Summing up the past week, we recall the news about the upcoming IEO Bitfinex, the release of Bitcoin Core 0.18.0, the launch of a regulated platform for the spot trading of ErisX cryptocurrencies, the closure of a large market on the darknet and other important events.
Bitcoin appreciation
The first cryptocurrency fully recovered the losses of the previous week, at some point rising in price by about 10%. According to CoinMarketCap, the highest value ($ 5,886.89) bitcoin reached on Saturday, May 4th. At the same time, the BTC capitalization rose above $ 103 billion, and the dominance index approached 56%.
The most successful indicators for the week showed Bitcoin Cash . Spurred on by the news about the future implementation of Schnorr's signatures , this cryptocurrency has risen in price by more than 11% over the past seven days, at some point exceeding the $ 300 mark.
Also note the entry into the Top 15 CoinMarketCap Cosmos token , which was added to Binance earlier this week, was a successful week for Dash (+ 9.25%; $ 120 as of 16:00 UTC on Sunday, Monero (+9.76 % – $ 67.17) and Litecoin (+ 7.73% – $ 76.30).
Ethereum is trading at this point in the region of $ 162 (+ 2.94% for the week).
Also note that a significant increase in Bitcoin hash rate was recorded this week. At the time of publication, the weighted average BTC rate was $ 5,786.74 (CoinMarketCap). At the same time, Bitfinex is trading above $ 6,000.
Will the first cryptocurrency find support at these levels and what will happen next? There are plenty of opinions on this score, including optimistic ones , however, as Tomst Lee, a leading analyst of Fundstrat, warned on the eve, the events around Bitfinex can have a negative impact in the short term.
The #DropGold promotion demonstrates the advantages of bitcoin over gold
Cryptocurrency assets manager Grayscale Investments Barry Silbert launched a campaign called #DropGold , urging investors to take a sober look at the advantages of the digital era and recognize that gold as a store of value is now inferior to bitcoin.
The main characters of advertising are trying to avoid an apocalyptic fate due to the investor's obsession with gold by adopting a digital future. Security, speed and efficiency of Bitcoin can not be ignored, according to the company.
Grayscale Investments also stressed that if 15% of its assets were transferred from the SPDR Gold Trust to Grayscale Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC) fund shares over the past years, the annual increase would be 15% higher than the purely “golden” portfolio.
Bitfinex Crypto Exchange will hold $ 1 billion for IEO
This week, the Bitfinex Exchange’s plans to hold an initial stock exchange (IEO) of its token were confirmed, following which it intends to raise $ 1 billion. Bitfinex plans to use these funds to cover $ 850 million, which were frozen in the accounts of the payment company Crypto Capital.
The token will be released under the ticker LEO and initially offered to a limited group of investors. Bitfinex also received verbal confirmation of the intention to purchase tokens for $ 600 million, but if the coins are not fully distributed by May 10, the campaign will go to the public plane.
It is assumed that the exchange will buy tokens at market prices on a monthly basis. For these purposes, Bitfinex intends to allocate at least 27% of its profits, but it also reserves the right to buy out the tokens within 18 months after the funds are unfrozen.
Earlier, the prosecutor's office of the State of New York filed Bitfinex charges that, having suffered a loss of $ 850 million, she concealed this fact, using the funds of the Stebcocoin issuer Tether, affiliated with her, to cover the damage.
Release of a new version of Bitcoin Core 0.18.0 with support for hardware wallets
On Thursday, May 2, the developers of the most popular client of the Bitcoin Bitcoin Core network announced the release of a new software version number 0.18.0 . The main feature of the new release was the native support of hardware wallets.
This option will allow full node operators to directly interact with hardware wallets like Ledger and Trezor .
At this stage, the interaction between Bitcoin Core full nodes and hardware wallets is performed using the command line, however, the developers plan to make the interface more friendly by opening the function for users who do not have specialized knowledge.
Nasdaq began to display Ripple (XRP) quotes in the XRPLX index
From May 1, the second largest stock exchange in the world, Nasdaq, began to display an index based on the third largest digital currency XRP .
The XRP Liquid Index (XRPLX) was developed by the New Zealand blockchain-based company Brave New Coin and is based on XRP spot prices denominated in US dollars. Information about the market value of the asset will be delivered in real time "from the most liquid markets."
CoinMarketCap fights cryptographic fake data
On May 1, the sixth anniversary of the start of its work, CoinMarketCap, an analytical resource in partnership with leading bitcoin exchanges, launched the Data Accountability and Transparency Alliance (DATA) initiative to collect reliable information on digital asset trading and the development of reporting standards for cryptographic.
Happy Bday @CoinMarketCap ! Our the Data Accountability's ?Celebrating & by Transparency Alliance with @binance @BittrexExchange @OKEx @HuobiGlobal @liquid_global @UPbitExchange @Aurora_dao @Oceanex by Official @gate_io @kucoincom @hitbtc @bitfinex the Find out more: https://t.co/cPhYhUnZqs
– CoinMarketCap (@CoinMarketCap) May 1, 2019
In turn, all trading platforms submitted to CoinMarketCap are required to provide data on trades, as well as real-time market order books through the API. Sites that do not fulfill this condition within 45 days will be excluded from the calculation of trading volumes and quotations.
It is reported that such platforms have already joined the Alliance, such as:
In Germany, closed the second largest darknet market
In the framework of the joint operation of the Federal Criminal Police of Germany, the prosecutor's office and Europol, the Wall Street Market dark-marketplace servers were discovered and confiscated. Three arrests were also made.
It is reported that German law enforcement officers seized 550 thousand euros in cash, a six-figure sum in Bitcoin and Monero , several cars, computers, hard drives and other clothing evidence from the alleged site operators.
When blow to illegal Double Room dark of web Marketplaces: the Wall Street General Market and Silkkitie (Valhalla) shut down the after global law enforcement Coordinated by the Operations @bka @SuomenTulli and supported by @Europol . All the details here: https://t.co/XiXTLKTYAq pic.twitter.com/I9d3yVg1p9
– Europol (@Europol) May 3, 2019
The Wall Street Market user base comprised more than a million people, of which 5,400 are listed as sellers of drugs, stolen data, forged documents and malicious software. 63 thousand offers were posted on the site.
ErisX Introduces Cryptocurrency Spot Trading Platform
On Tuesday, April 30, the ErisX derivatives exchange launched a regulated platform for the spot cryptocurrency trading. Platform users have access to pairs with Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Ethereum, traded against BTC and fiat dollar.
Also, representatives of ErisX said that by now many companies have shown interest in their platform, but did not specify which ones.
The ErisX platform consists of an exchange and a clearing service, it provides the ability to securely store fiat money and cryptoactive assets.
The court ordered Craig Wright to disclose the size of his bitcoin capital for 2013
In Kleiman’s sensational lawsuit against Wright, a new turn: the court of the Southern District of California ordered nChain senior researcher and self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto to disclose the number of bitcoins he owned as of December 31, 2013, thereby satisfying the plaintiff’s claim.
Wright is also obliged to disclose the details of the functioning of a blind trust, to which a certain number of bitcoins were transferred in 2011, and also to name under oath the names of all trustees of this trust and beneficiaries. In addition, he will probably have to affirm or deny under oath that he controls the bitcoins that are in trust. A senior researcher at nChain has time until May 15 to fulfill court requirements.
In February 2018, Ira Kleiman, brother of the late computer forensic scientist and mathematician Dave Kleiman, who is associated with the creation of Bitcoin, sued Craig Wright, accusing the latter of misappropriating about 1.1 million BTC, which allegedly belonged to Kleiman.
CTO Coinbase Balaji Srinivasan left the company
On Saturday, May 4, the technical director of Coinbase, the largest US cryptocurrency company, Balaji Srinivasan, announced that he was leaving his post. It is assumed that the reason for the decision Srinivasana could be restrictions that did not allow him to realize his own vision of future products Coinbase.
1/2 Really enjoyed my time at Coinbase @brian_armstrong . The Earn Integration has been close to $ 200M for the Coinbase Earn. Was also my privilege, launching USDC, & getting staking / voting going.
– Balaji S. Srinivasan (@balajis) May 4, 2019
Srinivasan took over as CTO after buying Coinbase from his startup Earn.com. Then the deal was valued at $ 120 million, which makes it the largest purchase by the Californian giant.
Earn.com appeared in October 2017 as a result of the rebranding of 21 Inc and the launch of the platform of the same name, which allows users in exchange for a bitcoin reward to perform various tasks, such as reading and answering emails.
Founded in 2013, the company initially specialized in bitcoin mining based on Intel technology. In 2015, she released 21 Bitcoin Computer, a developer device containing a mining chip, a data center, and a Linux-based operating system.
Publication date 06/05/2019
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