Five Blockchain Projects Making Massive Strides in Real-world Partnerships Throughout 2018

Many people believe blockchain technology today doesn’t currently have real-world use cases or any tangible value being created from its adoption. Well, throughout 2018, these five projects have made great strides in blockchain technology becoming more widely adopted and advancing in that direction, the first of which is:  1) Ethereum Ethereum is backed by the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance (EEA) that originally formed with the support of corporations and institutions seeking to adopt Ethereum’s blockchain into their business practices such as Accenture, CME Group, ConsenSys, IC3, Intel, J.P. Morgan, Microsoft, and…

Indian Gov’t to Approach Crypto Regulation ‘With Due Caution’

The Indian government is approaching cryptocurrency regulation with caution, tech magazine Quartz reported Dec. 31, quoting Pon Radhakrishnan, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Shipping. The latest episode in India’s increasingly drawn-out path to formalizing its domestic cryptocurrency economy, Radhakrishnan said that the lack of a “globally acceptable solution” meant lawmakers were unlikely to issue formal statues in the short term. Addressing the lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha, on Dec. 28, he said: “In absence of a globally acceptable solution and the…

Bitcoin to End 2018 With 80% Drop, What Investors Can Expect in 2019

Following one of its biggest bull rallies in history to $19,500, Bitcoin (BTC) is set to end 2018 with an 80 percent drop from its all-time high. As Bitcoin enters 2019 with a bear market status having suffered a steep sell-off in December, what can investors expect in the first two quarters of 2019? Several Catalysts on the Horizon For Bitcoin In the first quarter of next year, Bakkt, a cryptocurrency liquidity provider and exchange operated by the New York Stock Exchange’s parent company ICE, is set to launch a…

NYSE Operator’s Crypto Platform Bakkt Completes $182.5 Million Funding Round

Digital assets platform Bakkt — created by the operator of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) — has announced the completion of its first funding round in a blog post today, Dec. 31. The institutional investor-focused cryptocurrency platform from the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has officially raised $182.5 million from 12 partners and investors, according to the post. The partners and investors reportedly include major names in both traditional finance and crypto-oriented investing, including ICE, Boston Consulting Group, Galaxy Digital, Goldfinch Partners, Alan Howard, Horizons Ventures, Microsoft’s venture capital arm and…

Stable Times at Circle: A Crypto Startup Counted Out Is Rebuilt and Riding High

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– As I walked from my car to Circle’s offices in Boston on a Friday afternoon in early November, the sun appeared to have already set, even though it would be up a while longer – past 4:00 p.m. The weather was gray, windy and cold – above freezing, but only because it was due to rain biblically for the entire drive back to New York. If a bright orange parking ticket wasn’t already fluttering on my windshield, it would be soon. Oh, and bitcoin was down two-thirds from its…

How Lightning’s Elizabeth Stark Raised an Army

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– A former academic, Elizabeth Stark likes to play devil’s advocate. Take, for instance, her appearance at the Crypto Springs conference in October 2018. It’s a sunny morning in Palm Springs, California, and most attendees are lounging by the pool; onstage, however, Stark is busy describing some of the darker potential scenarios for the cryptocurrency industry, ones in which it could fall short of its potential. But if the words of warning aren’t drawing a response, it’s perhaps because the price of bitcoin is still north of $6,000, and some…

How Lightning’s Elizabeth Stark Raised an Army

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– A former academic, Elizabeth Stark likes to play devil’s advocate. Take, for instance, her appearance at the Crypto Springs conference in October 2018. It’s a sunny morning in Palm Springs, California, and most attendees are lounging by the pool; onstage, however, Stark is busy describing some of the darker potential scenarios for the cryptocurrency industry, ones in which it could fall short of its potential. But if the words of warning aren’t drawing a response, it’s perhaps because the price of bitcoin is still north of $6,000, and some…

Backstage With CZ, the CEO Who Can’t Be Stopped

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Cameras, flashlights, tweets – when Changpeng Zhao takes the stage these days, a kind of mania seems to ensue. Of course, that’s perhaps to be expected when you’re known to the world over by just two letters, but “CZ” has arguably achieved something greater in 2018 — a celebrity status that’s equaled by his clout as an entrepreneur. On a sweltering December day in Singapore, Zhao is quick to show why — he has a surprise that’s not so much up his sleeve as under it. “I’m gonna show…

2018 Sees Bitcoin’s Lowest Average Daily Price Change: Report

This year Bitcoin’s (BTC) average daily price change was the lowest value reported in the past nine years, self-proclaimed professional cypherpunk Jameson Lopp tweeted Dec. 30. This year, the average daily value change for Bitcoin was -0.33 percent, according to Lopp’s tweet. In second place for lowest average daily price change was 2014 at -0.25 percent. The year with the highest average daily change was 2010, when Bitcoin saw an average 0.82 percent price change daily — followed by 2017, with an average 0.78 percent daily price growth. As Cointelegraph…

Bitcoin Exchange Paxful Sees 20% 2018 Growth, Driven by Africa

Regardless of bitcoin’s price volatility, 2018 saw an explosion of activity among African users. Revealed exclusively to CoinDesk, the peer-to-peer bitcoin exchange Paxful increased its transaction volume by 130 percent since January 2018 with an average of $21 million a week, compared to $8.5 million in 2017. The growth was driven in part by Paxful’s user base almost tripling in Ghana, with 41,243 accounts, and more than doubling in Nigeria to 321,476 accounts. According to Paxful CEO Ray Youssef, African bitcoin traders accounted for 41 percent of all of the…