South Korea’s central bank plans to recruit additional digital currency experts to build on its existing research into central bank digital currency (CBDC). Along with its own research, the bank also plans to discuss the developments of CBDCs with the Bank of International Settlements and other international organizations. While the larger economies are mulling launching or researching about CBDCs, the Central Bank of the Bahamas is expected to launch its digital currency pilot in one of the districts on Dec. 27. It plans to expand the project to another district in the first-half of 2020. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: …

As the year comes to an end, the focus will shift to the major events that are expected to influence crypto prices next year. China’s launch of a digital yuan is one such event that can influence crypto prices. The People’s Bank of China’s deputy director Mu Changchun said that the digital form of yuan would not have any room to speculate on its value as it would be different from Bitcoin and stablecoins. Though China has been against cryptocurrencies, it has been making major strides in supporting blockchain technology. The Central Bank of China has used blockchain technology to …

Bitcoin is leading the recovery from the front, which is a positive sign. This shows that bulls have used the recent dip to buy. As a result, Bitcoin’s dominance has increased to 68.9%. Former Wall Street trader Tone Vays believes that Bitcoin will increase its dominance further in 2020, perhaps as high as 85%. Although institutional money will enter Bitcoin first, it is unlikely that other altcoins will wither away. After investing in Bitcoin, large investors are likely to diversify into select altcoins. The next bull run is likely to be led by Bitcoin and a handful of altcoins. Hence, …

Sunday, Dec. 22 — most of the top 20 cryptocurrencies are reporting moderate gains on the day by press time, as Bitcoin (BTC) is breached the $7,400 mark again. Tezos (XTZ) is the only cryptocurrency among the top-20 that is seeing losses. Market visualization courtesy of Coin360 Bitcoin price is currently up by 3.36% on the day, trading at around $7,422 at press time, according to Coin360. Looking at its weekly chart, the coin is up by about 4.1%. Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source: Coin360 As Cointelegraph reported earlier today, multiple analysts suggest that Bitcoin is headed for a big …

Altcoins dropped severely during the recent retracement of Bitcoin (BTC) price to $6,400, which increased Bitcoin’s dominance above 70%. One of these coins is XRP, which took a hit of 20% and is currently valued at $0.19 per coin — or the lowest value in over two years — after hitting as low as $0.178. Crypto market daily performance. Source: Coin360 Nevertheless, the blockchain payments firm behind XRP, Ripple, just announced that it raised another $200 million in funding. Aside from that, they claimed to have ”the strongest year of growth to date in 2019.” But the question for XRP …

Though most major cryptocurrencies have broken below their support levels during the most recent fall, Bitcoin, which is inarguably the leader, has held its ground. This is a positive sign as it shows that the stronger hands are not panicking. This week top venture capitalist Tim Draper also reiterated his bullish view on Bitcoin. Draper is confident that the leading currency will hit $250,000 by 2022. Additionally, he believes that if Bitcoin’s price action prior to and after the May 2020 halving resembles the trajectory followed during previous halvings, his target might be achieved by the end of the next …

Ripple, the blockchain payments firm behind XRP, the third biggest altcoin by market cap, has raised $200 million in a new funding round. Led by closed-ended investment company Tetragon, the new Series C funding round was also joined by Ripple’s major Japanese partner SBI Holdings and venture capital firm Route 66 Ventures, the firm announced on Dec. 20. The new funding will reportedly help Ripple to continue improving its global payments network and the broader utility of the digital asset XRP and the XRP Ledger, the announcement reads. Despite 73% sales drop in Q3, Ripples sees strong yearly growth The …

The crypto markets are currently held tight in the grasp of the bears. At the moment, there does not seem to be any specific news or event that has triggered the strong decline but one possibility is that some short-term investors who had been holding on to their positions in hopes of a rally are dumping at the current prices. The announcement of the first phase of a trade deal between China and the United States and the likelihood of the US Fed will not raise rates in 2020 appears to have boosted sentiment in the US stock market which …

Bitcoin’s market dominance has been holding above 65% mark since late July of this year. This shows that Bitcoin continues to garner the maximum interest from the market participants. There were periods in the past few months when it looked like an “altseason” was around the corner but it never materialized. Most major cryptocurrencies — led by Bitcoin — topped out in June of this year and have been gradually moving lower since. At the end of the year, in the absence of any major trigger, fresh money is unlikely to enter the space. Most institutional players prefer to park …

Multinational IT services giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) launched a blockchain app development kit (DevKit). According to an announcement published by TCS on Dec. 16, the new Quartz DevKit is a low-code web-based integrated development environment that aims to allow enterprises to quickly build and deploy applications on any chosen blockchain in a simplified way. Fast blockchain app deployment The DevKit features expandable pre-built templates for platform setup, administration, deployment, platform security authentication, encryption, node, identity and user management. The firm claims that this lets programmers write smart contracts 40% faster than without its DevKit. Global Quartz head at TCS …

Sunday, Dec. 15 — most of the top 20 cryptocurrencies are reporting slight growth on the day by press time, as Bitcoin (BTC) hovers around the $7,100 mark again. Market visualization courtesy of Coin360 Bitcoin price is currently up by 0.28% on the day, trading at around $7,097 at press time, according to Coin360. Looking at its weekly chart, the coin is down by about 6.17%. Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source: Coin360 As Cointelegraph reported yesterday, a report published on Dec. 4 by Bitcoin fund operator Grayscale suggested that 43% of investors interested in Bitcoin are women. Ether (ETH) is …

Blockchain-based money transfer startup SendFriend utilizes Ripple’s technology to save up to 80% in remittance fees, according to a blog post published on Dec. 12. SendFriend uses Ripple’s xRapid product for cross-border payments, converting between the United States dollar, XRP and Philippine pesos and circumventing the longer process of traditional banking systems. Philippines-focused remittance platform SendFriend’s money transfer app aimed at reducing annual remittance fees for cross-border Filipino workers claims to lower such transaction costs by up to 75%. What makes it possible, according to the startup’s CEO, David Lighton, is RippleNet’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) technology. With ODL, RippleNet’s users …