The Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell has said that the Fed is not developing a central bank digital currency (CBDC), but it is conducting its own research to evaluate the benefits and limitations of such an initiative. On the other hand, Edith Cheung, partner at blockchain-focused venture capital fund Proof of Capital, believes that China will launch its digital currency within the next six to twelve months. A CBDC by a large economy will be an interesting development. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 The crypto markets have been losing ground in the past few weeks due to the …

At present, the combined capitalization of the 2,022 crypto assets with a known market cap was roughly $222 billion. On Nov. 19, 2017, just weeks before the current all-time highs would be set for the price and capitalization of Bitcoin and the crypto market overall, the 985 tokens with a known market cap represented a capitalization of around $244 billion — a similar zone to where the market is at currently. However, with the capitalization of Bitcoin (BTC) having grown 15% from $134.1 billion to $154.6 billion during the 24 months following November 2017, more than twice as many altcoins …

Since the Great Recession, the health of the global financial system has only deteriorated. Corrupt leadership, worsening standards of living and several other problems have sparked unrest in a number of countries. The latest country to see unrest is Iran. Recently protestors set several buildings on fire and one among them was a branch of Iran's central bank in Behbahan, a city located in the southwestern region of the country. Such events underline the importance of cryptocurrencies because crypto is the only asset class which cannot be controlled or manipulated by leaders and regulators. Though many suggest that gold can …

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) miners appear to have wasted money mining 14 blocks on the wrong chain after the altcoin underwent a hard fork. According to data from monitoring resource Fork Monitor on Nov. 15, Bitcoin Cash, which itself forked off from Bitcoin (BTC) in 2017, successfully split in two once again on Friday. BitMEX: Miners are “wasting resources” Despite being broadly cleaner than its previous hard fork attempts, it soon became apparent that a large section of miners had not upgraded to the new chain. In total, miners spent resources mining 14 empty blocks on a chain that the majority …

Fundstrat’s Tom Lee believes that cryptocurrencies “are network value assets” and as the number of people who hold the asset increases, the value of the cryptocurrencies would also move up. According to him, about half a million people use and own Bitcoin currently and if the number doubles, he expects Bitcoin (BTC) to easily reach his target of $25,000. Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao believes that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s support of blockchain technology will result in the mass adoption of crypto. As more people learn about blockchain technology, they would understand cryptocurrencies better, boosting adoption. Zhao also expects …

The planned hard fork of the Bitcoin Cash network has been completed, as the first block considered invalid by the older client version was noted by BitMEX Research in a tweet on Nov. 15. Fork Monitor detected that the block at height 609,136 was considered invalid by the Bitcoin ABC 0.19.0 client. The block was accepted by Bitcoin ABC 0.20.6, confirming that the hard fork had completed as planned. The block was mined by the BTC.com pool at 13:44 UTC, with a block-size of 0.2MB, and contained 651 transactions. Older versions of Bitcoin ABC will now either remain stuck or …

An upcoming planned hard fork in Bitcoin Cash (BCH) will impose relatively simple technical changes to its consensus mechanism that will not split the chain, despite some turbulent undercurrents in the coin’s community regarding issues which have recently become difficult to ignore. Disloyalty and perhaps manipulation among miners, or just the possibility of such, has refocused the conversation ahead of the Nov. 15 fork. These issues have gone unaddressed in the “planned hard fork” coming tomorrow, a term which has been politicized to mean community strife and a chain split — but in this case, is something rather benign. The …

Although Bitcoin (BTC) is not showing any trending move, Bakkt and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group continue to roll out products designed to attract the large traders. Bakkt recently announced that it will add a cash-settled futures contract to its existing Bitcoin-settled contract. On the other hand, the CME group plans to offer options on Bitcoin futures after receiving the necessary regulatory approvals. Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange is also planning to launch a slew of products, which include, options trading and a gold-backed stablecoin, to attract customers. These actions by cryptocurrency exchanges instill confidence that trading volume is likely to …

The crypto markets are going through a phase of uncertainty with several cryptocurrencies failing to show a firm trend. This is because the markets lack a catalyst that can either pull prices higher or plunge them lower. However, a developing catalyst could be the launch of the China-backed central bank digital currency (CBDC). Jack Lee, a founding partner at HCM Capital, believes that China’s central bank is ready and the digital currency could be launched within the next two to three months. If this experiment is successful, it would likely force the other developed nations to follow suit. Daily cryptocurrency …

Though crypto markets are in a consolidation phase, the number of first-timers investing in this nascent space has almost doubled, according to data from Square Cash App. This is a positive sign as it shows that investors are using the dips to buy cryptocurrency. In another positive for the crypto space, research by the recruitment firm Indeed.com has found that cryptocurrency job requirements have risen in the past year even as searches for blockchain and cryptocurrency roles have reduced. This indicates that the sentiment among the crypto companies remains bullish. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 While the long-term outlook …

Bitcoin Cash's Roger Ver took to Facebook to announce that he is giving away Bitcoin Cash (BCH) to further spread the adoption of the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Bitcoin Cash price to increase by almost 100,000 percent? On Nov. 4, the Bitcoin Cash proponent and former CEO of Bitcoin.com, Roger Ver, said that he will send $5 worth of BCH to all of his Facebook friends, which “could easily become worth $5,000 some day” — an increase of 99,900%. If people are not already part of Ver’s network of Facebook friends, Ver will still send them $1 in BCH, …

The crypto space is taking a breather after the recent sharp run. However, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) recently tweeted that he is positive that Bitcoin (BTC) will resume its rally to $16,000 “soon-ish.” This suggests that CZ believes the market has bottomed and is in the process of resuming the uptrend. Furthermore, the long-term price action of Bitcoin shows that it has outperformed the S&P 500 since 2003. In other crypto-related news, French high school students will now be taught the basics of Bitcoin and its effects on the French and global economy. This suggests that the government is …