This Week in Cryptocurrency: September 7, 2018

• You Spin Me Right ‘Round Baby Right ‘Round
• What’s New at CoinCentral?

You Spin Me Right ‘Round Baby Right ‘Round

After some healthy, steady growth over the last two and half weeks, the cryptocurrency market threw us for a tizzy, dropping nearly 16 percent in one day at the end of this week. The overall market fell from ~$224.5B to ~$205B over the course of the week. Speculators claim that the drop was caused by news of Goldman Sacks scrapping plans for a dedicated cryptocurrency terminal (later proved false). However, no one knows for certain.

Let’s check in on the top coins:

Bitcoin was the top ‘performer’ only dropping 6.99% since last Friday.

Ethereum gets demolished once again, falling 20.67% to just over $222.

XRP also sees double-digit red in its 11.41% freefall.

Coinbase Tags in Blackrock to Help with ETF: Business Insider reported this week that Coinbase spoke with Blackrock to get some advice on their alleged crypto-ETF. If you’re hoping for a partnership announcement, you shouldn’t get too excited. The talks seem to just be the case of big brother Blackrock helping out little brother Coinbase navigate the complicated ETF process. With nine ETF pseudo-rejections so far, it’s evident Coinbase wants to do it right with their first swing at the plate.

Satis Group is Bullish on Bitcoin (not so much on XRP): Bloomberg Research recently published a report by Satis Group, and the findings should make you smile. Well, depending on which coins you support. The report lists positive forecasts for Bitcoin, Monero, and Decred which are expected to reach $96k, $18k, and $535, respectively, within five years. If you’re a Bitcoin Cash or XRP supporter, you may want to stop reading here. Satis Group predicts price points of $268 for BCH and just $0.01 for XRP over the same time period.

IBM Launches Cross-Border Payment System Using Stellar: IBM is continuing their plunge into blockchain. This time with a complete cross-border payment system, dubbed World Wire. World Wire aims to reduce the settlement times of worldwide transfers from days to a matter of minutes. How? By hitching onto the back of the Stellar protocol (R’uh R’oh Ripple). World Wire now joins the long list of blockchain products that IBM offer or is planning on offering over the next couple of years.

Royce Da 5’9” Gives Shoutout to Bitcoin in New Eminem Album: In Eminem’s ‘Not Alike’ off the recently released ‘Kamikaze’ album, Royce raps, “Member everybody used to bite Nickel, Now everybody doin’ Bitcoin.” Through this line, he’s claiming that everyone jumped on the Bitcoin bandwagon just as everyone used to copy, or bite, his style. C’mon Royce, not everyone got involved with Bitcoin during the 2017 bull run. Especially not our readers. *eyes shift nervously* Right guys? Right?

A Couple Guys Say US Crypto Innovation is Falling Behind: Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington spoke at TechCrunch Disrupt Thursday, sharing their thoughts on America’s place in the big crypto race. They cite unclear government regulation as the major roadblock to U.S. innovation and investment. Other stopping points include the tax burdens and difficulty of getting a U.S. visa. Thanks, SEC.

“The SEC is single handedly wrecking the next stage of technology development” Michael Arrington (Arrington XRP Capital) #TCDisrupt pic.twitter.com/MFnWRwRTXG

— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) September 5, 2018

What’s New at CoinCentral?

Crypto Mining Company in NY Gets Creative Amid Soaring Power Rates: I scream. You scream. We all scream for waterfall-powered cryptocurrency mining.

How Green Power Powers the Cryptocurrency Mining Future: More expensive electricity combined with falling crypto prices are causing some miners to search for greener pastures.

Last Week’s Biggest Gainer: Vulcano Coin Up 3,317 Percent: Krakatoa! Learn why Vulcano Coin had an eruptive spurt this week.

What is Hexxcoin? | A Beginners Guide: The Rasputin of cryptocurrency, the privacy-focused Hexxcoin has ‘died’ more times than we can count. Read about its checkered past.

Merkle Tree Hashing: How Blockchain Verification Works: Merkle trees are a fundamental blockchain attribute. We give you an easy-to-understand explanation.

HSBC Is Now a Front-Runner in the Blockchain Technology Race: Looks like the “B” stands for blockchain. Starting slow, HSBC is now pulling ahead of their banking counterparts in the blockchain bonanza.

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Why the Big Four Accounting Firms Care About Blockchain: We hope we didn’t lose you at accounting. Blockchain and accounting are actually an exciting pair. We promise.

Interview: Tackling Fake Science with Orvium Co-Founder Manuel Martin: If you think fake news is a national dilemma, just wait until you hear about the issues in science. Thankfully, Orvium has a solution.

The Best EOS Delegates of 2018: We rank ‘em, you take ‘em. Check out our favorite EOS delegates this year.

The Rise and Rise of Cryptojacking: What You Need to Know: At the risk of sounding like your mom, you’ve got to be careful out there. Cryptojacking is slowly becoming a digital epidemic – here’s what you should know.

How Blockchain Is Being Applied to Human Rights: We all know blockchain brings a ton of good to the world. But do you know exactly how?

Blockchain Fraud: New Policies and Technologies to Stop Crypto Criminals: Tax evasion, money laundering, terrorist funding – it’s a constant push-pull between the forces of good and evil.

How to Vote for an EOS Block Producer | Step-by-Step Instructions: Step 1. Read this tutorial.

Venezuela’s Petro Appears to be Smoke and Mirrors: Reuters came in hot earlier in the week with a special report on Venezuela’s national cryptocurrency, the Petro. Launched earlier this year, the Petro is a government-controlled cryptocurrency allegedly backed by barrels of oil. To the surprise of no one, it appears that that isn’t the case. Although President Maduro has stated that the Petro is already in use paying for oil imports, other senior officials claim that the technology is still in development.

Iran Gives Thumbs-up to Crypto Mining: Taking a page out of the Star Wars naming handbook, Iran’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace announced the official recognition of crypto mining as an industry this week. Even though this means more regulation in the country, it’s a step in the right direction in proving the validity of previously described magic Internet money. Iran has long been a proponent of cryptocurrency, stating plans that they may create a national one to circumvent U.S. trading sanctions.

South Korean Insurer Makes Risky Business of Exchange Hacks: Hanwha Insurance may soon be providing customers with cyber insurance, protecting them from domestic crypto exchange hacks. However, the insurance isn’t for the joe schmoe investor. Instead, they’re targeting the actual exchanges whose sub-par security practices could cost them millions of dollars when faced with a breach. This year already, Korean exchanges Bithumb and Coinrail have had to recoup a combined $58 million due to hacking.