The Stellar Development Foundation, or SDF, a non-profit tasked with fostering Stellar's network growth, unveiled new ties with crypto risk-management operation, Elliptic, on April 30. The partnership sees the SDF calling on Elliptic's crypto risk expertise for businesses and financial institutions based on Stellar blockchain, SFD director of communications Lauren Thorbjornsen told Cointelegraph in an April 30 email. "These services are live and available for businesses on the network today as Elliptic launched the world’s first Stellar network transaction monitoring system," she said. What does it all mean? Essentially, Elliptic now brings Stellar-based businesses the ability to track suspicious and …

The total crypto market capitalization has jumped from about $198 billion on April 22 to over $263 billion on April 30. This 32% rally in roughly eight days shows that investor sentiment is bullish. While this is a positive sign, the problem is that most people expect a repeat of the previous bull run. But with coronavirus still not reigned in, investors are likely to sway between extreme optimism and pessimism. Therefore, any up move is likely to have its share of sharp pullbacks. Crypto pioneer Charlie Shrem painted a bullish picture for Bitcoin (BTC) due to the upcoming halving …

The most talked-about event last week was the West Texas Intermediate crude futures for May delivery, which plunged to negative $37.63 per barrel on April 20. That was followed by a sharp rebound, which helped crude oil recover to $17.31 by the end of the week. Crude oil’s volatility surpassed that of Bitcoin (BTC) in mid-March and has only climbed higher since then. Several energy traders are likely to have suffered huge losses due to the roller coaster ride in oil. Crypto market data daily view. Source: Coin360 While Bitcoin is likely to hog the limelight this week, a few …

All over the world, doctors, nurses and medical resources are strained as the fight against the coronavirus continues. In response, many charitable organizations and philanthropists from various industries have come forward to offer their support. In the cryptocurrency industry, companies such as BitMEX, Binance and the Stellar Foundation have been making headlines week after week for being at the forefront in an attempt to make sizable donations to COVID-19 relief funds. Here is a look at some of the biggest and most remarkable donations from crypto-related companies. Binance As early as Jan. 25, Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of a top-ranking …

This week’s headlines from Japan included Mitsui & Co. Digital Asset Management kicking off its security token project, Coincheck's fiat exchange listing seven altcoins, FXCoin unveiling physical crypto trading and XRP remittance testing plans, and GMO Coin listing three more altcoins. Check out some of this week’s crypto and blockchain headlines, originally reported by Cointelegraph Japan. Security token company tests security tokens in real estate Looking to create blockchain-based security tokens, Mitsui & Co. Digital Asset Management, daughter of Japanese product and material trading giant, Mitsui & Co., recently kicked off an initiative called the "Digital Securities Project." As part …

International and Public Affairs professor, Ronaldo Lemos, a recent addition to the Stellar Development Foundation, or SDF, said his personal interests align more with industry growth than asset holding or trading. "I'm more into using crypto as a tool to improve public institutions," Lemos told Cointelegraph when asked about his crypto holdings and trading activities. Lemos has worked with blockchain for governmental use cases The professor detailed a specific example of his blockchain endeavors, which includes working on signature verification via blockchain technology. "I am one of the co-founders of Mudamos.org, a blockchain-enabled platform that allows citizens to propose draft …

Recently, altcoins have been showing strength as Bitcoin (BTC) has just broken a key resistance level. Notably, ChainLink (LINK) and Tezos (XTZ) have been moving up more than 150% in the past month. However, in the recent week, Stellar Lumens (XLM) have been surging upwards, while XRP price is also starting to look stronger on the charts. Can we expect substantial altcoin movements in the coming weeks? Let’s take a look at the charts. Crypto market daily performance. Source: Coin360 USDT pair holds crucial level for XRP XRP USDT 12-hour chart. Source: TradingView The 12-hour chart is showing a promising …

Paris-based artist Ben Elliot’s efforts to revolutionize the artwork purchasing and collecting experience have resulted in what he claims to be the world’s first personal cryptocurrency directly pegged to a career. The Stellar blockchain-based digital currency is called Ben Elliot Token (BET) and is expected to launch in 2021. The value of the token will rise along with the market value of Elliot’s artwork. Not a stablecoin though However, BET will not be a stablecoin as it may seem at first. “Ben Elliot Token is following my journey as an artist and my market value. Art goes up and down …

One of cryptocurrency’s biggest hedge funds says it will keep avoiding XRP and Stellar (XLM) because their supply is too centralized. In an interview with YouTube series Thinking Crypto on April 10, Mark Yusko, CEO of Morgan Creek Digital, confirmed that its policy on the two altcoins would stay unchanged. Yusko: We don’t own XRP or Stellar “We exclude anything... that’s too closely held, so we don’t own Stellar and we don’t own XRP,” he told the show. Yusko was referencing the joint fund that he set up with asset manager Bitwise in 2018, the Morgan Creek Bitwise Digital Asset …

Reddit could be about to implement a new blockchain-based points system on its app, if a screen recording posted in the Cryptocurrency subreddit today is to be believed. Redditor MagoCrypto posted the video, which is a walkthrough of a new build of the Reddit app that shows a feature with mention of community points. When delving into the FAQs of the wallet feature there appear to be pages on distribution, wallet, backup and recovery, and on the blockchain. Screenshot of the video. Source: Reddit The video, which has not been verified, suggests Reddit may be experimenting with using blockchain or …

Blockchain and cryptocurrency enthusiasts have found new ways to come together amid the global coronavirus lockdown. A crypto conference called BlockDown 2020 is scheduled to take place in the virtual realm this month, with big name personalities from the blockchain community set to appear as digital 3D avatars. Notable attendees on the docket include Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao, Stellar co-founder Jed McCaleb, and NEO founder Da Hongfei. Also appearing will be Roger Ver, executive chairman of Bitcoin.com, and Erik Voorhees, CEO and founder of Shapeshift. Musician-turned-crypto-innovator Akon will headline the event. The American-Senegalese chart-topper recently released the whitepaper …

The Stellar Development Foundation is matching donations in Lumens (XLM) made to six non-profits during April, including the Tor Project — the team behind ‘The Onion Router’ anonymizing browser. Donations will be matched up to a total of 1.9 million XLM (roughly $79,300), with the foundation launching the initiative by donating 100,000 XLM ($4,200) to each of the charities Stellar to match donations to Tor Project On April 4, the Tor Project announced that the Stellar Development Foundation had pledged to match all XLM donations on a 1:1 basis this month. Sarah Stevenson, fundraising director for Tor Project, tweeted that …