Monday October 28 2019, Weekly News Digest

United States

Bitcoin (BTC) Surges to $ 9,700 Ahead of Weekly Close (NewsBTC), Rated: AAA

While Bitcoin is still around $800 lower than its weekly high of $10,600, which was reached on Friday night amid the historical influx of volatility, analysts are noting that the recent upturn is validating the idea that BTC is ready to rip higher.

As of the time of writing this, the leading cryptocurrency is trading for $9,700 — up some 10% from Saturday’s low of $8,900.

Bitcoin Was Under $ 10 The Last Time it Gained 40% (Be In Crypto), Rated: A

The last few times that Bitcoin gained more than 40% in a 24-hour period, the volume was still too low for it to move quickly. The first time Bitcoin was at just $0.40, and the second it was at $5.65. However, in the last 24 hours, Bitcoin saw a volume of $45 Billion.

After Recovery To $ 10,000, Bitcoin ‘Should Hit $ 100,000 In 2021’ (Forbes), Rated: B

Earlier this week, widely-respected bitcoin analyst PlanB, who created the so-called stock-to-flow bitcoin pricing model, reiterated his expectation that bitcoin will hit $100,000 before Christmas 2021.

Ripple price analysis: Can XRP/USD hold above $ 0.30? (FX Street), Rated: AAA

Ripple price managed to clear the resistance at $0.30 and even touched $0.315 following the euphoria Bitcoin (BTC) impressive rally above $10,000. The 61.8% Fib retracement level taken between the last swing high of $0.315 to a swing low of $0.25 is forming confluence support with the 50 Simple Moving Average (SMA) on the two-hour chart and the 100 SMA at $0.29.

Ripple is trading at $0.30059 and trying to hold above the short-term ascending support.

LITECOIN HASH RATE DOWN 60% SINCE AUGUST HALVING (Bitcoinist), Rated: AAA

Data from BitInfoCharts.com shows that the Litecoin hash rate has fallen by more than 60% since the August 2019 halving.

Litecoin Climbs 11% In Rally (Investing.com), Rated: A

Litecoin was trading at $62.427 by 12:43 (16:43 GMT) on the Investing.com Index on Sunday, up 10.59% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage gain since October 25.

The move upwards pushed Litecoin’s market cap up to $3.868B, or 1.50% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Litecoin’s market cap was $14.099B.

CRYPTOCURRENCIES EXIST BECAUSE OF ALTERNATIVE DEMAND (BBN Times), Rated: AAA

Despite only accounting for 4.27% of the world’s population, as much as 60% of all U.S. bills are traded overseas.

Which is why when it comes to cryptocurrencies, despite the fact that many critics have panned it as a solution in search of a problem, the reality is that the “solution” would never have developed if there wasn’t a genuine need to redefine our relationship with money.

Lael Brainard, a governor at the Federal Reserve who has run a working group on digital payments since 2016, told the Financial Times last week,

“Libra heightened the urgency and sharpened the focus of senior policymakers on this work.”

Speaking to the Financial Times, Tobias Adrian of the IMF suggests,

“It could be that this is taking over the majority of transactions. At that point policymakers fear losing control if private companies win the digital money race.”

Facebook’s user base alone makes it the largest country in the world and while it owns no land, one could argue that it owns something far more important — digital real estate and the power to influence.

But the expression of cryptocurrencies, their persistence in existence is rooted in the genuine “need” for change of the current status quo because:

1. There are increasingly less options for reliable stores of value and the rise of gold is evidence of that.
2. In a globalized world, with e-commerce and global purchases, consumers are paying far more in terms of “friction” costs when there ought to be a seamless and cheap way to transfer value.
3. Investment opportunities and banking options remain painfully in the hands of the privileged few, while billions across the world remain stuck in a poverty trap that while not deliberately designed by the current monetary system, is an idiosyncrasy of that system.

14 New Altcoins that maybe launched by Binance US (Our Bitcoin News), Rated: A

It is seen that 14 altcoins have not yet received listing support from the stock exchange. Depending on the list, Binance US may be considering listing the following crypto coins in the coming days: Cosmos (ATOM), EOS (EOS), Holo (HOT), Loom Network (LOOM), Decentraland (MANA), Nano (NANO), NEO (NEO), VeChain (VET), Waves (WAVES), Augur (REP), Paxos Standard (PAX), TrueUSD (TUSD), USD Coin (USDC), and Zilliqa (ZIL).

Steemit’s Smart Media Tokens Live on Testnet (Markets Insider), Rated: A

Steemit, Inc. (https://steemit.com) announced its most anticipated blockchain product, Smart Media Tokens (SMTs), is now live on a Testnet. SMTs are digital assets on the Steem blockchain that can be launched by anyone to help monetize online content and create incentives to encourage desired user behavior. Unlike Ethereum’s ERC-20 tokens, STMs have built-in ‘Proof-of-Brain’ properties and a token distribution reward system designed specifically for digital content businesses.

With the release of SMTs and Steem Communities (think “decentralized subreddits”), 2019 is shaping up to be the year that the Steem blockchain matures from a decentralized content platform, into a full-fledged blockchain protocol capable of powering applications that are impossible to run on so-called “smart contract” platforms.

Read the whitepaper here.

Will Crypto Markets Eventually Mirror the Stock Market? (CCN), Rated: A

That said, cryptocurrencies are already worth more than $200 billion, exceeding Jeff Bezos’ net worth of $112 billion. With the stock market’s total value worth a towering $67.5 trillion, cryptocurrencies lag behind, but stocks also had a few hundred years’ headstart.

There are currently more than 3,000 cryptocurrencies in circulation and involvement from such heavy-hitters as JPMorgan Chase, Fidelity, and Facebook, to name a few. Investment in cryptocurrency has become much easier for institutional players.

Nonetheless, since crypto’s early days, we’ve seen the launch of over 700 cryptocurrency funds that invest in various tokens on behalf of clients.

“Stablecoins Are The New Bitcoin” In Congress (Forbes), Rated: A

In one of the wildest twists to the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry, the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing with Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, to ask questions about the Libra Association and the company’s foray into digital money. While many questions at the hearing went predictably to Facebook’s ad revenue process, censorship practices on posts, its reputation on data and impacts of foreign adversaries using the platform to influence the 2016 Presidential election, a nuanced policy result entered into the debate.

How U.S. Regulators Could Race To The Bottom For Crypto (Forbes), Rated: A

On September 30, 2019, a company called Block.one paid a $24 million fine to the SEC for an unregistered securities offering. In return, the EOS cryptocurrency, a native token of the EOSIO blockchain network, can be used publicly without risk of any securities law violations. The Initial Coin Offering for EOSIO raised a reported $4 billion.

International

Where to Spend Bitcoin: A Global Overview From Ljubljana to Zurich (CoinTelegraph), Rated: AAA

As of late October 2019, 15,558 business venues worldwide were accepting Bitcoin (BTC) as a method of payment, up 18% from a year earlier, according to Coinmap.org.

While Europe remains the hottest continent for in-person Bitcoin transactions, the most torrid city is now Ljubljana in Slovenia, with 314 venues. As reported by Cointelegraph, more than 530 locations across Slovenia and Croatia are now accepting crypto on a daily basis, including hotels, shops and restaurants — a big increase from the 240 locations reported in January 2019.

Ethereum (ETH) Grinding Higher, Bitcoin Could Revisit $ 10K (NewsBTC), Rated: AAA

In the past few days, there was a sharp rally in Ethereum above the $175 and $180 resistance levels. Later, there was a downside correction, but the price remained well bid above $175 and the 100 hourly simple moving average.

Similarly, bitcoin price rallied above the $10,000 level and recently corrected lower. However, BTC also found support and it is climbing higher again towards the main $10,000 resistance area.

Why NEO Surged 35% While Rest of Crypto Market Took a Snooze (CCN), Rated: AAA

The crypto markets boomed this week, exhibiting their trademark volatility once again. In meteoric fashion, the bitcoin price jumped from a 5-month low of around $7,300 to a monthly high well above $10,000.

In the wake of a historic cryptocurrency market resurgence, NEO has suddenly sprung to life, securing an impressive 35% single-day rally.

Bitcoin Futures Skyrocket As Crypto Platforms Binance and Bakkt Post Breakout Performances (The Daily HODL), Rated: AAA

Bitcoin’s rally on Friday, which marked one of its biggest gains on record, has pushed futures trading to new all-time highs. Both Binance and Bakkt are reporting record-breaking volumes.

According to data compiled by CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin (BTC) spiked on October 25, gaining $2,400 in a single day, up from $7,506 and reaching a high of $9,932 before dipping back down to around $9,000 on Saturday. Cryptocurrency exchanges Bitstamp and Binance clocked BTC as high as $10,350 and $10,370 respectively, marking the cryptocurrency’s highest level since September 24.

Crossing the billion-dollar milestone, Binance Futures skyrocketed to $1.14 billion with 165k BTC trading within 24 hours on Friday, signaling strong interest in BTC for the newly launched platform that debuted on September 24.

Big guide to the world’s largest crypto exchanges – here is all you need to know (Trijo), Rated: A

Coinbase

• Founded: 2012
• Headquarters: San Francisco, California (USA)
• Number of users: More than 30 million

Fees

Standard for buy/sell: 1.49 percent
Direct buy with debit card: 3.99 percent
Bank transfer (SEPA) for deposit/withdrawal: Free / €0.15

Bitstamp

• Founded: 2011
• Headquarters: Luxembourg
• Number of users: More than four million

Fees

Just like Kraken, Bitstamp also charges a fee when you withdraw to your bank account in the EU.

Buy/sell standard: 0.25 percent
Direct buy with debit card: 5 percent
Bank transfer (SEPA) for deposit/withdrawal: Free / €3

Bitmex

• Founded: 2014
• Headquarters: Hong Kong, China
• Number of users: Unknown

Bitmex is one of the largest crypto exchanges for bitcoin with a daily trading volume of over 35,000 bitcoin and a trading history of over $34 billion in bitcoin since its inception.

OKEx Joins Kakao Corporation Backed Klaytn Blockchain Project as Ecosystem Partner (NewsBTC), Rated: B

European Union

Ethereum Announces to Perform Istanbul Hardfork In December (CoinGape), Rated: AAA

The Istanbul Mainnet was decided upon at the Ethereum Foundation Core Developer meeting that ended yesterday. According to a Danno Ferrin, blockchain protocol engineer at ethereum venture studio ConsenSys,

“Based on the calculations, I expect that we will launch Istanbul’s Mainnet at 9,056,000 blocks.”

The EIP 1884 upgrade, as fashioned is designed to increase the gas fee on the network.

In Conversation with Vitalik Buterin: On Eth 2.0, Finance, and China (Forkast), Rated: A

Trader Calls for Ethereum (ETH) to Increase 40% in November (SludgeFeed), Rated: AAA

Apart from some notable exceptions, most altcoins are still down against Bitcoin on the weekend, despite decent gains against the dollar. For example, Ethereum (ETH) has gained around 15% since Friday, but ETH/BTC is down around 12% over the same period.

Vitalik Asks: Should Ethereum Transactions Be Reversible? 60% Of ETH Community Says No (Bitcoin Exchange Guide), Rated: B

Head of Crypto Capital Arrested in Connection With Money Laundering (CoinTelegraph), Rated: A

Ivan Manuel Molina Lee, the president of controversial Panama-based payments processor Crypto Capital tied to Bitfinex and other major cryptocurrency exchanges, was arrested by Polish authorities.

According to local news outlet wPolityce’s report published on Oct. 24, he is suspected of money laundering and being involved in an international drug cartel.

Bank of Lithuania provides recommendations on raising capital through STOs (The Tokenizer), Rated: A

The Bank of Lithuania has issued the Guidelines on Security Token Offering (STO) which provide greater regulatory clarity and aim at higher investor protection.

United Kingdom

Facebook’s digital currency dealt another blow (BBC), Rated: AAA

Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency must not go ahead until the firm proves it is safe and secure, according to a report by the G7 group seen by the BBC.

In a blow to the social media giant, the world’s biggest economies warned cryptocurrencies such as Libra pose a risk to the global financial system.

The draft report outlines nine major risks posed by such digital currencies.

Blockchain travel verification startup Zamna secures $ 5M in seed funding (Tokenpost), Rated: A

Blockchain travel verification startup Zamna has secured $5 million in a seed funding round led by LocalGlobe and Oxford Capital, TechCrunch reported.

Instant Crypto Credit Line (Nexo email), Rated: B

Nexo is thrilled to announce that it has cut the interest rates for all new and existing clients of its signature Instant Crypto Credit Lines™ to only 5.9% APR. Nexo is now effectively offering the lowest rates in the blockchain space.

China

China clears path to new digital currency (The Week), Rated: AAA

China has moved a step closer to launching its own digital currency, after its parliament passed a new law on cryptography.

Chinese Cryptocurrencies Post Double-Digit Gains After President Xi’s Blockchain Announcement (Be In Crypto), Rated: A

In response to President Xi’s announcement, Chinese cryptocurrencies have been turning bullish. Many have been posting double-digit gains despite the President never mentioning cryptocurrencies, only blockchain.

NEO, often called the ‘Chinese Ethereum,’ is up 31% at the time of writing. Ontology (ONT), another Chinese cryptocurrency which shares some of the same code with NEO, is up 42% on the daily and is currently trading at around $0.92. Tron (TRX) is also posting massive gains, up 20% at the time of writing and almost breaking the $0.02 zone.

NEO and Other Made-in-China Cryptocurrencies See Huge Price Gains (CryptoPotato), Rated: AAA

Bytom’s rise is the most notable one as of now, having increased more than 75% against BTC and 85% against the US dollar.

Ontology has risen 40% against BTC and 45.5% against the dollar.

NEO is trading at $11.71, having risen 35% against the dollar and 27% against BTC.

Facebook’s digital currency Libra poses threat to WeChat Pay, Alipay (Bangkok Post), Rated: A

Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings has acknowledged that Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency Libra could pose a serious threat to existing digital payment systems, including its own WeChat Pay as well as Alipay from rival Alibaba Group Holding.

Emerging markets need more say on digital currencies: Chinese official (Yahoo! Finance), Rated: A

Governments in emerging markets must have greater say in the regulation of digital currencies that could facilitate illegal capital flows and disrupt foreign exchange management, a senior official of China’s foreign exchange regulator said on Monday.

China has signalled it is actively embracing financial technology, such as blockchain, as it prepares to launch its own digital currency to fend off threats from foreign digital currencies, such as Facebook’s Libra.

WeChat Search Volume For Blockchain Spiked 1,200% Following The New Chinese Cryptocurrency Laws (CryptoPotato), Rated: A

WeChat, a Chinese multi-purpose app, recorded an immense surge in blockchain-related search topics on its platform. On the 23rd of October, the word “blockchain” was searched for less than 800,000 times, and Bitcoin was searched for less than 600,000 times. On October 25th, the day of the Chinese president’s announcement, there were 9.2 million searches for “Blockchain” and 1.3 million for “Bitcoin.”

From Banking Giants to Tech Darlings, China Reveals Over 500 Enterprise Blockchain Projects (CoinDesk), Rated: A

In total, the identities of 506 such projects have been published by the Cyberspace Administration of China, which, since January, has required every entity developing blockchain technologies to register their projects for further supervision.

The information released so far is from two lists – 197 projects named in March and 309 in October – and offers a trove of insight into hundreds of enterprise blockchain projects under development in China.

KuCoin Cryptocurrency Exchange to Roll Out Margin Trading (Be In Crypto), Rated: B

Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin announced Friday that traders using the platform will soon have access to margin trading.

For example, if you are margin trading $500 with 2x leverage, you are effectively trading with $1,000 without having to directly incur the expense.

Australia

Local fintech launches new digital currency for trading loans (Financial Review), Rated: AAA

Small business loan online marketplace Marketlend has created a new digital currency – called Black, which it said would create a secondary market for its corporate loans by facilitating a process of “tokenisation” of assets over blockchain.

APAC

Former Philippine Vice Mayor Arrested for Alleged Role in Standard and Crypto Investment Scams (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A

A former vice mayor of the Philippine city Cagayan de Oro has been arrested for his alleged involvement in an investment scam in Cebu, and is also known for being “visible” at events hosted by another scheme called Freedom Traders Club (FTC), which sold a cryptocurrency called Ploutos coin.

MENA

UAE’s quest for cryptocurrency regulation catches up the pace with an official draft (FX Street), Rated: AAA

Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), the regulator in the United Arab Emirates has revealed a draft policy for cryptoassets’ regulation. The draft has addressed topics relating to blockchain and cryptocurrencies. It seeks to provide a clear framework for regulating and working with digital assets within the region.

Atlantic Ocean/West Indies

Bahamas central bank moves forward on digital currency plans (CoinGeek), Rated: AAA

The Central Bank of the Bahamas (CBOB) announced that they have moved up their plans to release their own digital currency as part of their bid to keep the country’s economy moving forward. This comes after a recent hurricane did massive damage to the country, leaving it in great economic peril.

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