Value locked into DeFi protocols hits $1 billion
The total amount of money locked into decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and protocols has crossed a milestone of $1 billion. There has been a growth 50% since the start of this year as the amount locked was $670.77 million as of Dec. 31, 2019, according to DeFi Pulse. The current locked value stands at around $1.01 billion. Maker, the Ethereum-based lending protocol, remains the leader in the space with nearly 59% dominance. The amount of funds locked in Maker is now worth over $601 million.
Source: The Block:
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XRP Price spikes nearly 8% to $0.27
Despite the rest of the crypto market being in the red, a sudden burst in volume for XRP pushed its price up. The coin is now worth $0.264 pushed up from the $0.25 mark. After the initial pump to $0.268, the price retraced a little towards $0.263 (see chart below). XRP is outperforming other coins in the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap. The rest are showing losses between 1-6%, with Litecoin (LTC) suffering the most.
Source: Decrypt:
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China just revealed New Details on its Digital Currency
The main details of China’s central bank digital currency, also known as the digital renminbi, have been released. The currency will be, as expected, fully centralized and will be controlled by China’s central bank but issued through a selection of commerical banks.
There will be three centers responsible for managing the data involved with the digital currency. One center will be managing the use of the currency, another the registration of each individual who wants to use the currency and a third will analyze the financial data created by the system.
There will be a dose of privacy too. While the central bank will be able to see all transactions and who made them, other businesses won’t be able to see this data.
Source: Decrypt:
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LocalBitcoins Shuts Down Accounts in Problematic Countries
LocalBitcoins, one of the oldest cryptocurrency exchanges out there, has reportedly begun to suspend accounts of long-term users without prior notifications. Forbes reported that users across at least three regions, including Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, had noted their accounts to be “deactivated.” Users in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, and Nigeria also received messages from the exchange Operator.
Source: Bitcoinist.com:
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Tether announces the Launch of Tether Gold, a gold-backed Crypto
Tether, the company behind the biggest stablecoin in the world, has launched Tether Gold, a digital asset providing exposure to physical gold. According to the company’s announcement, XAU₮ will be available both on Ethereum and on TRON and will represent one troy fine ounce of gold. The company claims the token is the only gold-backed coin that guarantees direct control over the physical gold storage.
Source: CryptoSlate:
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BitPay Now Supports XRP
Blockchain payments processor BitPay has added support for XRP, which has been integrated on BitPay’s platform via Ripple’s open developer platform, Xpring. With XRP’s addition, BitPay now supports a total of seven cryptocurrencies and stablecoins on its platform – Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), USD Coin (USDC), Gemini Dollar (GUSD), and Paxos Standard Token (PAX).
Source: The Block:
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Venezuelan Team working on a Bitcoin Mesh Network based on Offline Radios
A Venezuelan team is developing Locha, a decentralized mesh network that does not rely on the Internet to conduct transactions with Bitcoin (BTC). The radio wave based system was created because Venezuela often has to deal with power and internet failures. The main application of the project is for critical situations such as in Venezuela and Iran, where infrastructure problems or government restrictions often lead to protracted Internet shutdowns.
Source: Cointelegraph:
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Central Banks join forces to focus on Digital Currencies
The central banks of Britain, the euro zone, Japan, Sweden and Switzerland will share experiences in a new group headed by former European Central Bank official Benoit Coeure and assisted by the Bank of International Settlements, they said.
Central banks across the world have quickened the pace with which they are looking at issuing their own digital currencies in the wake of Facebook’s (FB.O) push to launch Libra. Of major central banks, China’s has emerged as the frontrunner in the drive to create its own digitized money.
Source: Reuters U.S.:
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Mondays Are the Best Days to Buy Bitcoin
Taking a deeper look at Bitcoin returns for a longer time period, Mondays offer the best average return from all the days of the week (0.54%). On the other hand, Thursday and Wednesday are the worst days of the week to invest in Bitcoin with an average return of -0.09% and -0.23%, respectively.
Source: Cointelegraph:
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Bitcoin SV Goes Parabolic, Flippens Bitcoin Cash
Bitcoin SV $BSV is now the fourth biggest asset by market capitalization, taking the spot of Bitcoin Cash BCH. After months of flexing, and promising something big for early 2020, BSV finally delivers – at least for now, a spectacular 300% weekly pump. In just one day, Bitcoin SV doubled its price and broke all price records, both in terms of Satoshi prices, and dollar value. BSV reached $441.20 just as all coins were wildly expanding, and bitcoin led the rally.
One of the reasons is a favorable court decision for Craig Wright, who after all did not have to pay back thousands of BTC to the estate of David Klein. Wright did not manage to prove he is Satoshi Nakamoto, but the news added to the BSV effect.
Source: Bitcoinist.com:
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