Bitcoin and cryptocurrency news round-up: 5 January 2018

What you need to know
Raiblocks is the latest to be surging massively, Ripple could be coming to Coinbase this month, and the Bank of England may issue its own cryptocurrency.

1. Raiblocks is up over 70% over 24 hours
   Its price is now over US$20 after the currency began surging up on the back of major exchange Binance's vote to become the next coin to be listed. Currently Raiblocks is the 17th biggest cryptocurrency in market cap, worth a little over $2 billion, and it's growing fast. Raiblocks' growth has all mananged to come despite being listed on only two relatively small exchanges in BitGrail and Mercatox.

2. Coinbase leak shows Ripple could be live by end of the month
   Take this one with a grain of salt, but someone on Twitter claims to have access to a beta Coinbase build which he claims will support Ripple (XRP) by the end of the month and has posted screenshots and videos using Coinbase with Ripple. If this is correct, it could see a huge surge in XRP price, similar to what happened when Bitcoin Cash first came onto the platform

Coinrypto
@Coinrypto
Coinbase is adding $XRP - This should be going live by end of January. @coinbase @Ripple $xvg $btc #cryptocurrency - To the moon! pic.twitter.com/7tkKJNXBHU

Here is more proof... pic.twitter.com/GrpuqZxv7i

1. The Bank of England could launch its own cryptocurrency
   A new report reveals that the UK bank has a small team set up to investigate the potential and could approve the currency as early as this year, and potentially have it directly linked to the Sterling.

Potentially English citizens could store their money in the digital currency with the bank, but also withdraw in Sterling.

England's central bank says it has been exploring the use of blockchain technology in its currency since 2015. It says while it could be great directly for consumers, it opens up the ability for instant settlements between banks, rather than days.

1. Bitcoin is starting to hit back again
   Bitcoin is starting to rally again coming into 2018, with currency currently up a little over 7% in the last 24 hours. Its price is currently sitting at around US$14,000, well up from its low of $US12,400 from a few days ago.

Most cryptos are up over the past 24 hours, with Ethereum also enjoying a 4% uptick, Bitcoin Cash 5% and Litecoin is also up 6% in the period.

Cardano is continuing an impressive month, and is up 8% itself, too.

1. NiceHash has a new CEO following its recent hack
   Cryptocurrency mining site NiceHash had over US$63 million stolen from it last month, prompting the site to shut down for 24 hours and its CEO Marko Kobal to resign. Kobal will be replaced by Zdravko Poljašević.

The site was hacked last month after stolen engineers credentials were used to access NiceHash's payments systems and took 4,700 Bitcoin.