Najnovšie aktuality v oblasti šifrovacích informácií v reálnom čase, ICO, trhová kapitalizácia a analýza

Facebook has reportedly denied its partnership with the crypto firm Stellar following a report on their negotiations for building a Facebook variant of a Stellar blockchain.

Facebook has reportedly denied entering into talks with cryptocurrency firm Stellar (XLM), Cheddar reported August 10. Earlier today, Business insider reported that Facebook and Stellar had been considering a potential partnership to build a Facebook variant of a Stellar blockchain.

A Facebook spokesman reportedly told Cheddar that the company is “not engaged in any discussions with Stellar, and we are not considering building on their technology.”

The statement was made in response to Business Insider’s report that the two companies had discussed a potential fork from the main Stellar network as part of its blockchain efforts. Sources from Stellar reportedly told Business Insider that, “it would make sense for Facebook to record payments transactions onto a distributed ledger like Stellar.”

While the news regarding Facebook’s collaboration with Stellar is in question, the social media company has made some steps to embrace blockchain technology. Last month, Evan Cheng, Facebook’s Director of Engineering moved to the same position at the company’s recently established blockchain team. The team was initially formed in May by David Marcus, the head of Facebook’s messaging app Messenger, to explore possible applications for distributed ledger technology.

The establishment of the blockchain team followed the implementation of a broader shake-up of Facebook's product team, which led to the formation of three separate divisions: a “family of apps” group, "central product services" and “new platforma and infra.”

Later that month, anonymous sources familiar with “Facebook’s plans” told Cheddar that Facebook is “exploring” the creation of its own in-app cryptocurrency, despite having banned crypto ads on the platform earlier this year. Facebook banned crypto ads under a clause preventing advertisements for “financial products and services frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices."

Stellar was originally established in early 2014 as a payment technology built on the Ripple protocol, though it has underwent significant changes since then. In July, Stellar obtained Sharia compliance certification in the money transfer and asset tokenization field. This means that Stellar will be able to enhance its ecosystem in regions where operation in the field of financial services requires compliance with Islamic financing principles.

XLM is one of the top 10 cryptocurrencies on Coinmarketcap’s listings and is trading at $0.21 at press time, down almost 3 percent over the last 24 hours.

British police have warned the public about crypto-related scams, revealing $2.5 million worth of losses this summer.

British police have warned the public about fraudulent investment schemes involving cryptocurrencies, the volume of which has led to 2 million pounds ($2.55 million) worth of losses this summer, according to an announcement published August 10.

In the announcement, the police cite statistics prepared by the Action Fraud national reporting center for fraud and cyber crime, which shows that in June and July victims reported losses of $2.5 million in cryptocurrency scams. The average loss totaled to roughly 10 thousand pounds ($12,700 thousand) per person. Director of Action Fraud Pauline Smith said:

“It’s vital for anyone who invests or is thinking of investing in cryptocurrencies to thoroughly research the company they are choosing to invest with. The statistics show that opportunistic fraudsters are taking advantage of this market, offering investments in cryptocurrencies and using every trick in the book to defraud unsuspecting victims.”

Fraudsters reportedly lure potential victims with “get rich quick” investment schemes in crypto mining and trading. When a person signs up to a fraudulent digital currency investment website, they are asked to provide personal data like credit card details or driver’s licence numbers to open a trading account. Once the victim makes an initial deposit, fraudsters persuade them to invest more to gain a greater profit.

In order to fight fraudulent activity involving cryptocurrencies, the City of London Police’s Economic Crime Academy (ECA) has reportedly developed a one-day “Cryptocurrencies for Investigators” course to train officers to recognize and manage crypto in their investigations.

This week, the U.K. financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), issued two warnings over crypto-related “clone” companies, which claim to be authorized by the FCA. The first firm called Fair Oaks Crypto allegedly tried to hoodwink potential victims by claiming that they represent Fair Oaks Capital Ltd. The second, Good Crypto was reportedly giving out  “false details or mix[ing] these with some correct details of the registered firm,” which in this case was London-based Arup Corporate Finance.

Japan’s Financial Services Agency has published the results of its on-site inspections of crypto exchange operators, saying it will toughen regulatory oversight.

Japan’s financial watchdog, the Financial Services Agency (FSA), has published the results of its on-site inspections of cryptocurrency exchange operators, Cointelegraph Japan reports August 10.

Based on its findings, the watchdog has decided to apply more rigorous oversight into new applications from exchanges hoping to receive an official operating license. Newly registered exchanges will be required to undergo on-site inspections at an early stage and the agency plans to closely examine the effectiveness of their business models.

According to the agency, there are currently “hundreds” of companies awaiting its review.

The FSA probe revealed that exchange operators’ maintenance of their internal control systems has failed to keep pace with the rapid growth of transaction volumes, which it partly attributed to the “renaissance” of the crypto markets in fall 2017.

According to the investigations, the total digital assets of domestic exchanges surged to 792.8 billion yen ($7.1 billion), an over six-fold increase within the space of one year. Meanwhile, most exchanges’ workforces are fewer than 20 people, meaning that one employee on average was found to be managing digital assets worth 3.3 billion yen ($29.7 million).

The comprehensive document identified a wide array of problems across exchanges’ business models, risk management and compliance, internal audits, and corporate governance. The agency further highlighted concerns over insufficient anti-money laundering (AML) measures among certain exchanges.

Local news platform Nikkei has reported that it is likely the new registration of exchange operators — which had virtually stopped in the wake of January’s $532 mln hack of crypto exchange Coincheck — will resume following the FSA’s interim publication.

The FSA has said that “substantial” ongoing review of registration procedures will be necessary, and that it will continue to give “priority to investor protection.”

In May, the FSA unrolled regulatory stipulations for registered exchanges, including tough restrictions on the trading of anonymity-oriented altcoins.

In July, the FSA announced it was considering changing the legal framework for the regulation of cryptocurrency exchanges, and the agency was also recently restructured in order improve its handling of fintech-related areas, including cryptocurrencies.

A self-regulatory body, the Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association (JVCEA), formed in early March in order to develop and coordinate policies in conjunction with the FSA. Last month, JVCEA announced it would be requiring its members to place maximum limits on the volumes traded by their customers.

The continued decline of most cryptocurrencies has led some analysts to predict even larger losses in the near future.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

The market data is provided by the HitBTC exchange.

Just a few days back we were discussing whether cryptocurrencies have entered a bull phase. Now, after the recent slump in prices, analysts are predicting a huge fall on Bitcoin (BTC).

Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mike McGlone believes that Bitcoin will plunge to last year’s average level of $4,000.

Jeff deGraaf, head of technical research at Renaissance Macro Research has a more dire warning for the Bitcoin bulls. He said that “once the top is complete”, it may even mean “game-over” for Bitcoin. DeGraff is a highly respected voice in the technical analyst community, hence, his forecast should be kept in mind.

However, it is important to note that technical analysts can quickly change their opinion according to the chart patterns. While it is beneficial to know their views, the trades should only be taken based on the current chart patterns. Additionally, every position should be protected by a stop loss to protect the capital, should the markets go opposite to our expectation.

BTC/USD

The bulls have defended the critical support level at $6,075.04 for the past two days. Although this is a positive sign, a sharper pullback would have given us greater confidence that the bulls are aggressively buying at these levels. As the recovery has been weak, we will have to rely on other signs to predict the next probable direction on Bitcoin.

The moving averages are on the verge of completing a bearish crossover, which is a negative sign. On the other hand, the RSI is close to the oversold territory, which shows the selling has been overdone and a pullback is likely.

Any pullback will face a stiff resistance at the downtrend line of the descending triangle and then at the moving averages. The virtual currency will show the first signs of bullishness once it sustains above $7,200.

There is a possibility for the BTC/USD pair to remain range bound between $6,000 and $8,500. We have come to this conclusion because the bottom — around $6,000 — and the top — around $8,500 — have held twice since May of this year. Therefore, aggressive traders can enter long positions at $6,800 with the stops below $5,900 and expect a rally to $8,500. This is a risky trade because we are jumping the gun, so we suggest using only 30 percent of the usual allocation. Positions can be added after the price sustains above $7,200.

Our view of the formation of a range will be invalidated if the bears sink prices below $5,900. Under such circumstances, the downtrend can extend to the next support levels at $5,400 and $5,000.

ETH/USD

Ethereum is struggling to bounce off the critical support at $358. On August 8, the fall to $346.35 was the lowest level since November 19 of last year. The pullback on August 9 was unimpressive as the price retreated from $370.39.

If the bears push the prices below $346, the fall can extend to $280. Though the RSI is already in oversold territory, we are not confident about a bounce yet because during the previous fall in late March of this year, the RSI had become deeply oversold before a recovery happened.

We shall turn positive on the ETH/USD pair once it sustains above the 50-day SMA. Until then, we suggest traders remain on the sidelines.

XRP/USD

Ripple fell to $0.32 on August 8, just below our proposed target of $0.32862. If this level also breaks, the next stop is at $0.24001.

Though the RSI is in a deeply oversold territory, the weak attempt to pull back on August 9 shows that the buyers are in no hurry to buy the cryptocurrency.

We shall wait for the XRP/USD pair to form a bullish pattern before turning positive on it. The first sign of strength will be when the price sustains above the 50-day SMA.

BCH/USD

Bitcoin Cash made a new year-to-date low on August 8 when it fell to $564.9304. The pullback attempt on August 9 faced a roadblock at $619.7510.

The BCH/USD pair can now retest the support at $537.8221, which is the intraday low made on November 8 of last year. This is a major support; hence, we anticipate a strong buying in the zone of $537.8221 — $619.7510. The pair will gain strength if the price sustains above $620.

Conversely, if the bears break below $537.8221, the coin can slump to $400.

EOS/USD

After a failed pullback attempt on August 9, EOS is likely to stretch its downward move to the next support zone of $3.8723 — $4.3396.

We like that the EOS/USD pair is still quoting well above its year-to-date lows. The oversold levels on the RSI point to a probable rebound from the zone between $3.8723 and $4.3396. We shall wait for a strong bounce to materialize before recommending any buys on the pair.

Our bullish view will be invalidated if the bears break and sustain below $3.8723.

LTC/USD

Litecoin has retraced all the way back to the levels last seen in mid-November of last year. This is a negative sign.

An attempt to pull back on August 9 fizzled out at $65 and currently the bears are trying to extend the decline to the next target of $57.

Between late September to early November of last year, the LTC/USD pair repeatedly found support close to the $48 — $52 zone. Therefore, we expect this zone to act as a strong support during the current fall.

Any pullback will face a stiff resistance at the 20-day EMA and at $74.074. We shall wait for the trend to change before suggesting any long positions on it.

ADA/USD

The pullback attempt on August 9 could not scale above the $0.13 line. The previous strong support will now act as a strong resistance. Unless Cardano quickly rises above $0.13, it is at risk of breaking down of $0.111843.

Below $0.111843, the next level to watch out for is $0.078215. Any fall below this level will push the ADA/USD pair into uncharted territory, which is a bearish sign.

We shall turn positive on the cryptocurrency after it stops falling, breaks out of the downtrend line and climbs above $0.15.

XLM/USD

Stellar bounced sharply on August 9, which is a positive sign. This shows that the bulls are keen to own it on dips.

The level of $0.184 is one to watch out for on the downside because it has held since December of last year. Though it was broken on a few occasions, the bears could not sustain the prices below $0.184. Therefore, we expect the support to hold this time as well.

If, contrary to our expectation, the cryptocurrency sustains below $0.184, it will become negative and can slump to $0.09. As we are relatively bullish on the XLM/USD pair, we might suggest a buy once it sustains above the moving averages.  

IOTA/USD

The oversold level on the RSI has failed to attract buyers. IOTA continues to look weak on the charts, with a probable drop to the pattern target of $0.5721. If this level also breaks, the next stop can be at $0.5 — $0.52.

Historically, an oversold level on the RSI has resulted in a pullback. On the previous two occasions when the RSI was close to oversold levels, the IOTA/USD pair remained in a range for a few days before moving up.

So, if the bulls defend one of the above-mentioned support levels, the pair might attempt a pullback. Any recovery attempt will face a strong resistance at the previous strong support of $0.9150. We shall wait for a bullish pattern to develop before suggesting any long positions.

TRX/USD

Tron is struggling to bounce off the critical support at $0.022806. Though the bulls have defended the support for the past two days, they have failed to achieve a meaningful pullback.

The bears will now attempt to break the support at $0.022806. If successful, the TRX/USD pair will become extremely negative. The lower levels to watch out for are $0.018297 and $0.01095383. However, both of these are not very strong support levels, hence, it is difficult to predict where the buyers will step in.

Our bearish view will be invalidated if the bulls buy the dip below $0.022806 and push the prices above $0.02801344. Long positions should be avoided until the prices stabilize.

The market data is provided by the HitBTC exchange. The charts for the analysis are provided by TradingView.

The Tezos Foundation will support four big research institutions “in their efforts to advance the Tezos protocol and ecosystem.”

The Tezos Foundation has announced it will be issuing financial grants to research institutions for blockchain tech and smart contracts development, according to an official press release published August 9.

The Tezos Foundation will provide grants to four research institutions: Cornell University, the University of Beira Interior, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and France-IOI, the press release notes.

Emin Gün Sirer will lead the Cornell University team to “develop protocols that may be applied to Tezos,” paying particular attention to sharding, and Portugal's University of Beira Interior will receive four grants for two master’s theses and two Ph.D. projects focusing on logging events of robots in factory environments and support for machine-checked smart contracts respectively.

France-IOI’s grant “will support the education and training of current and future Tezos developers,” and the grant for Decentralized et Consulting, LLC. (“Decet”), a research institution of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is aimed at building an “accessible online developer documentation resource for the Tezos ecosystem.”

Earlier this summer, the Tezos Foundation had made a statement that it would hold a call for research proposals through an open grantmaking process in August.

Last month, the company had announced that international professional services giant PwC, headquartered in London, would conduct an external audit of the company’s finances, Cointelegraph reported July 24.

The IOTA Foundation is attempting to smooth over management problems and give two of the platform’s founders access to its Board of Directors.

The IOTA Foundation released a public statement August 8 in order to quell fears of a major disagreement among senior management after a transcript of a discussion between the founders and the Board of Directors was leaked.

A statement seen by Cointelegraph explains that following a period of uncertainty over IOTA founders Serguei Popov and Sergey Ivancheglo’s access to the Foundation’s Board of Directors, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) would now allow them access.

As a German-registered non-profit, the IOTA Foundation needed to act within the law, meaning changing its statute is possible “only by a supervisory board resolution,” the statement says. IOTA’s Supervisory Board had not yet met, despite Popov and Ivancheglo waiting for Board of Directors’ access.

The statement notes that the “circumstances lead to a situation, where two of the IOTA founders have been ‘waiting for board seats’ for more than four months,” adding:

“Unfortunately, sufficient priority was not given to this open issue, and there was a failure to keep the missing board members informed about progress.”

Tensions simmered under the status quo, resulting in Ivancheglo demanding embattled board chairman Dominik Schiener to quit. The statement notes that “Sergey Ivancheglo has since stated that asking for Dominik to resign was an emotional reaction to the situation, which had built up over months. The situation did not feel fair to him, being an integral member of the team behind IOTA as we know it today.”

The MoU should be in place by August 10, an interim measure ahead of the Supervisory Board’s first meeting in September, IOTA’s statement writes.

Both the Foundation and Schiener have faced criticism over the past year. In April, a scandal broke out after Schiener told an independent security researcher that she “needed a slap. And in May, University College London cut its ties with IOTA altogether, writing that it was “inappropriate for security researchers to be subject to threats of legal action for disclosing their results.”

China’s first digital invoice on the blockchain has been issued in the southeastern city of Shenzhen, on an ecosystem developed by Tencent.

China’s first digital invoice on the blockchain has been issued in the southeastern city of Shenzhen, local news platform EEO reports August 10.

This is the first implementation of a pilot blockchain ecosystem for invoices that has been developed by Tencent — the developer of the 1 billion-user social media platform WeChat — together with the Shenzhen Municipal Taxation Bureau.

It is the only such pilot to have received the official approval of the State Administration of Taxation, and has been designed for comprehensive use by consumers, merchants and tax authorities, according to EEO. In China, official invoices are dubbed “fapiao,” indicating that they have been issued by the Chinese Tax Bureau for goods and services purchased in the country.

EEO reports that the debut invoice was issued August 10 by a local Shenzhen restaurant. Several other local merchants have already been given access to the system, including a parking lot, auto repair shop, and cafe.

The system allowed for a consumer payment via WeChat to generate an invoice that would be eligible for inspection and management by tax authorities. Cai Yunge, general manager of blockchain at Tencent, is quoted by EEO as saying that the new system achieves a frictionless link between consumer scenarios and tax services.

In the traditional scenario, processing an invoice entails multiple and somewhat cumbersome steps, EEO notes. When a consumer completes a given transaction, they must wait for the merchant to generate the invoice, file it away safely, complete a returns form in the Finance Department, wait for the return to be processed, and then receive their returns.

Using a blockchain-enabled electronic invoice means that the consumer can manage all these steps using one click on the WeChat app after checkout, and is then able to track their reimbursement status in real time, EEO writes.

As EEO notes, blockchain’s cornerstone innovation of providing an immutable and transparent record-keeping system is highly consistent with the invoice supervision process, as it effectively traces the source, authenticity, and accounting of invoices, thereby solving the problems of over-reporting, false-reporting, and other true-false inconsistencies in the process of invoice circulation.

The technology also has the advantage of improving data privacy through encryption methods and providing an overall cost-effective streamlining of processes.

Cointelegraph has previously reported on Tencent’s ongoing cooperation with the Shenzhen Municipal Office of the State Administration of Taxation to establish an “Intelligent Tax” Innovation Laboratory focused on tax management modernization and fighting fraudulent “fapaio” with blockchain technology.

Crypto markets are today tentatively holding gains as they stake their recovery from the week’s earlier plummet.

August 10: Crypto markets are tentatively holding gains today, as they stake their recovery from the week’s earlier plummet. On August 8, total market capitalization had shrunk to $219 billion –– its lowest level since mid-November 2017 –– but today has seen that figure peak as high as $233 billion.

Market visualization from Coin360

Bitcoin (BTC) is attempting to hold the $6,500 support at press time, trading at around $6,485 and up a fraction of a percent on the day. The leading cryptocurrency has seen a 24-hour high around $6,610, but has been trading jaggedly over trading hours, briefly dipping as low as around $6,332, before spiking upwards to re-attempt $6,500. Weekly losses remain at a weighty 13.8 percent, yet on the month Bitcoin is up around two percent.

In an interview with CNBC, head of technical research at Renaissance Macro Research Jeff deGraff said that “game‐over” for Bitcoin is on the cards if BTC/USD break year-to-date support levels.

Bitcoin’s 24-hour price chart. Source: Cointelegraph Bitcoin Price Index

Ethereum (ETH) is currently trading around $360, losing around one percent on the day to press time. The altcoin’s attempt to break through to a higher price point were concentrated during early hours, spiking as high as $369 before dropping back below the $360 mark. The hours just before press time have seen another push upwards, yet these fleeting gains have failed to hold. Ethereum’s losses on its weekly chart are around a stark 13 percent, with monthly losses just under 18 percent.

Ethereum’s 24-hour price chart. Source: Cointelegraph Ethereum Price Index

On CoinMarketCap’s listings, the top ten crypto assets by market cap are mainly in the red, seeing losses no greater than six percent.

The most bullish performance on the day has come from Stellar (XLM), which is up about 3.2 percent to trade around $0.22 at press time. Stellar’s recovery from mid-week losses has been strong, particularly on the XLM/BTC charts.

Stellar’s 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

At the other extreme, IOTA (MIOTA) is down about 6.5 percent to trade around $0.61 at press time. Earlier this week, the alt decoupled from the wider bearish market to claim short-lived growth before seeing its protracted decline.

IOTA’s 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

Among the top twenty coins by market cap, Dash is seeing solid growth and is up almost four percent, rising to about $185 at press time, having pushed $191 earlier today. Most other cryptos are seeing price percentage change capped within a four percent range.

Total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies is around $227 billion at press time, down slightly from its 24-hour peak around $233 billion. On the week, total market cap has shrunk by around $40 billion.

7-day chart of the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies from CoinMarketCap

While individual cryptos stake their fortunes in the market, there has been new bullish developments for their underlying blockchain technology.

Today, Australia’s largest bank announced it had been mandated by the World Bank to arrange a bond issue exclusively on a blockchain. Both banks expect that the tech will simplify capital raising and trading securities, speed up operations, and “enhance regulatory oversight.” The World Bank notably issues $50-60 billion in bonds per year for sustainable development in emerging economies.

Meanwhile, the logistics industry is responding to the news of the long-awaited launch of the global blockchain shipping solution that was unveiled this week by IBM and Maersk, dubbed “TradeLens.” The new jointly developed blockchain solution revealed 94 organizations involved and 154 million shipping events already captured, with its dataset reportedly growing at a rate of close to one million shipping events a day.

U.S. television and satellite provider DISH has moved to the BitPay payments service and added a Bitcoin Cash payment option.

U.S. satellite service provider DISH has announced it has added Bitcoin Cash (BCH) as a payment option and migrated to the BitPay payments provider, according to an official press release August 9.

The DISH Network Corporation was among the first satellite service providers in the world to accept Bitcoin (BTC) payments back in 2014.

John Swieringa, the executive vice president and chief operating officer at DISH, said in the press release that the company has “a steady volume of customers paying with cryptocurrency each month”, adding:

"We've added Bitcoin Cash just as we chose to accept Bitcoin to serve customers who have adopted a new way of doing business.”

According to the press release, DISH customers will be able to pay with both BTC and BCH for monthly subscriptions and pay-per-view movies by sending the exact amount of cryptocurrency in a push transaction to the company.

Sonny Singh, the chief commercial officer with BitPay, noted in the press release that they aim to have a “seamless transition” from DISH’s old payment service to the new one. Singh added that cryptocurrency purchases are becoming more popular both because they reduce the chances for credit card fraud, as well as provide a cheaper payment service option for merchants.

Previously, crypto payments processor BitPay had acquired a virtual currency license from New York’s Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), as Cointelegraph reported July 16.

Swiss logistics firm CEVA has praised IBM and Maersk’s blockchain shipping supply chain platform as one of its 90 participants.

Swiss-registered logistics giant CEVA Logistics has announced its participation in IBM and Maersk’s new joint blockchain platform TradeLens in a press release August 10.

The partners unveiled TradeLens, which is dedicated to enhancing shipping supply chains, earlier this week. CEVA said the platform constituted its “answer to the untapped potential of blockchain applications in the logistics industry.”

CEVA CEO Xavier Urbain noted in the press release that they see the “high potential” in TradeLense to be the “real-time access it provides to all partners in the supply chain,” adding

“It is a big step forward toward establishing a market standard for blockchain solutions.”

CEVA, which has annual revenues of $7 billion, is one of over 90 organizations to come on board with TradeLens, with the company hinting that this was by no means the full extent of its blockchain plans. CEVA’s press release stated that “other initiatives are in the pipeline and are currently being evaluated and expected to start delivering solutions in the coming months.”

Shipping supply chains have long formed a focus for simplification through innovation thanks to blockchain technology.

As Cointelegraph previously reported, TradeLens began as a pilot project in March 2017, while other schemes have since begun operating with the aim of using blockchain to reduce costs, paperwork, and timeframes, while enhancing security.

The Indian government is reportedly considering whether to allow crypto tokens to be used within the country.

The Indian government is considering whether to allow crypto tokens to be used in the country, despite its hardline stance on cryptocurrencies, local news outlet DNA India reports August 10.

A committee set up by the finance ministry, under the chairmanship of the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) secretary, is reportedly working on a set of regulations and roadmap to allow certain crypto assets to be used in India. Once the draft proposals are finalized, the legislation will be tabled before the Parliament, according to DNA’s source.

DEA secretary Subhash Chandra Garg, who is heading the committee, is quoted by DNA as saying:

"The committee is studying the possibility of using cryptocurrencies or crypto technology (distributed ledger technology) for financial transactions and also what kind of regulations are needed for that…[while] the currency is totally banned, the committee is discussing its other usage and how it can be mainstreamed in India."

While emphasizing that DLT technology — of which blockchain is one type — offers “a lot of promise,” Garg reportedly “categorically denied” the future use of cryptocurrencies themselves “in any manner,” including in payment systems.

Garg said that the DEA has issued “several advisories” to the public warning people of the risks of cryptocurrencies, which are considered to be “a Ponzi kind of scheme” and not “currencies at all.” Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued a ban on banks' dealings with crypto-related businesses and persons, which came into effect July 5.

Garg said, however, that he believes the government may “test the waters” when it comes to allowing for crypto tokenization, which — if introduced — would not be able to serve as a substitute for fiat currencies:

"One will need to pay physical money to buy a token which could be stored as a code in any basic mobile feature phone. It can even be used for remittances. So, it is easy to implement from technology as well as regulatory point of view. But in case of cryptocurrency, one needs to allow it as a legal tender first."

As part of its efforts, the committee will reportedly include an analysis of what it considers would be the prospects and consequences of the government legalizing cryptocurrencies.

Ongoing hearings on RBI’s controversial ban have seen the judiciary refuse to grant interim relief to those that purport to be affected. Recently, the court deferred the final hearing on the ban, originally scheduled for July 20, until September 2018.

Everipedia, the blockchain-based answer to Wikipedia, announced its launch August 9.

Cayman Islands-based blockchain startup Everipedia formally launched its peer-to-peer (P2P) encyclopedia August 9, a press release confirmed.

Designed to be an “autonomous encyclopedia without the need for advertisements or donations,” the project uses the EOS network to function and will reward curators with its own token, dubbed “IQ.”

Co-founder of Wikipedia turned Everipedia CIO Larry Sanger commented in the release that they are “elated to release [their] minimum viable network which allows users to vote on and create articles in a decentralized manner for the first time.”

Talk of a blockchain-based “alternative” Wikipedia has long floated around cryptocurrency circles, with fellow co-founder Jimmy Wales’ well-known skepticism of Bitcoin (BTC) and hands-off approach to blockchain technology serving to add to the community’s motivation.

Wales told Cointelegraph during an interview in June that he is “not planning to do anything directly in the blockchain space,” but added

“I am very intrigued by the idea. A lot of people have pitched me on their ideas in the journalism space, I just don’t see it makes a lot of sense. I’ll continue to reflect and think.”

Speaking to Bloomberg this week, Everipedia co-founder and president Sam Kazemian highlighted IQ as one of the biggest challenges currently facing the project.

“Designing token economics that actually work and make sense is the most challenging aspect,” he told the publication,

“It’s easy to create a token and have it do nothing except act as a unit of account inside of some service. But that’s not what the IQ token does.”

Singapore-based Golden Gate Ventures will launch a $10 million global fund for blockchain and cryptocurrency companies.

Singapore-based venture capital firm Golden Gate Ventures will launch a $10 million fund for investments in blockchain and cryptocurrency companies, Reuters reported August 10.

Golden Gate Ventures (GGV), one of the leading venture capital firms in Southeast Asia, will invest in early-stage companies including cryptocurrency exchanges, security providers, and blockchain tech startups through the LuneX Ventures fund.

Local tech media platform e27 reports that the fund was launched through a partnership between GGV and Kenrick Drijkoningen, GGV’s former head of growth. Drijkoningen told e27 that LuneX Ventures has a “strong pipeline of five to 10 investments ready to go,” noting that they have made their first funding commitment to the Singapore-based Sparrow Exchange.

Drijkoningen also praised blockchain, referring to it as “a foundational technology, on par with or possibly exceeding the Internet in disruptive potential,” adding:

“Right now valuations have come down to more reasonable levels and the industry is moving from pioneers to early adopters, which is a great time to start investing."

In June, private equity and venture capital firm Union Square Ventures (USV) reported that it has plans to invest in blockchain and cryptocurrencies over the course of the next 10 years, but will not establish a separate fund.

Earlier this week, the giant commercial state-run Bank of China had announced its plans to increase its investments in the research and development of blockchain and fintech, using around one percent of the bank’s operating annual income.

Year-to-date support is a key factor in Bitcoin’s future, a Wall Street analyst has alleged as prices remain flat.

Renaissance Macro Research’s head of technical research Jeff deGraaf concluded it may be “game over” for Bitcoin (BTC) in a new analysis, CNBC reports August 9.

In a note to clients, deGraaf, who has received multiple accolades for his trading insights in the past twenty years, claimed Bitcoin’s price movements suggest the largest cryptocurrency is “permanently impaired.”

CNBC quotes deGraaf as writing that Bitcoin’s “parabolic moves are notoriously dangerous for short-sellers,” adding that a top normally develops with the appearance of a “descending triangle over months, with reduced volatility and little [fanfare],”

“Once the top is complete on the support violation, the security in question can often be considered permanently impaired or even 'game‐over'. We are of course referencing Bitcoin as exhibit 'A' in today's market.”

Such a situation would become a genuine consideration if BTC/USD broke year-to-date support levels, deGraaf added.

Bitcoin prices have come full circle over the past three weeks to trade around $6,359 by press time, after previously rising as high as $8,450 in late July.

This time last year, Bitcoin traded at around half that figure — $3,400 — as markets began their ascent that brought Bitcoin’s price to around $20,000 in December 2017.

Meanwhile, misgivings from traditional finance sources have continued in recent months, despite increased Wall Street interest and pledges to build out Bitcoin-related infrastructure.

Last week, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon broke silence once more to call the cryptocurrency a “scam” after previously saying he “was not going to talk about” it.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has been mandated by the World Bank to issue a bond that was created, managed, and executed on a blockchain.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), the largest bank in the country, has been mandated by the World Bank to arrange a bond issue exclusively on a blockchain, according to a press release Aug. 10.

CBA will reportedly arrange the first bond globally to be “created, allocated, transferred, and managed using blockchain technology.” The Blockchain Offered New Debt Instrument (bond-i) will be issued and distributed on a blockchain platform under the operation of the World Bank in Washington, and CBA in Sydney.

The two organizations are using a private Ethereum blockchain, but the CBA “remains open” to alternatives as “other blockchains are developing rapidly.” Microsoft conducted an independent review of the platform to assess its security and resilience. CBA Executive General Manager of Institutional Banking & Markets International James Wall said:

“We believe that this transaction will be groundbreaking as a demonstration of how blockchain technology can act as a facilitating platform for different participants.”

According to the CBA and World Bank, using blockchain technology will simplify capital raising, trading securities, speed up operations, and “enhance regulatory oversight.” The World Bank issues $50-60 billion in bonds per year for sustainable development in emerging economies.

5 Day Stock Chart Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Source: Reuters

In July, CBA successfully delivered a 17 ton shipment of almonds to Europe using its new blockchain platform to track the cargo from Melbourne to Hamburg, Germany. The platform is underpinned by Distributed ledger technology (DLT), Internet of Things (IoT), and smart contracts.

In Thailand, the Thai Bond Market Association (TBMA) revealed that it would deploy a blockchain solution on its registrar service platform. The new platform will reportedly allow the TBMA to provide faster bond certificate issuance which, in turn, will boost the liquidity of the secondary market. The blockchain solution is scheduled to be introduced later this year.

Thai police have arrested a once-popular actor as a suspect in a $24 million Bitcoin scam.

Thai police have detained 27-year old actor Jiratpisit "Boom" Jaravijit in an alleged $24 million cryptocurrency scam, Bangkok Post reported August 9.

Jiratpisit is reportedly one of the seven suspects in the alleged crime, including his older brother and sister. On July 26, the Criminal Court awarded a warrant for his arrest following a complaint from a Finnish man that he had fraudulently lured foreigners into investing 797 million baht (nearly $24 million) worth of cryptocurrencies. Jiratpisit has been detained on charges of money-laundering activity, which he denies.

The alleged cybercrooks reportedly promised to purchase shares in companies that invested in the cryptocurrency Dragon Coin. According to the Bangkok Post, investors did not receive dividends from their supposed investment or an invitation to a shareholders’ meeting. The Crime Suppression Division states that the criminals withdrew BTC from their e-wallets and then converted it to baht.

Earlier this week, South Korean police raided the office Shinil Group, whose alleged crypto scam promised investors the spoils of Russian warship Dmitrii Donskoi, that sank 113 years ago. To encourage investors to purchase the company’s own cryptocurrency, Shinil allegedly promised to reimburse them with the gold from the ship. The coin reportedly attracted 60 billion won ($53.7 million) in investments from around 100,000 investors since its launch this year. However, there is no clear evidence that the ship contained anything of value.

Recently, Tokyo-based security software manufacturer Trend Micro found BTC automated teller machine (ATM) malware available for purchase online. Trend Micro cites an advertisement posted by an “apparently established and respected” user on a darknet forum. For the price of $25,000, criminals could purchase Bitcoin ATM malware accompanied by a ready-to-use card with EMV and near-field communication (NFC) capabilities.

А candidate for Colorado governor has added a blockchain policy to his gubernatorial campaign, aiming to make Colorado a “blockchain hub.”

The Democratic candidate for governor of Colorado, U.S  Representative Jared Polis, has added a blockchain policy to the list of issues of his gubernatorial campaign this year, according to an announcement on Polis’ website.

Having set a goal to establish Colorado as a “national hub for blockchain innovation in business and government,” Polis added a set of blockchain-related proposals to his gubernatorial platform on Wednesday, Aug. 8.

In his campaign, Polis advocates for implementing five blockchain-related initiatives, such as developing cybersecurity infrastructure to ensure the integrity of elections, and building a statewide ‘safe harbor’ to exempt digital currencies from state money transmission laws.

Polis also advocates for blockchain-based solutions in the state’s energy grid, the reduction of government bureaucracy while improving government services, and conducting a survey on further blockchain applications.

Following in the footsteps of Wyoming, which created a new class of assets in defining cryptocurrency as “Utility Tokens,” Polis says on his website that he will “work to establish legislation that protects ‘open blockchain tokens’ or cryptocurrencies that are exchangeable for goods and services.”

Some other U.S. states have already embraced distributed ledger technology. In June, Connecticut governor Dannel Malloy signed SB 443 into law, which establishes a blockchain working group to study the technology in order to make Connecticut “a leader in blockchain technology.” In March, the  governor of Tennessee signed a bill recognizing the legal authority of blockchain and smart contracts for electronic transactions.

Polis, who is currently serving in the House of Representatives, belongs to a small group of crypto advocates on Capitol Hill. The current congressman was instrumental in the founding of the bi-partisan Congressional Blockchain Caucus.

As Cointelegraph reported earlier this week, the chair of the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives Bob Goodlatte might be the first member of Congress to disclose that he owns cryptocurrency. Goodlatte reported that he owns between $17,000 and $80,000 in digital currency in his annual Financial Disclosure Statement.

U.K. bank Barclays is sponsoring a blockchain hackathon in order to find solutions to increase the efficiency of derivatives contracts processing.

British investment bank Barclays is sponsoring a hackathon to find the best blockchain solution to increase the efficiency of derivatives contracts processing, according to an announcement published August 9. Barclays is partnering with other market majors like Deloitte, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) and Thomson Reuters for the event.

At the two-day DerivHack hackathon, participants will be given an opportunity to implement their ideas and apply the ISDA Common Domain Model (CDM) to distributed ledger technology. The final goal of the event is to find solutions to use cases in post-trade processing of derivatives contracts.

The ISDA CDM provides a standard digital representation of events and processes which may happen in the course of a derivatives trade, presented in a machine-readable format. The product is designed to enhance consistency and aid interoperability across firms and platforms.

Per the announcement, Barclays will lay down challenging use cases to simulate the derivatives market, like an overhaul of derivatives post-trade processing, step-change in efficiency gains, as well as provide sample trade data in the ISDA CDM to implement them.

Earlier this year, there were rumors that Barclays was reviewing the possibility of opening a cryptocurrencies trading desk. An anonymous source reportedly said that the bank was assessing whether client interest was sufficient to offer crypto trading services. Later, Barclays’ CEO Jes Staley refuted the rumors, saying:

“Cryptocurrency is a real challenge for us because, on the one hand, there is the innovative side of it and wanting to stay in the forefront of technology’s improvement in finance… On the other side of it, there is the possibility of cryptocurrencies being used for activities that the bank wants to have no part of.”

In July, Barclays filed two patent applications relating to the transfer of digital currency and blockchain data storage, both published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The first patent describes a system of transferring digital currency from payer to recipient that would securely authenticate the identities of both, as well as validate and record transactions. The other relates to storing and endorsing data and claims relating to specific entities.

Overstock shares surged after a Hong Kong investment firm agreed to invest in Overstock’s blockchain subsidiary tZERO.

Overstock shares soared by 21 percent in after-hours trading following news that Hong Kong-based private equity firm GSR Capital will invest up to $270 million in tZERO, an Overstock blockchain subsidiary, CNBC reported Aug. 9.

The two companies signed a deal wherein GSR Capital will invest up to $374.55 million in exchange for tZERO and Overstock shares. GSR will buy $30 million worth of tZERO tokens from the e-commerce retail giant and will аlso invest up to $270 million in the company at a valuation of $1.5 billion, giving the investment firm an 18 percent stake in tZERO. The stock jumped 4.47 percent during trading hours and closed at $38.60 per share. tZERO CEO Saum Noursalehi said in a statement:

"We are honored to have GSR Capital as a strategic investor. The tokenization of securities has the potential to disrupt global capital markets responsible for moving hundreds of trillions of dollars. Together with our partners, we will globalize our blockchain-based platform, bringing more efficiency, liquidity, and trust to capital markets."

In June, tZERO signed a letter of intent with GSR Capital for the purchase of $160 million in tZERO security tokens at a price of $10.00 per token. tZERO also “entered into executed SAFEs [Simple Agreements for Future Equity] in excess of $168 million for Security Tokens, of which over $95 million has been already funded.”

On August 6, tZERO announced the closing of its Security Token Offering (STO) at 11:59 PM EDT that day. tZERO originally limited the maximum amount of tokens to $250 million. The company initially introduced the STO in the form of an Initial Coin Offering in December last year, which attracted strong crypto and institutional interest that reportedly resulted in $100 million committed to the platform during the first 12 hours.

Blockchain startup Zulu Republic has rolled out a Litecoin transaction option via sending text commands on the Telegram messaging app.

Litecoin (LTC) transactions are now available via encrypted messenger app Telegram, Litecoin founder Charlie Lee tweeted today, Aug. 9.

A bear market is the best time for people to work on adoption.

Check out https://t.co/Ua8LQz9f4h. Send and recieve LTC on telegram. Eventually, it will support SMS also. Great work @ztxrepublic team! 👏

We build it and they will come. Adoption is key!

— Charlie Lee [LTC⚡] (@SatoshiLite) August 9, 2018

The new Litecoin feature Lite.im was developed by blockchain startup Zulu Republic. Based in Zug, Switzerland, the firm develops decentralized applications (DApps) and “is an ecosystem of digital platforms built on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain.”

According to a Zulu blog post, the new Litecoin feature will enable users to use Litecoin services with text queries via Zulu’s backend LTC API system. Zulu stressed that private key data is not managed by the the company, and instead secured with RSA encryption and the user’s private password.

In the announcement, Zulu said that Lite.im will first be rolled out on the Telegram  messenger app, “the most secure messenger in the world,” adding that the app provides privacy that is “built in by default.” Lite.im will allow users to send commands to check their current LTC balance and send LTC to a wallet or an email address.

In the future, the company aims to introduce LTC transactions via text messages (SMS) to enable operations on the Litecoin blockchain for customers with poor internet connection. The startup states that, out of the 64 percent of the global population that owns a mobile phone, only 33 percent have a smartphone with internet connection.

Zulu stressed the decentralized nature of the upcoming feature, saying that it is targeting countries where “internet connectivity is scarce, where the web is censored by autocratic regimes, and where large segments of the population are marginalized by the conventional financial system.”

The statement also says that users will be able to send Litecoin “to those who don’t already have a Litecoin wallet, or to those whose wallet address you don’t know, even if the recipient has no idea how to use cryptocurrency.”

Currently the seventh largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Litecoin is an open-source project that was released in 2017. The basic idea of the digital currency is to provide faster and cheaper transactions than those of major cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC). LTC is trading around $64 at press time, having seen its all-time high of $351 in December 2017, according to Cointelegraph’s Litecoin price index.

Chinese BTC investor has sued OKCoin for claiming his Bitcoin Cash.

On July 31, a Chinese Bitcoin investor sued local crypto exchange OKCoin for allegedly blocking him from getting his Bitcoin Cash (BCH) after the Bitcoin fork.  

While the case is new for China, compilations regarding hard forks and exchanges have been amassing since perhaps as early as the DAO incident in 2016. So what happens when you have a coin that is about to be split into two, but you’re holding it on an exchange’s hot wallet?

What’s a hard fork?

Essentially, a hard fork is a change to the cryptocurrency’s protocol that makes previously invalid blocks/transactions valid — and vice versa — and therefore requires all users to upgrade to the latest version. In other words, a hard fork splits the path of the asset’s underlying blockchain, wherein the upgraded, separated blocks start following new sets of rules. Simply put, it’s the equivalent of a ‘reset’ button. There’s also a soft fork, which entails a change of protocol as well, although such forks can still work with older versions.

Why launch a hard fork at all? Basically, it can be initiated to correct security risks found in older versions of the software, to add new functionality or to reverse transactions. The latter, for instance, was the reason for the infamous DAO hard fork, which will be described in greater detail in the next section.

According to data obtained from Forkdrop.io, there are currently 116 forks, 74 of which are affiliated with Bitcoin. There are major ones, like Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum Classic (ETC) or Bitcoin Gold (BGD), that compete with the top coins and are commonly listed on the largest exchanges — they rank 4th, 12th and 24th respectively, as per Coinmarketcap. There are also smaller ones that are worth just a few cents, and are hence less likely to be featured on large platforms. Charlie Lee, the creator of Litecoin who previously worked at Coinbase, described how the platform would approach forks in the past:

“With the ETC and BCH hard forks, it was clear that those two coins will be the minority fork, so it was safe to use a wait-and-see approach. So Coinbase didn’t support those forks initially. And only if there was traction on those forks would Coinbase spend the time and resources to support those forks and let people access their coins on the minority chain.”

The DAO example: To fork or not to fork?

The DAO was set up in April 2016 as a decentralized autonomous organization. Its purpose was to invest in other businesses, making it a form of an investor-directed venture capital fund, powered by smart contracts. The prominent project swiftly gathered a record-breaking $120 million in Ethereum (ETH) during the fundraising stage.

However, in June, some users exploited a vulnerability in the DAO code that allowed them to drain one-third of the DAO's funds (roughly $50 million) to a subsidiary account. It wasn’t a hack, per se, as the attackers simply found a loophole in the coding — as one of the alleged participants soon declared, he merely used the possibilities of the DAO code.

That lead to a debate in the community, where members effectively took two sides: Some argued that the vulnerability was unfair and their funds should be given back, while others opined that the whole purpose of a smart-contacts-based system is its inviolability and, hence, no manual adjustments should take place. The community voted in favour of the refund (the results can be seen here), and the Ethereum team performed a hard fork. The hacked funds were sent to an account available to the original owners. The token owners were given an exchange rate of 1 ETH to 100 DAO tokens, as per the initial offering conditions.

However, the part of the community that rejected the intervention and favored immutability decided to keep using the unforked version of Ethereum: Ethereum Classic (ETC). ETC held on to the existing Ethereum blockchain and did not implement the hard fork code to ‘undo’ the DAO attack. As the project's website explained, “Ethereum Classic intends to keep the original censorship-resistant Ethereum going” and “provide an alternative for people who strongly disagree with DAO bailout.”

Therefore, all people who held ETH at that point received the right to claim the equivalent amount of ETC — to do that, they had to access MyEtherWallet and upload their JSON files (which contain the private keys for coins in possession), then claim ETC coins and send them to another address. As can be seen from this example, users can receive chain-split coins as long as they provide the private keys as the proof of their claim.

How do exchanges handle hard forks?

Thus, providing private keys shouldn’t be difficult as long as the coins are stored in a software or hardware wallet that can connect to the coin’s mainnet. However, the situation is different when the forked cryptocurrency is held on a crypto exchange’s hot wallet — in that scenario, the keys are technically held by the platform along with the coins. Consequently, the exchange gets to decide if new coins are going to be distributed among clients or not, and the overall process of claiming those coins gets more complicated.

For instance, when the aforementioned ETC fork occurred, Kraken exchange announced its support and declared that it was crediting client accounts with their ETC balance as long as they had an ETH balance on Kraken at the time of the fork. Similarly, when Bitcoin Diamond (BCD) forked off of the original Bitcoin blockchain in November 2017, Binance was one of the few major exchanges to issue the new coins to BTC holders, while many other exchanges ignored the hard fork entirely.

Therefore, it comes down to the exchanges’ politics when a hard fork nears — although, usually platforms let their clients know beforehand if they are going to support a coin split and reimburse them with new coins. However, some exchanges opt to accommodate most forks by default — for instance, in July, Binance announced that it will endeavor to support airdrops and forked coins conducted by any project, as long as the project team reaches out and contacts the platform directly. Somewhat similarly, in April, Coinbase declared that it will support the withdrawal of Bitcoin forks across Coinbase products (albeit not trading).

In the opposite way, some exchanges choose not to support forks deliberately. Thus, in May, Dutch exchange Bl3p chose to delist BCH prior to its hard fork, citing requirements for altcoins that the coin allegedly failed to meet. The platform warned the clients to withdraw their remaining BCH.

More complications and lawsuits

However, even if the exchange supports a certain hard fork, complications might arise. That was the case with the Chinese investor known under the pseudonym Feng Bin, who recently filed a lawsuit against local crypto exchange OKCoin. Bin claimed that the platform prevented him from getting Bitcoin Cash (BCH) after the BTC fork took place in August 2017.

According to local news agency Legal Weekly, Feng Bin claimed that he couldn’t receive the 38.748 BCH that he was due after the split. In the lawsuit, he explained that he attempted to sell his share of BCH when it reached its all-time high of around $4,000 in December, 2017, only to find “that there was no ‘button’ to extract the [BCH] that the platform promised.”

Following a complaint about the platform’s customer support, OKCoin stated that Feng Bin could not extract any BCH simply because the platform’s program for claiming the forked crypto had expired at that point. The investor, in turn, accused the crypto exchange of failing to provide an official announcement about the deadline for such applications.

While Feng Bin’s case is reportedly a first-of-its-kind in China, a group of five Japanese lawyers have already challenged an unspecified ‘majority’ of local exchanges that have been reportedly failing to deliver on split coins.

“The virtual currency you deposit at an exchange should not belong to the exchange, but to the user,” the lawyers argued, stressing that when exchanges decide not to grant split coins to clients or release them after a delay, they essentially rob them of their profits.

In their announcement, the lawyers recognized that there is no legal framework for handling hard forks, and that seems to be the essential problem in regards to the complex relationship between crypto exchanges and hard forks.

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has released a demo of its decentralized exchange, saying not “to expect too much” at the moment.

The CEO of cryptocurrency trading platform Binance Changpeng Zhao announced a demo of the platform’s decentralized exchange in a tweet today, Aug. 9.

In a six-minute video attached to the tweet, Zhao presented a “casual, early, pre-offer”  demo of the decentralized exchange. The CEO said not “to expect too much” for now, adding that it currently does not have a graphical user interface:

A first (rough, pre-alpha) demo of the Binance Decentralized Exchange (DEX), showing issuing, listing and trading of tokens. All cli based, no GUI yet. A small step for #BinanceChain, a big step for #binance. https://t.co/2aXkR0gclP

— CZ (not giving crypto away) (@cz_binance) August 9, 2018

Zhao showed three essential features of the planned exchange, those being the creation, listing, and trading of tokens. As Zhao did not disclose the launch date, it remains to be seen when the exchange will be marketed and what volumes it will be able to handle.

Decentralized exchanges are lauded as more secure than their centralized counterparts, which are more vulnerable to hacks. Decentralized platforms are set up in a manner which allows users to retain ownership of their coins using private keys. This solution reportedly prevents cryptocurrencies from being accumulated in one centralized “honeypot,” or point of attack.

Earlier this month, Binance bought Trust Wallet, an open source, anonymous, and decentralized wallet that supports Ethereum and over 20,000 different Ethereum-based tokens. Zhao then said that Binance plans to list Trust Wallet as a default wallet on its decentralized exchange.

Binance, which moved its operations to Malta this spring, is the number one crypto exchange by trade volume, according to Coinmarketcap. In July, the exchange supported plans to create a blockchain-based bank with tokenized ownership. The future “Founders Bank” will reportedly be owned by digital token investors and be based in Malta, known for its robust and transparent crypto regulatory climate.

China’s IT Ministry is considering ways to accelerate blockchain adoption, suggesting a number of measures to promote the technology.

The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) is reportedly considering ways to accelerate blockchain adoption, local news agency Xinhua reports Aug. 9.

According to the report, the MIIT has proposed a number of measures to speed up the promotion of blockchain applications in the country in a move to provide a “healthy and orderly development of the industry.” The ministry stated that the blockchain tech ecosystem is currently in its initial stage.

The MIIT intends to provide a gradual extension of blockchain applications from the financial sector to other industries, such as electronic deposit services, supply chain management, Internet of Things (IoT), and others.

The IT ministry plans to enhance interaction with various localities and departments, as well as build a solid industrial ecosystem by boosting the operating capacity of computing power and storage.

In May, the MIIT revealed that the blockchain industry in China has seen “exponential” growth  in 2017, citing Blockchain Industry White Paper’s findings that the number of blockchain-oriented businesses exceeded 450 in 2017.

Recently, the MIIT’s deputy director called on the country to “unite” in addressing blockchain promotion, saying that the country must now develop blockchain applications on an “industrial” scale to accelerate its adoption across all areas of the economy and society.

Earlier this year, the ministry revealed research which found that the average longevity of blockchain projects is 1.22 years. According to He Baohong of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), only 8% of blockchain projects ever launched are still alive.

The Bank of China is to increase investments in technological development, with blockchain among top priority areas, local news reports.

The commercial, state-run Bank of China, not to be confused with the People’s Bank of China, announced its plans to invest further in fintech innovation, according to local news outlet The Paper August 9.

Citing comments at a press conference on the banking industry, The Paper reports that the Bank of China’s Chief Information Officer (CIO), Liu Qiuwan, has revealed plans to increase the company’s investments in research and development technologies such as blockchain, the Internet of Things (IoT), and fintech. Investment in the technologies will reportedly be more than 1 percent of the bank’s operating annual income, which in 2017 was 483.7 billion yuan ($70.9 trillion).

Qiuwan has also said that in 2018, the Bank of China will complete the construction of three major technological platforms, a cloud computing, big data, and artificial intelligence platform. He also added that Bank of China has been applying blockchain technology in 12 different projects, “mainly focusing on data sharing, cross-border payment, digital currency, digital bills, etc.” He continues:

“According to the statistics of the global blockchain enterprise patent rankings in 2017, Bank of China has 11 patent applications for blockchain, ranking 20th in the global business and ranking first in the domestic banking industry."

One of the bank’s recent blockchain patents was aimed at “solv[ing] the problem of storage space in new blocks without compromising on traceability and immutability,” as Cointelegraph reported back in February.

Crypto hedge fund Pantera Capital’s CEO claims that investors should not overreact to the recent SEC decision to delay a Bitcoin ETF application.

Pantera Capital CEO Dan Morehead claimed that crypto markets are reflecting some overreaction from investors recently, in comments to CNBC August 8.

Speaking in an interview on CNBC's “Fast Money,” Morehead suggested that investors have exaggerated the importance of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recent delay on their decision regarding a Bitcoin (BTC) Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF).

As per Morehead, crypto investors should instead focus on more bullish events in the market, such as the announcement of upcoming cryptocurrency project Bakkt by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). The ICE, which operates 23 large global exchanges including New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), is set to launch a global ecosystem for digital assets alongside Microsoft and Starbucks.

Morehead stressed that Bakkt is “huge news,” arguing that the upcoming project will have a “very profound impact over the next five or 10 years for the markets.”

As for the recent ETF postponement, Morehead predicted that a Bitcoin ETF approval will take “quite a long time,” pointing at the nascent stage of crypto adoption. As an example, the hedge fund manager cited the fact that the most recent asset that gained approval from the SEC for ETF certification was copper, a metal that “has been on earth for 10,000 years,” commenting:

"The main thing to remember is that bitcoin is very early-stage venture, but has real-time price feed — and that's a unique thing. People get excited about the price and overreact.”

Morehead also mentioned that while the major cryptocurrency has experienced a negative price trend recently, it is still up around 82 percent year over year, noting that "it's all perspective."

On August 8, the U.S. federal securities regulator postponed its decision on the listing and trading of a Bitcoin ETF application from investment firm VanEck and financial services company SolidX to the end of September. The price of Bitcoin dropped on the news, dipping to as low as $6,211 after touching intraweek high of $7,560, according to Cointelegraph’s Bitcoin price index.

Today the crypto markets have bounced back, seeing gains between 1 and 9 percent in across the top twenty coins. Bitcoin is trading just above $6,500 at press time.

Crypto markets see a healthy rebound into the green after total market cap yesterday shrunk to its lowest level since Nov. 17.

August 9: The summer crypto rollercoaster continues, as the market sees a healthy rebound into the green after sustaining major losses yesterday.

On August 8  total market capitalization had shrunk to $219 billion –– its lowest level since mid-November 2017. In today’s upward bounce, virtually all of the major cryptocurrencies have posted gains, as data from Coin360 shows.

Market visualization from Coin360

Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at a solid $6,500 at press time, up around 3.2 percent on the day. The leading cryptocurrency shot up around $300 within the space of two hours earlier today, from $6,229 to $6,528. Having since slightly corrected downwards, the coin is nonetheless trading $330 higher at press time than its 24-hour low at $6,144. Bitcoin’s weekly losses however remain at a stark 14 percent, with a more modest 3.5 percentage loss on the month.

Bitcoin’s 24-hour price chart. Source: Cointelegraph Bitcoin Price Index

While today’s sprightly uptick may assuage some edgy crypto nerves, Dogecoin creator Jackson Palmer has been eyeing the recent plummeting markets, which many attributed to U.S. regulators’ announcement August 7 that they would be delaying their decision over whether or not to approve a high-profile BTC exchange-traded-fund (ETF).

In a thread of tweets this morning, Palmer pointed to data showing declining daily transaction rates for Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple (XRP), as well as a downtrend in decentralized application (dApp) usage, as more noteworthy indicators of the “fragility” of the space.

More optimistically, Litecoin (LTC) creator Charlie Lee said in a tweet today that he considers the bear market to be “the best time for people to work on adoption.”

Ethereum (ETH) is currently trading around $363, up around one percent on the day to press time. The altcoin’s intraday spike closely correlated with that of Bitcoin, as it jumped up from $352 to $367 within two hours. Ethereum’s losses on its weekly chart remain at around 11 percent, with monthly losses pushing 24 percent.

Ethereum’s 24-hour price chart. Source: Cointelegraph Ethereum Price Index

On CoinMarketCap’s listings, all of the top twenty coins by market cap, except one, are in the green, seeing solid gains within a 1 to 9 percent range.

Cardano (ADA) is the strongest performer among the top ten, seeing around 8 percent in growth to trade at $0.12 at press time.

Stellar (XLM) and EOS (EOS), and IOTA (MIOTA) are also seeing solid gains, all up 4-7 percent on the day.

Among the top twenty coins by market cap, Ethereum Classic (ETC) is the only alt in the red, the first day it has seen losses after a strong bull run all week that defied the wider bear market. After riding a wave of positive momentum triggered by news of its August 7 listing on popular U.S. crypto exchange and wallet service provider Coinbase, the alt has dropped slightly by around 2 percent today to trade at $15.04 at press time.

Ethereum Classic’s 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

Tezos (XTZ) –– ranked 18th –– is up a bullish 6.22 percent on the day to trade at $1.65 at press time. This strong growth comes despite the project’s latest setback in an ongoing securities class action against its controversial $232 million Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in an American court this week.

Tezos’ 24-hour  price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

Total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies is around $228.6 billion at press time, up over $9 billion from yesterday’s aforementioned $219 billion low.

7-day chart of the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies from CoinMarketCap

As the dizzying vagaries of the crypto markets leave some reeling, a team of financial experts from Yale University have this week suggested a system of factors to predict price trends in major cryptocurrencies.

They found that cryptocurrencies “have no exposure” to most common stock markets, nor to returns of currencies and commodities and macroeconomic factors. Instead, they identified crypto-specific patterns, including a “strong time-series momentum effect” among major assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple, as well as a correlation between price and investor attention, which they deduced via social media and search engine trend analyses.

Commenting on this “investor attention,” Pantera Capital CEO Dan Morehead today said that crypto markets have recently witnessed something of an overreaction from investors in response to short-term news, such as the SEC’s Bitcoin ETF delay.

The Korean government is taking aim at youth unemployment in emerging industries, launching a dedicated blockchain-focused education program.

The South Korean government is set to launch a program dedicated to fostering young talent in emerging areas including blockchain on August 10, a press release confirmed today, August 9.

The 2018 Innovative Growing Youth Talent Concentration Project is the second installment of the initiative following a successful inaugural round, which ran June 11 through July 10.

It is hosted by the Korean Ministry of Science and ICT and the Institute for Information and Communications Technology Promotion.

Participants will receive a six-month training course covering applications of blockchain and other technologies in various sectors, with instruction beginning mid-September.

The ultimate goal, the release explains, is to decrease youth unemployment and match talented individuals with the right line of work.

“Although the youth unemployment issue is emerging as a social problem, the problem of job mismatch is serious,” Young-Kyung Won, a software policy officer at the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy commented:

“Innovative growth through the fostering of young talent, we will foster talents that match the company's level of vision, offer new opportunities for young people who are looking for jobs, and actively support young people to create jobs.”

South Korea has continually sought to advance its blockchain integration in line with multiple major economies this year. The latest state-level plans emerged last week when the country’s finance watchdog called for a blockchain implementation for stock trading.

California-based software giant Intuit has been awarded a patent for processing Bitcoin payments via SMS on users’ cellphones.

U.S. software company Intuit has been awarded a patent for processing Bitcoin (BTC) payments via text message (SMS), according to a filing published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) August 7.

The patent, which outlines a system through which users can transfer BTC funds via sending an SMS on their cellphones, was originally filed in 2014, the same year that Intuit’s DIY tax solution QuickBooks partnered with BitPay to create a PayByCoin service for business clients to pay their invoices in BTC.

As the patent outlines:

“The invention [...] includes receiving, by a payment service from a payer mobile device of a payer, a payment text message comprising a payment amount and an identifier of a payee mobile device of a payee, validating the payment text message based at least on a payer balance of a virtual payer account maintained by the payment service for the payer.”

Intuit’s patent goes on to describe the interaction between virtual accounts created for the purposes of running the system, as well as different possible approaches to validating transactions. One of these would be “receiving an unanswered voice call within a pre-determined time period” after receiving a text message, which would be matched to to the identifier of the mobile device that is extracted from that message.

Another approach would be a password system that would be managed via SMS and the virtual accounts associated with each mobile device identifier.

Using cellphones directly to facilitate crypto adoption has been explored for several years, often considered to be the key to bringing financial inclusion through crypto to unbanked populations in countries where access to the internet or expensive computer hardware might limit people’s ability to transact in crypto.

Electronics giant HTC has meanwhile recently announced it would introduce a smartphone with a native crypto wallet and support for CryptoKitties, the Ethereum-based decentralized application (DApp) game.The firm is even reportedly planning to to issue a white paper on a project to incorporate crypto mining on cell phones later this year.

IBM and Maersk have launched their global blockchain-enabled shipping platform, dubbed TradeLens, which has already captured 154 million shipping events.

IBM and Danish transport and logistics giant Maersk have launched their global blockchain-enabled shipping solution, according to an official press release today, August 9.

The new jointly developed blockchain solution revealed 94 organizations involved and 154 million shipping events already captured. The global supply chain platform has been dubbed ‘TradeLens,’ and its dataset is reportedly growing at a rate of close to one million shipping events a day.

According to the press release, the platform is able to track critical data about each shipment in a supply chain in real time, generating a distributed, immutable record on the fly.

TradeLens’ participants now include over 20 port and terminal operators worldwide, as well as international customs authorities, freight forwarders, logistics firms and cargo owners, the press release reports.

It also counts global container carriers Hamburg Süd and Pacific International Lines as participants, alongside Maersk Line. As Forbes notes today, “collectively, the shipping companies account for more than 20% of the global supply chain market share… [and serve] 235 marine gateways around the world.”

IBM and Maersk say that the new blockchain-enabled platform is expected to bring multiple trading partners “a single shared view of a transaction without compromising details, privacy or confidentiality,” further integrating Internet of Things (IoT) and sensor data that allows for the monitoring of a range of variables, from temperature control to container weight.

The platform is said to be able to simplify a gamut of basic operational questions –– for example, determining the location of a container –– from 10 steps involving five middlemen to a single, disintermediated step.

IBM general manager and head of blockchain, Marie Wieck, told Forbes:

“We have seen a lot of skeptics talk about the validity of blockchain solutions [...] I think with over 90 organizations and over 150 million events captured on the system we really are seeing proof in the pudding in terms of where people are spending their time to get benefits from blockchain.”

Maersk and IBM first staked their departure away from legacy technology platforms when they initiated a 12-month trial for what would become TradeLens back in March 2017. The trial reportedly revealed that the blockchain-enabled solution could “reduce the transit time of a shipment of packaging materials to a production line in the United States by 40 percent,” saving “thousands of dollars.”

The as-yet unnamed TradeLens was originally slated to be released by the end of 2017. Currently open to early adopters, it is expected to be fully commercially available by the end of this year.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority has issued a warning about yet another a “clone” firm impersonating an authorized crypto company.

UK regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued a second warning in a week Wednesday, August 8, over crypto-related “fraudsters” claiming to be an FCA authorized firm.

According to the FCA, the rogue firm, Good Crypto, was giving out “false details or mix[ing] these with some correct details of the registered firm,” which in this case was London-based Arup Corporate Finance.

“This FCA authorised firm that fraudsters are claiming to work for has no association with the ‘clone firm,’” the regulator continues.

Good Crypto has its own website and other contact details, which the FCA warns “may be false” or “mixed” with details of Arup.

The reveal comes just a day after the regulator brought another suspicious operation to public attention, which was spuriously affiliating itself with investment firm Fair Oaks Capital.

Despite a late start on solidifying the local cryptocurrency industry, the FCA has now begun formally assessing whether token operators and other entities conform with relevant legal requirements.

As of May, a total of 24 businesses had come onto its radar.

In March, the UK hit the headlines when a ‘shell’ company registered in the country was linked to the stolen funds from now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox.