The coronavirus pandemic has forced people to change several social behavioral habits. Along with maintaining social distance from one another, people are also averse to using notes, coins or cards as they might transmit COVID-19. A new report from the Bank for International Settlements suggested that social distancing procedures and the “government-to-person payment schemes” have accelerated the efforts towards launching central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The paper shows that the public interest in CBDCs has exceeded that of Bitcoin (BTC) and Libra in 2020. However, the CBDCs will only be a digital version of the fiat currencies that will be …

The modus operandi of crypto scammers differ in each case as it happens with the rest, but this time, a popular Youtuber who has 2.43 million subscribers explained on August 20 how his channel was seized by hackers to launch an XRP fake giveaway campaign. According to a video published by David Damasceno, who runs Universo Curioso, cybercriminals took control of his account after receiving a contact request from an individual offering him a video editing tool. The fake software was called Zenium Editor, which also handles advertising revenues, and when Damasceno downloaded and installed the app, the damage has …

Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki believes that Warren Buffet’s recent closure of his bank stock positions is a warning sign that the world might be starting a “major banking crisis.” Therefore, Kiyosaki suggests traders buy safe haven assets such as gold, silver and Bitcoin (BTC) to protect themselves from the downward spiraling value of the fiat currencies. Popular Bitcoin derivatives trader Tone Vays believes that Bitcoin could breakout to new all-time highs in 2021. He pointed out that historically, Bitcoin has tended to double in price after breaking out of its all-time high, especially if it took years …

On Aug. 20, Representative Tom Emmer (R-MN) held the first ever Cryptocurrency Town Hall, bringing together a number of leaders from the Blockchain space. Conducted in collaboration with the Chamber of Digital Commerce PAC, the event featured major crypto figures like Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, eToro’s Guy Hirsch, BitPay’s CEO Stephen Pair, and Paxos’ Chad Cascarilla. Ripple CEO Garlinghouse outlined that the biggest challenge faced by Ripple so far is the lack of clarity around the regulatory status of XRP. “The biggest challenge Ripple has faced and anyone developing in the XRP community has faced is …

Bloomberg Intelligence senior strategist Mike McGlone is bullish on Bitcoin (BTC) as he believes that “something unexpected needs to happen for Bitcoin's price to stop doing what it's been doing for most of the past decade: appreciating.” However, with the S&P 500 hitting a new all-time high today, traders are booking profits in gold and crypto assets. As U.S. markets surge to new highs, Bitcoin price has corrected sharply in the last two days but this is likely to be a short-term blip in a secular uptrend. Veteran investor Jim Rogers thinks that the U.S. stock market is in a …

XRP, the world’s third largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, is not competing with national digital currencies like the forthcoming digital yuan, according to a senior executive at Ripple. Emi Yoshikawa, senior director of global operations at Ripple, claimed that XRP does not compete either with central bank digital currencies (CBDC) or stablecoins. In an Aug. 19 interview with Japanese crypto exchange FXcoin, Yoshikawa said that XRP is complementary to the global progress in CBDC and stablecoin development. The exec stated that XRP should be considered as a “bridge asset” in international settlement: “There are various types of crypto assets, but …

Investors usually buy large quantities of gold when they do not have faith in fiat currencies and want to protect their purchasing power against debasement. Berkshire Hathaway’s recent purchase of Canadian gold miner Barrick Gold suggests that Warren Buffet is not confident about the future health of the United States and global economy. Morgan Creek Digital co-founder and partner Jason Williams believes that although Buffet might not directly invest in Bitcoin (BTC), it is likely that one of the younger managers will. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 With gold making a sharp move today, Bitcoin has also followed it …

Data from Grayscale Investments shows that the firm’s assets under management soared from about $1.9 billion at the end of 2019 to over $3.5 billion by the end of June 30, 2020. The correction in the U.S. dollar (DXY) and the possibility of further weakness due to continued money printing by the U.S. Federal Reserve could be one of the main reasons for the surge in institutions investing in Bitcoin (BTC). Interestingly, about 40% of the Bitcoin accumulated over the past two years has not been moved, which suggests that investors are “HODLing” their purchases as they anticipate higher levels …

Ripple (XRP) CEO Brad Garlinghouse has responded to criticism from New York Times technology reporter Nathaniel Popper after news surfaced that Santander Bank is still hesitant to use the company’s native token XRP. Popper took aim at Garlinghouse, citing statements by the CEO in January 2018 around banks “planning to use [the] XRP token in the near future.” He went on to say that “people used their savings to invest in XRP based on the forward looking projections that Brad Garlinghouse gave,” adding: “If investors put their money into XRP on the day @BradGarlinghouse talked about the banks planning to …

Santander, the large scale Spanish bank and one of Ripple’s major partners, is still hesitant to adopt XRP as part of its international payment network, One Pay FX. The company reasoned that the token “was not actively traded in enough markets” to support the company’s banking needs. During an interview with the Financial Times, Cedric Menager, chief executive officer of One Pay FX, explained that Santander wants to provide the “best [user experience] as quickly as possible.” He also said that the bank hopes to “operate in as many currencies and corridors as possible from the beginning.” Ripple clarified that …

The much-debated blockchain firm Ripple is now planning to expand its use case far beyond just streamlining cross-border payments in partnership with national and international banks. Ripple had focused its efforts solely on cross-border payments for the past five years when Brad Garlinhouse joined the company as the chief executive officer. Despite their unprecedented success as a software solution provider to financial entities, Ripple has seemingly come to a realization that the company’s core value still lies in the associated cryptocurrency XRP and the Ripple blockchain. While the company had mostly worked with banks and directly funded millions to blockchain …

On August 11 MicroStrategy, the world’s largest publicly traded business intelligence company, announced that it had ditched fiat currency and built its primary treasury reserve with Bitcoin (BTC). The company’s CEO Michael J. Saylor believes that the coronavirus pandemic and the stimulus measures enacted to counter it will cause “a significant depreciating effect on the long-term real value of fiat currencies and many other conventional asset types.” Saylor further explained that Bitcoin “is a dependable store of value and an attractive investment asset with more long-term appreciation potential than holding cash.” Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 On similar lines, …