Blockchain and ICO News

Fundstrat Global Advisor Managing Partner and cryptocurrency enthusiast Tom Lee believes that after the recent strong growth in Bitcoin, the bulls have again begun to dominate the market.

Last Saturday, the rate of the first cryptocurrency grew by 30%, showing a record growth over the past few years. The price of Bitcoin even exceeded $ 10,000. Now trading is at around $ 9,400, but according to Tom Lee, in the near future the rate may again go up.

Heath Tarbert, chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), believes that Ethereum futures will be launched as early as next year.

During his speech at Georgetown University, Tarbert expressed the view that air futures will appear within 6-12 months, however, the launch of such products does not mean an immediate growth in the cryptocurrency industry.

Well-known American entrepreneur and cryptocurrency enthusiast John McAfee believes that stablecoins are only an intermediate solution for decentralized exchanges.

McAfee mentioned the main problems associated with the conversion of fiat and cryptocurrencies on exchanges. According to him, stablecoins are not quite suitable for use on decentralized exchanges, given that such exchanges do not collect any information about users, including their names, addresses, insurance number, email, etc.

Telegram sent a new letter to its investors, in which it says that the launch of the TON blockchain is postponed for six months. The launch deadline is now set for April 30, 2020. Investors can exit the project by taking 77% of their investments.

In the letter, the company refers to a proceeding with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which considered Gram tokens to be unregistered securities. The regulator managed to achieve a time limit on their sale and use, which interferes with Telegram's plans.

Founder and CEO of BKCM cryptocurrency investment company Brian Kelly believes that the industry does not currently need Bitcoin traded exchange traded funds (ETFs).

Kelly emphasized that Bitcoin ETFs are not needed for the development of the industry, since the first cryptocurrency is already available for trading on regulated platforms such as Fidelity and TD Ameritrade.

The American regulator dealt an unexpected blow to the upcoming TON blockchain, accusing Telegram of unregistered sale of tokens a year and a half after the ICO.

The U.S. government seems to consider corporate cryptocurrencies more dangerous than public blockchains. Until now, all the claims of regulators and politicians have been streaming on Facebook for the Libra project, and a similar development by Telegram, which began selling $ 1.7 billion in tokens in January and March 2018, has remained in the background. However, this silence was deceiving.

Telegram introduced the first edition of the rules for using the "Gram" cryptocurrency wallet, which was developed by the company to store the tokens of the same name.

The rules say that the Gram wallet is provided by Telegram FZ-LLC and will be built into the Telegram messenger, and is also available as a separate application. One of the main points in the rules is the age limit - only people over 18 years old can use the wallet. In addition, only citizens of countries in which it is not prohibited by law can use the Gram.

Former U.S. Attorney General and current partner at Andreessen Horowitz investment company Kathryn Haun believes open blockchains help solve crimes.

Hon called blockchain transactions "digital bread crumbs," which, one by one, lead to a real criminal. In addition, law enforcement agencies are much more effective at combating crimes committed with bitcoin than monitoring traditional financial flows.

The head of the blockchain division of Facebook, David Markus, in his blog spoke about the shortcomings of traditional payment systems and why you need to switch to systems based on the blockchain.

"As I've been traveling around the world meeting with key stakeholders, it became clear to me that the advantages of digital currency transmitted over a blockchain — notably when it comes to broadening access and lowering costs of financial services — weren't as evident to others as I assumed they were," Marcus began his story.

Speaking at a cryptocurrency summit hosted by Solidus Labs in New York, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce expressed confidence that digital assets will continue to grow.

Peirce said that she looks at cryptocurrencies and other digital assets as "transactional mechanisms." At the same time, she believes that the function of preserving wealth is one of the most important for this kind of asset.

"Store of value, I think, is a really important function. I do think that we'll see as technology changes, that they become much more the money of the internet," said a member of the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The symbol of Bitcoin will appear on the form of players of the English professional football club Watford. In addition, the team will begin to sell souvenirs for cryptocurrency.

The football club announced on its website that the Bitcoin logo will appear on the players form as part of the club's partnership with the Sportsbet.io betting platform. The team will also start accepting Bitcoin as payment for their souvenirs.

Binance cryptocurrency exchange CEO Changpeng Zhao said a recent $ 1 billion cryptocurrency transaction shows bank failure.

While many giants from the technology sector, such as Samsung and IBM, are working intensively with blockchain technology, Apple is in no hurry to show interest in this direction.

However, this does not mean that the company is not interested in the new industry. Apple Pay vice president Jennifer Bailey told CNN that the company is eyeing the industry.

Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square's payment startup and founder of Twitter, said that Bitcoin will continue to spread, but it's too early to consider currency.

In an interview with the Australian Financial Review, Dorsey said that, in his opinion, the first cryptocurrency will continue to be widely used, but so far, Bitcoin does not work as a currency.

According to one of the project's investors, on September 1, Telegram plans to begin a public test of its blockchain - TON (Telegram open network).

During the public test, the TON network node code and instructions for installing it should appear in the public domain. Sharding (the process of breaking transactions into separate pieces to ensure scaling) and consensus (a mechanism for confirming new blocks in the blockchain) should also be available, which will allow testing the entire blockchain.

The founder and CEO of the consulting company deVere Group, Nigel Green, believes that the new "bottom" for Bitcoin is now at around $ 10,000.

"Looking at its performance this year, I believe that the new normal bottom price for Bitcoin is $10,000. It bounces at this price. If it fluctuates below this level, it shoots back up again. We have seen this in action on Monday when Bitcoin hit $10,500 in a matter of minutes," Green said.

Luno cryptocurrency exchange CEO Marcus Swanepoel expressed the opinion that 90% of users use Bitcoin for investment or speculation, not for payments.

In an interview with CNBC, Swanepoel said that only a small part of the first cryptocurrency users use it for transactions and payments in the real world.

A survey conducted by the Chinese cryptocurrency company BabelFinance showed that local investors are waiting for the growth of Bitcoin, and according to 30% of respondents, the Bitcoin exchange rate for the year will exceed $ 30,000.

The study showed that the average Chinese cryptocurrency investor is a young, well-educated man with above-average income. More than 76.3% of male respondents have a college degree or higher.