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Crypto And Blockchain Weekly Wrap Up – 15 July 2019 – 21 July 2019

Weekly Wrap up | Cryptocurrency | Blockchain | Update

The cryptocurrency markets was plagued by volatility this week, however that’s not something new. Let’s see how this past week was Cryptocurrency and Blockchain.

Price point

Foremost cryptocurrency, Bitcoin suffered a 10.56% loss during the week although it maintained $9,400 price level in the past 3 days. It will be interesting to see if the BTCUSD  pair resume its upward trend in the upcoming week. 

Trading above $200 level, Ethereum witnessed a downward trend by 20.35%, is further recovery in sight for the ETHUSD pair?

Regulatory Updates 

Leaked Indian Draft Bill Will Purportedly Ban Crypto – According to an unverified document that is allegedly the Draft legislation for cryptocurrency by the Indian regulators, the government will impose a ban on cryptocurrency use in the country.  Entitled as “Banning of Cryptocurrency & Regulation of Official Digital Currencies,” the alleged bill will not be purportedly debated during the 2019 Monsoon session of the Indian parliament, as per one local crypto industry figure.

Exempting Cryptocurrencies From Value-Added Tax – Nodar Khaduri, the finance minister of Georgia signs a bill that will exempt cryptocurrencies from value-added tax (VAT). As Per the report, the bill aims at regulating the taxation of entities that trade or mine cryptocurrencies. The bill will be in effect from the end of June.

Bitcoin Updates 

Bitcoin Payments For Property Taxes – Coinberry, a Canadian crypto solutions provider and trading platform operator managed to grab a second municipal partnership to provide Bitcoin payments processing for property taxes. Reportedly, Coinberry began negotiating with the City of Richmond Hill in the Greater Toronto Area. On July 10, the council voted in favor of cementing an agreement with Coinberry to support Bitcoin (BTC) property tax payments for residents and firms in its jurisdiction.

LibertyX plans 90 more Bitcoin ATMs – The firm behind America’s first Bitcoin (BTC) automated teller machine (ATM), LibertyX plans to add 90 new machines to its network. A step towards expanding its network, Boston-based LibertyX partnered DesertATM, an independent ATM operator for the said ATMs.

Within the partnership, DesertATM will upload LibertyX on 90 of its Genmega ATMs so as to allow Bitcoin operations. As per the press release, the locations of the New Bitcoin ATMs will include gas stations such as AMPM, ARCO & Chevron, as well as Family Dollar retail stores.

Token Updates 

E-Money and Stablecoins Could Precede Traditional Money – As per a new paper from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the advancement and increasing popularity of digital money and fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies could leave cash and deposits quite behind in the race. A Fintech Note published on Monday, titled “The Rise of Digital Money” studies how tech firms are posing an increasing threat to major banks and credit card companies. 

Tether Mistakenly Mints 5 Billion USDT – In what could be touted as an accident, the operator of stablecoin Tether minted and subsequently burned 5 billion USDT tokens. A twitter account Whale Alert initially noted that 50 million USDT tokens were transferred from cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex to the Tether Treasury via the Omni protocol on the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain.

Liverpool FC kicks off new partnership with 1XBET – Liverpool FC has teamed up with international gaming and technology company, 1XBET, in a new multi-year partnership. The relationship will see 1xBet become the Official Global Betting Partner of Liverpool Football Club, enabling supporters to take advantage of exclusive offers and sporting entertainment.

Facebook’s Libra Update

G7 Considers Facebook Libra As Risks – Facebook’s Libra has ticked off as a threat to global financial stability by the G7 group of nations. The task force set up by the G7 nation so as to examine the regulatory issues related to Facebook’s Libra. The committee states that the rules of the “highest” standards will be required to minimize the use of digital currencies in money laundering and funding terrorism. 

David Marcus Claims Libra Will Satisfy All Regulatory Matters – The CEO of Facebook’s crypto wallet Calibra, David Marcus assures that Libra cryptocurrency project would not be launched until they address all regulatory concerns. He delivered his piece at the hearing on Libra with the Financial Services Committee of the United States House of Representatives today, on July 17.

Jamie Dimon Does Not Consider Libra As A Threat – The CEO of global financial services firm JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon does not consider Facebook’s cryptocurrency project Libra as a threat in the foreseeable future. Dimon stated his opinion on the matter during a conference call with analysts on Tuesday, July 16.

He wouldn’t spend too much time on Libra, specifically adding “to put it in perspective, we have been talking about blockchain for seven years and very little has happened. We are going to be talking about Libra for three years from now.”

Blockchain Update

Steve Wozniak Invests In Efforce – The co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak invests in new blockchain-based company headquartered in Malta, making him the co-founder of Efforce, a energy efficiency company. As per Efforce’s LinkedIn page, it would provide the first blockchain-based platform aimed at investing in energy efficiency. It stated its goal at “to be recognized as the first and main platform in the world for tokenized energy savings.”

Coinbase Incorporates new tools  – Coinbase rolls out new tools that will aid entry-level cryptocurrency users to  understand what seasoned traders are up to, as announced by the exchange on Wednesday.  The new suite of signaling tools includes a tool that will broadcasts the activity of Coinbase’s top traders.

Bitcoin Network Moves $3 Billion – Bitcoin uptrend in its daily transaction value with an average transaction volume topping $3 billion per day. As per Coinmetrics, the data has been been adjusted to remove noise and certain artifacts. The data illustrates an impressive uptrend in the USD value for the volume of the coin’s transactions and transfers over the past 90 days. The average daily value was at $1.04 billion on April 17, with an approximate 210% increase in comparission with $3.22 billion.

Blockchain Updates

Binance Chain Releases Its Latest Version –  Binance Chain, the blockchain launched by cryptocurrency exchange Binances,uccessfully completed an upgrade to its mainnet. Dubbed as Galileo, the latest iteration is v.0.6.0, as per the announcement,  four major changes have been implemented in Galileo: the matching engine has been revised with “Taker” and “Maker” matching logic, Binance Chain token assets can now be time-locked and state sync options have been enhanced, trading pairs on Binances decentralized exchange, Binance DEX can be delisted. 

Blockchain-Based Tech In Transportation Industry – Siemens, a Self-proclaimed electrification, automation and digitalization global giant shows inclination towards adopting blockchain-based solutions. Siemens plans to employ blockchain in the transportation industry. 

Andreas Kind, the head of cybersecurity and blockchain at Siemens Corporate Technology stated that the firm is looking to incorporate blockchain tech into carsharing via Siemens Mobility, one of Siemens’ subsidiaries. As per the Enterprise CarShare website, carsharing is refered to using or renting a car for a short period of time, citing the rental service Zipcar.

Blockchain-Based Mobile ID System – A consortium of major South Korean firms have joined hands to launch a blockchain-based mobile identification system in 2020. As per the report, the participant firms include financial services firms KEB Hana Bank, KOSCOM, Woori Bank, mobile carriers SK Telecom, LG UPlus, KT, and technology behemoth Samsung Electronics.

The partnership is aimed at developing a self-sovereign identity system that can eliminate any intermediaries, enabling individuals and organizations to control their identity information in online transactions.

Global Blockchain In Healthcare To Reach $1.7 billion – Use cases of Blockchain in the field of Healthcare have been increasing at a steady pace and as per a press release published on July 16 by the Acumen Research and Consulting (ARC), the volume of blockchain in healthcare market worldwide is forecasted to reach more than $1.7 billion by 2026.

A consulting service to information technologies, ARC projects that global blockchain in the healthcare market will escalate over $1.7 billion by 2026 at a compound annual growth rate of 48.1%. Breaking down the projection geographically, America has a probability of dominating the global blockchain in the healthcare market, having the largest share.

Cryptocurrency Exchange Updates 

Bitpoint Discovers $2.3 M In Stolen Cryptocurrency – Bitpoint, a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange discovers over 250 million yen ($2.3 million) in cryptocurrency, a part of which i.e. a sum of $32 million was stolen last week. As per the publishing, the stolen cryptocurrency was found on overseas exchanges that were using a trading system provided by Bitpoint Japan. As per Bitpoint, the recent recovery knocked up the total sum of lost founds from 3.5 billion yen ($32 million) to 3.02 billion yen ($28 million).

Binance Hints At Launching A Crypto Exchange in South Korea – Binance, the world’s top exchange by trading volume is planning to launch a branch in South Korea. As per the publishing, the CEO of Binance, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao hints at the possibility that the firm is “working with local partners, but we do not know the details.”

Hack Alert

Bitcoin Ransomware Spreads In China – A ransomware virus has been affecting more than 100 government and private enterprises in the U.S. and internationally gets detected in China. Dubbed as Ryuk, this pernicious code targets “logistics companies, technology companies and small municipalities” that have high data value.

They demanded bounties upwards of $5 million paid in bitcoin, as per the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Ryuk was blamed to be behind the hack of Tribune Publishing in January, that affects all of the media conglomerate’s outlets.

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