Top Stories This Week Research: ‘Free’ Electricity for Students Makes College Campuses Major Crypto Miners According to research from tech conglomerate Cisco, college campuses are the second-largest crypto miners across industry verticals. The researchers investigated crypto mining activities across a variety of industries, finding that university campuses are ranked the second-biggest miners of digital currency at 22 percent, with the energy and utilities sector in first at around 34 percent. According to the research, the increasing mining difficulty for many cryptocurrency means that a higher amount electricity is needed, making it profitable for students to mine since the university pays …

The Nem Foundation has released its plan for a financial and organizational restructuring on March 8. The plan comes in the wake of news earlier this year that the foundation was running low on its native XEM tokens. On Feb. 20, the foundation decided to release 210 million XEM tokens ($8.7 million) from reserves, the first 25 million ($1.04 million) of which will be used “to set up processes and structures for a new product-focused, revenue-driven approach for Nem Foundation.” The new tokens will purportedly fund the Nem Foundation’s efforts through Feb. 2020. In additionally to releasing new financing, the …

China’s state-backed tech workgroup has released its tenth crypto rankings report, placing Bitcoin (BTC) in 13th, while EOS (EOS) keeps its top spot. The monthly report was released by China’s Center for Information and Industry Development (CCID) on Feb. 26. Operating under China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, CCID first launched its monthly crypto ratings report in May 2018, and awarded major altcoin Ethereum (ETH) the top-rated crypto position out of the original 28 coins. In its latest crypto rankings report, CCID has added a new entrant to the list, having analyzed 35 digital coins instead of 34 cryptos …

Saturday, Feb. 23 — the top 20 cryptocurrencies are reporting mixed movements on the day by press time. Bitcoin (BTC) is hovering under the $4,000 mark again, according to Coin360 data. Market visualization from Coin360 At press time, Bitcoin is down 0.26 percent on the day, trading at around $3,976 after a brief mid-day high of $4,005, according to CoinMarketCap data. Looking at its weekly chart, the current price is over 8 percent lower than $3,643, the price at which Bitcoin started the week. Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap Ethereum (ETH) is keeping its position as the largest altcoin …

Disclaimer: This article was updated on Feb. 16 upon the launch of the NEM community’s vote on a proposal for a funding request. As part of the closing statements in an open announcement to the NEM community, the NEM Secretarial Office, which represents the voice of the NEM Foundation’s executive committee and council, said in “one final message for all” that the NEM Foundation community members knew before “is gone.” The announcement was made in an effort to stay true to their commitment of transparency and pulled back the curtain on a number of sensitive issues, including an acknowledgement that …

Thursday, Feb. 7 — most of the top 20 cryptocurrencies are reporting slight to noteworthy gains on the day by press time, with Bitcoin (BTC) hovering just over $3,400 again, according to Coin360 data. Market visualization from Coin360 At press time, Bitcoin is up a fraction of a percent on the day, trading at around $3,409, according to CoinMarketCap. Looking at its weekly chart, the current price is just over 1.5 percent lower than the price at which Bitcoin started the week. Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap According to TransactionFee data, there haven’t been so many Bitcoin transactions per …

Thursday, Jan. 31 — all of the top 20 cryptocurrencies are reporting moderate to heavy losses on the day by press time. Bitcoin (BTC) is hovering under $3,450 again, according to Coin360 data. Market visualization from Coin360 At press time, Bitcoin is down just 1 percent on the day, trading at around $3,449, according to CoinMarketCap. Looking at its weekly chart, the current price is lower than $3,593, the price at which Bitcoin started the week. Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap Ripple (XRP) has lost nearly 3.4 percent in the 24 hours to press time and is currently trading …

Blockchain asset management platform NEM (XEM) announced it had completely reformed its non-profit NEM Foundation amid financial difficulties in an announcement Jan. 31. The Foundation, which previously had a budget with a monthly burn rate of 9 million XEM (~$392,000), now plans to spend less than half that amount, as a new streamlined entity aims to cut costs. “The NEM Foundation has restructured to eliminate regional teams and replace them with newly created product-focused teams,” the announcement explained. Summarizing the changes, NEM confirmed that the “NEM Foundation you knew before is gone.” The impetus for the changes reportedly comes from …

Monday, Jan. 21: cryptocurrencies are seeing price weakness across the board, with virtually all of the top 100 coins by market cap tipping into the red.Top ten coins have lost between 3 and 7 percent on the day, as data from Coin360 shows. Market visualization by Coin360 Bitcoin (BTC) is down about 4 percent on the day to press time, slipping from a 24-hour high of ~$3,755 to its current price point around $3,570. Despite a jagged week of fleeting gains, the top coin has now come virtually full circle on its 7-day chart, and is trading just 0.5 percent …

Thursday, Jan. 17: crypto markets are stable, with major coins seeing negligible price change over the 24 hours to press time. Most of the top ten cryptocurrencies seeing only mild losses, capped within a 2-3 percent range. Almost half the coins in the top ten-twenty range have tipped slightly into green, as data from Coin360 shows. Market visualization by Coin360 After an intraweek tumble to ~$3,550 Jan. 13, Bitcoin (BTC) is down a mild 0.9 percent on the day to press time, slipping from a 24-hour high of $3,685 to its current price point around $3,630. On the week, Bitcoin …

NEM Foundation in Argentina has signed a memorandum of understanding with a local trade union of journalists. The goal of the agreement is to develop a blockchain-powered solution for copyright protection, Cointelegraph in Spanish reported Saturday, Jan. 5. The memorandum signed with CISPREN — the journalists’ trade union of the city of Cordoba in central Argentina — also implies the development of a Proof-of-Concept for the project. CISPREN hopes that blockchain can solve different issues associated with the protection of intellectual property rights, such as content theft, failure to pay royalties and others. CISPREN’s press-secretary German Guismondi told Cointelegraph that …

Monday, Dec. 31 — on the cusp of the new year, all but one of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap are in the red, as data from Coin360 shows. Losses among the larger cryptos are tempered, with most losing 2-3 percent, and losses capped at 6 percent. Market visualization by Coin360 Bitcoin (BTC) has seen a mild loss of around 2 percent over the 24 hours to press time, currently trading at $3,816. The closing week of 2018 has been a volatile one, with Bitcoin breaking above $4,200 Dec. 24, before sustaining several days of losses to trade …