Cryptocurrency Daily News Bulletin: December 17, 2018

General News

Bakkt CEO Kelly Loeffler says Starbucks isn’t the only retail company interested in partnering with the upcoming cryptocurrency exchange. “Since that announcement we’ve heard from others that want to do that,” Loeffler told the Inside the ICE House podcast.

Coinbase customers in the U.S. can now make withdrawals into their PayPal accounts immediately and without any fees. The exchange previously had a PayPal integration, but the company ceased offering the service due to technical issues earlier this year.

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) is reluctant to approve the IPO applications of Chinese bitcoin mining equipment manufacturers, including Bitmain’s recent claim. “The HKEX doesn’t want to be the first exchange in the world to approve this and have one die on them,” claims an anonymous source, citing recent volatile markets as a stumbling block. This comes as the Hong Kong Securities and Exchanges Commission (SFC) is looking to tighten its current cryptocurrency laws, which have been comparably more lenient.

Switzerland’s Federal Council issued a report providing a legal framework for blockchain, saying Switzerland’s existing rules are well suited to dealing with such new technologies, but there is still a need for some amendments.

U.S. President Donald Trump has named the director of the Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney as his new acting White House Chief of Staff. The South Carolina Republican and bitcoin advocate has helped create the Blockchain Caucus, a group of House lawmakers dedicated to creating responsible new policies on the emerging technology.

Cryptocurrencies

Ethereum $86.56 USD (-0.56 percent): State-owned Brazilian bank, the Brazilian National Social Development Bank, is about to issue a stablecoin on the Ethereum blockchain. They will launch a pilot in January 2019 for the BNDES token, backed 1-for-1 by Brazilian real.

Status $0.014378 USD (-0.64 percent), the Ethereum browser startup, is the latest company to announce they are cutting a quarter of its staff because of the ongoing downturn in cryptocurrency prices. Status is also asking current employees to accept pay cuts but will receive a greater amount of SNT tokens “to help offset the cut.”

VeChain $0.003542 USD (2.74 percent) and BIOS Middle East have signed a memorandum of understanding to create a Blockchain-as-a-Service framework and launch blockchain-enabled cloud services for BIOS Middle East to existing clientele across energy, finance, retail, petrochem and healthcare industries in the Middle East.

Waves $2.44 USD (-2.06 percent) coin has bucked the market downtrend, rising in price by over 150 percent since the end of November as it rises into the top 20 coins by market cap once again. Numerous announcements have helped contribute to the rise, including: Waves mobile wallet enabling credit card purchases of Waves and other coins on its DEX. They also added smart assets and smart account trading, following their new smart contract functionality. They are also launching a European securities token trading platform in 2019.

0x $0.268984 USD (-3.44 percent), the Coinbase-listed coin, is going to be forked by the Hydro Foundation. CEO Tian Li revealed that the strategic focus of the 0x project has become bogged down by a series of wide-ranging endeavours, while the basic processes underlying the DEX are still plagued by rudimentary problems like low liquidity and order collision. The new Hydro coin will focus on these deficiencies.

– WN.com, Jamie Saarloos