📮 23-10-2019
📈 MarketCap: $223 B
📊 24h Mcap %: -1.93%
⚠️ Bitcoin Dom: 65.4%
Active Coins: 2,471
24h Vol %: -2.88%
24h Vol: $44 B
The U.K. government has stressed that is up to regulators, not the executive, to decide on a proposed ban on certain crypto derivatives for retail investors. The Economic Secretary to the Treasury John Glen said: “The final decision is a matter for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is operationally independent from government.” Glen noted that “the government continues to endorse the approach set out in that the Cryptoasset Taskforce report as the right way to facilitate innovation.”
Moon lets you pay for stuff on Amazon using bitcoin via the Lightning Network, BTC, LTC or ETH. The company has released a desktop browser extension for Google Chrome, Brave and Opera. While Overstock, Newegg and some other major retailers have already embraced crypto, Amazon is yet to move in this direction. Moon makes the magic happen by converting crypto to fiat without charging additional fees. You can pay with any bitcoin wallet that works on top of the Lightning Network or Coinbase account.
San Francisco-based cryptocurrency startup Ripple has recently made an announcement about opening a new office in Washington, DC, to educate lawmakers on the disruptive impact of crypto and Blockchain. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse told Forbes that stepping on the DC turf will allow them to maintain a dialogue with policymakers to "figure out" how to regulate the crypto industry. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse says that it's crucial for them to have a DC presence.
Congress may consider a bill to classify stablecoins – cryptocurrencies whose values are pegged to a fiat currency or other assets – as securities. In a draft bill published Tuesday, Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) introduced legislation to the House Financial Services Committee to regulate stablecoins under the Securities Act of 1933, seeking to provide clarity in an area the bill suggests lacks regulatory guidance. The proposed legislation appears to be a response to the Facebook-led Libra cryptocurrency.
Cryptocurrency markets are mostly showing red candlesticks, while Bitcoin price is struggling below the $8,100 mark. Bitcoin was trading above the $8,200 price mark for the better part of the day, but has dipped below $8,100 in recent hours. The world’s largest cryptocurrency traded at an intraday high of nearly $8,300, before losing ground towards its current trading price of around $8,040. BTC is reporting a loss of almost 2% on the past 24 hours.
Lightning Rod, a new offline-style payments protocol for the Bitcoin Lightning Network, developed by Bitcoin payments startup Breez, will enable users to make Lightning payments to a payee without their mobile nodes being online at the same time. The firm has released the protocol open-source, and is planning to integrate the new functionality into its iOS and Android payment apps by the end of this year. Currently both the payer and payee need to be online and have their network nodes connected to each other.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao considers Russian President Vladimir Putin the most influential person in the blockchain space. Zhao further said that he believes the bill on regulating digital money may be adopted in the Russian Federation in the foreseeable future. Zhao also reportedly revealed that Binance may in some cases provide user information to Russian financial regulators and warned people involved in crime to stay away from the Binance trading platform.
Blockchain platform TBCASoft, IBM and telecommunications conglomerate SoftBank are collaborating to adopt a cross-carrier telecommunications blockchain payment solution. The partnership will allow carriers to use blockchain through the Carrier Blockchain Study Group (CBSG) Consortium founded by TBCASoft and SoftBank. The first application that CBSG intends to launch is the Cross-Carrier Payment System (CCPS), which aims to enable mobile service users to use their phones for payments with local merchants abroad.
The German finance ministry has stated that criminal use of Monero (XMR) and Zcash (ZEC) is rising. They argued that use of anonymous crypto assets might one day replace that of Bitcoin on the dark web. The report is careful to highlight differences between different crypto assets. Whereas blockchain forensics firms can often link an individual to a Bitcoin wallet, anonymity-preserving protocols limit their efficacy.
BTC slid from above $8,200 at the start of the day, down to $7,532. The recent flash crash followed a period of slowing transactions and value transfers. The price loss was a result of lowered network velocity, believes Byte Tree CEO, James Bennet. Velocity has been slowing significantly over the past weeks as transaction volume moves over to stablecoins such as tether. Ultimately, this depressed demand for the bitcoin network has lead to this recent drop in price.
Litecoin has revealed its draft plans for a privacy upgrade, using techniques that were originally developed for Bitcoin. The proposal would allow users to access opt-in privacy by conducting MimbleWimble (MW) transactions on an Extension Blocks (EB) style side-chain. Litecoin founder Charlie Lee originally announced plans to explore privacy technologies earlier this year, noting that “now that the scaling debate is behind us [for Bitcoin and Litecoin], the next battleground will be on fungibility and privacy.”
Zuckerberg is testifying in front of the House Financial Services Committee as a Facebook-backed Libra cryptocurrency venture faces stiff regulatory headwinds inside and outside of the U.S., with lawmakers and market pundits expressing deep concerns that the planned payment system could be employed for illicit activities. One of Zuckerberg’s key talking points in support of the Libra venture was a claim that “China is moving quickly to launch similar ideas in the coming months,” he said.
The United States-based branch of major crypto exchange Binance, Binance.US, has broken the $10 million volume mark. At press time, the exchange has seen $10,481,594 in daily traded volume, according to data shared by Binance America CEO, Catherine Coley. “Took Binance longer to unlock this achievement back in the day,” commented Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao on the news. “Most people underestimate the effort involved in jump starting a new platform.” he added.