This Week in Cryptocurrency: May 3rd, 2019

• What’s New at CoinCentral?

It’s a good Friday…so far. The majority of the top 100 coins are in the green, a handful of which are in double digits, which is a refreshing sight after the past few months.

As of writing, Bitcoin is up 10.35% on the week, Ethereum 9%, XRP 5%, Bitcoin Cash 11%. Other big winners include Cosmos (40%), ABBC Coin (26%), Clams (22%), and CasinoCoin (38%).

Facebook Seeking Supporters for Its Potential Cryptocurrency Service: The Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook is currently “recruiting dozens of financial firms and online merchants to help launch a cryptocurrency-based payments system.” This is a part of a blockchain initiative Facebook’s team internally calls “Project Libra,” and it’s expected Facebook will create a stablecoin supported by fiat. With 2.38 billion monthly active users in the first quarter of 2019, Facebook is poised to make some major waves in crypto and general finance. “Payments and commerce are Facebook’s only way out from its freemium, advertisement business model,” commented Henry Liu, a former Facebook employee and managing partner of an enterprise blockchain investment firm called YGC.

$42 Million Spent in Cryptocurrency Lobbying in Q1 2019: A reported 40 entities spent a total of $42 million to lobby for bitcoin and blockchain in the United States in Q1 2019. The highest lobbying rollers were the U.S. Chamber of Commerce ($16.4 million), Ernest & Young, and Accenture. Taxing as noted as some of the top elements in cryptocurrency lobbying.

What’s New at CoinCentral?

Deconstructing #DeFi – What Does Decentralized Finance Mean for Crypto’s Future?: Beyond the hype, the DeFi movement offers up some intriguing potential. It aims to create a truly decentralized financial system, one which doesn’t need the traditional banking system.

NYSE Parent Company Buys Crypto Custodian Company to Push Bitcoin: Stifled by regulatory objections and delays, Bakkt has been forced to wait on the sidelines to be knighted as a legitimate figure.

Crypto Hacker Groups Get More Sophisticated, Exchanges and Authorities Fight Back: Although the situation is foreboding, the authorities and cryptocurrency trading platforms are getting better at stopping cybercriminals and thwarting hacking attempts.

68% of International Millionaires Expected to Invest in Crypto by 2022: A survey by Devere Group, a Dubai-based financial consulting firm with over $10 billion in assets under advice, found that 68% of international high net worth individuals have invested or are planning to invest in crypto by the end of 2022. The threshold to qualify someone as a “high net worth individual” was set at 1 million British pounds (~$1.3M). DeVere Founder and CEO Nigel Green noted the main factors that would drive these individuals to watch cryptocurrency include that crypto is borderless, increasing digitalization, real-life solutions such as providing services for the roughly two billion unbanked people, involvement by institution investors, and acceptance by a younger generation.

Jaguar Land Rover Announces IOTA Integration: On Monday, Jaguar Land Rover announced an upcoming integration of IOTA smart wallets in their Jaguar F-Pace and Range Rover Velar vehicles. This integration will allow Jaguar Land Rover vehicles to “tip” each other for various on-road actions, such as reporting accidents, ride sharing, and changing lanes. The news gave IOTA an 8% bump for the day.