Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Blocking the Sun?

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February 25, 2020
STEEM POWER: Developers behind the Steem blockchain executed a reversible soft fork Sunday, stopping one of the largest token holders – blogging app Steemit – from voting. The move comes days after Justin Sun’s Tron Foundation acquired Steemit, and seems planned to counter any move by the new stakeholder in its governance. Full story

COOL STRATEGY? Crypto wallet and security startup CoolBitX has raised $16.7 million in a round led by Japanese financial group SBI Holdings. The startup is focusing on new products and features that comply with new rules from the Financial Action Task Force to make its crypto services more financial institution-friendly. Full story

FRAUD FUNDING: A new app aiming to make the lightning network more user-friendly by merging it with fiat is a neat idea, writes J.P. Koning, though it comes at a cost. Since such a hybrid system would connect to lightning addresses, recouping stolen funds from recipients won't be possible and would have to be funded by the operators. Full story

1 ETH FOR 10 BTC: Singapore's Court of Appeals has ruled against digital currency exchange Quoine in a landmark cryptocurrency case relating to a breach of contract in 2017. The ruling concludes a legal battle that began after Quoine undid seven trades by a client who exchanged ether for bitcoin at a rate roughly 250 times higher than the market rate at the time. Full story

A BILLION BUCKS? Derivatives exchange FTX is hosting a public sale for tokenized equity in the hopes it can attain a billion-dollar valuation. Each FTX_Equity token, valued at $2 each, represents an ownership stake in the exchange’s holding firm. Full story

FRAUD WARNING: Scammers have been sending fake versions of CoinDesk's daily newsletter to try to trick recipients into visiting a suspicious "XRP giveaway" site. If you received this message, which copied our logo and design and even used our executive editor's name in the "from" field, know that it did not come from us. (Note that the actual sender's address is not a CoinDesk.com domain.) Please forward to fraud@coindesk.com and nik@coindesk.com, and block the sender if received.  

CRYPTO LENDING REPORT: The growth of crypto lending could attract new users and help the entire ecosystem grow. The introduction of lending, however, can also add systemic risk, and could change the very nature of the underlying assets. Will the benefits outweigh the potential vulnerabilities? This report also looks at what the near future could hold for the service, and the impact this could have on the sector as a whole. Download it for free here.
BEARISH SIGNAL: Bitcoin is flirting with the psychological support at $9,400 at press time, which, if breached would confirm a head-and-shoulders breakdown on the technical charts. That would put the bears in the driving seat and open the doors for a deeper sell-off toward support levels lined up below $9,200. Bulls need to see prices rise above the $10,000 mark to claw back control. Full story
 
STAYING IN:  Bison Trails is a founding member of the Libra Association. Unlike a number of high profile firms that have departed the project amid regulatory uncertainty, Bison Trails is sticking by. In this interview, Viktor Bunin, the firm's Protocol Specialist, discusses his company's current growth and why it still supports Facebook's plan to launch a cryptocurrency. Watch now

WHO WON #CRYPTOTWITTER

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