a bigger Cryptocurrency payment market. Alchemy, a cryptocurrency payment service provider, hopes to provide PoS solutions to Asian retailers. The payment service provider allows customers to pay over 30 digital assets. Alchemy currently supports Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong. Although, it plans to expand to countries like Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, etc. in the future.
Alchemy has partnered with payment company Qfpay for global recognition. Qfpay has more than 1.2 million merchants globally. This will further help in the worldwide acceptance of Alchemy. With this Alchemy aims to be recognized as "Paypal of Cryptocurrency".
Theta Labs and decentralized streaming platform DLive joined hands to allow users to relay video content. As per the latest announcement, DLive users can relay peer-to-peer videos from their mobile and desktop onto Theta Network. However, in return, users will be rewarded with tokens.
DLive platform has seen a great rise in popularity in 2019. The reason behind this is termed as partnering with the most popular Youtube Gaming channel, PewDiePie. Also, Wilson Wei, CEO, exclaimed that collaborating with Theta Labs will further reduce content delivery costs by 50%. The platform plans to include “content syndication” and cross-platform in the future.
Russian central bank federation does not see the need to launch a Russia national cryptocurrency. Speaking at the forum the head of the national bank, Elvira Nabiullina stated that the institution has been studying the topic of cryptocurrency and the launch of a national cryptocurrency is not obvious for us.
She further questioned the cryptocurrency use for technological reasons and their advantage on Nation's Economy. Giving an example, she says “For instance, in comparison with existing electronic non-cash payments. There are many risks, and the advantages may not be obvious enough.”
The Kingdom of Bhutan has nominated a national digital currency. Prizm. the digital currency will have the same rights as the national Fiat Currency - ngultrum. Bhutan Government will issue 100 Prizm to each citizen. Furthermore, the government will invest $50 million in cryptocurrency.
In addition to it, a Prizm e-wallet will be issued to every Bhutan resident. The wallet will allow residents to trade cryptocurrency. They can also access wallets using their smartphones, phones, and computers. Furthermore, salaries can be paid in Prizm if citizen wishes.
The crypto world is evolving. Earlier fiat to crypto trading was available. Now, you can trade gold against Bitcoin. Crypto Liquidity provider B2C2, has launched a new derivative product. Clients can trade an ounce of gold priced in bitcoin and settle it in bitcoin.
Max Boonen, founder, and CEO of B2C2 claims that this product is first of its kind. Clients can trade gold via the OTC trading unit, B2C2 OTC Ltd. Additionally, the product supports other tokens along with Bitcoin such as PAX Gold. The liquidity provider company intends to launch more such products.
Facebook's Libra project is always under scrutiny. Recently, Paypal revoked its support from the Libra project. The latest update is that Libra is being forked into a stablecoin "OpenLibra". Lucas Geiger, co-founder of Wireline said OpenLibra will be a permissionless fork of Libra. As per Lucas, OpenLibra will address the Libra's potential flaws. The core team includes personalities from projects such as Wireline, Radicle. Additionally, The team has released the first version of this stablecoin on GitHub.
In all these, Brad Garlinghouse, the Ripple CEO claims that Libra will not launch before 2023.
Crypto Industry is never silent. Wednesday, 9th October 2019 was such a day. Crypto influencer, A Pomp tweeted " Bitcoin is the most transparent currency ever created". The crypto industry was quick to comment on and express their views on the said transparency. Some were there to accept the claim outright, while others were skeptical about this. One tweet claimed that when the creator is unknown, how can the coin be transparent. This comment met with certain replies explaining the technicalities of Bitcoin.
Anthony "Pomp" Pompliano is a Co-founder & Partner at Morgan Creek Digital. He also runs a column on crypto news for institutional investors.
CU convenience store BGF Retail, one of the largest retail chains in South Korea is allowing its customers to pay using Cryptocurrency. The retail chain will use a mobile payment app - CHAI. It builds the mobile app on the Terra blockchain platform. Furthermore, customers can pay offline with a stable coin the Korean won only. However, as of now, the app supports no other currency.
CHAI will add its app support to CU by 2019 end. Han Chang-Joon, CEO of Chai Corporation, said, “We are pleased to provide simple difference payment service to BGF Retail, which has 13,500 stores nationwide. It will maximize consumer benefits. ”
BeatzCoin (BTZC), a native coin of VibraVid is all set to be listed on the top-tier cryptocurrency exchange HitBTC. HitBTC is the world’s 19th largest digital asset exchange by volume. Furthermore, it is constantly upping its game by adding new tokens to the list. VibraVid native token will be available to trade on HitBTC after BeatzCoin IEO's 2nd round.
This collaboration of BeatzCoin and HitBTC will further enhance the liquidity of the coin by providing exposure. This token will become the first TRON based token on the top-tier exchange. Additionally, VibraVid is holding 2nd round of IEO on ProBit.com Exchange from October 9, 2109.
Binance, a Global Cryptocurrency Exchange, had exited the Chinese market following the local crypto trading ban back in 2017. Binance is attempting to enter the Chinese market once again. In a bid to this, Binance launched P2P Trading for BTC, ETH, and USDT against CNY (Chinese Yuan).
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, tweeted 9th Oct morning letting the crypto-world know about this update. As of now, only Android users are able to use the trading functionality (Accounts registered for more than 30 days). iOS and web interface users will be able to use this service in the near future.
In an interview with French financial newspaper Les Echos, chief executive officer of tech giant Apple. Cook claimed that “I really think that a currency should stay in the hands of countries. I’m not comfortable with the idea of a private group setting up a competing currency,”
Recently, The company Pay vice president Jennifer Bailey said that the company is planning to launch a cryptocurrency. But Tim seems to have put this plan to the rest. Tim said that “ We elect our representatives to assume their governmental responsibilities. Companies aren’t elected and should not be going in this direction.”
Basically, a Tron wallet is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency wallet and exchange for TRON (TRX). Today, TRON wallet announced that the new TRON Wallet Mobile will soon be available in store.
This new release will have the return of the multi token send with %. Also, it will have a wonderful Token list layout. There is also an improvised DEx which includes Order books and Candle charts. The new update is coming up fixing some bugs and crashes. The audience are also in support of this new release. Stay tuned for more updates on the TRON Wallet mobile.
Wells Fargo is a U.S. based financial giant, who is coming up with a U.S. dollar linked stablecoin running on the “Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)”. Quite interestingly, Warren Buffet is one of the investors of Wells Fargo. Warren had once described Bitcoin as a “rat poison”. While he described Blockchain Technology or in this case the DLT as “important”.
Meanwhile, AnthonyPompliano, who is the partner and co-founder at Morgan Creek Digital commented that, “Warren Buffett owns almost 10% of Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo is creating a dollar-backed digital currency. So now Warren Buffett basically loves Bitcoin, right?”.
Cubans subjected to US sanctions have a means of escape, as the country can now use Bitcoin. The first Cuban cryptocurrency exchange boosts a user base of 1,300 customers. Along with cryptocurrency trading, this bespoke platform allows remittance platforms.
The founder of Fusyona, Adrian C. Leon spoke to the US News about the enhancement of cryptocurrencies. He also said that fear remains as there are chances that the government may impose restrictions on cryptocurrency services. As, they may also restrict and prohibit things and say that this is an illicit enrichment.