Welcome to your free Friday newsletter! For those who are still on the fence about subscribing to premium—which will deliver five days of ad-free Inside Cryptocurrency to your inbox—here are a few pointers that may give you the nudge you need: - A daily Market Watch covering Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the day's market winners and losers.
- Suggestions on who to follow online, including those with breaking information that could impact your trading.
- The latest studies and reports on cryptocurrency, which we break down and explain for you.
Click here to upgrade to premium! I hope to see many more of you enjoying my newsletters, and until then - have a lovely weekend and stay safe out there! Rebecca / @RebeccaCambel
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Friday trading has seen most coins take a slight downturn in value. The biggest winner is Waves, which has seen a more than 4.5 percent rise in 24 hours. Bitcoin is also back under $7,000 following a positive run this past week. - Bitcoin: $6,917 (⬇️ 4.92%) // $126.6 billion market cap.
- Ethereum: $158 (⬇️ 6.88%) // $17.5 billion market cap.
- XRP: $0.187 (⬇️ 5.38%) // $8.2 billion market cap.
- Tether: $1.00 (⬆️ 0.06%) // $6.3 billion market cap.
- Top 100 Winner: Waves: $1.05 (⬆️ 4.56%) // $106 million market cap.
- Top 100 Loser: Blockstack: $0.091 (⬇️ 13.37%) // $32 million market cap.
Prices are as of 12:40 p.m. ET.
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A report suggests that scammers taking advantage of COVID-19 have seen their profits decline due to a drop in crypto prices. The report was put together by Chainalysis, which found that the coronavirus pandemic has seen a rise in the number of phishing and blackmail scams. According to the report, despite the rise in scam activities, the amount of cryptocurrency sent to scammers between March 13 and March 31 dropped 61 percent. It goes on to point out that this is because of a drop in investment scams and Ponzi schemes, which accounted for 95 percent of all crypto funds sent to scams last year. For the week ending March 8, the weekly average being sent to Ponzi schemes and investment scams declined 33 percent, from $4.2 million to under $2.9 million. CHAINALYSIS 
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 Binance's CEO asks his followers to download the Brave browser. In a tweet today, Changpeng Zhao said that while Bitcoin isn't free, a person's privacy is. He then recommended that users protect themselves online by downloading the Brave browser, a privacy-first web browser based on Chromium. The platform also has its own native token, the Basic Attention Token (BAT). In March, Brave teamed up with Binance to bring crypto trading directly into the browser. One of the ways that Brave enables users to maintain their privacy is through Tor, an open-source software for enabling anonymous communication, in the browser. CZ_BINANCE/TWITTER
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 Follow Friday: Heidi Chakos Chakos describes herself on Twitter as a "Crypto maximalist. Fiat minimalist. Digital Nomad." As the host of her YouTube channel Crypto Tips, she provides her more than 56,000 followers with recommendations on centralized exchanges, how the largest financial bubble has burst, and how one should protect themselves amid the currency printing in light of COVID-19. Back in 2016, the Observer reported on how Chakos' experience with posting blogs on Steemit has allowed her to travel. One of her adventures took her to Peru, while other posts have been about her experiences in Morocco, which has earned her over $1,000. Some of Chakos' tweets include being bullish on crypto, how hyperinflation will never happen with Bitcoin, and how the U.S. Federal Reserve doesn't want to save the economy. You can follow her @blockchainchick.
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 HTC to allow users to mine Monero via its EXODUS 1S blockchain smartphone. The electronics company has teamed up with Midas Labs, an ASIC chip design company, to enable this to happen. Midas Labs is creating an app called DeMiner, which is expected to be available during Q2 2020. HTC is allowing users to download this app (when it becomes available) so that they can mine for Monero. As per the announcement, the DeMiner app has a hashrate comparable to a desktop computer, but consumes much less computing power. According to Midas Labs, mining for crypto is not cost-effective, with the typical laptop mining the equivalent of $0.06 worth of Monero per day by burning 65W of power, costing around $0.156 each day. THE BLOCK
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Binance is enabling citizens in five more countries to purchase crypto with Visa credit and debit cards. The five countries this applies to are Colombia, Kenya, Kazakhstan, Peru, and South Korea, according to an announcement from Binance today. At launch, Bitcoin, Ether, Binance Coin, XRP, Binance USD, and Tether will be available to buy with their native currencies. This latest news from Binance comes after a busy few weeks for the company. Earlier this month, the exchange announced its acquisition of CoinMarketCap. On a less positive note for the exchange, yesterday saw Binance responding to allegations that it had blocked access to a user's account containing around $1 million in crypto. BINANCE
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 Canadian investors can invest in Bitcoin on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The Bitcoin Fund by 3iQ, a crypto-asset portfolio manager, is the first of its kind to be listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The Winklevoss twins' Gemini exchange will act as custodian. Yesterday, Tyler Winklevoss, co-founder and CEO of Gemini, took to Twitter to make the announcement. Approved by the Ontario Securities Commission, a securities regulator, the fund enables Canadians to invest in Bitcoin via their regulated investment managers. The arrival of the Bitcoin Fund comes after years of continual talks with regulators before receiving approval. With the fund available in Canada, 3iQ is setting its sights on other global stock markets. According to Fred Pye, CEO and president of 3iQ, it will be listing in Gibraltar in May. COINDESK
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 Luxembourg-based Blockchain is seeking a relief loan from the U.K. in a bid to stay afloat during COVID-19. The crypto wallet provider appears to be seeking a handout from the U.K. government, despite the fact that it's registered in Luxembourg, which is outlined in an open letter to U.K. Chancellor Rishi Sunak. Peter Smith, CEO of Blockchain, is one of many who have signed the letter urging the government to provide lending options to companies such as theirs and other startups during the coronavirus pandemic. (Other companies that have signed include Babylon, Deliveroo, and GoCardless.) However, in a report from Decrypt, Blockchain has denied that it is seeking any sort of handout and that it's simply rallying behind other companies during these uncertain times. DECRYPT
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A U.S. association claims that online voting with the aid of the blockchain still isn't secure. The American Association for the Advancement of Science’s (AAAS) Center for Scientific Evidence in Public Issues has written an open letter arguing that internet voting is not a secure solution in the U.S., nor will it be for the foreseeable future. It goes on to point out that even with the aid of the blockchain, serious questions arise about how the technology is decrypted for the public to access, how information is stored, and how those votes are transferred to paper records. Citing a 2018 study by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, the AAAS states that internet voting should be avoided until robust measures are put into place.
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 |  | This newsletter was written and curated by Rebecca Campbell. She has been writing and reporting on various industries for the past 10 years, more specifically tech in the last three. Connect with her on Twitter. |  | | Editor | Beth Duckett is a former news and investigative reporter for The Arizona Republic who has written for USA Today and other publications. You can follow her tweets here. | |
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