Month: March 2020

Bakkt Attracts $300 Million Funding as Bitcoin Sell-off Continues

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Crypto derivatives provider Bakkt raised $300 million in its latest financing round even as its core portfolio asset bitcoin suffered huge losses amidst the Coronavirus-led sell-off. According to the announcement, penned by Bakkt’s CEO Mike Blandina, Intercontinental Exchange, PayU, Microsoft’s M12, Goldfinch Partners, Boston Consulting Group, Pantera Capital, and CMT Digital all contributed to the series B. Mr. Blandina confirmed that they would use the proceeds to build and promote its upcoming mobile application. Away from its primary services, which included end-to-end trading and custodial solutions for institutional bitcoin investors, Bakkt…

Ripple Lead Developer Advises on Remote Work Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

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Cryptographer and leading C++ software engineer at Ripple Nik Bougalis offers advice on remote work management to firms amid the coronavirus pandemic. In a March 16 tweet, Bougalis offered his help to company managers looking to have their teams work remotely. His proposal comes as the ongoing epidemic resulted in a global push for remote work in an attempt to decrease the opportunities that the disease has to spread further. Remote work encouraged amid the pandemic The Atlantic wrote on March 13 that people have anticipated the rise in remote…

BitMEX Takes a Hit — Community Cries ‘Foul Play’ Following Market Crash

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On March 13, trading giant BitMEX was thrust into the middle of a controversy that saw the premier exchange face an operational outage that lasted for about 25 minutes. During the downtime, rumors spread throughout the cryptoverse that some foul play had been going on behind the scenes, especially since Bitcoin’s (BTC) price fell to around the $3,700 mark. Related: Crypto Traders Explain What Caused the Bitcoin Price Plunge to $3,000s To help allay some of the suspicions that arose due to the aforementioned outage, BitMEX’s PR team issued a…

Shell Subsidiary Builds DLT-Based Virtual Power Plant in Germany

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Royal Dutch Shell subsidiary Sonnen Group announced a partnership with the Energy Web Foundation (EWF) to use EWF’s blockchain to create a virtual power plant (VPP) in Germany on March 12. The virtual power plant will comprise a distributed network of residential energy storage systems intended to absorb excess wind power and reduce Germany’s renewable energy curtailment.  With Germany shutting down coal-fired and nuclear energy plants in the coming years, the country has seen a boom in renewable energy production as a myriad of green energy producers launch or expand…

Blockchain-Based Social Network Overhauls Platform, Partners With Matic

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Ethereum-based social network Sapien has unveiled updates to its platform, as well as a partnership with the initial exchange offering project, Matic Network.  “After several months of development, we’re launching the next release of our platform, called Alpha Persei,” Sapien Network co-founder and CEOAnkit Bhatia told Cointelegraph in an interview. “This is a revamped platform across the board,” he said, highlighting new aspects such as Portis wallet integration and rewards engine reconstruction. Sapien also secured placement on KyberWidget, allowing trading between Sapien (SPN) tokens and Ether (ETH), according to a…

Crypto Market Crash Exposes Shortcomings of Various Exchanges

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The global economy is currently under tremendous pressure, thanks to the fast-spreading COVID-19 pandemic, the OPEC fueled oil price war, global stock markets shock and more. The widespread issues have driven global stock markets, futures and crude oil prices to the ground and spread into the cryptocurrency market as well. Considered the best alternative and one of the safe havens during tumultuous economic times, the cryptocurrency market wasn’t immune to the onslaught either. After coming under heavy selling pressure, the price of BTC, which was at a new high of…

Bitcoin Sinks to $4,390 as Dow’s 1,000-Point Drop Risks Bigger Breakdown

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Bitcoin jumped towards $6,000 in overnight trading as Federal Reserve reduced its benchmark interest rates, but trimmed gains as some traders liquidated their positions for cash amid sell-off in stocks. The bitcoin-to-dollar exchange rate plunged to $4,396.50 by 10:05 UTC, bringing its 24-hour losses further up by 13.78 percent. The bitcoin futures contracts listed on CME were also trading 15.67 percent lower into the day – at $4,495 – signaling that the cryptocurrency could dip further heading into the Monday’s US session. Bitcoin Futures on CME plunged on Monday | Source:…

Bitcoin Sinks to $4,390 as Dow’s 1,000-Point Drop Risks Bigger Breakdown

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Bitcoin jumped towards $6,000 in overnight trading as Federal Reserve reduced its benchmark interest rates, but trimmed gains as some traders liquidated their positions for cash amid sell-off in stocks. The bitcoin-to-dollar exchange rate plunged to $4,396.50 by 10:05 UTC, bringing its 24-hour losses further up by 13.78 percent. The bitcoin futures contracts listed on CME were also trading 15.67 percent lower into the day – at $4,495 – signaling that the cryptocurrency could dip further heading into the Monday’s US session. Bitcoin Futures on CME plunged on Monday | Source:…

Stablecoins Gain Market Share Amid Crypto Bloodbath

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While most cryptocurrencies have seen their market capitalization slashed over the past month, the market meltdown has seen stablecoins ascend the market cap rankings.  As of press time, six stablecoins currently reside among the top 50 crypto assets by capitalization. USDT ranks fourth  The largest-stablecoin by capitalization, Tether (USDT), currently ranks as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of $4.66 billion. Despite the total USDT market cap growing by just 0.5% in four weeks, Tether has crept up the ladder since ranking seventh by capitalization on Feb. 15.  However,…

Zimbabwe Returns to Crypto as Reserve Bank Proposes Regulatory Sandbox

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The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) is reportedly developing a regulatory sandbox for cryptocurrency companies in the country. The news was reported on March 16 by local newspaper Chronicle, citing a representative from the bank speaking at a conference on March 13. Chronicle reports that RBZ’s deputy director for financial markets and national payment systems, Josephat Mutepfa, revealed that the bank is working on a regulatory framework that would see companies involved with cryptocurrency go through a special regulatory sandbox. The sandbox will reportedly help the bank decide if a…