Day: January 13, 2020

Mobile Phone Retailer Joins China’s Blockchain Land Grab With US Startup Investment

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Dixintong Technology Group, whose parent company, D.Phone, is one of the largest smartphone retailers in China, has entered the blockchain space by acquiring a minority stake in a U.S. startup called Monsoon Blockchain. The two companies confirmed to CoinDesk that the purchasing agreement was signed on Jan. 7, but declined to disclose any financial terms on the deal. However, people familiar with the matter said the deal values the blockchain startup at over $100 million. The partnership between the two companies comes at a time when China is encouraging enterprise…

US Treasury to Complete PoC of Blockchain-Based Grants Payment System

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The United States Treasury Department has almost completed tests of a blockchain-based grants payment capability as part of the exploration of how the tech can improve such operations. As the Business of Federal Technology reported on Jan. 10, the Treasury Department launched a program designed to discover whether blockchain could provide more efficiencies into the operations of a blockchain-based grants payment system. Currently, the agency has almost completed a Proof-of-Concept for a blockchain-based letter of credit for federal grant recipients. More efficient tracking Describing the principle of the program’s operation,…

CME Takes Its Bitcoin Options Live, Competing With ICE’s Bakkt

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Chicago exchange CME Group has announced its highly-anticipated bitcoin options are now open for trading. Options on CME’s bitcoin futures contracts launched on the CME Globex around 15:00 UTC Monday. Each contract, quoted in U.S. dollars, represents five bitcoin and is cleared centrally to avoid counterparty risk. CME relies on trade flow data from several of the large bitcoin exchanges to accurately track bitcoin’s price. Bitcoin derivatives have been available on multiple cryptocurrency exchanges since at least 2014, but CME was one of the first platforms to offer investors regulated…

Which Altcoins Should Be Watched Closely in 2020

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The most interesting metric for me to watch is the usage of programmable blockchains to build software. While assets like Bitcoin and other cyber commodities create compelling economic narratives and stories about power, they don’t tell us much about the future of how economies are built and operated. To that end, using ConsenSys software like Alethio, we can see the number of various functional calls that developers make using decentralized programs. Are people moving money and paying each other? Are they creating collectible digital tokens, or trading some particular assets,…

BitPay Integration Lets Users Buy Gold With Cryptocurrency

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OneGold, an online marketplace for buying, selling and redeeming precious metals, announced a partnership with BitPay on Jan. 13 that will allow crypto users to purchase gold and other valuable metals on Android and iOS devices.  Through the integration with BitPay — a leading Bitcoin payment service provider that currently supports over 30,000 merchants, including Microsoft and Avnet — OneGold’s new mobile app will accept payments in Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ether (ETH), and various stablecoins. In addition, BitPay customers will save 2% when using the service on OneGold.com. …

Coinbase Hands Nearly $1M to Cryptsy Victims After Settling Class Action Lawsuit

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Coinbase has settled a class action lawsuit brought by users of the former Cryptsy cryptocurrency exchange. According to a set of court documents dated Nov. 27 and Dec. 10, 2019, Coinbase has agreed to turn $962,500 over to an escrow agent responsible for handling class action claims related to a previous lawsuit against Cryptsy. Lawyers for the plaintiffs, who announced the settlement Monday, have already won 11,325 BTC from this previous case. The plaintiffs created a webpage for potential Cryptsy victims – any individuals who used the exchange before 2015…

Crypto Investor Declares Alt Season as Litecoin, Ethereum and EOS Come Alive

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A popular host and crypto investor has made a bullish statement on altcoins. Ran NeuNer’s tweet was met with heavy criticism. Nevertheless, it is difficult to deny that large market cap coins are showing signs of strength. It’s not a secret that most alternative coins or altcoins are dependent on bitcoin. Wherever BTC goes, almost every other crypto token follows. That’s especially true for large market cap coins such as Ethereum, Litecoin and EOS. A score of one indicates perfect correlation. | Source: CoinMetrics Bitcoin’s recent resurgence is helping drag…

QAN Set to Launch as First IEO on Bitbay

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QAN, the first quantum-resistant smart contract platform, is set to launch as the first initial exchange offering (IEO) on Bitbay, as announced on BitcoinTalk. The European exchange is offering participants the opportunity to buy QARK tokens using fiat currencies. The sale will commence on January 20 and take place in three pools, with a tiered pricing structure to incentivize early participants. When the QAN token sale opens, participants will be able to participate using Euros, Polish zloty, US dollars, or British pounds as well as cryptocurrency. It’s an unusual step,…

Troubling Sign: Bitcoin’s Surge to $8.2k Was Much Weaker Than to $12k, Data Shows

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Over the weekend, the bitcoin price spiked to as high as $8,200 prior to the highly anticipated weekly close. Despite it being the first strong breakout since November 2019, there was not enough buying demand to push it to higher levels. Many traders expected bitcoin to hit upper resistance levels including $9,000 supported by the upward momentum in the past three days. As the weekly candle closed below $8,500, bitcoin rejected the $8,200 to $8,400 range and dropped back to around $8,050. Drop from $8,200 could lead to a bigger…

Analytics Firm Training Students to Detect Cryptocurrency Scams

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Cryptocurrency analytics firm CipherTrace has launched “Defenders League,” a program designed to provide students with the training and tools necessary to investigate crypto-related scams.  On Jan. 13 CipherTrace announced partnerships with the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, Middlesex University London, and the Blockchain Acceleration Foundation (BAF). The Defenders League will initially consist of graduate students from Middlebury and Middlesex, along with BAF students at nine universities located across California. CipherTrace’s chief financial analyst, John Jeffereies, told Cointelegraph that the Defenders League’s objective is to make the crypto economy…