Crypto And Blockchain Weekly Wrap Up – 01 July 2019 – 7 July 2019
The cryptocurrency markets observed a slight pullback after the gains of last week. As for other news, there has been plenty ups and downs there as well. Here what took place in the week that was –
Price points
The foremost cryptocurrency, Bitcoin settled 6.3% down at around $11,300. As for Ethereum, XRP, and Cardano are down by 5.29%, 5.29%, and 11.65% respectively. Privacy coins Monero and ZCash are down 9.17% and 10.18% respectively. The altcoin that saw some bullishness are Tezos, Dogecoin, Bytom, and Komodo went up a whopping 20%, 8.81%, 12.67% and 25.31% respectively.
Update Over Facebook’ Libra
Facebook Applies For BitLicense To Operate Libra In New York – Social media giant Facebook applies for a
cryptocurrency business license that will enable the firm to use its virtual currency Libra in New York. Notably, any firm looking to operate cryptocurrencies in New York needs to have a special license dubbed as BitLicense, granted by the state’s finance regulator, the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).
US Lawmakers Asks Facebook To Freeze Their Progress Over Libra- U.S. lawmakers have issued a letter to Facebook executives formally asking them to stop all development of its recently announced Libra cryptocurrency. The U.S. House of Representatives Democrats has written an open letter to Facebook on Tuesday.
The letter calls on a moratorium to all libra development until the hearings held by the Financial Services Committee and affiliated subcommittees is completed. Notably, the hearing will determine how Libra is to operate and what measures should be implemented to protect user privacy.
Bitcoin Updates
CME Bitcoin Futures Record $1.7 Billion High In Notional Value – The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group records record-breaking highs for its bitcoin (BTC) futures. As per the post, on June 26, the CME Bitcoin futures hit $1.7 billion in notional value traded. Reportedly, this marks a 30% increase from its last recorded high. The said futures are standardized contracts that bind the parties involved in buying or selling bitcoin at some set time after signing.
Just a week prior to its feet, CME bitcoin futures broke $10,000, mark on June 21, according to data on TradingView. Notably, just one day a prior on June 20, the CME group reported another record high of 5,311 open futures contracts totaling 26,555 BTC, approximately $280 million at press time.
Coinsquare Plans To Enable Millions Of ATMs To Sell Bitcoin – Coinsquare, a Canadian exchange acquires software that will enable traditional ATMs to sell cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin (BTC). Coinsquare announced that it has made an undisclosed amount of controlling investment in Just Cash, a United States-based fintech startup that has developed a software that enables users to purchase crypto directly through traditional ATM machines without the need for additional hardware or mobile application.
Altcoin Updates
Daily Ethereum Transactions Exceed One Million – Ethereum (ETH) exceeds one million daily transactions on its network on June 28, for the first time since May 2018. The data suggests that on June 28, Ethereum blockchain experienced 1,004,170 confirmed transactions. Previously, the Ethereum chain registered over one million daily transactions in May 2018. Though a feat it is still far from the 1,349,890 daily transactions peak it registered last year on January 4.
Gram Asia Lists Telegram Tokens At Three Times ICO Price – Starting July 10, South Korea’s Gram Asia sells rights to its Gram holdings at $4.00 per token. The proposed sale price is triple of the original $1.33 sale price at Gram’s second initial coin offering (ICO) round in March 2018. Interestingly, which was also hosted by Liquid and Telegram managed to raise over $850 million, bringing its total valuation up to $1.7 billion.
President Maduro Orders Venezuela’s Bank To Start Accepting Petro – Nicolas Maduro, the President of Venezuela orders the country’s leading bank, Banco de Venezuela to accept the nation’s cryptocurrency, the Petro (PTR) at all of its branches. As per a tweet, Maduro gave “the express order to open Petro desks in all the branches of the Bank of Venezuela.” Notably, it was during the tenth anniversary of the nationalization of the said bank that the announcement was made.
Blockchain Updates
Fujitsu Unveils Blockchain-Based Identity And Credential Rating Service – Japanese tech research firm Fujitsu Laboratories develops a blockchain-based solution that will evaluate user credentials, identity, and trustworthiness in online transactions. As per the report, the solution will assign every user a “trustworthiness score,” based on user ratings, stored on a blockchain.
The users will rate each other depending upon their transaction and the technology will evaluate the data to figure out the relationships with one another. Notably, other users could see the trust score before agreeing upon any transaction.
Ripple Incubator Xpring Invests $500 Million In XRP Projects – Xpring, Ripple incubator, and investment arm has spent $500 million since its launch in May 2018 on XRP projects. Reportedly, the said funds have been distributed to over 20 companies, including the blockchain-based gaming platform Forte.
As per the report, Xpring’s investments are focussed at creating use cases for Ripple’s XRP token. To do so, they hope to make development easier and supporting developers by providing “tools, libraries and services for developers on the XRP Ledger and Interledger protocols.”
Honey Sustainability On Blockchain – Oracle, the tech giant, and the World Bee Project have collaborated to develop a blockchain-based sustainability assurance system for honey on the supply chain. Reportedly, the honey-tracing blockchain will be developed on the Oracle Blockchain Platform. The partnership aims at launching a “BeeMark” label, that will purportedly guarantee that so-labeled honey comes from ecological and sustainable sources.
Blockchain-Based Used Car Data Marketplace – sgCarMart, a Singapore-based online car marketplace has collaborated with Ocean Protocol, a decentralized data exchange protocol to launch a blockchain-powered “Know-Your-Vehicle” data marketplace. The so-called Know-Your-Vehicle used car data marketplace will secure the process of sharing and accessing of information about used cars in Singapore. Reportedly, almost 9,000 cars were changed ownership per month in 2018.
U.S. Clean Energy Firm Will Test Blockchain For Renewable Energy Trading – Clearway Energy Group, a United States-based clean energy development firm launches a pilot program that will employ blockchain in order to trade renewable energy credits. As per the report, Clearway Energy partnered with Power Ledger, an Ethereum (ETH)-based energy trading startup to develop a system for trading renewable energy certificates.
Power Ledger reportedly told the publishing that the solution will be tested in Massachusetts initially to generate one to five megawatts of electricity. The second test will be at the Midwest to generate upwards of 20 megawatts.
First Blockchain-Based Shipment Tracking – Samsung SDS, Dutch bank ABN AMRO and the Port of Rotterdam collaborate to conduct a proof-of-concept (PoC) shipment from South Korea to the Netherlands, which tracked a container exclusively using an interoperable blockchain platform. As per the announcement, the said container was tracked through a blockchain platform “DELIVER.” The platform enabled the shipment to be instantly financed, fully tracked, and conducted paperlessly.
Stratis Group Launches First Smart Contracts On Microsoft’s.NET – Bockchain development firm Stratis Group Ltd has launched the first smart contracts on Microsoft’s .NET architecture, that will enable developers to write smart contracts in C# on the platform. The Stratis Group introduced the Cirrus Sidechain Masternodes and Stratis Smart Contracts products specifically designed to allow businesses to develop smart contracts in the programming language C#. Originally developed by Microsoft, C# is a general-purpose language within its development platform .NET.
Regulatory update
A Ban Of Crypto CFDs For Retail Investors – The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the British financial watchdog preps to exercise a potential ban on the sale of crypto derivatives to retail investors. The document is titled “Restricting contract for difference products sold to retail clients,” and FCA revealed that they plan to publish a consultation paper (CP) on a potential ban on crypto derivatives such as Bitcoin (BTC) futures and other crypto-related trading products.
IMF Survey –The International Monetary Fund (IMF) asserts that central banks may be planning to issue digital currencies in the near future, based on a survey conducted by the IMF and World Bank that tested fintech solicited answers from financial institutions within all member countries. As per the paper, the conclusions are based in part upon the 96 received responses.
Several central banks hailing from different countries are considering implementing some form of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). Reportedly, Uruguay has already launched a CBDC pilot program and other countries including Bahamas, China, Eastern Caribbean Currency Union, Sweden, and Ukraine are “on the verge” of testing their systems.
CFTC Grants ErisX Licences To Settle Futures In Bitcoin – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) grants a license to crypto derivatives provider ErisX, that will enable it to offer futures contracts. Backed by U.S. brokerage TD Ameritrade, ErisX already had a designated contract market (DCM) license and the new derivatives clearing organization (DCO) license will enable the exchange to launch crypto futures products under the auspices of the U.S. regulator.
Scam Update
Indian Police Arrest Creators Of KBC Coin For Ponzi Scheme – The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of India arrest the four creators of the cryptocurrency KBC Coin, alleging that KBC is a Ponzi Scheme. Launched 6 months ago, allegedly by Vijay Prajapati, Dhiraj Patel, Kamruddin Syed, and Ashiq Shaikh, KBC has since not moved in terms of price. As per the report, KBC coins were issued 10 paisas apiece, wherein investors were promised a 100-fold return of 10 rupees in a short time.
Bitcoin Spent On Illicit Activity Could Hit $1 Billion This Year – According to Chainanalysis’s latest research, the amount of bitcoin (BTC) spent on illegal transactions this year could purportedly hit a record high of $1 billion, despite the ratio of illegal to legal transactions shrinking.
The report suggests that around $515 million worth of BTC (total flat value) has been spent on illegal activity so far this year and the figure is likely to double to $1 billion, by the year-end. Though a decline has also been observed in the amount of BTC spent on illegal services as opposed to legal ones
Facebook Removes Bitcoin Scam Masquerading Abu Dhabi Crown Prince – Facebook has reportedly removed bitcoin (BTC) scam ads that were masqueraded as posts from the crown prince of Abu Dhabi. As per the report, a social media scam dubbed as “Bitcoin Loophole”, claimed that the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed has personally endorsed a scheme that guaranteed high return within a week via trading in bitcoin.
Cryptocurrency Scammer Sentenced To 86 Months In Prison – The United States District Judge Sandra J. Feuerstein sentences a scammer who was found guilty in a cryptocurrency-related scheme, to 86 months in prison. In addition to the 86-month prison sentence, the 44-year old New Jersey resident Blake Kantor is ordered to pay restitution of $806,405, along with forfeiture of $1.5 million, and forfeiture of $153,000 of stolen proceeds. The said restitution will be distributed to the victims who fell for his scams.
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