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European Nations Proposing Plans for Libra Competitor

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The German Central Bank called out on banks across Europe to come up with a cheaper competitor for Facebook’s Libra Coin. 

Jens Weidmann who serves as an official of the European Central Bank and the President of the German Central Bank announced the suggestion earlier today. The financial expert who seems against the idea of digital Euro believes that European nations have the ability to create a faster and cheaper Libra alternative.

Despite having a hard time the previous year, Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook are putting up work to win regulatory approval. Following the announcement of China’s digital stablecoin posing as succinct competitors to Libra coin, other nations are head-on heels to launch their own CBDC.

Libra’s many wars seem to be as a result of the power it might hold. Most people believe allowing Facebook’s inclusion into financial data; in addition to the personal data it currently poses -; gives it better traction to outshine the United States Dollar. 

Cheap, Fast & Transparent Libra Alternative

Several nations, as well as technologists, have been scrutinizing the pieces of the puzzle. For instance how the social media giant has been working around the clock to win regulatory frameworks. Hence, these nations are also working tirelessly to find a better option for Libra. Meanwhile, Jens Weidmann called out on other banks in the region to develop a better alternative for Libra, that will be cheaper, faster and transparent. 

Weidmann stated that smaller banks are in a better position to provide such a solution to customer requests. In fact, he noted that he didn’t believe in creating an immediate solution’; but a corresponding offer to carter for customer requests. 

Dr Jens Weidmann
Credit: Wikipedia

Mark Zuckerberg lastly noted that Libra would serve the world as a standalone entity from Facebook. Furthermore, since Facebook seems to be the key reason that Libra is still lagging with compliance -; Separating both entities seemed the best way forward for Libra. Meanwhile, Ripple Chief Executive Officer Brad Garlinghouse said that the project will only launch until 2023.

Lack of Concrete Plan to Launch Libra in 2020

For instance blockchain analyst Bello Perez believes that Libra lacks a concrete plan to see it launch in 2020. A board member Patrick Ellis had previously told Reuters that the Libra Association didn’t have plans to determine its launch this year. 

“At this stage, there is no strategy set in stone for the markets or the product, or how it will actually get rolled out,” 

However, After reaching out to Ellis on whether Libra would actually launch in 2020, he simply said “Yes.”

Initially, the social media giant sent the world into a frenzy when it drafted plans to launch a digital coin. Facebook announced that it had garnered support from at least 28 companies such as PayPal, Mastercard and Visa. 

However, it wasn’t long before global regulators began showing concern and issuing warning. A situation that scared several Libra backers including Paypal and Mastercard. Libra’s story turned gaga spiralling into a congress questioning of Facebook President Mark Zuckerberg. 

The barrel of regulatory scrutiny is believed to have been among the reasons for several members of the Libra Association exiting. For instance, the European Union antitrust began probing Facebook Inc back in August. 

Moreover, the European Commission began to investigate Libra’s potential anti-competitive mannerism, amid rising concern that the payment system had the capability to cut off rivals. 

Swiss Concerns With Libra

Recently, shortly before the end of 2019. Switzerland President noted that Libra had failed and required reworking to win approval. For instance, he raised concern about the type of currencies underpinning the stablecoin. He said:

“I don’t think (Libra has a chance in its current form), because central banks will not accept the basket of currencies underpinning it,” 

Bitcoin Loses Out to Surprise Entrants on ROI List as Analyst Lists Out 2019’s Best Performers

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Twenty nineteen was a long and arduous year for the cryptocurrency industry with various events occurring in different parts of the space. One of the main occurrences over the past year was that the prices had failed to close at a high towards the end, prompting users to HODL and wait it out in 2020. Despite the bear market and its effect on the face value prices of many cryptocurrencies, their Return on Investment [ROI] has been significant.

Charlie Bilello, the Founder and CEO of Compound Capital Advisors recently pointed out that the assets with the biggest gains and holder benefits were some of the uncommon ones. The cryptocurrency that came out on top with the maximum returns was Chainlink at a whopping 506 percent positive dividend.

At press time, Chainlink was trading for $1.81 after a 0.15 percent after a 0.15 percent hike in the 24-hour spectrum. In 2019, the highest that Chainlink traded for was $4.12 after which the cryptocurrency never saw such zeniths again. The 18th ranked cryptocurrency was linked with several projects as the talisman mode of payment but that has yet to come to fruition.

Tezos was the asset that gave the second most returns in the last calendar year, with holders receiving a 192 percent increase on their initial investments. Tezos peaked at $1.77 in 2019, a figure that was almost beaten in December when the cryptocurrency traded for $1.69. This climb came on the back of a 27 percent price hike at a time when Bitcoin was trying to breach the $7500 barrier. Currently, the 11th ranked cryptocurrency which had surprisingly beaten the likes of Tron was trading for $1.3 after a 3.52 percent depreciation in value.

The Changpeng Zhao led Binance Coin was the last cryptocurrency on the podium after providing returns of 124 percent in 2019. The figures hardly came as a surprise to members of the cryptocurrency industry as the cryptocurrency had remained one of the best performers throughout the annual year. CZ even claimed that over 180 fiat currencies were ready to be launched in 2020 as the company debuted its Euro pairs on January 3. Binance users will be able to trade EU against Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP and Binance Coin.

Bitcoin rounded up the top 4 of the list with a 92 percent return rate in 2019. The world’s largest cryptocurrency had recorded a high rate thanks to its stellar performance at the start of the year. Since Bitcoin had almost hit the $13,000 mark last year, the asset has struggled to get back up to its former glory. Bitcoin’s return rate was still enough to beat those of Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV.

In the Cryptocurrency industry cryptocurrencies such as Tron, XRP and Stellar were the worst performers in the top 10 club, recording negative ROIs of 27 percent, 46 percent and 59 percent respectively.

 

XRP [XRP/USD] Price Analysis: Cryptocurrency Price Sees Reprieve in Short Term as it Struggles to Break $0.2

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XRP, Ripple’s native cryptocurrency has taken multiple steps over the past year to solidify its position as the de-facto digital asset for cross border transactions.

The multiple partnerships created by its parent company has however not resulted in significant increases in its price. The XRP ‘Army’ has taken the reduced price performance in stride and despite the bearish market, even claimed that third-largest cryptocurrency would moon to record highs soon.

1 hour:

XRP [XRP/USD] Price Analysis: Cryptocurrency Price Sees Reprieve in Short Term as it Struggles to Break $0.2
One Hour Chart

On the hourly spectrum, XRP was trading for $0.192 after climbing substantially on January 3. The immediate support was at $0.183 while the immediate resistance was holding at $0.1985.

The Bollinger bands had diverged from one another indicating an imminent price breakout. In this case, the bullish breakout had caused the candles to fall back into the Bollinger cloud prompting many in the space to speculate a bull overturn.

The Relative Strength Index spiked near the overbought zone after trudging below the oversold zone for sustained periods of time. The hold near the upper zone signified that the buying pressure was much more than the selling pressure.

The MACD indicator also showed bullish signals in the short term. The MACD line had crossed over with the signal line while the MACD histogram flashed green.

1 day:

XRP [XRP/USD] Price Analysis: Cryptocurrency Price Sees Reprieve in Short Term as it Struggles to Break $0.2
One Day Chart

In the long term sequence, XRP was still far away from its earlier highs above the $1 mark. The immediate support on the daily chart was clocked at $0.1777 after a drastic fall in prices towards the end of 2019.

The Relative Strength Index in the long term was bearish as the graph was near the oversold zone. The increase in selling pressure was due to the lack of interest from institutional investors as well as a very low price hold.

The Bollinger bands had converged towards each other, pointing to the close of a price trend. The last Bollinger cloud was bearish and had contributed to a lower price point.

The MACD indicator on the daily chart was flatter than its hourly counterpart. The histogram was a mix of bearish and bullish signals while the signal line and the MACD line ran in parallel with each other.

Conclusion:

The above-mentioned indicators pointed to minuscule increases in XRP’s price over the short term while the picture was still bearish in the long run.

Many investors and proponents of the cryptocurrency believe that an increased influx of institutional investors was the key to take XRP to the next level.

 

Crypto Exchange that Warned About Data Leaks Denies its Claim Now

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Poloniex exchange recently warned its users to reset passwords for some users to protect their accounts from possible data leak –however, the exchange today states that the information on social media didn’t originate from the crypto exchange.

Poloniex on Data Leak

Initially, the email was reportedly sent across its users on December 30, stating that “someone” posted a list of account credentials (email address and passwords) on Twitter and enforced a password rest on a group of users”. While it stated that not all the email addresses listed belong to Poloniex exchange, it claimed that the leak data could be used to log in to Poloniex accounts.

However, the exchange on Jan 03 posted an official detail blog post, noting that “no information or data leak was originating from Poloniex”. While elaborating the further stance, the exchange added;

Our immediate priority was to ensure that our customers’ accounts were safe. As a result, we reset the passwords of potentially impacted customers, as users often reuse passwords or minor variants of the same password. Our second priority was to determine the source of the leak and we can now confirm that neither this list nor the information contained, originated from Poloniex.

As part of concluding the matter, Poloniex details that “approximately 90% of the passwords listed already appear in the haveibeenpwned.com list of exploited passwords”. More so, it quickly assures users that they do not store user’s data in plain text. For those whose email Id wasn’t on the list, Poloniex said, ‘their data is secure’, by continuing…

 “Less than 5% of the email addresses on the posted list were associated with Poloniex accounts”. 

Since the exchange has been marked with the hacking incident in a history of the crypto industry, traders and users are still sceptical about the company’s rickety announcements quite often. Echoing the similar concern, a Twitter user, “Joshua Thomas” mocked by tweeting;

Crypto Binance Ranks #7 Google Search Terms in Thailand for the year 2019

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Undeniably Thailand is one of the top crypto-friendly countries and the result of the latest Google trends depicts that the country’s citizens are searching “Crypto Binance” to a great extent.

Binance Search Term Ranks #7 in Thailand

The news was first shared by Binance Boss “Changpeng Zhao (CZ)” via a tweet, which unfortunately is not available. However, as per bbc.com, people in Thailand used crypto Binance widely among other such terms. The top 10 search terms for the year 2019 on Google includes; tasting, shopping, use; Karma; mistress; leaves that blow; Stone Hearts; election results 2019; Crypto Binance; Share Chain Nice Review; sensual Mead; Love inspires an emergency.

Undeniably, Binance is one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges that offer its trading and other crypto-related services across almost all the countries of the world. More so, with the popularity of crypto and blockchain in today’s world, enthusiasts and investors are digging deeper into the concept of decentralization, digital currency, and blockchain ecosystem.

As for Thailand, the country is reportedly reforming cryptocurrency laws in 2020 as stated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Although several details regarding the crypto policy remained unseen, it was said that the country’s regulators Ruenvadee Suwanmongkol, the secretary-general of the SEC thinks “the regulator must be flexible to apply the rules and regulations in line with the market environment.

“For example, laws should not be outdated and should serve market needs, especially for new digital asset products, and be competitive with the global market. We need to explore any possible obstacles.” Added Ruenvadee.

The news of Binance appearing among the top search terms of Google in Thailand comes in a wake of Binance’s support announcement for Ethereum Muir Glacier upgrade. The exchange announced on Monday, 30th December that the exchange will temporarily suspend deposits as well s withdrawals for Ethereum during the upgrade. Notably, the upgrade is scheduled for January 2, 2020.

“ETH deposits and withdrawals will be suspended before block 9,200,000, the time selected to perform the estimated update to take place on 02/02 2020 (UTC). Note that ETH trading will not be affected during the upgrade, ”elaborated Binance.

Poloniex Exchange is Under Threat of Email Leak

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Looks like Poloniex crypto exchange is suffering data breach as the exchange recently requested its users to reset their password and account security.

Poloniex Confirms Data Leak

Tweeting on December 30, a Twitter account dubbed “Charly” posted a screenshot of an email purportedly received from Poloniex crypto exchange. Charly notes it as “scam email” to which Poloniex crypto exchange replied by confirming “this is a real email”. The message mentioned in screenshot reads as;

A couple of hours ago we discovered that someone leaked a list of email addresses and passwords on Twitter, claiming the information could be used to log in to Poloniex accounts. While almost all of the email addresses listed do not belong to Poloniex accounts, we are forcing a password reset on any email addresses listed that do have an account with us including yours.

What suggested as a scam email quickly turned out to be true following Poloniex’s customer support response. Notably, the exchange confirmed that the email was indeed real and requested users to reset their password for account security.

At the moment, it is unclear the amount of data leaked on Twitter, in fact, additional information about who leaked the data and when it was leaked remained hidden. More so, what causes the breach of email data is still unclear.

The exchange captured mainstream bulletins when the Tron boss “Justin Sun” reportedly invested in Poloniex. Furthermore, the investment made in a wake of exchange parted away from the crypto conglomerate Circle. The exchange has a quite dull remark in the crypto industry when hackers breached the servers of Poloniex.

The update comes in a wake of Justin Sun’s new acquisition of DLive, a blockchain-based live streaming platform. Following the acquisition, DLive will work together with the BitTorrent “to bring blockchain-based peer-to-peer content sharing including live streaming, to everyone”. DLive exists in the blockchain ecosystem since 2018 and surged in popularity when a YouTube star PewDiePie signed a deal with DLive.

Mavixbtc Crypto Firm Receives Cease and Desist Order

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In an official announcement, shared on December 27, Missouri-based crypto firm Mavixbtc received a cease and desist order on account of fraudulent business activity.

Fraudulent Crypto Firm Receives Cease and Desist Order

The announcement reads that Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s Securities Division ordered Mavixbtc to stop business operation and remove the fraudulent website. It claims that the firm wasn’t registered and misled the investors via its deceptive website. More so, regulators alleged that the firm falsely claimed to be registered with the financial industry Regulatory Authority and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation. It further added that;

The company also fraudulently used the registration number of a registered investment adviser representative who had no knowledge of Mavixbtc.

The crypto industry has several such cases that appeared to be well organized, well-funded and registered with the respective country’s authorities – however, the case is quite different on the other side of the coin. Per the report, Mavixbtc involved in offering investment advisory and brokerage services.

However, the crux of the matter is that the firms offering such services are expected to be registered.

In trying to sell investments in cryptocurrency, Mavixbtc touted potential investment returns of up to 55% in as little as six days. At the request of the division, the domain host for the company’s website complied with the cease and desist order and removed the fraudulent website, reads the document.

While advising on the matter, Securities Commissioner David M. Minnick notes that “don’t be fooled” by looking at the professional looking website as scam artists are fully aware of what entices investors. Noticeably, David M.Minnick mentioned they…“promise immense investment returns”. He has also suggested to reach out to the office before making such an investment. The authorities will assist you by providing information if the firm or agent is “registered to offer securities”.

Although the year 2019 is ending, yet it is not the end for crypto scams such as Mavixbtc. Despite the market is trading at a slower pace, bad market actors continued to catch the potential opportunity to attract investors. In a nutshell, Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft urged investors and the general public to follow due diligence and assess before investing in any scheme related to crypto.

Bitcoin continues its bearish struggles as price stagnates

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Bitcoin has had its fair share of highs and lows this year and December was no different. During a time when investors and holders were having fraught thoughts over the condition of the world’s largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin’s value continued to float in the $7000- $8000 region. At press time, Bitcoin was making no effort to close the year on a high as it traded for $7225.7.

1-hour:

hourly btc

The hourly chart for Bitcoin showed a slow down in the price as the immediate support held at $7205. The Bollinger bands were converging towards each other as the bear market held strong.

The Relative Strength Index was near the oversold zone and had begun a rise. Bitcoin’s performance on the hourly chart stated that selling pressure was more than the buying pressure.

The Chaikin Money Flow indicator was above the zero line during the hourly spectrum. This meant that the incoming capital was more than the outgoing capital, a positive sign for the investors.

1-day:

 

daily btc

The 1-day chart for Bitcoin displayed a flat movement for the price as the immediate support held at $7125. The Relative Strength Index on the daily chart was in the middle of the graph, a sign of the selling pressure and the buying pressure cancelling each other out.

The RSI was mostly near the oversold zone as the selling pressure in the market has been on a constant high after the bear crash. The last time the RSI was near the overbought zone was in October when the price had shot up near the $9000 mark.

The Chaikin Money Flow indicator on the daily spectrum was below the zero line. This was an indication that the capital leaving the Bitcoin market was much more than the capital coming into the market.

The Bollinger bands were reflective of the price candles as the upper band and the lower band moved parallel to each other. The parallel movement signified the lack of price fluctuations for Bitcoin and users were convinced that the stagnant movement would continue for a while.

 

 

BTC P2P Trading Skyrockets in Venezuela and Argentina

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Over the past few years, countries like Venezuela and Argentina have faced the worst economic crises in the region and Bitcoin being the decentralized cryptocurrency has been on a rise in these regions.

However, the latest data reveals that P2P trading continues to increase and hit an all-time high in both countries.

P2P Trading on Rise Weaker Economic Countries

Per the crypto data websites CoinDance, a P2P trading platform LocalBitcoins shows bitcoin and P2p trading volume has been recording an incredible weekly surge in Venezuela and Argentina. More so, the weekly trading volume in these countries reached an all-time high (ATH) on LocalBitcoins last week.

Notably, almost 248 billion bolivars (app.$24.8 million) traded on LocalBitcoins in Venezuela last week (December 15 – December 21) which was apparently 20.67% higher than early December. In contrast, Argentina witnessed trading of 32.6 million Argentine pesos ($544,905) on LocalBitcoins within the same week. Even though P2P trading volume in Argentina is relatively less than that of Venezuela last week, the trading volume in the former country saw a spectacular rise compared to what was traded during the weeks before.

Moreover, the major market players such as Huobi exchange, and many others are looking to expand their business across these regions and tap on the crypto-blockchain community in Venezuela and Argentina.

In fact, Huobi Global has launched a subsidiary in Argentina to help Argentines with crypto trading efficiently by using their local fiat currency.

Due to unstable and harsh economic situations in the regions like Argentina and Venezuela, investors often seek out the best possible alternative that holds potentially profitable opportunity – this being said, bitcoin ranks on top of the list of assets available. More so, experts believe that these situations may not change soon.

Conclusively, the leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin is currently up with 1.97 percent within the past 24Hs which quietly surged its trading value to $7472 against USD. More so, the currency at the time of reporting this is valuing the market capitalization of $135,469,268,487.

Crypto Exchange Huobi Launches Fiat-Currency Gateway for Indonesia

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Huobi Global recently announced that it is launching a fiat-to-crypto gateway for its Indonesian subsidiary, Huobi Indonesia. Accordingly, Indonesians can now access crypto services by using the Indonesian Rupiah (IDR) via Huobi Indonesia.

Huobi Sets Up Fiat-To-Crypto Gateway in Indonesia

Announced on December 27, Huobi Global is tapping the Indonesian crypto market as the exchange said that users can use IDR and Tether (USDT) to trade over 250 cryptocurrencies directly via Huobi Indonesia.

As per David Chen, senior director of Huobi Cloud, the new fiat gateway is a part of the company’s global expansion. He went on to add;

“By continuing to add new fiat/crypto pairs for Huobi Cloud 2.0, we want to make it frictionless for investors anywhere in the world to trade digital assets on a trusted and proven platform said, David Chen. The new fiat gateway reflects our ongoing commitment to working with strong local partners in key markets across the globe,”

According to Huobi, Indonesia presents “a major opportunity to contribute to the growth of the greater blockchain community and help drive crypto adoption globally”.

However, Xiong Dan, CEO of Huobi Indonesia says that the new fiat-currency door is “an exciting milestone” for Huobi’s Indonesian team. More so, he also adds that the exchange will continue its effort to “expand the Indonesia market, consolidate and improve service quality”.

Huobi has been on top bulletins with the new expansion quite often this year. The exchange has also begun its crypto effort to the Turkish crypto market as a part of its global expansion.

Moreover, it was said that Turkey is a promising prospective market for Huobi exchange and the exchange’s CEO Livio Weng had elaborated his view to bringing the Huobi ecosystem there. In fact, the exchange has also hired a crypto veteran, Alphan Gogus as a new general manager for Huobi Turkey.