This week has been an amazing week, to say the least, for cryptocurrencies in terms of price point. Majority of top cryptocurrencies have been swimming in the green and a handful of them even touched the double digits. Let’s see how this week faired up for cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology.
At the time of writing the market cap was $183 billion as per Coinmarketcap’s data. Bitcoin’s recent recovery pushed its market capitalization above $100 billion, the flagship currency currently stands at $5,779.82. Ethereum is up by 9% and is currently playing around $163.46, if ETHUSD retraced and was held at the support of the 12-day and the 26-day EMAs, then ETH price will commence its uptrend to retest the price levels of $172 and $176.
While most major cryptocurrencies are on an upward trend, Ripple (XRP) continues to lag behind. It is still trading below the 20-day EMA and close to the lower end of the range. If the pressure continues the XRP market and this may push the price down to $0.27 demand level. As for BCHUSD, a bullish trend is observed with 11% uptick, traders may consider responsible buying opportunities at pullback areas.
Facebook seeks $1 billion for FB Coin – Social media giant Facebook is reportedly seeking investments worth $1 billion in order to establish its rumored cryptocurrency stablecoin, as asserted by a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report on May 3. The publication cited people familiar with the plans and revealed that Facebook is currently in talks with major payment networks Visa and MasterCard for potential support, along with payment processor First Data Corp.
Bakkt took advantage of Crypto Winter – In what could be called an extremely sound and smart move, Intercontinental Exchange Inc (ICE) took advantage of the “crypto winter” and purchased crypto assets at a discount for its institutional cryptocurrency trading platform Bakkt, as reported by Reuters.
In addition, Bakkt acquired cryptocurrency custodian service company Digital Asset Custody Company. At the time, it was further revealed that the firm has filed an application with the New York Department of Financial Services to operate as a trusted company, enabling it to serve as a Qualified Custodian for digital assets.
Square observes revenue rise through Bitcoin – Payment platform Square observed a revenue high from bitcoin (BTC) sales through its Cash app. As per the letter to shareholders outlining first quarter (Q1) 2019 financial figures, square reveals the company’s total net revenue of Q1 2019, that grew 43% year over year, amounting to $959 million. Within which the bitcoin revenue was marked as $65.5 million. For the same period, Bitcoin costs amounted to $64.7 million, implying that overall bitcoin profits amounted to roughly $830,000.
Canadian Regulator Introduces New Rules for Crypto Mining – Régie de l’énergie, the energy regulator of the Canadian province of Quebec releases new rules for cryptocurrency miners, as announced by major Canadian electricity provider Hydro-Quebec on April 29. The Régie de l’énergie, under the new regulations, ordered power producer Hydro-Quebec to allocate 300 megawatts (MW) to the blockchain industry.
CoinMarketCap’s Sixth Anniversary – CoinMarketCap (CMC), a major source of data about all traded digital currencies, celebrates it sixth-anniversary with a series of announcements in its blog post on May 1. Including warning exchanges that they fail to provide mandatory data by June, they will be removed from its calculations.
The Crypto market cap tracker incorporated a brand new alliance called the Data Accountability & Transparency Alliance (DATA) on its sixth birthday, that will provide “greater transparency, accountability, and disclosure from projects in the crypto space.”
Stablecoin Backed by Canadian Dollar – TrustToken adds another token to its line of fiat-backed stablecoins with the release of TrueCAD on May 1. The latest stablecoin will be backed to the Canadian dollar. TrustToken has several stablecoins in its kitty including TrueUSD (U.S. dollars), TrueGBP (British pounds) and TrueAUD (Australian dollar). Each of the mentioned tokens are backed at a purported 1:1 ratio with their associated fiat currencies.
Tidecoin, the world’s first Yen denominated cryptocurrency – TiedCo announced the release of Tiedcoin, a new stablecoin that will be fully collateralized by euro (EUR) and yen (JPY,) the world’s first Yen denominated cryptocurrency.
TiedCo has entered an exclusive partnership with the beaXchange, wherein, the token will be traded on the fully-featured cryptocurrency trading platform. The terms of the agreement between the two entitle TiedCo to act as a market maker of these coins and to stand in the market to buy-back all coins issued at near face value.
Ontology to launch PAX tokens – Stablecoin issuer Paxos has partnered with Ontology to issue up to 100 million of its PAX tokens. Pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar, the token will be live on Ontology’s blockchain network starting from next month. Ontology announced Friday, that the launch will purportedly aid individuals and businesses using Ontology’s ONT token to transact in fiat-pegged tokens.
Launched last September, Paxos Standard (PAX) is a regulated U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin. Until now, it was only available on the ethereum blockchain as an ERC-20 token, but now there will be a second option.
Microsoft Azure launches a fully managed blockchain service – Microsoft announces the launch of its Azure Blockchain Services, a fully managed service that will allow formation, management, and governance of consortium blockchain networks. Basically, the new blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) platform will enable users to build blockchain applications on the preconfigured network. Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s head of corporate communications, stated that the service “simplifies the formation, management, and governance of consortium blockchain networks.”
Amazon Web Services Launches AMB – Amazon’s cloud computing platform subsidiary, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has made its Amazon Managed Blockchain (AMB) public to enable customers to set up blockchain networks within their organizations.
In order to achieve the said use, the product will employ Ethereum and Hyperledger open source frameworks. Amazon specifically notes that AMB can scale to support thousands to millions of transactions. The retail giant further adds that the blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS), will not only allow the businesses to develop their own networks quickly but at a lower cost as well by eliminating the need “to provision hardware, install software, create and manage certificates for access control, and configure network settings.”
Hyperledger upgrade increases transaction speed – The new update of Hyperledger Fabric has been re-engineered to support almost seven times more transactions per second (TPS). The researchers have incorporated a new series of optimizations, that has purportedly increased the volume of data that the blockchain can process. Earlier, it maxed out around 3,000 TPS, the release claims that the network has managed to achieve 20,000 TPS. The Hyperledger Fabric is currently employed by financial institutions, IT giants and engineering companies.
Facebook veterans launch an ETH-Based digital collectible app – Editional, a New York startup founded by a group of Facebook veterans launches an ether (ETH)-powered mobile social app to support the creation and trading of unique digital collectibles.
As per the press release shared to the publication, Editional has reportedly sealed a $1.5 million seed round with backing from high-profile crypto investors including ConsenSys Ventures, Digital Currency Group, and CoinFund. Further, the consumer-grade Editional blockchain app is live on the iTunes store for iOS devices from April 30.
Mitigating the issue of spam calls with Blockchain – Indian Tech Giant, Tech Mahindra will be employing a blockchain solution aimed at mitigating the issue of spam calls. The new solution is in line with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)’s regulations that allow using of blockchain in order to protect mobile phone subscribers from unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC) or spam calls. Speaking to journalists in Hyderabad, Rajesh Dhuddu, Global Practice Leader stated that the solution would purportedly impact over 300 million mobile subscribers in the country.
Leading US Drug Companies joins blockchain project to manage chargebacks – Major American pharmaceutical companies joins a project aimed at building a blockchain network for the health and pharmaceutical industry. Pfizer Inc., AmerisourceBergen Corporation, McKesson Corporation, and Premier Inc. have joined the MediLedger Project Contracting and Chargebacks, working group.
Blockchain-based digital certificates – Under the initiative by the Singapore government-level project called OpenCerts, students from 18 educational institutions in the country will receive blockchain-based digital certificates starting in 2019. Powered by the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, this open-source platform plans to provide a reliable way to issue and verify certificates, boost the security of data, the efficiency of issuance and validation processes, and reduce costs associated with traditional paper certificates.
Five Canadian banks to employ Verified.Me – Tech startup SecureKey Technologies’s blockchain-based user identification system, Verified.Me digital identity system will be employed by five Canadian banks. As per the report, Verified.Me digital identity system is now available to clients of the Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Desjardins Group.
Soon it will also be incorporated by the Bank of Montreal and National Bank of Canada as well, while Sun Life Financial will reportedly be the first North American insurer to use the system.
Jaguar Land Rover Partners With Iota For Crypto Rewards Program – United Kingdom car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover has employed blockchain network Iota to offer rewards in cryptocurrency to drivers for data reporting. A key idea behind the plan is to gather better information on road conditions and vehicle performance, for which Jaguar will distribute Iota’s Iota tokens to Smart Wallets tied to participating drivers. The drives could redeem their rewards for various products including road tolls and even coffee, as stated by Jaguar.
Global Millionaires Plans To dip Toes In Crypto – 68% of global High-net-worth individuals, i.e individuals whose investible assets exceed a given amount, have already invested or are planning to invest in digital assets by the end of 2022, as per a survey by Dubai-based financial consultancy firm deVere Group released on May 3.
Institutional investors already own digital assets – As per a survey conducted by a United States-based asset management firm, Fidelity Investments, 22% of institutional investors already own digital assets. As per the survey, the firm surveyed 411 U.S. institutional investors amidst which 40% of respondents showed willingness towards investing in digital assets within the next five years. Moreover, almost half i.e. 47% of respondents believe that there is a place for digital assets in their investment portfolios.
UAE is the world’s biggest contributor to crypto token sales – The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been named as the world’s biggest contributor to crypto token sales, so far this year as per data recently released by CoinSchedule. According to the report, the Gulf nation has raised more than 25% of funds, since the start of 2019 with $210.5 million. The Cayman Islands came second with $103.8 million and Singapore earned the third rank with $89.7 million.
Australia rise in Crypto Scams – As cryptocurrency grows into a broader world of recognition and adoption, the scams related to them have also grown in equal measures. According to a report released by Australia’s Competition and Consumer Commission on April 29, the country has observed a 190% increase in cryptocurrency scams, wherein Australian consumers lose $6.1 million Australian dollars ($4.3 million) in 2018.
In comparison to AU$2.1 million ($1.48 million) loss in 2017, there has been a substantial rise despite the industry-wide slump in cryptocurrency prices. Reportedly, Australian authorities received 674 reports where crypto was used to pay scammers.
Microsoft outlook hackers stole cryptocurrency using victims’ emails – The hackers behind Microsoft Outlook’s recent hack into Microsoft customer support employee’s accounts have reportedly used the service and information to steal cryptocurrency users’ funds.
As per the report posted by Motherboard on Tuesday, that in the recent week’s hackers managed to gain access to Microsoft customer support employee’s accounts, with which they were able to access non-corporate email accounts, including in Hotmail and MSN. Microsoft confirmed the breach to TechCrunch.
Two culprits charged for Shadow Banking crypto companies – The Southern District of New York Attorney, Geoffrey S. Berman charges Reginald Fowler, an Arizona man, and Ravid Yosef, an Israeli woman for shadow banking cryptocurrency companies. While Fowler was allegedly operating unlicensed money transferring business and bank fraud. His purported co-conspirator, Yosef, charged with bank fraud, however, she is still at large.
Tether not fully backed by USD – The controversy behind USD stablecoin Tether (USDT) intensifies as the company’s lawyers confirmed in documents released on April 30, that Tether only has enough cash to back three-quarters of its increasing supply. As part of an ongoing legal process, it was revealed by the New York Attorney General, Zoe Phillips of law firm Morgan Lewis that at the time of writing, 74% of Tether’s reserves had USD and equivalent backing. The reported figures fall short of the promises made by the Tether executives.
SEC Suspends trading in the securities for Bitcoin Generation – The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) temporarily suspends trading in the securities of crypto exchange Bitcoin Generation, effective from 9:30 pm EDT on April 29 until 11:59 pm EDT on May 10.
As per the announcement made by the government agency on April 29, the decision is “due to concerns about the accuracy and adequacy of information in the marketplace”, in regards to the company’s outstanding common stock, promotional activities and its market impact, along with the current financial condition.
As aforementioned, the week that was, was a thrilling one, not just in terms of market cap or price point, but in terms of development as well as controversies. What are your thoughts on the week that was?
Image Source – Stock Photo Secret
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