On today’s holiday episode, we’ll quickly define and demystify the blockchain term “smart contract.” Source
MARKETS DAILY HOLIDAYS: Smart Contracts?
Day: December 27, 2019
Chinese Regulators Worry About Crypto Resurgence, Issue New Warning
China’s securities regulators has urged Beijing authorities to carry out relevant actions aimed at preventing the usage of cryptocurrencies by the public. In a Dec. 27 announcement on the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) website pointed out the risks of the resurgence of digital currencies, such as the escalation of crypto trading activities, digital currency mortgage provision and introduction of zero-interest loans, as well as serious violations of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) provisions. Signatory to the announcement were four Beijing-local regulators. To address risks, the regulators issued a…
Brad Garlinghouse & Ripple Exec’s Talk 2019 & Predictions for 2020
Brad Galinghouse and his world-changing team of execs have released a Christmas themed message of hope for Ripple and XRP heading into 2020 and beyond. CTO David Schwartz, Ethan Beard SVP of Xpring, Asheesh Birla, Breanne Madigan and Marcus Treacher also gave their views and future perspectives. You are going to see consolidation, the world does not need the three thousand plus cryptocurrencies out there & i think the utility will bear out, there will be a migration to quality if you will. Technologies & digital currencies that can scale to…
Everything Except Bitcoin is Rising This Christmas Season, and It’s Bad
Offbeat asset bitcoin is having a difficult time attracting investors during this Christmas holiday. The benchmark cryptocurrency, which is still up by more than 100 percent on a year-to-date (YTD) scale, plunged by up to 8.27 percent this week. On Friday, bitcoin established a fresh weekly low of $7,053.32. At its highest, it was trading at $7,688.99. Bitcoin continues downside moves despite favorable investment opportunities | Source: TradingView.com, Coinbase The move downhill followed a relief price rally last week, wherein bitcoin surged by 19.58 percent after locating a strong footing…
BitMEX Cryptocurrency Exchange Holds 0.18% of All Bitcoins in Circulation
BitMEX, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by daily trading volume to date, now holds 0.18% of all Bitcoins (BTC) in circulation. In a Dec. 26 tweet, James Lopp, CTO at New York-based crypto custody startup Casa, also pointed out that BitMEX’s dedicated insurance fund has surged 62% in 2019. BitMEX holds 33,449 Bitcoins out the 18.1 million mined to date According to daily historical records of BitMEX Insurance Fund, the balance of the fund has grown from 20,776 BTC on Jan. 1, 2019 to 33,449 BTC on Dec. 26, worth…
OKEx Introduces Bitcoin Options Trades for a Few Clients
OKEx crypto exchange officially announced the launch of Bitcoin options trading for a chosen few clients. This has happened ahead of a public launch on January 9, 2020. In a December 26 press release, the third-largest crypto exchange by daily trading volume worldwide has confirmed that the new contract will be settled daily in Bitcoin. Increasing Hedging Strategies Options for OKEx Traders An options contract is a popular derivative that lets traders hedge against asset price swings in all directions. It provides users with the opportunity to buy either a…
Someone Say Bear Market? Bitcoin Sets 3 Huge New Records in 2019
Bitcoin (BTC) was, in fact, anything but bearish in 2019, as new data shows its technical strength has reached levels never seen before. An examination of three metrics — Bitcoin’s transaction count, USD transaction volume and hash rate — confirms the largest cryptocurrency firmly beat off bearish sentiment this year. Over the past twelve months, those measures set new records, easily eclipsing previous performance. That included outdoing 2017 figures, fuelling the narrative that Bitcoin price action is no indicator of overall health, though BTC’s value is still up over 100%…
Binance Users Can Now Buy Four Cryptos with Visa Credit and Debit Cards
Major global cryptocurrency exchange Binance now allows users to buy crypto directly through Visa credit and debit cards. In a Dec. 26 announcement, Binance said that its users are able to directly purchase four cryptocurrencies after binding their accounts to Visa cards issued within the European Economic Area. Binance users can buy four cryptocurrencies with euros or pounds Once the Visa card is linked, users can buy four cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP and Binance’s native token Binance Coin (BNB) with euros or British pounds. According to the…
Crypto Derivatives Market Continues Strong for a Reason, OKEx Emerges on Top
The cryptocurrency sector, with its origins spanning a bit over a decade, has already made its presence and impact felt on the global economy. In fact, this new class of digital assets is now on the verge of becoming part of the mainstream financial system. The transition is evident from the ever-increasing trade volumes on various cryptocurrency platforms, which is further supported by the availability of trading products to the crypto community that bears similarity to traditional instruments. One of the prime movers in the crypto trading segment is the…
Ethereum’s ‘Bazaar’ Development Model Will Pay Off in 2020
This post is part of CoinDesk’s 2019 Year in Review, a collection of 100 op-eds, interviews and takes on the state of blockchain and the world. Ben Edington advises on Eth2 across ConsenSys. Prior to joining ConsenSys, he was Head of Engineering for Information Systems at Hitachi Europe. My life would be much easier if I could give you an exact date when Ethereum 2.0 will go live, if I could show you a two-year committed road map or explain precisely how cross-shard transactions will preserve DeFi composability. I’m pretty sure…