The International Monetary Fund chief economist Gita Gopinath said in a panel discussion at the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos that Facebook’s Libra was a major trigger that made people reconsider the status of the dollar as the reserve currency of the world. Brazil's Economy Minister Paulo Guedes, who was also a part of the panel, said that “the Libra episode is just evoking a future digital currency.” In order to help policymakers understand the central bank digital currency (CBDC) better, the WEF in collaboration with some of the world's major central banks and experts from over 40 …

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse predicts that initial public offerings (IPOs) will become more prevalent in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space in 2020. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos yesterday, Jan. 23, Garlinghouse reportedly hinted that Ripple would itself be one of those firms to seek a public flotation: “In the next 12 months, you’ll see IPOs in the crypto/blockchain space. We’re not going to be the first and we’re not going to be the last, but I expect us to be on the leading side… it’s a natural evolution for our company.” “Natural evolution” An IPO refers to …

Ripple’s XRP sales continued to drop in the second half of 2019, with sales of the token reaching a historic low in Q4. According to a Jan. 22 blog post by Ripple — the firm behind the third largest crypto asset by market cap — total XRP sales in Q4 2019 accounted for $13.08 million, down more than 80% from the $66.24 million reported in Q3 2019. Ripple got rid of programmatic sales The massive decline in XRP sales in 2019 does not appear to be unexpected though. Specifically, quarterly XRP sales were consecutively dropping in 2019 as Ripple initiated …

Recently Hiromi Yamaoka, the former head of payments and settlements at the Bank of Japan, said that Facebook’s Libra has forced central banks to research and consider issuing central bank digital currencies (CBDC). Currently China is leading the race in developing a CBDC but it appears that other nations are now attempting to play catch up. In a press release, the Bank of England said that the central banks of Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, the European Union, Sweden and Switzerland have joined hands with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) to form a working group tasked with researching CBDCs. …

The total market capitalization of the crypto space rallied from about $184 billion on Jan. 3 to a high of $250 billion on Jan. 19. That is a 35% gain within a short span of time. Usually, fast-paced rallies do not last long, hence, for the long-term health of the markets, it is better to have rallies with intermittent corrections. Bitcoin has been following the Stock-to-Flow model fairly accurately. The model’s creator, an analyst known as PlanB, believes that the price of Bitcoin is likely to average around $8,200 until the halving event in May of this year. Thereafter, the …

Sunday, Jan. 19 — most of the top 20 cryptocurrencies are reporting severe losses on the day by press time as well as Bitcoin (BTC) which now hovers just under the $8,600 mark falling from today’s high of nearly $9,200, making it a 7.32% loss. Market visualization courtesy of Coin360 Bitcoin price is currently down by 3.08% on the day, trading at around $8,636 at press time, according to Coin360. Looking at its weekly chart, the coin is still up by about 6.42%. Bitcoin’s price movement has seen the price decrease by $514 in around 5 minutes. Bitcoin 7-day price …

The total crypto market capitalization has risen from about $190.5 billion at the start of the year to over $243 billion. That is a rise of about 27.55% within 17 days. This shows that the bulls are back in action. Another interesting thing to note is that the rally is led by altcoins, which are outperforming Bitcoin (BTC) by a huge margin. This shows that the current rally is more broad-based, announcing the arrival of altseason. Digital asset management firm Grayscale Investments reported that $225.5 million in investments flowed into its products in Q4 2019. That took the total investment …

The crypto space is making a comeback and the rally is being led by altcoins. While several altcoins might participate in the initial rally, we believe that the market will start differentiating between each cryptocurrency based on its fundamentals. Hence, traders should avoid buying the non-performers expecting a repeat of the previous bull market when every altcoin staged a parabolic rally. When compared against altcoins, Bitcoin (BTC) has been an underperformer over the past few days. Its dominance rate, which had risen above 69% on Jan. 8, dipped below 66% on Jan 15. On Jan. 14 Bitwise Asset Management withdrew …

Bitcoin has seen an uptick in volumes in the new year. A report by cryptocurrency market research firm Arcane Research shows that 7-day average daily trading volume has surged 126% in a week. Along with Bitcoin trading volume, the CME Bitcoin futures contract has also seen increased activity. The Bitcoin futures open interest has skyrocketed to a seven month high, which is only behind the peak seen at the end of June. A pick up in volume and open interest with rising prices or even if prices remain range-bound is usually a sign of accumulation by the stronger hands. This …

Sunday, Jan. 12 — most of the top cryptocurrencies are reporting moderate gains on the day by press time, as Bitcoin (BTC) hovers around the $8,100 mark again. Market visualization courtesy of Coin360 Among the top cryptocurrencies, the one that has seen the most growth over the last 24 hours is DASH, which was up by around 16.27% at its peak. The coin currently stands at $66.84 with a 13% gain over the past 24 hours. The weekly chart shows a growth of 33.7%. Dash 7-day price chart. Source: Coin360 Also NEO has seen notable growth, with its current price …

Safe haven assets were dumped on Jan. 8, on reports that the US-Iran conflict might not escalate to an all out war. Cryptocurrencies, which had surged alongside gold and oil with also retreated from two-month high. However, the positive sign is that most major cryptocurrencies have held their immediate support levels, which indicates buying on dips. This shows that the sentiment has changed from sell on rallies to buy on dips. With the news-based rally out of the way, the focus will again shift to the fundamentals. A new law governing cryptographic password management came into force in China on …

Thailand’s oldest bank Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) has partnered with Ripple to create a mobile application powered by blockchain to deliver instant, low-cost cross-border payments. Per a Jan. 8 blog post from Ripple, the app — known as SCB Easy — was demoed in December during Ripple’s annual customer event, Swell. The demo reportedly demonstrated its ability to send cross-border payments in seconds. SCB’s senior vice president of commercial banking, Arthit Sriumporn, announced on-stage: “It is so difficult to send and receive money today. People must physically go to a bank branch, fill out long and complicated forms and wait …