Daily Cryptocurrency Bulletin For Friday, June 21, 2019

General News

Bank of England governor Mark Carney said DLT projects have the potential to “unlock billions of pounds in capital and liquidity” – hinting at central bank backed tokens. He further stated, “the Bank of England is announcing plans to consult on opening access to our balance sheet to new payment providers,” which will “empower a host of new innovation.”

Coinbase is introducing a new push notification feature to alert mobile app users of price swings and market fluctuations in cryptocurrencies supported by the exchange.

eToro has conducted a successful trial of issuing tokenized assets on Facebook’s Libra protocol. Developers “successfully managed to implement an initial version of eToro tokenized assets on the Libra Network.”

Facebook’s rollout of Libra may be steamrolled in India by existing regulatory constraints. The Economic Times reports “Facebook has not filed any application with RBI (Reserve Bank of India) for its cryptocurrency in India,” which raises problems if Libra will implement an open system. Facebook expects “Calibra to work on WhatsApp and be available globally” – giving India’s 400 million WhatsApp users a means of transaction. Meanwhile, the chair of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Maxine Waters, is now calling for a “moratorium” on Libra development, two days after requesting the project be halted. 

PwC is offering a new cryptocurrency auditing feature as a part of its Halo data auditing suite. PwC is now using the product in auditing clients transacting in bitcoin, bitcoin cash, bitcoin gold, bitcoin diamond, litecoin, ethereum, OAX and XRP. 

Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin $9,796.91 USD (5.91 percent): DigitalMint, a Chicago-based OTC trading platform, has installed bitcoin kiosks at 20 Circle K convenience stores as part of a pilot program across Arizona and Nevada – the largest expansion for the crypto platform since its founding 2014. This comes as BTC has reached a new all-time high for the year at $9,768 – with $10,000 the next key resistance level. BTC’s hash rate has also reached new all-time highs.

Ethereum Classic $8.75 USD (3.67 percent) developers recommitted to releasing their hard fork to the blockchain’s main network on September 17. After a disagreement in May about the contents of the Atlantis upgrade, developers agreed on the 10 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) set for inclusion in what will be the blockchain network’s first hard fork in more than a year. Atlantis, paired with a later upgrade called Agharta, is intended to boost chain interoperability between the Ethereum Classic and Ethereum networks.

IOTA $0.436337 USD (3.55 percent) Foundation has teamed up with digital food safety management firm Primority to track food allergens via IOTA’s blockchain.

Litecoin $139.88 USD (3.62 percent) has just gained support from Binance Jersey. The coin is paired with the British pound and the euro.

Ripple $139.88 USD (3.62 percent): Meanwhile, Western Union CEO Hikmet Ersek says the global money transfer service is still testing Ripple’s suite of cross-border payments – potentially following MoneyGram in adopting XRP. This comes as Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse claims Facebook’s Libra announcement has helped Ripple sign new clients at record pace. Senior VP of global operations Eric van Miltenburg further claims Ripple’s workforce will grow from 330 to 400 by the end of 2019.

– WN.com, Jamie Saarloos