Though ‘Intriguing,’ Crypto Won’t Dethrone Dollar, Says IMF Economist

Digital currencies have gained prominence over the last few years, although such options will not budge the U.S. dollar from its seat of prominence, according to chief economist International Monetary Fund (IMF) Gita Gopinath. “Improvements in payment technology may have lowered the cost of switching from cash to digital payments, but there is little evidence they have done much to reduce the expense of moving among currencies,” Gopinath said in an opinion piece for the Financial Times on Jan. 6, adding: “Widely-held perceptions of the dollar’s safety and stability have…

BREAKDOWN: Hamstringing an Industry With Compliance Costs | January 7th, 2020

In their annual transparency report, Kraken reported seeing a 50% increase in regulatory inquiries as compared to 2018, which CEO Jesse Powell later revealed cost the exchange more than $1m. Between this and stories like the $2m it cost Blockstack to raise $23m in an SEC compliant token sale (8.7% of the raise), it begs the question: will compliance costs fundamentally limit innovation by demanding big war chests to play? Will the most successful companies be those who (like Block One) simply raise enough to pay off the regulators on…

US SEC Prioritizes Crypto Compliance in 2020, But Hints at Kinder Gentler Approach

The United States Securities Exchange Commission continues to scrutinize crypto as its compliance office adds fintech and digital assets to its annual priorities list. Per a Jan. 7 announcement from the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE), the agency has put new financial technologies including digital assets among major concerns in the coming fiscal year. In the words of the regulator, new technological developments in capital formation and investment advice “warrant ongoing attention and review.” The OCIE’s work OCIE made a similar announcement at the beginning of 2019.…

Bitcoin Just Printed These Key Bullish Signals as Price Surged to $8,100

After seeing a small retracement (as predicted in one of NewBTC’s Bitcoin analysis articles), BTC continued to rocket higher on Tuesday. As of the time of writing this, the leading cryptocurrency has tapped $8,100 for the first time in literal weeks — in six weeks, to be exact — managing to surmount that level on the back of another wave of buying pressure from bulls. Related Reading: Bitcoin Poised to Collapse Under $5,000? Market Cycle Fractal Suggests So This latest bump higher, while still strong, was relatively mild in the grand…

4 Signs the Cryptocurrency Altcoin Market May Have Finally Bottomed

Bitcoin (BTC) made a sudden jump of 9% in the past 24 hours. However, altcoin cryptocurrencies have been showing strength recently as well. Recent surges from large caps have been in the double digits with Dash (DASH) surging 50% and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) 30% in the past four days. Is it possible to draw a conclusion that the altcoin market capitalization is potentially bottoming? Let’s find out. Crypto market daily performance. Source: Coin360 Altcoins retraced to their cycle lows Many altcoins have reached their cycle low levels, which means that…

Former Bakkt CEO Sworn Into Senate, Casts 1st Vote to Support Trump

Kelly Loeffler, former CEO at the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE)-backed crypto trading platform Bakkt, has been sworn into the United States Senate. In a Jan. 6 tweet, Loeffler announced that she was sworn into the U.S. Senate by Mike Pence, the Senate’s chief officer, to become Georgia’s newest Senator. Loeffler casts first vote to support Trump’s pickto lead the Small Business Administration In the announcement, Loeffler said that she had already cast her first vote to support U.S. President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Small Business Administration, an autonomous U.S.…

Coinbase Pro App Now Available on Android With 50 Trading Pairs

Coinbase Pro released a new Android application Tuesday, granting professional investors using the exchange access to high-speed trades and other activities. Product manager Linda Xie wrote in a blog post that Coinbase Pro customers in more than 100 countries could use 50 different trading pairs with its new Android app, released some three months after the company first launched an iOS app targeting its professional traders. Both apps offer deposit and withdrawal services, and “the mobile trading experience provided by the app offers the functionality of our desktop platform,” she…

What Happens If the US Loses the Blockchain War?

While Mark Zuckerberg was fighting with the United States Congress over Facebook’s Libra, China took another step forward in the global technology race. President Xi Jinping called on his country to “seize the opportunity” in order to become a leader in blockchain technology as it tries to do likewise with artificial intelligence. This could be an opportunity for China, which has already become the world’s leading trading nation, to stand up to the first economic world power and flex its muscles. But how significant is this move, and what happens…

Turkey’s Financial Watchdog Plans to Regulate Crypto Markets, Report Says

Capital Markets Board of Turkey has plans to regulate crypto transactions, according to local sources. Capital Markets Board of Turkey (CMB), the regulatory body overseeing securities markets in the country, is developing a guideline to observe, audit, and regulate the crypto markets in the country, major Turkish media outlet Hurriyet reported on Jan. 4. Public authorities in Turkey have concerns regarding the protection of investors in crypto markets. The government entrusted CMB with the development of a regulatory framework for crypto markets, according to the report. Per the request by…

Blockchain Platform EOS Raised $4 Billion and Has Dropped Over 30% Since

In the period between June 2017 and 2018, Block.one raised $4 billion via the sales of its native cryptocurrency, EOS. More than a year later, the token associated with the Cayman Islands-based startup has lost over 30 percent of its value due to massive price declines and a lack of authentic users. The EOS-to-dollar exchange rate currently sits at approx $2.79 after peaking at $23.02 in April 2018. Like in the case of every other cryptocurrency, EOS too became a victim of massive dumping that occurred during the 2018’s so-called…