On July 31, the U.S. Federal Reserve and its chairman Jerome Powell officially announced a 25-basis point cut. The U.S. stock market and the S&P 500 reacted with a sharp correction, indicating that the rate cut has been priced into the equities markets. The S&P 500 has dropped by more than one percent following the Fed’s rate cut. | Source: Yahoo Finance Kathryn Rooney Vera, chief markets strategist at Bulltick Capital Markets, said in an interview with CNBC prior to Read more …
A new partnership between the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), Mashreq Bank, and fintech firm Norbloc aims to launch a blockchain-based Know Your Customer (KYC) data-sharing consortium in 2020. The official UAE news agency, Emirates News Agency, reported on the new development on July 31. The DIFC, Mashreq Bank and Norbloc — a Stockholm-based blockchain project focused on KYC and a member of the Hyperledger consortium — are planning to jointly launch the consortium in the first quarter of 2020 Read more …
A stablecoin project for the marijuana industry has joined an Arizona fintech sandbox. According to Arizona’s Attorney Generals Office, startup Alta was accepted into the office’s fintech program. The seventh startup to join to date, Alta is looking to address the banking needs of a $350 million statewide industry. Current federal regulations prohibit bank involvement with the marijuana industry, leaving businesses searching for alternatives. State regulators believe Alta’s dollar-pegged-stablecoin and payment network provide such an alternative in addition to a Read more …
Research from The Block shows that while some IEO’s have been wildly successful, the majority are not profitable for investors. IEOs are Popular but Not Always Profitable On Wednesday blockchain and cryptocurrency researcher, Larry Cermak posted an intriguing Twitter thread about the performance of IEOs in 2019. According to The Block head of research, about 180 blockchain projects secured funding through an internal exchange offering (IEO) and currently 40 exchanges have hosted at least one IEO. Cermak wisely chose to Read more …
Craig Wright’s legal campaign continues to experience turbulence, with a UK court dealing a devastating blow to the self-declared Bitcoin creator’s quest to use the strong arm of the law to unsully his less-than-stellar-reputation. The self-proclaimed “Satoshi Nakamoto” launched a libel lawsuit against Roger Ver after Ver taunted him by calling him a “fraud” – a charge he repeated after being slapped with the 100,000-pound suit. My response to CSW’s 100,000 GBP lawsuit: pic.twitter.com/Ob1WZITrM3 — Roger Ver (@rogerkver) May 3, 2019 Read more …
A judge has struck down a libel lawsuit against Roger Ver, an early bitcoin investor, that was filed by Satoshi Nakamoto claimant Craig Wright. Wright alleged that Ver defamed him in a YouTube that was published in mid-April, in which Ver denounced Wright’s claim to be bitcoin’s anonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. The video was also circulated on Twitter. According to court documents published Wednesday, Judge Sir Matthew Nicklin said Wright has not supplied sufficient justification that the trial should be Read more …
Bitcoin price is at a critical junction, with either a major bull run ahead or a deeper correction that could mean the bear market hasn’t yet ended. A powerful indicator called the NVT ratio – designed by one of the crypto community’s best and brightest – has been used to time the tops and bottoms of Bitcoin bubbles, and is currently showing that Bitcoin has fallen from the highest levels it’s ever reached. The last three times Bitcoin reached such Read more …
So it appears that gamers may be getting a new Hitman installment at some point. Following the success of developer IO Interactive’s Hitman 2 in 2018 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC, a statement from IO Interactive’s Hakan Abrak suggests that a Hitman 3 lies ahead. In a documentary by Noclip called “The Fall & Rise of Hitman,” various members of IO Interactive are featured including CEO Hakan Abrak. In the documentary, Abrak asserts that what will be a Read more …
The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, Canada, has approved over $1.6 million in fees for parties seeking funds from former Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX, according to recently released court documents. Justice Darlene Jamieson ordered to approve the activities, fees and disbursements incurred by the Monitor — Big Four audit firm EY — in the ongoing proceedings of QuadrigaCX. The exchange ostensibly lost access to its cold wallet holdings following the death of its founder, Gerald Cotten, in December 2018, and Read more …
The Dow and broader U.S. stock market reversed gains Wednesday after the Federal Reserve initiated its long-awaited interest-rate cut – but not without some dissension. Dow Plunges; S&P 500, Nasdaq Follow All three major U.S. indexes were trading slightly higher ahead of the Federal Reserve’s policy statement, which was released at 2:00 p.m. ET. An initial reading of the decision sent stocks tumbling, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging 404.42 points, or 1.5%, to 26,793.42. Dow Jones Industrial Average Read more …
U.S. citizens can now purchase physically settled Bitcoin futures contracts using LedgerX’s Omni platform. What does this mean for Bitcoin price? If You’re Not First You’re Last! On Wednesday BTC derivatives provider LedgerX revealed that it had launched physically-settled Bitcoin futures contracts. This makes the company the first to offer such a product in the U.S. This also catapults the company to the forefront, ahead of Bakkt, TD Ameritrade-backed ErisX who are both direct competitors. The product is available to Read more …
In its latest rankings, the Chinese CCID Research Institute put Bitcoin (BTC) in eleventh place on a list of 37 digital currencies in terms of technology, application and innovation. The ranking results were published by Forex Crunch on July 31. The CCID Research Institute is an initiative of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology that provides a monthly assessment of cryptocurrency projects. The assessment takes into account 37 cryptocurrencies and considers their properties such as basic technology, applicability and Read more …