Day: January 30, 2020

Ripple (XRP) Gearing For Lift-Off to $0.30: Bulls Are Not Done Yet

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Ripple is slowly rising and it recently climbed above the $0.2400 resistance against the US Dollar. XRP price remains in a steady uptrend and it is likely to continue higher towards $0.3000. Ripple price is trading in an uptrend above $0.2200 and it is likely to hit $0.3000 against the US dollar. The bulls managed to push the price above the $0.2400 resistance area. There is a connecting bullish trend line forming with support near $0.2405 on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair (data source from Kraken). The pair…

Ethereum Smashes $180 To Open Doors For $200: Key Levels To Watch

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Ethereum price surged more than 5% and broke the key $180 resistance area against the US Dollar. ETH traded as high as $187 and it is currently correcting gains. Ethereum is showing a lot of positive signs and it recently climbed above $180 against the US Dollar. The price remained well bid above the $170 support and the 100 hourly simple moving average. There is a new bullish trend line forming with support near $182 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD (data feed via Kraken). Bitcoin price is still facing…

Five of the Most Expensive NFTs Sold in 2019

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The nonfungible token market is one of the most exciting spaces in crypto right now. Significant investments are being made on nonfungible tokens as people diversify their decentralized portfolios in the hope that this promising market continues to grow. As we begin 2020, let’s take a look at five of the most expensive NFTs sold last year. 5. Gods Unchained — Atlas ID #8840817 Price: 210 ETH (approximately $31,500) Date: Dec. 5, 2019 Gods Unchained is a competitive card game on the Ethereum blockchain and is similar to the popular…

Bitfinex Adds Margin Trading on Tether Gold With Pairs of Up to 5x Leverage

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Bitfinex, the world’s seventh-largest bitcoin exchange by trade volume, has launched margin trading for Tether Gold (XAU₮), enabling traders to execute more advanced strategies on the yellow metal in a digital form. As of Jan 30, 12:00 UTC, traders are now able to execute on margin using Tether Gold against pairings such as tether’s native stablecoin (USDT), bitcoin (BTC) and the U.S. dollar (USD). These pairs can now be traded with initial equity of as low as 20 percent, giving traders a maximum of up to 5 times leverage, according…

Silk Road Operator Pleads Guilty to 1 Charge of Conspiracy

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Roger Thomas Clark, an alleged operator behind the Silk Road darknet marketplace and advisor to founder Ross Ulbricht, pleaded guilty to “conspiring to distribute massive quantities of narcotics,” prosecutors announced Thursday. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said in a press release that Clark, who was known online as “Plural of Mongoose,” “Variety Jones,” “VJ” and “cimon,” pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, and will be sentenced on May 29. Silk Road is most famous for being a darknet marketplace where users could purchase…

The National Bank of Cambodia Will Launch a Digital Payments Network This Quarter

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The National Bank of Cambodia’s new digital currency is called Bakong.  It’s effectively a central bank digital currency (CBDC) that was launched on a trial basis throughout Cambodia in July. Chea Serey, director-general of the National Bank of Cambodia, said the system will be operational within the present fiscal quarter. Serey described Bakong as “the national payment gateway for Cambodia.” Bakong will play a central role in bringing all players in the payment space in Cambodia under the same platform, making it easy for end-users to pay each other regardless…

Bitcoin Isn’t a Main Focus in Finance Anymore, Theismann Says

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Former NFL player Joe Theismann thinks Bitcoin has drifted to the back burner, out of the public’s microscope.  “It’s sort of been pushed way on the back shelf,” Theismann told Bloomberg in a Jan. 30 podcast interview.  “I’m not saying that there isn’t a possibility for it to rise again at some point, but I think that has run its course to a degree,” he added, noting his brief past participation in the industry.  Financial interest In the podcast episode with Bloomberg, Theismann spoke on multiple topics, including stocks and…

Crypto Upstages Other Mobile Payments in US Congressional Hearing

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Congress clearly has crypto on the brain, with the question of regulation being a matter of when. At a Jan. 30 hearing before the Fintech Task Force, a body within the United States House of Representatives, lawmakers were focused on bringing crypto into the conversation.  The basics The hearing — entitled “Is Cash Still King? Reviewing the Rise of Mobile Payments” — featured testimony from witnesses with backgrounds spanning payment providers, consumer advocates and financial inclusion non-profits.  While some of the written testimony provided by the witnesses before the hearing…

Virgil Griffith Pleads Not Guilty to Evading U.S. Sanctions in North Korea Jaunt

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Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith entered a plea of not guilty Thursday afternoon in a Southern District of New York courthouse. Griffith is charged with conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act after traveling to North Korea (DRPK) in April 2019 to attend a cryptocurrency conference.  If convicted, Griffth, who once called himself a “disruptive technologist” whose aim was to “make the Internet a better and more interesting place,” could face up to 20 years in prison. He traveled up from Alabama to attend the arraignment and appeared composed…

CME Bitcoin Futures Hit $100B in Volume Since 2017, Director McCourt Says

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The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, or CME, has hosted over $100 billion in volume for its Bitcoin futures trading product.  “CME Bitcoin futures have surpassed $100 billion in total notional value traded since their launch in December 2017,” CME Group Managing Director and Global Head of Equity Index Alternative Investment Products, Tim McCourt, told Cointelegraph.   Institutions join crypto During the crypto boom of 2017, mainstream financial entities began moving into the industry.  In December 2017, at the peak of Bitcoin’s all-time price high, CME launched its cash-settled Bitcoin futures trading product.…