The current renaissance in the crypto market means that there has been a lot of developments in recent weeks. This week was no exception as the crypto community experienced various highs as we count down to the start of another trading week.
Some of the major news development are highlighted and are as follows.
Coinbase Custody has $1billion in AUM
The crypto community were treated to a pleasant surprise on Wednesday when it was revealed that Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong had alluded to the fact that Coinbase Custody has $1 billion in assets under management (AUM).
Armstrong revealed this at CoinDesk Consensus 2019 meet and also confirmed that about 70 institutions had signed up with the firm contributing around $150 million monthly.
This development was received with positivity by the crypto community. Many alluded that this was a remarkable feat in just 12 months after launch.
Binance Starts Trading/Withdrawals
On Tuesday, Binance the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world resumed trading activity for the first time since the hack attack last week. The crypto exchange had suffered an unprecedented hack which resulted in 7000 BTC stolen from the exchange. The aftermath of the hack saw the exchange suspend trading activities on its platform.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhou had committed to resuming trading activities this week and the crypto community were pleased on Tuesday to see activities resume on the popular exchange.
The effect was quickly evident as the crypto market witnessed a surge in value during the first 24 hours of trading.
Bitfinex Raised $1 Billion in IEO
Top crypto exchange announced that it had raised $1 billion during its initial exchange offering. The embattled exchanged have seen its fair share of controversy after the New York Attorney General sued the platform over cover-up accusations about tether.
This resulted in a court order to freeze $850 million of its assets, Bitfinex plans to use the funds generated to beef up its reserves. The Bitfinex utility token known as UNUS SED LEO would be distributed to participants and would offer Bitfinex users discount on trading and other transaction services.
Bitfinex has recovered in recent weeks from the scandal and this is good news for the crypto community.
Amazon Patents PoW System
The largest E-commerce company in the world Amazon was granted a patent for a proof-of-work system on Friday. The patent which had first been filed in 2016 aims to use PoW to prevent distributed denial of services (DDoS) attacks on computer networks.
This process would utilise Merkle trees which would present a different challenge to hackers. The new patent would make it very expensive to execute DDoS attacks in the computer networks.
The announcement brought about conversations within the crypto community that this could be a precursor for Amazon to integrate blockchain technology. It remains to be seen if the e-Commerce giant would take the step further to adopting cryptocurrencies as a means of payment on its platform.
Microsoft building on Bitcoin
The week began with news that tech giants Microsoft are working on an open-source project involving creating a decentralized protocol on Bitcoin (BTC) platform. The project called Ion looks to create a decentralised identity tool that would enable different networks to communicate with each other.
According to crypto analysts this would enable efficient communication between different systems. It is understood that Microsoft is looking to actively engage in blockchain technology especially the technical aspects.
This development shows that the fortune 500 companies are beginning to grasp the potentials of blockchain technology.
Bitcoin still not dead
Lastly Bitcoin continued its bullish run this week reaching the $8000 mark for the first time since June 2018. Although the coin stayed at this point for just 24 hours before dropping down this brief run shows that many believe in the coin.
People are still buying Bitcoin Every day, every hour and every minute which is remarkable considering all the negative analysis about the coin.
There is an average of 5 cryptocurrency ATMs installed across the world daily and almost all of these ATMs support Bitcoin transactions.
The current arc of BTC suggests that we should be up for another surge in the new week and there is a big possibility that it would hold past the $8000 mark.
As the new trading week approaches there are lots of things to look forward to and if this week has taught us anything, it is to expect great things within the crypto ecosystem.
