What important crypto events happened last week?
Cryptocurrencies
?? Polkadot Overtakes XRP For Fourth-Largest Crypto
Polkadot set a record for one of the highest weekly gains, allowing it to hit a $19 mark on Saturday. Last Friday's market capitalization of Polkadot was $13.7 billion, which allowed the coin to take fourth place among the most valuable coins, overtaking XRP. At the time of publication, DOT is trading at $17.5 and has a capitalization of $15.7 billion.
?? Bitcoin Price Dips Below $35,000 As Crypto Market Shrinks By $50 Billion
On Thursday, the price of the first cryptocurrency dropped to $29,100. This was the most significant drop in the price since January 4. Earlier, on January 8, bitcoin reached the highest price in its history, stopping before the mark of $42,000. Some analysts say that the Bitcoin price hikes are probably not over yet and the correction will last longer than initially expected. The market cap, which sank to $550 billion the day before, won back $50 billion.
?? Stellar (XLM) Pumps But Fails To Clear Long-Term Resistance
The price of XLM has been steadily moving up since the beginning of March 2020, reaching its maximum on January 6, settling at $0.35. After that, Stellar Lumens went into correction for a long time stuck around the $0,27 mark. According to analysts, XLM most likely expects a long-term bearish trend.
Projects And Updates
?? Circle To Use Stellar-based USDC For New Standard Of Internet Money
Circle CEO Jeremy Alaire, commenting on the partnership with the Stellar Development Foundation, responsible for the release of the USDC, said that using the Circle account, users and developers will have access to a wide range of features. In particular, users will be able to send and receive funds in USDC around the world through account payments, convert to stablecoin, and optimize operations using Circle's API built on USDC.
?? Grayscale Purchases $600 Million Bitcoin In 24 Hours
On January 18, asset management company Grayscale Investments increased its Bitcoin assets buying 16,244 BTC worth almost $600 million. Grayscale had previously suspended new investments but resumed it in early January 2021 with growing institutional demand. As the price of Bitcoin in the market temporarily dropped, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust took this moment to add more of the asset to its balance sheet.
?? Coinbase Officially Removes Ripple From The Exchange
Coinbase has officially removed XRP from their list, leaving Ripple coin holders unable to trade the asset on the exchange. Nevertheless, in a recent tweet, COINBASE stated that XRP wallets remain available for deposits, withdrawals and storage.
?? Stellar-based Velo Labs Expands For Cross-border Business Solutions
Singapore-based fintech company Lightnet has announced its partnership with Asia Digital Bank and Velo Labs. The goal of the partnership is to develop a next-generation settlement network for cross-border payments in the Pacific region. This network will be based on the Stellar Blockchain using a protocol developed by Velo Labs.
Regulations
?? EU Parliament Receives Petition Seeking To Establish Crypto Crime Victims’ Fund
The author of the petition, lawyer Jonathan Levy, wants the European Union to charge a fee of €0.0001 for transactions with cryptocurrency, which will be accumulated at the compensation fund for victims of cryptocurrency frauds. Levy has filed a similar petition before, but it has not met with widespread approval. Now, as the prices for cryptocurrency grew up and the cost of stolen assets of his clients has increased significantly, Levy hopes that the parliament will support the project to create a fund.
?? Two Australian Banks Face Lawsuit For Closing Bitcoin Trader’s Accounts
Australian cryptocurrency trader Allan Flynn has filed a lawsuit against two major commercial banks in the country, accusing them of discrimination and illegal closure of his accounts. The bitcoin trader has a licence of Australian Transaction Reporting and Analysis Center (AUSTRAC), which allows him to operate with cryptocurrencies. But banks' representatives believe that he is somehow involved in cryptocurrency scams. According to Flynn, over the past three years, his bank accounts have been closed in more than 20 financial organizations. He also claims that an ANZ bank employee reported other banks and his clients that he was involved in crypto fraud, which is again undermined his business reputation.
Mass Adoption
?? Ripple Partners With Mobile Money To Serve Malaysia-Bangladesh Remittance Corridor
Ripple has announced a partnership that will create a payment corridor between Malaysia and Bangladesh. Malaysian payment system Mobile Money and bKash, the largest mobile financial services provider in Bangladesh, will use RippleNet's features to offer money transfer services to 45 million users. The commercial Mutual Trust Bank (MTB) will act as a partner for conducting money transfers.
?? Miami Mayor Wants To Put Some Of The City's Treasury Reserves Into Bitcoin
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez wants to make his city attractive to the crypto industry by creating a friendly regulatory framework, as well as investing part of the city’s treasury reserves in Bitcoin. The city is already considering allowing citizens to pay taxes and fees in cryptocurrency. Suarez hopes that the such investment will not only help increase the city's budget but also can attract the attention of the technology industry and encourage more high-tech companies to move to Miami.
?? Mitsubishi To Optimize Energy Trading On Blockchain
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and researchers from Japan's Tokyo Tech University are working together to create a blockchain-based platform for P2P electricity trading. The new system will make it possible to efficiently sell and use surplus electricity generated from renewable sources. The peer-to-peer platform will allow participants to sell and buy energy from each other directly. According to the statement, the distributed optimization algorithm will allow clients' computers to share their trading data, and then optimally coordinate buying and selling orders.
Hacking
?? Russian exchange, LIVECOIN Terminates Services After Abrupt Hack
On January 16, representatives of the Russian cryptocurrency exchange Livecoin, hacked at the end of December 2020, announced the decision to close the platform and pay the compensations. To receive a refund, the exchange requires customers to send their login and registration date, promising to give further instructions for the next step of verification (which includes providing the scan of an ID, specifying the model of the main device and passing other personal information). Users were wary of this message and suggested the exchange's clients do not rush to send their personal data.
People
?? Former Ripple CTO Dumps 28.6 Million XRP For The First Time Post SEC Lawsuit
Ripple co-founder and former CTO Jed McCaleb sold an extensive amount of his XRP assets. Recently, McCaleb liquidated 28.6 million XRP worth approximately $8.8 million at the current exchange rate. That was the first sailing transaction McCaleb made in 25 days, that is, since the filing of a lawsuit by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Ripple, charging the company with distributing unregistered securities.
?? Craig Wright Claims Copyright On Bitcoin Whitepaper
Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist who claims to be Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto, has threatened legal action against the owners of two websites he accused of stealing his technical paper and other intellectual property. The statement alleged that Wright, as the inventor, is the rightful owner of the Bitcoin whitepaper, that he own the Bitcoin name and trademark, as well as the domains of the aforementioned sites. Cobra, the Bitcoin.org owner, called all the lawyer's claims false and unfounded. He explained the refusal to remove the Bitcoin whitepaper from the site by the fact that the document was published under the MIT license, which implies its free distribution.
