Square Revenue Growth / Hoffman Takes Torch / CFTC Responses / Airdrop Venezuela

Subscribe | View in browser $BTC (1:14 p.m. EST): $3,846.88 (-0.31%) // 90-day high: $6,286.41 // 90-day low: $3,286.14 / / More… $BCH ABC (1:14 p.m. EST): $132.15 (-1.25%) // 90-day high: $432.88// 90-day low: $80.95 // More… $ETH (1:15 p.m. EST): $136.95 (-0.98%) // 90-day high: $201.35 // 90-day low: $86.08 // More… $LTC (1:15 p.m. EST): $46.18 (1.58%) // 90-day high: $49.19 // 90-day low: $22.09 // More… $XRP (1:15 p.m. EST): $0.31 (-1.62%) // 90-day high: $0.52 // 90-day low: $0.28 // More…       1. Square generated $166 million in revenue from bitcoin sales last year, making up about 5 percent of the company's overall business, according to the company's end-of-year filings. Square's bitcoin revenue increased during the second half of the year, bringing in $95 million over the last six months. The filings also showed that Square held about $200,000 worth of bitcoin at the end of last year. The firm said it assesses the carrying value at each reporting data. However, despite bitcoin's large decrease in price last year, Sqaure said its loss on bitcoin for the year was "insignificant." –COINDESK       2. Linkedin co-founder and former PayPal COO Reid Hoffman is the latest notable technology figure to take a run with the Lightning Torch. Hoffman, who is an investor and board member of Blockstream, is the 224th person to "hold" the torch, which is a cryptocurrency payment being sent to users around the world to gain attention for the Lightning Network. "Great to see Lightning accelerating Bitcoin use cases and adoption," Hoffman tweeted. Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey is the most prominent person to hold the torch so far. There has been an online movement to get Elon Musk to take part, as well. –ETHEREUM WORLD NEWS       Ad Rainmakers- The leading recruiting platform for top tech salespeople Awesome tech companies like Looker, Algolia, JFrog and Affinity build high performing, diverse sales teams using Rainmakers. Rainmakers has analyzed proprietary compensation data from thousands of salespeople.  We are excited to share our unique insights with you as you build your sales team.   3. Several major cryptocurrencies organizations — including Coinbase, ConsenSys, and the Ethereum Foundation — responded to a request from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on the principles of the ethereum network. The agency published an inquiry in December for information to help it better understand the similarities and distinctions between different cryptocurrencies. Gus P. Coldebella, the chief legal officer at Circle, discussed how ethereum can contribute to the global tokenization of value, while Charlie Cooper, R3's managing director, said asset-backed tokens will form the future of the industry. –COIN TELEGRAPH       4. Airdrop Venezuela wants to raise $1 million to aid Venezuelans through an interactive bitcoin installation. The recently started group plans to use the funds for a number of projects, including the rebuilding of a local daycare center. For every donation made, Airdrop Venezuela will remove a Venezuelan Bolivar note from a mural that depicts Nicolas Maduro, the country's president. Venezuelans continue to flock to bitcoin in record numbers, purchasing the cryptocurrency through Local Bitcoins as a way to fight against the hyperinflation of the nation's currency. –BITCOINIST       Ad Get Access To The Boss Cryptocurrency Trading Course - For FREE In This Free Course You Will Learn: - The exact trading strategy we used to win in 2018 - How to stop the seemingly endless cycle of losing money, forever - How to do it all trading less than 4 hours per week This course is 100% free for this week only. GET ACCESS NOW!   Throwback Thursday  Bitcoin is set to end February in the green, ending a six-month losing skid in the process. February has historically been good to bitcoin as the coin has seen a price increase that month each of the last five years. So what about March? Well, it is not so good. Bitcoin has lost value each March for the past five years. Some of the losses have been pretty large: bitcoin lost more than 15 percent in 2014 and 32 percent last year. There is hope, though, that this year could be different. Omkar Godbole at Coindesk said he has seen signs of a bullish reversal and expects the coin to test $4,200 per coin in the next few weeks. Throwback Thursday is our weekly look at some important dates and times in cryptocurrency history. If you have an idea for a future issue please hit replay to this email. –David       5. There is speculation that Netflix has started making a documentary on altcoins. However, the current evidence is some scene shots posted to Reddit, so take that for what it's worth. –NULLTX 6. The demand for software engineers with blockchain development skills has increased 517percent in the past year, according to a new report from the job search site Hired. –COMPUTERWORLD 7. Seymour Locksmiths in the United Kingdom has offered customers the option to pay in bitcoin for more than four years but no one has taken them up on it so far. –THE NEXT WEB 8. Jackson Palmer, the creator of Dogecoin, tweeted that comparing blockchain to the advent of the internet is "dishonest." –CCN 9. The London Stock Exchange led a $20 million investment in Nivaura, a London-based startup that allows companies to issue debt on a blockchain. –REUTERS 10. Crypto exchange Huobi has added support for ethereum-based tether. –COIN TELEGRAPH       Written and curated by David Stegon. He has been a reporter for 15 years, the past 10 focused on technology. Follow him @davidstegon. Editing team: Kim Lyons (managing editor at Inside, a Pittsburgh-based journalist with recent bylines in the NYTimes and Columbia Journalism Review.) and Susmita Baral (senior editor at Inside, recent bylines in NatGeo, Teen Vogue, and Quartz. Runs the biggest mac and cheese account on Instagram).       Ad A reimagined Jira Software. Simpler and more powerful than ever before. Learn more. Vettery is changing the way people hire and get hired. Learn more.

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