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HOLDUP HINTS: The question of when bitcoin futures exchange Bakkt will launch has been open since its announcement some eight months ago. While the specific reasons for the exchange’s delay are unclear, it is widely known that this is a regulatory holdup, rather than a technical one. CoinDesk sat down with J. Christopher Giancarlo, the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), to find out more – and while he wouldn’t speak to specifics, he outlined what some of the challenges were in approving a cryptocurrency futures product for the 45-year-old regulator. Full Story
STAR INVESTOR: Serena Williams, one of the world’s most successful tennis players, revealed over the weekend that she invested in Coinbase through a venture capital firm she set up in secret back in 2014. Serena Ventures, she said in an Instagram post, “invests in companies that embrace diverse leadership, individual empowerment, creativity and opportunity.” The post did not reveal when the firm backed Coinbase, or how much is invested in the exchange. Full Story
BANK BLOCKCHAIN: JPMorgan Chase plans to add settlement features to its existing blockchain project as it works to fend off new competitors, such as TransferWise and Ripple. The Financial Times reported that JPM’s Interbank Information Network (IIN), which was first set up in 2017 with Australia’s ANZ bank and the Royal Bank of Canada, plans to add a new settlement system by the third quarter of 2019 for both domestic and international payments. Full Story
AMAZON PURCHASES: Crypto payments processing startup Moon wants to help Amazon customers pay for goods using bitcoin’s Lightning Network. The company announced Monday that any lightning-enabled wallet can be used through Moon’s browser extension. Users can send bitcoin to Moon through the network, which in turn will send fiat to Amazon, though the payment institution converting bitcoin to fiat on the backend was not disclosed. By 2020, users should be able to pay for goods using the Lightning Network on almost any e-commerce site. Full Story
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| LONG-TERM BULLISH: Bitcoin could soon break out of a bearish channel seen on the short-duration charts in favor of retest of recent highs above $5,460. The bullish case, however, would weaken if the price finds acceptance below $5,170, a level that acted as strong support last week. Longer term, the bullish case has again strengthened with the 14-week RSI's move above the key resistance range of 53.00–55.00. With that, the cryptocurrency could be eyeing a move to $6,000 in the next month or two. Full Story |
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BEST OF THE BEST
INVESTMENT INCREASE: On average, South Korean crypto investors spent $6,000 on their digital assets of choice in 2018, according to a report from the Korea Financial Investors Protection Foundation (KFIPF). Reported by Finance Magnates, the figure marks a 64 percent increase over the previous year, which saw an average spend of around $3,660. Perhaps most surprisingly, the KFIPF found that investors in their 50s were most likely to invest in cryptos, with those in their 30s and 40s next most likely. THE RESTOIL CLEANUP: Chinyere Nnadi, an entrepreneur, has combined a successful oil cleanup technology called Bioclean with a blockchain platform to clean up oil spills in villages while avoiding corruption issues which hindered previous attempts at removing the potentially harmful materials, PhilStar Global reported. Nnadi was using Bioclean, which uses bacteria to destroy hydrocarbons found in oil at a molecular level, but faced issues in Nigeria. A blockchain ledger added transparency and accountability to the effort, the site said.
SOVEREIGN BITCOIN: The countries of Afghanistan and Tunisia are racing to become the first nation to issue a sovereign bond using bitcoin, the Asia Times reported. Khalil Sediq, the governor of the Central Bank of Afghanistan, explained that his nation was looking to raise as much as $5.8 billion in private sector investment using a sovereign crypto bond. Similarly, Marouane El Abassi, governor of Banque Centrale de Tunisie said his country developed a working group to study the feasibility of such a bond.
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WHO WON #CRYPTOTWITTER  |
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