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Litecoin Founder Charlie Lee Talks About New Developments for 2020, Says ‘ We are Building Some Cool Stuff’

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The computer scientist claimed that Litecoin was in the midst of creating ‘cool’ products that will be beneficial to the entire cryptocurrency community

Litecoin, the sixth-largest cryptocurrency has been lying low in terms of flashy developments and announcements. To shed light on what was going on behind the scenes at Litecoin, Charlie Lee, the founder of LTC spoke about the company’s vision for 2020.

Speaking to Peter McCormack, Charlie Lee touched on Litecoin’s plan to include extensions block to its blockchain. The extension will improve the network’s infrastructure as well as make it easier for LTC holders to use. Lee was candid in stating that even though the extension might take time for its development the foundation wants to do it right.

The LTC founder stated that the privacy team would be in charge of handling the developments of extension blocks, with the added duty of implementing it seamlessly. McCormack then prodded Lee to reveal a bit more about the proposed ‘LiteBank’. To this Lee replied:

 

“Yes, the LiteBank is something of a prototype that we are working on. Last year we had purchased this bank who were working with crypto related progress. It is definitely a process that we plan to execute slowly as something of this sort has not been done before. We will see how we can play around with it and create cool stuff.”

Litecoin’s Auto Balance

Another feature that Litecoin was tinkering with was the creation of accounts that could ‘auto-balance’. This update would make it easy for holders to easily convert fiat into crypto and vice versa.

Litecoin official was excited to share news about the ‘MagicalCryptoFriends’ conference planned slated for May this year.

The speaker panel for the conference includes cryptocurrency bigwigs such as Blockstream’s Adam Back. According to Lee, the main aim of the conference was to push out good content by not looking at just the profit index.

McCormack and Lee further talked about the effect that the bear market had on the cryptocurrency field. Lee opined that the price dip was actually a blessing in disguise because of the developments that were occurring in the space. He stated that during a bull run, people do not focus on creating new things but rather just talk about new investment opportunities. In his words, “people get very distracted during a bull market”.

Conclusion

The discussion concluded on the topic of crypto safety and why that was the reason a lot of companies were looking at storage options. The Litecoin founder remarked that Bill Barhydt led Abra was a stalwart in creating products for the storage industry.

 

 

Your Weekly Dose of Crypto Markets : Bitcoin Futures, BTC/USD Performance & Altcoin Mining

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Chicago Mercantile Exchange is Launching Bitcoin Futures on Monday, 13. BTC/USD pair signals bullish zone while the crypto space anticipates more altcoin mining operation in the race to diversify income streams. 

Into the third week of 2020, we all expect exciting events in the crypto space. Bitcoin gained at least 10% in the second week and hit an annual record of $8,452. The broader market also witnessed similar gains with Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin SV(BSV) and Bitcoin Cash(BTC) posting similar corrections. 

Additionally, several events that could have a broader impact on the crypto space took place last week. US – Iran tensions heightened. Iran admitted to bombing down Ukranian plane among more stories. The industry anticipates that the third week of the year will be busier and markets will post even higher gains. 

Chicago Mercantile Exchange  (CME) Bitcoin Futures

In fact, the leading financial derivatives platform Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group (CME) promised to launch the much-awaited options on Bitcoin futures on Monday, January 13. 

Given the growing market capitalization of Bitcoin, several options of trading the asset have been growing as well. However,  concerns with ETFs (Exchange-traded funds) in the United States means that ETFs will not be available until a while later. Nevertheless, the launch of Bitcoin options will bring in more institutional investors into the market.

Noteworthy, options are financial derivatives that enable holders to buy or sell an asset at a specific price on a predetermined date; However without the obligation to trade them. Hence, such options enable speculators to bet upon a price surge or drop of the asset through leverage trading. 

Meanwhile, CME will avail Bitcoin futures on Monday that have a single contract representing BTC 5. These futures will provide more flexibility while managing bitcoin fluctuation risks. Additionally, the options will have the ability to save on potential margin offsets between options and futures. This is possible through the mitigation of risks of counterparty default through the central clearing of the CME market place.

BTC/USD Pair Performance

Bitcoin (BTC) fell from its 2020 high of $8,452 on January 8.  The decline was however temporal since the price bounced off the downward correction that had acted as the key resistance. Meanwhile, the many attempts to remain afloat above the $8K support serves as a positive sign. In case the bulls manage to push the price beyond the present $8, 170 price zone, this signal could easily begin a new upward correction. The 20-day exponential moving average (EMA) is steadily rising and has positioned the Relative Strength Index (RSI) in a positive zone.  

A position that points out that the market is strongly bullish. However,  will the bulls fail to scale and maintain beyond the $8,200 support level, the existing bullish view will certainly be invalidated. BTC/USD pair will turn red in case the price drops below the moving averages and the $7,000 critical support.  Well, it would be easy for traders and analysts to watch a stop loss on the long positions around the $6,500 and $6,800 supports.

Mining Pools Integrating More Alternative Coins

A token data and rating analytics ‘TokenInsight’, released a report claiming that mining pools are likely to integrate more altcoins into their mining operations in 2020.  

The report noted that altcoin mining has massive market potential. Last year’s report accounts for at least 64 coins that could be mined, in addition to Bitcoin all sum up to 82% of the total market cap. 

Nonetheless, altcoins are entering the key stage through both mining and staking. Eventually, the altcoins market is likely to gain more attention from the crypto community. Given the looming Bitcoin halving of miner rewards, mining pools are also looking for diverse ways to boost their revenue streams.

 

Ethereum Grabs is First Win in 2020 as Important Network Metric Flashes Green

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Analysts discovered that Ethereum was slowly making progress in the background, with its Network Growth stealing the show in the altcoin ecosystem.

Apart from the Bitcoin halving scheduled to occur in May of this year, the other major event that everyone is looking forward to is the ‘altcoin surge’. Although the previous year was not great for Ethereum and its compatriots, new numbers showed that there may be some solid reasons for the hype.

Ethereum The Resilient Warrior

Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency on the charts has been a resilient warrior in the altcoin industry, fending off the advances made by XRP and Litecoin. As the last few weeks gave a much-needed price boost to Ethereum, it was still not considered good enough to trump the use cases retained by Bitcoin. It was at this point that analysts observed Ethereum’s Network Growth had risen for the first time since the middle of last year.

It does not make sense to compare the current performance with that of early 2018, but after what the industry went through it can be hailed as a sign of reprieve. The highest network growth that Ethereum registered in 2019 was around 170,000, a figure that was almost surpassed on January 8th. During the latest event, the network growth rose above the 150,000 marks to register a 6-month high. There is also a direct positive correlation between price and network growth. This has been one of the main reasons why Ethereum fans have focussed on developments to bolster the asset’s price.

The Ethereum community has responded positively to the growth with Terranova, an ETH user tweeting:

“The Internet is currently undergoing its Age of Exploration, with many new countries being discovered. Enter colonialism in the 2020s, and we’ll see state treasuries buying up pieces of the most valuable land on the Internet. We’ll see state treasuries buying $ETH.”

The increase in the network capacity has obviously yielded positive results for Eteheum’s price. At press time, ETH was trading for $135.94 with a total market cap of $14.847 billion. A 4 percent price hike over the week caused the 24-hour market volume to also increase to $7.631 million.

Conclusion

The general pattern during any bear market is that most major cryptocurrencies follow the price of Bitcoin. It would be interesting to see how Ethereum can overcome this by creating its own surges as well as mark up points. Ethereum’s short term technical analysis showed that the cryptocurrency would not reach great new heights unless Bitcoin broke its resistance at $8400. Holders now believe that the ETH price hike is a waiting game and that as we approach the Bitcoin halving, the story will get clearer.

Binance Supports GBP and AUD by Partnering with Banxa Fiat to-crypto gateway solution

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The largest crypto exchange Binance recently announced that it now offers three fiat-on-ramp solutions for three more currencies. Binance emphasized its new partnership with global fiat on-ramp solution Banxa which enabled its audience to buy cryptocurrencies directly on Binance.com using Australian Dollar (AUD), Euro (EUR) and British Pound (GBP).

Binance Adds More Fiat

Announced on January 08, 2019, Binanciers can now access “Binance buy crypto page and process near-instantaneous low-fee GBP bank transfers directly on Binance.com via Faster Payments (FPS)”.

Noticeably, Banxa claims itself as “an internationally compliant fiat-to-crypto gateway solution for crypto market players including exchanges, wallets and other crypto-related firms”. The exchange asserts that the partnership with Banxa is an efficient way to serve Binanciers located in Australia, the United Kingdom, and other European countries. More so, users can purchase cryptocurrencies on Binance via several local payment methods including bank transfers, bill payments, and retail payments.

As Binance exchange recently announced the integration of Visa cards to user’s Binance account, crypto traders and users in Australia and other countries can use credit and debit cards to buy cryptocurrencies on Binance.com.

It’s worth noting that the new partnership and addition of more fiat comes in a wake of exchange’s “New year Eve” detail report. In a personalized letter via the Binance blog, Binance Boss CZ stated that the exchange is currently supporting 19 fiat currencies and will be adding three more next week. Today’s announcement is certainly the result of the exchange’s earlier commitment. Henceforth, Binance currently supports 21 fiat currencies and the list goes like this USD, GBP, SEK, CAD, EUR, CNY, RUB, TRY, NGN, UAH, KZT, VND, COH, PLN, INR, BRL, ARS, MXN & IDR – newly added “AUD, GBP, and EUR.

Binance Partners with Banxa

Nonetheless, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) believes that the new partner Banxa resembles Binance’s vision of “making cryptocurrency accessible to people around the world”. He went on to add that;

“We believe fiat will co-exist with crypto for a long time to come. More than 99.9% of the global money supply is still in fiat and we need to continue building bridges to enable easier flow into crypto. In 2020, we aim to add support for all 180 fiat currencies.”

On the other hand, Holger Arians, Banxa CEO equally expressed his excitement of partnering with Binance. He says that the exchanges can rest on Banxa for both local and global payment options as it oversees regulations, compliance, and chargebacks.

We are very delighted to welcome Binance into our growing ecosystem of partners and look forward to working closely with the team at Binance,” added Holger Arians, Banxa CEO.

Though both parties initially announced the support of three fiat currencies of respective countries, they also state their vision of adding more “currencies and countries” over the coming months to serve a global market”.

Stay tuned with Tron Weekly Journal to know more about Binance’s upcoming announcement.

XRP in 2019: Developments galore continue as price stumbles

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XRP, the third-largest cryptocurrency had a difficult 2019 with the price closing below what was expected. Despite this fall, the cryptocurrency managed to maintain a decent market volume that enabled enterprises to use it in their services. 

In a recent report compiled by XRPArcade, it was noticed that XRP witnessed multiple fluctuations over the past 12 months. XRP’s price dropped by more than 50 percent in 2019 in terms of dollars while the dip fell to 75 percent in terms of BTC value.

The analysis pointed out that the value of Bitcoin changed rapidly throughout the past year, either “upwards or downwards”s. The analysis stated the fact that since XRP has been subject to the same bear market as other tokens, does not help in appeasing its investors. XRP holders would be happy to know that in spite of XRP’s price drop, it still had one of its most stable years. The highest intraday volatility over the past year occurred on May 14th, clocking in at 28.75 percent.

The last year was also the time period when XRP was listed on several exchanges, 82 to be exact. The list included Coinzeus, Coinmetro, Huobi and Binance US. By looking at the adjusted volume, Biki came at the top with $1.33 billion after being launched in June 2018. LBank came second with $1.324 billion in terms of adjusted volume, although it was launched back in October 2016. Out of the newly listed exchanges in 2019, Folgory was the highest at 14th. The exchange had an adjusted volume of $1.031 billion after launching in January 2019.

According to the report, there are 1130 markets listed on XRParcade. XRP is listed on 388 exchanges and is also paired with 47 fiat currencies with a total of 349 fiat markets. The United States Dollar was the most popular paired currency with EU coming in second. Twenty nineteen was the year when multiple companies started accepting or support XRP. These included multiple payment gateway services, global entertainment platforms and digital wallets.

The total number of nodes on the XRP Ledger remained stable throughout 2019 and was at number 993 at press time. It is still too early to predict XRP’s movement in 2020, but the year has definitely started off well for Ripple’s native cryptocurrency.

Ethereum [ETH] Gearing for a Strong Uptrend , XRP Denies Manipulation Claims

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Ethereum posted strong gains this week above the $135 resistance against the United States Dollar. On the other hand, both Ripple and Bitcoin began an upward surge in the past few sessions; and rallied beyond the $7,800 and $0.2150 respectively.

Meanwhile, Ethereum remained in positive territory only to gain pace beyond the $138 resistance area. Moreover, the coin saw a successful break above $140 and the 100 hourly simple moving average.

In addition to a 2020 High near the $145 price level. Currently, the price is consolidating gains with initial support around $143 and the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement level of the recent upward correction from $139 low to $145 high.

Ethereum could be preparing an upside break past the $145 resistance. In case the bulls gain momentum above $145 and thereby push the price point towards the next key resistance of $150.

Meanwhile, the next key resistance beyond the major resistance of $150 is near the $158 level. A clear break took shape above the $158 price hurdle and this could set the tone for a higher push towards $167.

Last Week’s Performance

Ethereum’s price surpassed the 50% Fib retracement level of the key decline from the $138 high to $125 low. It opened the doors for more gains above $130 and the 100 simple moving average (4-hours).

More importantly, there was a break above a key declining channel or bullish flag with resistance near $130 on the 4-hours chart of ETH/USD. The pair is now trading nicely above the $132 and $135 resistance levels.

However, there could be a downside correction below the $143 price zone in the short term. In such a case, $142 could provide a sufficient support area for the correction.

Besides, will a major bullish trend form its support around $138 on the hourly ETH/USD trade pair chart, a dip towards the $140 trend line is likely to protect further losses.

Ethereum price is also facing a gradual rise and the recent upward movement seems to be gaining pace past the $145 resistance levels.  The next key bullish targets could be $150 and $157. Which could possibly strike a close below the $138 zone and therefore post substantial price corrections.

Ripple Denies Allegations of  Whale Market Manipulation

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse Denied claims of manipulating XRP prices. During an interview with CNN on the fifth of January, Garlinghouse added new contention to the controversial dumping of XRP; with the executive officer stating their stand and relationship with XRP.

Meanwhile, the third leading coin by market capitalization hit a 10 percent gain within the past 24 hours.

Brad: Ripple Can’t Control the Price of XRP 

Brad Garlinghouse
Brad Garlinghouse

Ripple owns the highest amount of XRP in the community. Garlinghouse further observed his company was the most interested party in the welfare of XRP. He added that:

“Yes, Ripple owns a lot of XRP, was very interested in the success of XRP but the accusations of us dumping, that’s not in our best interests to do that. We would never do that in fact, we’ve taken steps to lock up most of the XRP we own in escrows so we can’t touch it.”

His comments seemed to reveal the company’s position according to market patterns. Especially regarding the dumping of XRP coins in bulk. Such as last year market dump recording the highest number in the history of Ripple.

Ripple released at least 1 billion XRP coins at the beginning of the year from its escrow. The digital assets are equivalent to approximately $200,000.

Brad Added that:

“Ripple is not in a position to control the price of XRP anymore. Comparing to the ability of the whales to control the price of bitcoin”

Ripple Partner Breaks New Records: The MoneyGram Holiday Season

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Cross border transactions that occur seamlessly and over vast distances have been seen as the next phase of the banking industry. Cryptocurrency companies have also jumped into the thick of this action. In this regard, no other company has made itself more heard than Ripple. The partnerships undertaken by the Brad Garlinghouse led organization was done by choosing companies that work along with the same principle, MoneyGram being the perfect candidate.

Just recently, MoneyGram reported that they had created a new record when it came to online payments over the holiday season. During the time period between December 1 and December 25, all affiliated MoneyGram platforms reported transaction growth of more than 70 percent on a year on year basis. Out of this, 80 percent of the transactions occurred on mobile devices, a trend that has been surging for the past couple of years.

An official newsletter from the company stated that recent consumer behavior was driven by 3.2 billion smartphone users with increased global migration techniques. Alex Holmes, the Chief Executive Officer [CEO] of MoneyGram a major proponent of the Ripple partnership said:

As part of our digital transformation, we’re on a mission to mobilize the movement of money. The success of our mobile application throughout the year, and especially during the holiday season, demonstrates the value consumers place not only on our user experience but also on our global distribution network.”

Since the partnership with Ripple, MoneyGram has reported strong numbers. This was helped along by using Ripple’s own DLT to improve MoneyGram’s core systems. Ripple and MoneyGram have both claimed that they want to push aggressively at the moment to ensure more trade corridors are opened up. According to the MoneyGram official financial institutions have a large opportunity to leverage blockchain and digital assets in order to think differently.

The furore around MoneyGram’s application stems from the fact that it is easy to use. This has also enabled the company to expand multiple payment corridors, with Mexico being of keen interest to the company. Upon launch, the application was so highly praised that it now has over 1.6 million downloads.

 

OKEx COO Leaves OKEx to Start his Own Blockchain Consulting Firm BitWork

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Andy Cheung, the Chief operating officer (COO) of the largest crypto exchange OKEx has resigned the exchange to start his own blockchain consulting firm. Per the announcement, the new venture is known as “BitWork” which aims to drive “the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies”.

OKEx’s COO Resigns

Cheung served OKEx since 2017 and concerning his new venture, he said;

“My goal is to drive mass cryptocurrency adoption. But my contribution can be very limited in a cryptocurrency exchange. I decided, and we agreed amicably, that I can better achieve my goals with a new venture,”

Interestingly, a similar effect can be seen in Cheung’s Twitter bio which reads “cofounder and CEO at BitWork, Former COO at OKEx”. However, he also thanked OKEx in his most recent tweet and appears as equally excited to begin his new journey ahead;

It’s sad to leave the world’s largest crypto exchange. It really has been a pleasure in so many ways, and a wonderful learning experience. Thank you OKEx! Ready to begin my new journey ahead

As part of OKEx, it isn’t yet clear who will or has replaced Cheung’s position. However, for Cheung, the key priority is to resolve several questions he gets asked from blockchain projects such as “How to improve the quality of a project?”, “What do the markets need?” – and unlike. Cheung is building the one-stop solution to help these projects get exposure. He went on to say that BitWork will enable projects to connect with different markets and bring mass crypto adoption. As such, BitWork launched and operates in Hong Kong with key services including, advisory, branding, fundraising, marketing, and event management services to crypto and blockchain projects.

Before OKEx, Cheung worked across various industries and has been a seasoned entrepreneur. More so, Cheung has been named among the top crypto influencers announced by crypto media including CryptoSlate, Block Journal, CoinTelegraph and Bitcoin Insider.

XRP Continues To Shine In Mexico As Bitso Shows Strong Numbers For MXN Pairing

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XRP movements across different markets have been a sight to behold with various players involved in daily transactions. Sticking to its belief in cross-border transactions, XRP has made several strides in regions where normal fiat movement has been difficult.

Bitso, one of the most popular Latin American exchanges has been a platform where XRP has shone and on January 6, the liquidity index touched a new all-time high for the new year. On this particular day, the daily progress was at 92 percent with the liquidity index settling at $9.417 million. This was just $800,000 shy of the ATH at $10.189 million. After having a fairly dim final month of 2019, the Bitso XRP/MXN  ATH was created on December 30.

The noticeable hike in the liquidity index caught the eye of the community quickly because while the current ATH was formed near the $10 million mark, just a month back it was near the $6 million mark. Bitso has also pushed the trading pair on its customers in a bid to grown and expand the RippleNet US-MXN corridor. The trading pair movement is not the only feature that Bitso has planned to execute in Mexico, as the organization even launched its On-Demand Liquidity in the same region.

The above-mentioned additions came at a time when XRP was just beginning to get out of the bear rut. At the time of writing, XRP was trading for $0.21086 with a total market cap of $9.137 billion. The cryptocurrency’s value had risen right after that of Bitcoin, at a rate of 7.94 percent in 24-hour. This sudden surge even lifted XRP’s low lying 24-hour market volume, now at $1.61 billion. Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple himself stated that they can’t control the price of XRP any more than a random Bitcoin whale. In his words:

“Yes, Ripple owns a lot of XRP, we’re very interested in the success of XRP, but the accusations of us dumping, that’s not in our best interests to do that […]. We would never do that and in fact, we’ve taken steps to lock up most of the XRP we own in escrows so we can’t touch it.”

China Central Bank Remarks the Upcoming Digital Currency is Progressing Smoothly

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Although China is yet to launch its state-backed cryptocurrency, the announcement itself has continued to excite the other countries eyeing to launch their own cryptocurrency. However, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) recently remarked that the country’s upcoming crypto is “progressing smoothly”.

China’s Digital Currency Is Progressing Smoothly

It was earlier stated that the country’s decentralized domestic currency will go live in 2020 but the specific date of launch is yet to be revealed. While other countries are still scrutinizing the matter surrounding the digital currency and blockchain technology, China appears to be leading the space.

During an annual work conference in Beijing, PBoC addressed its own CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency). It was also reported that the bank plans to conduct and oversee the research and development of ‘digital yuan’ throughout 2020.

“We will continue to steadily advance the development of legal digital currencies” in 2020, asserted the central bank.

More so, the forthcoming cryptocurrency will be available to commercial banks and will then be accessible to users and businesses, per the reports. Consequently, users and businesses with the help of commercial banks can register digital wallets of china’s much-anticipated digital yuan. According to the report, the PBOC is partnered with seven state-owned commercial banks and telecoms to test the upcoming cryptocurrency – the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank and the Agricultural Bank of China, China Mobile and China Unicom, China Telecom and Bank of China.

In addition, China’s increasing effort to launch digital currency is partly influenced by the hype of Libra, a proposed cryptocurrency announced by the Facebook social network. In fact, it was also stated that China’s upcoming cryptocurrency has the similarities of Facebook’s Libra. However, the currency will further be supported across major e-payments platforms such as Tencent’s WeChat and Alibaba-backed Alipay.