Forbes released its Fintech 50 list this week, which included six blockchain companies among the media outlet’s compilation of top financial technology companies. Carrying a “Blockchain and Bitcoin” category tag, Forbes listed Axoni, Chainalysis, Coinbase, Everledger, MakerDao and Ripple amongst its top 50 fintech list for 2020, released on Feb. 12. Other contenders on the list included companies such as Plaid, Opendoor and Lemonade, categorized under payments, real estate and insurance respectively. Listed alphabetically Spanning an array of categories within fintech, Forbes composed its 2020 list alphabetically. Among the six blockchain and crypto-related categories, crypto exchange powerhouse Coinbase touted the …

The total crypto market capitalization has topped $300 billion for the first time since early-August of 2019. This shows that the bulls are back in action. Interestingly, it is not only the crypto markets that have been moving up, even the US stock markets have been making new lifetime highs in 2020. Currently, the Dow Jones index is currently close to 29,500 points. However, Fundstrat Global Advisors co-founder, Tom Lee, believes that Bitcoin will pip the Dow Jones for the race to 40,000. Chicago Mercantile Exchange chief economist Bluford Putnam echoed the popular belief that Bitcoin is a non-correlated asset …

Another major financial institution has partnered with blockchain-based payments firm Ripple. The National Bank of Egypt has signed a cooperation agreement with Ripple to establish new channels for inward remittances, according to a Feb. 11 report from local daily news site Youm7. The agreement reportedly makes the National Bank the country’s first to venture into the blockchain sector. Remittances: an almost $600 billion global market The global remittance market — referring to the money or goods that migrants send back to family and friends in their home countries — is expected to reach $597 billion in 2020, according to data …

Commissioner Hester Peirce of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission is known for her work on the regulator’s approach to crypto, enough to have earned the moniker “CryptoMom.” On Thursday, Feb. 6, she presented a new proposal looking to build a safe harbor for networks in their infancy seeking to avoid classification as securities. On Feb. 10, Cointelegraph got the chance to speak with the commissioner at greater length about her goals and hopes for the proposal. What is a safe harbor and why don’t firms want tokens to be securities? Briefly, Peirce’s proposal seeking to give tokens run …

The Blockchain Education Alliance launched by blockchain accelerator MouseBelt has gained several noteworthy new members. Ashlie Meredith, the university program director for MouseBelt Blockchain Accelerator, told Cointelegraph on Feb. 11 that the new members include payment processing behemoth Mastercard, the innovation arm of major crypto exchange Binance, Binance X, Ripple's accelerator Xpring and cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin. Smart contract platform NEO, internet-of-things startup IoTeX, blockchain security firm Quantstamp and big data blockchain service Constellation Labs also joined the alliance. According to its official website, the Blockchain Education Alliance aims to support education “to ensure students receive the skills, connections, and knowledge …

A report by investment management firm VanEck shows that Bitcoin can greatly improve the “risk and return reward profile of institutional investment portfolios.” The research shows that even a small allocation to Bitcoin in a portfolio mix of 60% equity and 40% bonds enhanced the cumulative return. The best portfolio return was seen with an investment of 3% in Bitcoin, 58.5% in equity and 38.5% in bonds. When Bitcoin was compared with traditional assets such as the U.S. dollar and gold, Bitcoin showed more features that are desirable from an asset class to be used as money. Daily cryptocurrency market …

The institutional investors have maintained their bullish stance on Bitcoin. Though the spot price is yet to hit $10,000, CME Bitcoin futures have already reached the five-figure mark. Additionally, the Bitcoin futures open interest on BitMEX has topped $1.5 billion. This shows that the institutional traders expect the rally to extend further. Morgan Creek Digital Co-Founder Anthony Pompliano meanwhile has said that his idea of Bitcoin acting as a hedge for portfolios due to its non-correlated nature has only solidified over time. He added that Bitcoin moved in the opposite direction to both the S&P 500 index and gold in …

Analysis by blockchain monitor Whale Alert suggests that Ripple co-founder Jed McCaleb sold off more than one billion XRP between 2014 and 2019. In a Medium post published on Feb. 6, Whale Alert estimated that McCaleb has another 4.7 billion XRP left to sell, equating to around 5% of the total supply. At today’s prices, the hoard is worth more than one billion U.S. dollars, dwarfing the $135 million Whale Alert estimates he has made via XRP sales to date. McCaleb sold another 19 million, or $4.13 million worth last month — and Whale Alert believes the rate may increase …

A new working group, spearheaded by senior employees of Ripple and Coinbase, is going to advise United States regulators on crypto-friendly policies. But congresspeople are too busy preparing for the upcoming elections, which means that U.S. crypto firms will have to continue hula-hooping through state-by-state regulations in the near future. Earlier this month, a D.C.-based advocacy group called the Blockchain Association, representing a number of high-profile cryptocurrency firms, launched a working group tasked with pushing for a U.S.-wide regulatory framework. Called the Market Integrity Working Group, the new entity is co-chaired by Breanne Madigan, head of global institutional markets at …

Controversial altcoin XRP is still “proving” itself, but Bitcoin (BTC) remains the recommended investment choice in the cryptocurrency world, Mike Novogratz says. In a series of tweets on Feb. 6, venture capitalist Novogratz, who is also CEO of the cryptocurrency merchant bank, Galaxy Digital, delivered modest praise of XRP and Ripple, the company which owns more of it than anyone else. Novogratz “surprised” by XRP performance “This year the broader alt market, including $XRP has outperformed $BTC. This has surprised me,” he wrote. “That said, I see more and more large accounts getting educated and set up to be accumulators …

2020 could be the year that crypto companies step forward and take the plunge into going public. As the biggest players in the industry cautiously watch for opportunities to gain regulatory approval, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse used the prestigious Davos World Economic Forum summit to announce that the firm was considering an initial public offering later on in the year. Crypto companies looking to go public face a paradox. Financial firms often have to meet stringent regulatory standards. Failing to adequately reassure regulators can result in companies being frozen out of lucrative markets or forced to shut down altogether. But …

Although Bitcoin has rallied about 33% year-to-date, its dominance has dipped to 64.40%, its lowest level since July 2019. This shows that altcoins have continued to outperform Bitcoin. However, with the Bitcoin halving fast approaching, the digital asset’s volatility is likely to pick up. Tom Lee, co-founder at Fundstrat Global Advisors, has again turned ultra bullish on Bitcoin and expects a rally to about 200% in the next six months. According to him, historically, whenever Bitcoin has broken above its 200-day moving average, it has recorded an average six month gain of 197%. Lee expects halving to act as a …