The State of The Market — January 31, 2019BTC: $3,462.79 (-0.59%)XRP: $0.308250 (-2.68%)ETH: $106.74 (-1.99%)
As January comes to an end, the crypto market is still stagnant. After yesterday’s gains, the entire market is flashing red right now. All of the top 50 cryptocurrencies have posted losses. The total market cap lost about $2 Billion in the last 24 hours. No recovery is in sight yet, as Bitcoin continues to trade below $3,500 and is struggling to go past its resistance at $3,800.
In other news, a recent report published by Bloomberg suggested that the launch of new crypto venture funds exceeded the number of new crypto hedge funds. 125 crypto venture funds launched in 2018 whereas only 115 new crypto hedge funds launched in 2018. Industry figures interviewed by Bloomberg explained that weakness in the ICO market prompted the shift toward venture capital investment. Also, Ripple announced that Stuart Alderoty has been hired as the company’s new legal counsel. Alderoty had previously worked at CIT Group as the executive vice president, general counsel, and chief legal officer and now he will manage Ripple’s global legal policy and Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) compliance teams. The hiring appears to be a strategic maneuver as Ripple is currently fighting a federal class-action lawsuit brought forward by investors who claim XRP is an unregistered security.
1) Global banking payments network SWIFT has announced its plans to integrate blockchain technology provided by R3 at the Paris Fintech Forum. R3 is well-known for its Corda blockchain platform. SWIFT CEO Gottfried Leibbrandt made the announcement at a panel on stage. However, very little was revealed as SWIFT is expected to make a separate announcement soon. Leibbrandt was on stage with Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse when he made the announcement. Ripple is a direct competitor to SWIFT as both companies operate in the settlement of international transactions. R3 itself has integration with XRP. In December, the company launched Corda Settler to facilitate cryptocurrency payments within enterprise blockchains, starting with Ripple’s XRP. (Read More)
2) Japanese IT giant Fujitsu has revealed a blockchain-based electricity exchange system for enterprise customers. Fujitsu successfully tested the system with support from electric power distribution company ENERES and recorded 40% improvement when compared to the existing system called Demand Response (DR). The system ensures stable electricity supply during peak periods. The platform incentivises consumers who shift their usage during peak periods. The blockchain platform also matches available electricity to buy orders with fast response times. Back in October, Fujitsu developed a blockchain-system for inter-bank settlements. (Read More)
3 Lightning Network has removed its biggest capacity limitation. When Bitcoin’s lightning network was launched last year, it was still an experimental technology which could lose money. For this reason, developers implemented a limit of 167.77216mBTC (approx. $600) which can be locked into a channel. However, the off-chain scaling solution has exploded into a reliable service with over $2 Million stashed away. For this reason, lightning network developers have enabled an option called “option_i_wumbo_you_wumbo.” Users can choose it while opening a channel to bypass the $600 limit. (Read More)
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