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Market prices have improved slightly during Friday trading with Bitcoin back over the $7,000 mark as we end the working week. - Bitcoin: $7,077 (⬆️ 0.77%) // $129.7 billion market cap.
- Ethereum: $170 (⬇️ 0.01%) // $18.8 billion market cap.
- XRP: $0.188 (⬇️ 0.06%) // $8.3 billion market cap.
- Tether: $1.00 (⬆️ 0.26%) // $6.3 billion market cap.
- Top 100 Winner: Loopring: $0.033 (⬆️ 18.15%) // $33 million market cap.
- Top 100 Loser: Horizen: $5.51 (⬇️ 2.53%) // $48 million market cap.
Prices are as of 2:30 p.m. ET.
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 U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler has joined President Trump's committee to restart the economy. Loeffler, the former CEO of Intercontinental Exchange subsidiary Bakkt, took to Twitter yesterday to thank the U.S. president for appointing her to his task force to restart the economy in the midst of COVID-19. The appointment comes on the news that Loeffler, a Georgia Republican, sold millions of dollars' worth of stock following reports she had responded to briefings regarding the coronavirus pandemic in late January. Loeffler, however, has denied the allegations, claiming that investment decisions for her portfolio are made by third-party advisers. Following her announcement on Twitter regarding her appointment, Scott Dworkin, co-founder of the Democratic Coalition, responded by querying how much money Loeffler would make off of it. @SENATORLOEFFLER/TWITTER 
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Research suggests COVID-19 is creating revealing patterns among crypto traders. That's according to research posted on the Oxford University Faculty of Law blog. In a paper titled "How Crisis Affects Crypto: Coronavirus as a Test Case," researchers Hadar Jabotinsky and Roee Sarel looked at the market cap and trading volume of the top 100 cryptocurrencies. In particular, they wanted to know how they correlated with the outbreak of the virus and with the number of infections and deaths. They found that, in general, with each new case of COVID-19, there was an inflow of money into the crypto market, subsequently boosting the value of the tokens. They noted, though, that this positive turn began to reverse when global cases hit 50,000 as investors started pulling their money out of the market. They attributed this down to the fact that traders interpreted the decline in the spread of the disease as a positive factor for traditional markets, prompting them to move back. UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
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 Yao is the vice-president of business development at crypto exchange OKEx and head of OKEx Pool. She's a familiar voice within the crypto space; some of the topics she has discussed include Bitcoin's upcoming reward halving event and its limited impact on mining pools, and how OKEx Pool is the answer to the future of mining pools. She has tweeted about the total market capitalization reaching $200 billion, how Bitcoin has recovered its hash rate following the market crash mid-March, and how the Bitcoin halving is good for the mining industry. For more insight, check her out on Twitter!
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A report from eToro shows that more than half of its user base have invested in XRP. The social trading platform published its latest quarterly report, which shows that 54.5 percent of its user base has invested in the third most valuable crypto asset by market capitalization. The second asset that was invested into the most was Bitcoin with 35.1 percent, followed by Ether with 23.9 percent and Litecoin in fourth place with 14.5 percent. Zcash, in 15th place, saw 1.7 percent of users investing in it. ETORO
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 Binance releases whitepaper for enabling smart contracts. The whitepaper from crypto exchange Binance states that a proposed blockchain will add smart contract functionality. Known as Binance Smart Chain, the platform said in an announcement earlier today that the idea of it would run parallel to the current Binance Chain, which was launched last April. However, even though the Binance Chain has helped Binance DEX become a fast and secure decentralized exchange, Binance notes, it doesn't provide enough flexibility or freedom to developers of decentralized apps (dApps). Running alongside Binance Chain, the Binance Smart Chain will retain the performance of the native blockchain, while supporting smart contract functionality. According to Binance, this solution brings the interoperability and programmability of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) to Binance Chain. The Binance Smart Chain will be built on 21 validators, with a proof of staked authority (PoSA) consensus mechanism. BINANCE BLOG
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 The author of "The Black Swan" urges Lebanese citizens to use crypto. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a Lebanese-American, and former risk analyst, has taken to Twitter to voice his opinion. When asking citizens to use crypto, Taleb was referring to a post from another user, which stated that the Bank of Lebanon is ordering that the value of all foreign currency remittances be paid out in the local currency, the Lira. In February, it was reported that Lebanon's banks were further restricting U.S. withdrawals as the country's financial and economic crisis deepens. For instance, at the time it was reported that one financial institution was limiting depositors to a maximum withdrawal of $400 a month. @NNTALEB/TWITTER
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Bitcoin startup Purse is closing its doors and will cease operations on June 26. Announcing the news yesterday, the company said that it had made the difficult decision to dissolve operations. As part of its transition process to closing its doors, it disabled new signups yesterday. Its "shop" and "earn" functionality will cease April 23, while open orders that have not been matched will be canceled. As of June 26, Purse will cease its operations. In a report from the Block, Eduardo Gomez, support manager at Purse, said that while they had a good run, the uncertainty of the current market made things difficult. Not only that, but they have had a few departures over the years by people who have decided to take on new projects. PURSE
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Teleport, the logistics arm of airline AirAsia, has launched a blockchain-based cargo booking system. Announced yesterday, Freightchain is, reportedly, "the world's first digital air cargo network run on blockchain." Launched yesterday, a shipper or freight forwarder can book any of AirAsia’s 247 aircraft to carry cargo through Freightchain, all of which don't need to go through traditional time-consuming sales or email channels, as per the announcement. The first pilot using Freightchain was conducted successfully, which shipped pharmaceutical cargo to Ulan Bator, Mongolia, from Bengaluru, India. Via a smart contract on the blockchain, an itinerary through Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Seoul, South Korea, was confirmed in real-time with flights from three different carriers. AIRASIA
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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. | | | | Editor | Beth Duckett is a former news and investigative reporter for The Arizona Republic who has written for USA Today and other publications. A graduate of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, she won a First Amendment Award and a Pulitzer Prize nomination for her original reporting on problems within Arizona's pension systems. | |
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