Day: August 3, 2018

NYSE Operator Announces New Global Digital Assets Platform, Plans Bitcoin Futures Launch

boss

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the operator of 23 leading global exchanges including the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), has announced plans to create a Microsoft cloud-powered “open and regulated, global ecosystem for digital assets,” according to a press release published August 3. The operator of NYSE is forming a new company, dubbed “Bakkt,” and will work alongside a marquee group of enterprises that includes BCG, Microsoft, Starbucks, and others, to create the new ecosystem. The intention is to create an integrated platform that enables retail and and institutional clients to buy,…

Mt. Gox Creditors Update Basic Terms of Upcoming Civil Rehabilitation Plan

boss

Lawyers representing a group of creditors of the now-defunct Japanese Bitcoin (BTC) exchange Mt. Gox have recently updated their civil rehabilitation plan, according to a statement on the Mt. Gox creditors’ website Aug. 2. In the announcement, the Mt. Gox creditors stated they had revised the basic policy for the rehabilitation plan as of August 1, 2018, in compliance with comments on the previous version of the policy, including from a group of Mt. Gox Legal creditors. The update confirmed that repayments will be made in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash…

NYSE Parent ICE’s New Futures Contract Will Deliver Real Bitcoin

boss

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the Atlanta-based firm that owns the New York Stock Exchange, announced Friday that it plans to launch a digital assets platform and a bitcoin futures product. Called Bakkt, the platform will leverage Microsoft’s cloud to build “an open and regulated, global ecosystem for digital assets,” according to a press release. Effectively, it will allow consumers and institutions to trade, store and spend digital assets over a worldwide network. Notably, ICE also plans to offer a one-day “physical” bitcoin futures contract – meaning bitcoin is actually delivered on a…

Bitcoin Price Dips Below $7,400 Amid Futures Volatility, Eyes $7,000 Support

boss

Bitcoin (BTC) dropped around 2 percent Friday, August 3, failing to find support to stay above the $7,500 barrier for the first time this week. Market visualization from Coin360 Data from Cointelegraph’s price tracker and Coin360 show a sudden dip downwards from $7,550 Friday, with BTC/USD trading around $7,363 at press time. That figure marks Bitcoin’s lowest since the end of July, just after prices shot up from $6,100 in a matter of hours. Bitcoin weekly price chart. Source: Cointelegraph Bitcoin Price Index Since that time, markets have rallied and…

Is the Forex Market Ready to Go Blockchain? Some Banks Don’t Think So

boss

On July 27, the foreign exchange trading market (forex) settlement powerhouse CLS reported it was in the final stages of testing its blockchain payment service for banks. However, while the service is reportedly set to be launched as soon as in August, the amount of players backing the project has halved since the initial announcement. As it turns out, large financial institutions are not quite ready to hand over their data to a blockchain-powered system. Brief introduction to forex and CLS system Forex is a worldwide market where convertible currencies…

Bitcoin Drops Another 2% as Crypto Market Continues Decline, $8 Billion Dropped

boss

In the past 24 hours, the crypto market dropped $8 billion as major digital assets including Bitcoin, Ether, and Bitcoin Cash recorded losses in the range of two to five percent. Bitcoin Cash and Stellar recorded the largest losses amongst the top ten cryptocurrencies, while Ripple and EOS remained relatively stable with a one percent gain. What is Triggering the Fall? On July 27, analysts attributed the fall in the price of Bitcoin to the rejection of the Winklevoss Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). However, throughout the past three days, since…

Dutch Central Bank Does Not Consider Cryptocurrencies as ‘Real Money’

boss

An executive at the Dutch Central Bank has said that while cryptocurrencies are not “real money,” the bank has no plans to ban them, local news outlet Dutch News reported August 3. The divisional director of the Dutch Central Bank, Petra Hielkema, told Dutch News that due to the volatility of cryptocurrencies and the possibility for consumer risks, it cannot be considered as money, “If something wants to be treated as money, you have to be able to spend, save and calculate with it […] So we do not consider…

Bithumb Sees 40% Trading Volume Drop After User Registration Suspension

boss

Trading volume at one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges has plummeted by 40 percent in three days after it temporarily stopped opening new user accounts. South Korea’s Bithumb exchange – which suffered a $31 million hack in June – said in a blog post on July 31 that it will suspend the opening of new customer accounts from Aug. 1 as it is undergoing a “service improvement process” regarding so-called virtual customer accounts. While the exchange did not give further details as to the reason for the suspension, a…

World’s Second Largest Bitcoin Miner Canaan Creative Releases BTC-Mining Television Set

boss

Canaan Creative, the world’s second largest Bitcoin (BTC) mining hardware manufacturer, has launched what it claims is the “first ever” BTC mining television set, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported August 2. Dubbed “AvalonMiner Inside,” the appliance has a processing power of 2.8 trillion hashes per second, and is reportedly powered by artificial intelligence (AI) as well as being capable of taking voice commands. In contrast, Canaan’s most powerful mining rig can process 11 trillion hashes per second, SCMP notes. The device also calculates the fluctuating rate of Bitcoin…

Korea’s Financial Watchdog Calls for Stock Trading on a Blockchain

boss

South Korea’s primary financial watchdog has backed the use of blockchain technology as the core infrastructure for trading stocks in the country. First reported by domestic news publication Korea Joongang Daily, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has advocated the use of blockchain for stock trading in a report focused on the subject released on Thursday. In a significant backing of the technology, the FSS called on the country’s regulatory agencies and firms to jointly work and develop an integrated blockchain system that negates the use of a conventional centralized ledger and…