• What’s New at CoinCentral?
• Cryptocurrency News from Around the World

This Week in Cryptocurrency – January 5th, 2018

Bitcoin: The cryptocurrency flagship entered 2018 at a relatively quiet pace, but started to pick up around the end of this week. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is up 14.55% for the week.

Ethereum: Although losing its #2 market cap spot to Ripple’s explosive run, Ethereum broke through the $1,000 price barrier to near $1,075 with a gain of 31.82% for the week.

Ripple Now the Second Most Valuable Currency: This has been a wild and exciting ride for Ripple investors this week. The currency reached an ATH of $3.81, a 1424% increase from 30 days prior. The dramatic increase comes as a global interest in cryptocurrency continues to grow and given ripples practical usage (with big-name financial partnerships) for cross-border payments.

Altcoins Help Crypto Market Cap Reach ATH of $700 Billion: December may not have been the best month for Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies, however “the pre-Christmas sell-off seems to be well behind us now”, states eToro Analyst Mati Greenspan. According to CoinMarketCap on January 4th at the time of writing, the total market capitalization was nearly $762 Billion.  

Tron Enters the Top Ten Arena: In the past 7 days alone, the official currency of Tron (TRX) grew nearly 444% to reach around $.28. Tron is currently in the 6th position in market cap size. Tron has made recent headlines for its astonishing growth, as well as big-name partnerships and starstudded business team.

Stellar Soars to New Heights: The tech behind Stellar (formerly known as Stellar Lumens) is nearly identical to Ripple, making a strong case for many investors to view the Stellar project as a credible coin with a bright future. When John McCaleb left Ripple to start Stellar, one can assume that not even McCaleb could predict that Stellar would reach ATH’s of $0.91 so quickly. The valuation marks a close to 10 fold increase from its $.09 cent valuation seen in early December. Stellar grew 127% for the week.

Peter Thiel’s Silicon Valley Venture Capital Firm Places Big Bet on Bitcoin: In mid-2017, the Founder’s Fund spent between $15 Million to $20 Million on Bitcoin. At the time, the price of Bitcoin was around $2,500. Thiel deems Bitcoin the gold of cryptocurrency, speculating that it is highly undervalued at its current value.

Crypto’s New Billionaire Mile: Watch out Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Jeff Bezos, there’s a fresh set of Billionaires in town. On Monday, January 1st, 2018, with a market cap of $88,900,000,000, the CEO’s/founders of Ripple were worth as follows: Chris Larsen ($37.3 billion), Brad Garlinghouse ($9.5 billion), and Jed McCaleb (5.3 billion XRP). However, considering crypto’s volatile nature, there’s no guarantee they will remain in this category long-term.

Criminals & Crypto:  While Bitcoin became notorious for its facilitation of transactions in the black market, a recent trend towards using more private coins, such as Monero, has alarmed officials. According to the Europol, the European Union Agency for Law enforcement, Monero along with “Ethereum and Zcash are gaining popularity within the digital underground.”  While these coins are seemingly untrackable, companies like Chainalysis are enhancing measures to combat these criminals which include crimes such as money laundering and extortion.

BitConnect Slapped with Cease and Desist: The infamous bitcoin lending platform BitConnect is in hot water after the Texas Securities Commissioner issued an Emergency Cease and Desist Order. The controversial platform has a 4.1 billion USD market cap and is shrouded in mystery.

What’s New at CoinCentral?

Happy New Year everyone! There are so many promising projects and ideas to explore in 2018, we couldn’t be more excited. The articles this week include:

• What is Substratum: This decentralized platform is on a mission to liberate the centralized ties that bind web hosting and content access.
• What is Bodhi: Learn more about the underdog of the prediction market platform world.
• What is ICON (ICX): ICON aims to connect the world by building a gigantic interconnecting decentralized network.
• What is Bytecoin? : This token was created in 2012 and is one of the earliest developed cryptocurrencies.

• Bits & Bytes 101: An Introduction to Cryptography:  Understand how bytes are a core part of knowledge needed to fully understand the driving forces behind cryptocurrencies.

  Is 2018 the Year of the Alts?: With Bitcoin losing market dominance, 2018 may be shaping up to be a year for massive altcoin growth.

• Governments Looking to Circumvent Government Sanctions with Cryptocurrencies: Some countries are looking towards cryptocurrencies to move around government-imposed sanctions.
• Is Bitcoin Mining Worth It?: Find out if investing in a Bitcoin mining operation is worth the time, effort, and money.

To see cryptocurrency world influencers like Tim Draper, Brad Garlinhhouse (CEO of Ripple), and Charlie Lee (Founder of Litecoin) speak, check out Blockchain Connect in San Francisco on January 26th, 2018. Our readers will receive 30% off with the code “coincentral” 🙂

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Cryptocurrency News from Around the World

Japanese Finance Mammoth Claims Bitcoin Increases GDP by 0.3%: According to two analysts at Nomura, “the scale of this increase in assets can hardly be ignored.” With the “wealth effect”, cryptocurrency investors who feel richer are taking their new fortunes and turning them into “real world” spending. Currently, approximately 3.7 million worth of bitcoins is held by 1 million Japanese citizens.

Egypt’s Grand Mufti Claims Bitcoin is “Un-Islamic”:   After consulting with various economic experts, Grand Mufti Shawki Allam stated that cryptocurrency in itself goes against the Islamic faith. Comparing cryptocurrency to gambling (which is forbidden in Islam), the Grand Mufti stated that virtual currency goes hand-in-hand with “direct responsibility in financial ruin for individuals.” Similarly, in November of 2017, the head religious authority in Turkey remarked congruent statements, citing digital currencies to be criminal in nature and therefore against Islam.  

President Reagan’s Prior Office of Management Director Thinks We are All “Stupid Speculators”: David Stockman is clearly no fan of cryptocurrency. In fact, in an interview with CNBC show “Futures Now”, Stockman stated “It’s basically a class of really stupid speculators who have convinced themselves that trees grow to the sky. It will burn out in a spectacular crash.” It should be noted that Stockman often has a bearish outlook in the financial world.

While Bitcoin Surges, the USD Declines: With a 10% loss, the US dollar experienced its biggest annual decrease compared to other major currencies since 2003. While fiat currencies such as the euro and pound strengthened against the dollar, none were quite as powerful as digital currencies, including Bitcoins 1,341 percent increase in value from the beginning to end of 2017.  

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