The wait for a Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund got a bit longer as the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) shot down the proposal by Bitwise Asset Management and NYSE Arca. The regulators felt that the application did not satisfy the requirement that it will “prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices.” However, there was no noticeable reaction to this news, which shows that the market participants did not have high expectations of an approval. Meanwhile, as Bakkt’s volumes continue to unimpress, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group is upbeat on its forthcoming Bitcoin options product. Tim McCourt, CME …

Friday, Oct. 11 — Major cryptocurrency markets have continued sliding over the day, with only three coins in the top-20 list reporting gains. Cryptocurrency market daily overview. Source: Coin360 The top cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at around $8,355, having lost 2% on the day at press time. The majority of the decline took place over a period of just 1 hour earlier today, when the coin slumped from $8,734 to $8,404. Bitcoin’s recent price fluctuations are highly thought-provoking, leaving industry stakeholders much to speculate on. Metrics and predictive indices project Indexica suggested that Bitcoin’s fall is explained by a …

Ripple’s investment arm Xpring has invested into cryptocurrency wallet BRD to enable users to hold, purchase, sell and spend XRP tokens through the wallet. Xpring announced the development in an Oct. 11 blog post, noting that BRD — a mobile cryptocurrency wallet, with a reported user base of 2.5 million — will build on the Xpring platform to support and integrate XRP. Large user base and geography By selecting BRD, Xpring ostensibly focused on the wallet’s large user base and territorial coverage of 170 countries, as well as the company’s healthy growth in key metrics such as transaction volume. The …

Alluding to the spate of controversies that have beset the project, Ripple CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, has argued that Ripple’s “transparency has opened us up to attack.” “10 or 100x more transparent than anyone else in crypto” In an interview for the Off the Chain podcast hosted by Morgan Creek Digital Assets co-founder Anthony Pompliano on Oct. 9, Garlinghouse said there is a “bunch of misinformation” out there, but claimed that this is in part because Ripple is “ten or a hundred times more transparent than anyone in the crypto community.” He said: “Our transparency has opened us up to attack …

Thursday, Oct. 10 — Following an impressive rally yesterday, major crypto markets have slowed to trade in the red over the past day. Bitcoin (BTC) has stuck to $8,600, while other major coins are experiencing a downward trend. Cryptocurrency market daily overview. Source: Coin360 After jumping from an intraday low of around $8,200 up to nearly $8,600 yesterday, Bitcoin has been hovering around that price mark over the past 24 hours, posting a daily high of $8,677 and low of $8,466. At press time, the leading coin is trading at around $8,576, down 0.34% on the day. Meanwhile, the trading …

Ripple Labs, the administrator of blockchain payments network Ripple, has come under criticism for allegedly misleading representations that it “discovered” — rather than created — the XRP token. In a series of heated tweets on Oct. 9, Coinmetrics.io co-founder and Castle Island Ventures partner Nic Carter took the company to task for ostensibly attempting to obfuscate the nature of its relationship to XRP: “For the record, these psychopaths are still literally and without a shred of irony claiming that they ‘discovered’ XRP as opposed to having created it.” “Akin to Chevron’s relationship to oil” Carter’s aforementioned tweet links to an …

The United States’ second-largest bank appears to have hired a specialist for an implementation of blockchain-based payment network Ripple. Bank seeks Ripple team lead According to a job description on professional social network LinkedIn, as of Oct. 10, Bank of America (BoA) had stopped accepting applications for what it calls a “treasury product manager” for Ripple. “This role leads the product management team for the Ripple Project, a decentralized ledger technology based solution to cross border payments marketed to GTS clients,” the job description reads, continuing: “The incumbent will be responsible for driving product strategy and growth, overseeing daily product …

Grayscale director of sales and business development Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary said that institutional interest in the crypto space has been strong throughout this year. The second quarter inflow was $85 million with 80% coming from institutions. Though this is positive, it shows that the inflow is only a trickle and a fraction of the firepower the institutions hold. A Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) can also boost interest in the asset class. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will announce their decision on Bitwise Asset Management’s ETF proposal before the Oct. 13 deadline. Bitwise managing director and global head …

United Kingdom-based financial software firm Finastra has partnered with Ripple to join RippleNet, a global blockchain payments network with over 200 members. Faster integration with partners As officially announced by Ripple on Oct. 9, the new partnership will allow hundreds of Finastra’s customers to connect and transact with RippleNet to provide faster and cheaper cross-border payments. In turn, over 200 financial institutions on RippleNet will have access to Finastra’s network of banks, allowing mutual customers to access and partner with each other. Users will be able to send international payments with end-to-end tracking and monitoring of the fees, transaction time …

Tuesday, Oct. 8 — The top 20 digital currencies are in mixed shape after a tide of green earlier in the day, with Bitcoin (BTC) trying to keep above $8,000, according to data from Coin360. Cryptocurrency market daily overview. Source: Coin360 Bitcoin stayed above the $8,000 threshold during the day, during which its highest price point was $8,355 and the lowest was $8,157. At publishing time, the leading cryptocurrency is trading at about $8,205, having gained 0.58% on the day. Earlier on Tuesday, Cointelegraph reported that Bitcoin Core developer Greg Maxwell had criticized the “attractive mystery” that fear of a …

Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of blockchain payments network Ripple, thinks that Facebook will fail to launch its Libra digital currency before 2023. Garlinghouse bets on a three-year Libra delay Speaking in an interview with Fortune on Oct. 7, Brad Garlinghouse argued that regulatory pushback would continue to plague the project that was only announced in June, noting: “I would bet that Libra… let's say, by the end of 2022, I think Libra will not have launched.” Garlinghouse also noted the various problems that governments around the world have raised with Facebook over its digital currency plans. As Cointelegraph reported, it …

Total crypto market capitalization has held the $200 billion mark for the past few days. This is a positive sign, as it shows that market participants are not panicking at lower levels but are using dips to buy. The first leg of the bull phase was led by Bitcoin, which saw its dominance rise from just above 50% at the start of the year to about 71% in early-September. In the last few days, the action has been gradually shifting to altcoins, which can be seen from the gradual decrease in Bitcoin’s dominance, which is down to 66.7%. This increases …