Day: May 16, 2019

WeChat Merchants Banned From Crypto Payments

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On May 7, Dovey Wan, founding partner of crypto investment firm Primitive Ventures tweeted that the Chinese social media behemoth and payment service provider WeChat is set to ban merchants from making cryptocurrency payments. This ban marks the latest effort to stymie cryptocurrency usage in China, with the government also mulling over ways of greatly decreasing the presence of crypto mining on its soil. WeChat bans crypto payments A rough translation of the Payment Service Protocol found on weixin.qq.com indicates that the ban is a result of changes regarding payment…

Ethereum Could Almost Double its Price This Year: Analyst

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A notable cryptocurrency analyst has projected double-growth for Ethereum in the second half of 2019. Jacob Canfield, the co-founder of SignalProfits.com, predicted Ether at circa $546 based on the asset’s historical price moves dating back to 2017. The analyst noted that the Ether price is trending inside a Rising Channel that looked strikingly similar to a channel that formed between June 2017 and early December 2017. The ETH/USD rate in 2017 posted 186.58 percent gains inside the Rising Channel. The pair later broke out and settled its all-time high of…

Ripio Is Launching a Crypto Exchange for 3 Latin American Nations

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Ripio, a startup that’s been working to boost crypto adoption in Argentina, is opening a new exchange platform for three Latin American markets. The exchange will operate in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, though due to regulatory hurdles, only fixed-price purchases will be available for Mexican users, Ripio CEO Sebastian Serrano told CoinDesk at Consensus 2019. The company already offers a crypto wallet and peer-to-peer lending, and is launching over-the-counter (OTC) trading for institutional investors alongside the exchange. The crypto community in Argentina looks similar to the crowd at Consensus, Serrano said.…

Estonian Consulting Firm Claims It’s Harder to Get a Crypto License Following Regulation

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Estonian consulting firm Eesti has claimed that it is getting harder to get a cryptocurrency license in Estonia in a press release published on May 16. The Estonian government’s Ministry of Finance introduced changes to the licensing process on May 3. The new regulations adds a numbered formal obligation, extends the processing time from 30 to 90 day and establishes the requirement for a company or branch to be incorporated in Estonia. Furthermore, the registered office address and the board of directors now needs to be located in Estonia, and…

As Cryptocurrencies Lose Popularity, Regulation Isn’t a Priority

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Crypto regulation is not a priority for the Russian government since cryptocurrencies have lost their popularity, the Russian prime minister has recently argued. Prime minister Dmitry Medvedev’s comments were reported by Russian news agency Fontanka on May 16. According to Medvedev, cryptocurrencies are not that interesting for the population anymore, which decreases the need for the adoption of crypto regulations. He said: “The popularity of cryptocurrencies has decreased so far, which likely makes the regulation issue not that relevant already.” Speaking at an annual international judicial forum on May 15,…

Trouble for Bitcoin if Price Corrects Below $7,500

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A prominent analyst fears difficulty for bitcoin if its spot rate drops below $7,500. Nick Cote, the chief information officer at US-based Redacted Capital, said holding the $7,500-level is essential for bitcoin as it began correcting from a yearly high of $8,388 this Thursday. The analyst noted that bitcoin falling below $7,500 could switch the interim market bias in favors of bears, as shown in the chart below. Bitcoin Price Breaks Below Interim Ascending Trend Line | Image Credits: Nick Cote Cote showed bitcoin breaking below a crucial ascending trendline and…

Crypto Miners Dominate Top 10 List of Most Prolific Malware Threats

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A global threat report has concluded that the three most common malware variants detected in April were crypto miners, according to a news release on May 14. Check Point Research said Cryptoloot, malware that uses the victim’s computing power to mine for crypto without their knowledge, was last month’s biggest threat. XMRig, open-source software which is used for mining monero (XMR), was in second place. Rounding off the top three was JSEcoin, a JavaScript miner embedded in websites. Despite their prevalence, the company’s researchers believe that criminals are shifting their focus…

Alternative Research Explains Explosive Bitcoin Price Boom

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By CCN: Bitcoin has surged up to 145.42 percent this year and more than 102-percent alone in the last 45 days, even if nobody exactly knows why. Some said it was the institutional investors that pumped the cryptocurrency’s price. Some even rubbished the bitcoin price rally by calling it artificial. Meanwhile, one new research attempted to find what drove moneymakers (if there were any) to an asset whose valuation had dropped by 84-percent in 2018. The answer came out to be simple: the cryptocurrency started to matter and became the…

2020 Presidential Hopeful Yang Says Blockchain, Crypto Must Be Big Part of US Future

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American entrepreneur and Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang has said that blockchain should be a big part of the United States’ future, Bloomberg reported on May 15. Speaking at the Consensus conference in New York, Yang — who is well known for his progressive pro-universal basic income stance — reportedly stated that: “I believe that blockchain needs to be a big part of our future. If I’m in the White House, oh boy are we going to have some fun in terms of the crypto currency community.” A challenger…

Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior Owner Unveils Blockchain Platform to Verify Luxury Goods

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ConsenSys has teamed up with LVMH and Microsoft to build a blockchain-powered platform that allows consumers to verify the authenticity of luxury goods, according to a news release on May 16. The consortium says the system, known as Aura, is designed to “serve the entire luxury industry with powerful product tracking and tracing services.” LVMH brands including Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior are already involved in the project — and discussions are underway to extend Aura to other high-end names within the group. The news release added: “AURA makes it possible for consumers…