It would not be an exaggeration if we say that this has been one of the best weeks for cryptocurrency since the so-called crypto winter kicked off in November last year. Here’s how the week progressed for cryptocurrency and blockchain.
The fairly quiet market picked on Monday night and rocketed up more than 10 percent overnight. As per its usual trend, the pump wasn’t followed by a dump and the total market cap continued its climb through the remainder of the week. The markest finished over 22 percent higher than last Friday.
The most likely the catalyst for this week’s rally, Bitcoin surged ahead 22.56% and now sits above $5,000. While the market is exceptionally ecstatic about the rise, a series of assumptions, reasons, and predictions were made throughout the week. For instance,
Bitcoin is overbought – A recent Bloomberg reports quotes a technical analysis tool that gauges intraday volatility, the GTI Global Strength Indicator stating that BTC might be in overbought territory. Notably, the token is most overbought since its December 2017’s meteoric climb to nearly $20,000 and similar patterns in the past posted a warning towards multi-week downturns.
Algorithmic trading – Another Bloomberg reports assert that the said crypto market jump could be linked to algorithmic trading. The said method has been on the rise in the last few months and since September, the industry has observed 17 new algorithm or quantitative funds and an amount that purportedly comprises 40 percent of crypto hedge funds started during this period.
Off the top 100 coins, excluding stable coins, only three coins were in the red over the last week. Ethereum performed pretty well with a 17.19% gain and now comfortably sits above $160. As for XRP, the token came third and jumped 16.83%, floating around $0.35.
Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin started off good on April 3rd but soon met with market correction on the following days. On Friday the BCH stood at $296.28 and Litecoin was around $88.49
The U.S. SEC finally publishes guidelines – After nearly half a year in the making, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) publishes fresh regulatory guidance for token issuers. These guidelines focus on tokens and outline how and when these cryptocurrencies may fall under a securities classification, as stated in the document.
Bank To Support For Crypto Traders – Puerto Rico welcomes a new institution catering to traders of cryptocurrency as San Juan Mercantile Bank & Trust International (SJMBT) is now open for business; SJMBT accepted its first client deposit on Monday. The Puerto Rico-based firm earned a License as an International financial entity (IFE) last month, by Puerto Rico’s Office of the Commission of Financial Institutions (OCIF).
Blockchain Gaming – This week a lot of movement also took place in the field of Blockchain gaming from AitDex’ introducing the AltDex Gaming Index, a new cryptocurrency index for gaming-related tokens to Lucid Sight, the Blockchain games developer mincing $6 million in order to bring its digital scarcity-powered games to traditional game platforms.
Instant Property Network – Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), enterprise blockchain firm R3 and other participants, have reportedly participated in a blockchain trial that results in faster property transactions. Dubbed as Instant Property Network (IPN), the effort demonstrated that the time period for real estate buying and selling process could be reduced from more than three months to “less than three weeks.”
ConsenSys Selects 10 Blockchain Startups for its Incubator – The investment arm of ethereum development studio ConsenSys, ConsenSys Ventures select 10 blockchain startups that are focused on building new blockchain-based solutions across data privacy, encryption, healthcare, and decentralized finance, among other areas for the second cohort of its accelerator program Tachyon.
All 10 startups selected for the Tachyon 2.0 will be aided through the accelerator program, including meetings and lectures from “prominent” entrepreneurs, ethereum developers and venture capitalists, as well as access to ConsenSys’ network, as stated by the firm.
Gas supply agreements – The Russian prime minister has recently approved a blockchain initiative that will allow Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned gas giant to do gas supply agreements on the blockchain network. Reportedly, Gazprom has had done substantive work with Russia’s state-owned bank, Gazprombank to develop a prototype model to enable contracts to be made automatically with the help of blockchain technology.
Bitcoin vs Visa, MasterCard, and PayPal – DataLight, a cryptocurrencies data analytics platform issues a report that compared Bitcoin, Visa, MasterCard, and PayPal as a method of payment. Weighing the traditional financial indicators such as annual price changes and changes in capitalization, the report found Bitcoin in a good place in comparison to the other three payment methods.
The Philanthropist act – The co-founder of San Francisco-based technology company Ripple, Chris Larsen and his wife Lyna Lam donates $25 million worth of XRP to a San Francisco State University’s (SFSU) College of Business. Completed through RippleWorks, the donation will support students, who are studying global entrepreneurial and fintech ecosystems.
Bitcoin and Ether Live trading – The Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) has entered into an agreement with Canadian fintech firm Blockstation that will enable live trading of bitcoin and ether including security tokens in a “regulated and secured” environment. JSE and Blockstation trialed live cryptocurrency trading for a 60-day run in January, that saw participation from regulated broker-dealers, market makers and the Jamaica Central Securities Depository.
XRP exchange-traded product (ETP) – Switzerland’s primary stock exchange SIX launches an that will track the price of the XRP cryptocurrency. Announcing the news on Tuesday, maker of the product, Amun AG stated that the XRP ETP had started trading on the exchange under the ticker symbol AXRP.
Coinbase Introduces Cross-Border Payments – Coinbase, an American major cryptocurrency exchange has now expanded into cross-border payments. Users of the exchange could now transfer funds to any user with a Coinbase account around the world using Ripple (XRP) and the exchange’s stablecoin USDCoin (USDC) with no fee.
Reportedly, the development will enable users to send and receive money instantly, as well as convert them into local currency.
Over-the-counter trading desk – Coincheck, a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange launches an over-the-counter trading desk for Bitcoin (BTC), that will be aimed at large-scale institutional investors. The Coincheck OTC trading desk will allow its user to directly trade large volumes of Bitcoin, starting from 50 BTC approximately $207,000 to press time, between each other using a web interface hosted by Coincheck.
New Token Launch – Binance Launchpad has had some really successful token sales under its belt and now it announces another round of it. The firm announces its fourth token sale of 1.9 billion tokens for the blockchain scalability platform Matic Network (MATIC), which is 19% of the total supply on April 24th.
Tether Hits All-Time High In Daily Transaction Volume – The most used fiat-pegged stablecoin, Tether (USDT) hits an all-time high of 38,150 on March 31. Marking a new milestone in reference to the number of daily transactions, since its launch in 2015.
Credit Karma Tax – A free tax filing service, Credit Karma Tax that is used to report gains or losses from trading cryptocurrency, has reportedly observed a massive rise of 52% in the amount of Credit Karma Tax filers, who reported short-term crypto losses in the first month of 2019 in comparison to the same period in 2018.
Notably, in the same period, the crypto investors reporting long-term gains have increased by 35 percent year over year, with early Credit Karma Tax filers reporting an average gain of $15,352 during the first month of the 2019 filing season.
WEF Reports – World Economic Forum cites in a January 2019 report by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and states that a minimum of 40 central banks are conducting research projects and pilots with blockchain technology globally. Most of these projects are aimed at resolving issues such as financial inclusion, payments efficiency, and cybersecurity.
Bitcoin Scammer allowed bail – The alleged mastermind behind the $300 Bitcoin(BTC) Ponzi Scheme in India, Amit Bhardwaj and his brother Vivek Bhardwaj have been granted interim relief by the Supreme Court of India. Reportedly, other co-conspirers Ayush Varshney, Rupesh Singh, and Sanchit have also succeeded in getting interim relief in the case.
Bithumb Hacked Again – Instead of a decrease in hacking incidence, somehow cryptocurrency exchanges are observing an increase in such cases. On March 30, crypto exchange Bithumb announced a temporary suspension of its services, citing abnormal withdrawals as a reason behind it. Taking to its official Twitter account, Bithumb announced that they are pausing cryptocurrency withdrawals and deposits temporarily.
QuadrigaCX update – QuadrigaCX, the controversial Canadian crypto exchange might be stepping towards bankruptcy, as proposed by the court-appointed monitor Ernst and Young (EY). The firm stated that the QuadrigaCX’s creditors “will benefit” from converting its current restructuring process under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) to a new one under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA).
Frozen Assets – Assets of the founders of Vanbex, a blockchain consulting firm who minced $22 million in an alleged fraudulent initial coin offering (ICO) has been frozen by the Canadian police.
Canada’s largest-ever forfeiture – In what is reportedly Canada’s largest-ever forfeiture, a Toronto judge has ordered Matthew Phan, an online drug dealer to pay his entire $1.4 million Bitcoin (BTC) holdings to the state. Phan is convicted under the charges of dealing in illegal narcotics online.
The court claimed his 281.41 BTC (worth around $1.4 million at press time) in February, however, Phan appealed against the demands. Though Phan tried to convince the court that his fortune in Bitcoin is through other activities, it seems his appeal was undermined.
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