After a short stay in the red zone, Bitcoin (BTC) has recovered toward $12,000, with traders turning bullish as ever. Experts call the United States-China trade war a key reason for the main cryptocurrency’s price fluctuations. Fuel to the fire has been added by the recent announcement by the People's Bank of China (PBoC) of plans to get ahead of the U.S. and Facebook’s Libra by issuing a national cryptocurrency. Chinese government is set to digitize yuan, challenge U.S. and Libra As Cointelegraph reported, the PBoC plans to focus on developing its own legal digital currency. On Aug. 2, during …

The Bureau of Securities in New Jersey has issued two emergency orders to the companies Zoptax and Unocall to end their initial coin offerings (ICOs). The Bureau alleges that the token offerings qualify as fraudulent unregistered securities offerings. The Office of the Attorney General in New Jersey announced the Bureau's orders in a news release on Aug. 7. In the case of Zoptax, the report states that the company is offering the cryptocurrency Zoptax Coins through a website-conducted ICO. The website apparently states that the ICO has a soft cap of $500,000, as well as a hard cap goal of …

Facebook hired former assistant of United States Republican senator Mike Crapo, Susan Stoner Zook, to join the lobbying team for its Libra stablecoin. Facebook doubles down on Libra lobbying News outlet Politico reported on Aug. 5 that Zook had been hired onto Facebook’s team of lobbyists working to win lawmakers over to Libra. Per the report, she wrote in an email that she will focus her work at the company on lobbying Republican senators. As Cointelegraph reported in July, Crapo stressed the importance of building an overarching regulatory framework for data protection — not just for Facebook, but for all …

A senior policy analyst at investment banking corporation Cowen, Jaret Seiberg, said that Walmart’s proposed digital coin should not face as much regulatory pushback as Libra, Facebook’s proposed virtual currency. As Bloomberg reports on Aug. 5, Seiberg also added that Walmart’s crypto may have a demographic appeal to Democratic legislators who are keen to find an alternative financial infrastructure for people who do not regularly use banks. According to Seiberg, Libra and Walmart’s crypto proposal differ in scale. Seiberg comments that Facebook has global intentions which do not appear to be shared by Walmart. Possible regulatory hangups However, Seiberg noted …

The United Kingdom's Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has requested, along with a number of other jurisdictions, that the companies in the Libra Association provide details on how they plan to protect user data. The ICO has released a joint statement on global privacy expectations of the Libra network on Aug. 5 that is addressed to Facebook and 28 other organizations behind the Libra and Calibra projects. The letter specifically asks the companies to explain how they plan to collect and process users’ personal data according to data protection laws. The letter notes that the Libra Association will become a custodian …

Coming every Sunday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week Facebook warns investors that the Libra stablecoin may never launch The Libra storyline is fast becoming a never-ending soap opera — and we might be reaching the season finale. Facebook used its latest quarterly report to warn investors that its controversial cryptocurrency may never launch at all. The admission at least shows that the social …

United States-based cryptocurrency index fund provider Bitwise declared that Facebook’s Libra stablecoin accelerated Bitcoin’s (BTC) progress by three years in a letter to investors published on its website on August 1. Libra attracted attention to Bitcoin In the letter, Bitwise’s global head of research Matt Hougan said on behalf of the company: “Thanks to Facebook’s Libra and Congress, we have just fast-forwarded two or three years into crypto’s future, accelerating all the conversations, debates, and mainstream discussions into the present day.” Increasing regulatory scrutiny The firm claims that, as a consequence of Libra’s development and the crypto hearings with the …

Ripple, whose business is built on providing financial institutions with an infrastructure to facilitate international payments and currency trades, has always been a more likely ally to governments and regulators than most other major blockchain projects and cryptocurrencies. Seeking to enhance rather than disrupt the operations of the legacy financial industry, the company has been long stressing the importance of a clear-cut policy framework for the banks to fully reap the fruits of blockchain-powered innovation. The regulatory pushback against Libra, Facebook’s recently announced cryptocurrency, has apparently spurred Ripple’s determination to publicly take an even more pro-market-regulation stance. Late July saw …

Any country seeing widespread use of Facebook’s proposed Libra digital currency could find that its central bank monetary policy is severely undermined. This is the view of Hiromi Yamaoka, former Bank of Japan executive, who oversaw research into digital currencies for the organization. “The emergence of Libra would pressure policymakers to discipline themselves” Issues are likely to arise “if Libra becomes more widely used than the sovereign currency of a particular country,” according to Yamaoka. But while this should not cause too much concern for countries with a strong market trust in their currencies, Libra could trigger or accelerate capital …

A new patent filing suggests that United States retail giant Walmart may be developing its own U.S. dollar-backed digital currency similar to Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency. Walmart filed patent for “Digital Currency via Blockchain” Patent filing number 20190236564, “System and Method for Digital Currency via Blockchain,” was published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on Aug. 1. The document outlines a method for: “Generating one digital currency unit by tying the one digital currency unit to a regular currency; storing information of the one digital currency unit into a block of a blockchain; buying or paying the one digital …

The official announcement and details around Project Libra were provided to the world on June 18, 2019. Firstly, Libra was introduced: a new global reserve-backed cryptocurrency built on top of the new Libra Blockchain, with everything governed by a not-for-profit consortium dubbed the Libra Association. It was clear that each of these products and technologies will play an integral role in the project’s overall mission of creating a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that empowers billions of people. Additionally, Facebook also announced the creation of Calibra, which is developing the initial business of Libra and its own product outside …

The United States Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs has ended the hearing on “Examining Regulatory Frameworks for Digital Currencies and Blockchain” today, July 30. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, Rebecca M. Nelson, a specialist in international trade and finance; and Mehrsa Baradaran, a professor of law at the University of California Irvine School of Law all testified before the committee. Lawmakers want the U.S. to lead in blockchain Senator Michael Crapo of Idaho began the hearing saying that cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology are inevitable and could be beneficial, further noting that the U.S. should establish itself as a global …