In the first three months of this year, less than 350 ICOs held, which is almost two times less than in the previous quarter. However, in terms of the amount of funds raised, the gap is not so large - if in the 4th quarter of 2018 the ICO collected about $ 1.5 billion, in the first quarter of this year the amount of funding amounted to about $ 1 billion.
New details about the cryptocurrency wallet built into the Galaxy S10 have become known. It turns out that the cold storage of the smartphone will support only four currencies and only two of them - large.
Reported that of the large coins, the cryptocurrency wallet will support Bitcoin and Ethereum. In addition, Galaxy S10 will be able to store coins Enjin Coin and Cosmo Coin. These are Korean projects based on the Ethereum blockchain. Enjin Coin is designed for gamers, and Cosmo Coin is associated with the beauty industry.
A popular wallet for Ethereum MyEtherWallet in collaboration with the Swiss company Bity will provide users with the opportunity to exchange cryptocurrencies for fiat without a verification procedure.
Bity provides cryptocurrency services to residents of different countries and serves a network of cryptomattes in Switzerland. The possibility of withdrawal of cryptocurrency in Fiat without verification is possible under the local law on combating money laundering.
Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of trading volume, launched a new exchange on the island of Jersey, a British self-governing dependency. On Wednesday, the company announced that thanks to the new exchange, users will be able to trade Bitcoin and Ethereum against the British pound and euro in Europe and the UK.
"Binance selected Jersey for its highly developed digital infrastructure, robust regulatory framework, and world-class financial services sector," said Wei Zhou, chief financial officer of the exchange.
Coinbase and Kraken, the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the United States, have joined the ranks of platforms that have confirmed the support of hardwood for Ethereum Constantinople, which will be implemented this week.
Two major exchanges joined Binance, Huobi and OKEx, which previously expressed their support for the upcoming update, and promise to monitor the hardforks, which will be carried out at block 7,080,000. This will probably happen on the night of January 16-17.
Serbian startup accelerator Decenter reported that the Google Ads contextual advertising service blocked all advertisements containing the word "Ethereum".
Such blocking began on January 8, 2019. According to Decenter, only ads with the word "Ethereum" got under the blocking; all other words from the field of cryptocurrencies, including "Bitcoin", "ICO" and "EOS", were not blocked. At the same time, an advertisement with the word "Ethereum" is blocked with the wording "This advertiser has not been approved to place an advertisement in your location."
Co-founder and managing partner of the Multicoin Capital cryptocurrency fund, Kyle Samani, shared his opinion on important trends in the field of cryptoassets for the coming year.
Samani noted that he is closely watching the popular Binance Cryptocurrency Exchange and its development of a new decentralized platform, the launch of which can change the digital industry. He expects that the status of this exchange will allow it to attract a large number of users to an alternative solution, while Binance competitors, who are also developing such platforms, are unlikely to succeed.
With the advent of the New Year, a large number of forecasts regarding cryptocurrency rates appeared. Last year, many forecasts did not take into account the "bearish" trend, which dominated the market throughout 2018 and led to a fall in Bitcoin price by more than 80%. The beginning of this year was marked by the forecast rate of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, published by the independent agency Weiss Ratings.
According to the Weiss Ratings forecast, 2019 foreshadows the growth of Bitcoin popularity. The international rating agency expects that more and more people will consider cryptocurrency as a store of value, and Bitcoin will finally become stronger in its status of digital gold.
The head of ConsenSys and co-founder of Ethereum Joseph Lubin announced that the current state of the market will not deteriorate, because this year he "reached its bottom", "is marked by an epic amount of fear, uncertainty, and doubt."
In addition, the head of ConsenSys assured the cryptocurrency community that, despite the recent significant reduction in staff, nothing bad happens to the company - this is just a reorganization.
"ConsenSys remains healthy and is engaging in a rebalancing of priorities and activities which started about nine months ago," said Lubin.
At the 2018 Global Tech Forum held in China, the famous billionaire investor Jim Breyer made a negative statement for cryptocurrency investors.
Despite the long decline in cryptocurrency quotes, he still has high hopes for the blockchain business, but he expects the near future will be the worst time for investors.
"We are close to a nuclear winter right now with cryptocurrency," said Breyer, who is famous for investing in popular cryptocurrency projects: Circle, Ethereum, VeChain and High Fidelity.
Spencer Bogart, a partner at Blockchain Capital, a venture capital firm, said in a conversation with Bloomberg that despite the long bearish cycle in the cryptocurrency market, cryptoactives still have enormous potential.
The expert still holds positive predictions about the future of Bitcoin, noting the critical role of "programmable money", whose popularity will continue to grow.
Former chairman of Google, billionaire Eric Emerson Schmidt, gave an interview to economist Tyler Cowen at an organized Village Global event, which was held in San Francisco.
The dialogue covered various topics, such as the future of technology, the division of the Internet, recruitment methods and the reform of corporate governance. In addition, Schmidt expressed his opinion about Ethereum, stating that he has enormous potential and has every chance of becoming a powerful platform.
The developer, who formalized the code that underlies most of the primary token allocations (ICO), the Ethereum standard ERC-20, proposed a new approach in an attempt to make financing schemes safer for investors.
Speaking in Prague on Devcon4, the annual Ethereum Developer Conference, Fabian Vogelsteller proposed the concept of a "reversible ICO" or RICO that would allow token investors to return their funds at any stage of the project's life. In particular, the concept involves the creation of a special smart contract that allows investors to "cancel their financing obligations".
The head of deVere Group, Nigel Green believes that in the coming years, the superiority of Bitcoin in the cryptocurrency market will significantly decrease. However, this will not prevent the first cryptocurrency to grow by another 5000%.
Green, however, recognizes the merits of Bitcoin and the revolution accomplished by this cryptocurrency, but believes that new technologies and cryptocurrencies will surpass the progenitor in time.
In a note to Fundstrat Global Advisors clients, analyst Tom Lee wrote that the Ethereum is ready to change the trend to a bottom line and make a strong rally. According to the analyst, the perception of the air on the market turned out to be "too negative" and it allows us to say that in the near future the value of the cryptocurrency will be restored and will go on growth.
The cryptographic principles underlying the zk-SNARK (ZCash-proof technology of zero-disclosure in the crypto currency) can greatly help with the scaling of the Ethereum network, Vitalik Buterin said during a scientific forum.
Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin said that he does not view the decline in the value of cryptocurrency as a constraint on the growth of the industry. In his recent interview with Bloomberg, Lubin said that the drop in prices is not a new phenomenon. It was present in the "ecosystem of the blockchain since 2009 - from the moment Bitcoin was invented."
He also noted that, despite the declining value of the cryptocurrency, price bubbles will appear to be "small bumps on the chart", because "growth was exponential".
The Australian currency exchange exchanger Bitcoin.com.au made it possible to purchase Bitcoin and Ethereum for Fiat in more than 1200 newsstands throughout the country. "The fact that you can now buy Bitcoin and Ethereum from the same place you purchase soft drinks and stationery really speaks to how institutionalised cryptocurrency has become [...] For anyone who has hesitated about buying Bitcoin because it all seemed too complicated, this is the perfect setup that takes the fear factor out of investing in digital currencies", said Bitcoin.com.au CEO Rupert Hackett.