The head of one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Binance, Changpeng Zhao, expressed confidence that the largest online retailer Amazon eventually release its own cryptocurrency, which will be used to buy and sell goods.
In his tweet, Zhao noted that companies doing business on the Internet need to integrate cryptocurrency as a means of payment for their clients. He stressed that using cryptocurrency for payments is simpler and cheaper than traditional fiat money.
Dan Morehead, the founder and head of Pantera Capital, an American investment company, stressed that he no longer worries about the future of the blockchain technology, as he did during the fall of the market in 2014 and 2015.
"I think the underlying fundamentals are much much stronger than they were in the 2014-15 crypto winter," Morehead expressed his opinion in an interview with former Forbes editor Laura Shin.
PayPal co-founder Luke Nosek during his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos said that the project team initially planned to create a digital currency that would have technological advantages similar to cryptocurrencies, namely independence from banks and the government.
Answering a question about whether PayPal and WeChat Pay solved a problem related to online transactions, or perhaps cryptocurrency can deal with it, Nosek said:
"Many people don't know this, but the initial mission of PayPal was to create a global currency that was independent of interference by these, you know, corrupt cartels of banks and governments that were debasing their currencies. "
Yesterday, a BitTorrent Crowdsale (BTT) took place on the Binance Launchpad platform, which caused an unprecedented stir and ended in just 18 minutes. It was also the first large-scale ICO on the TRON platform.
The campaign was carried out in two stages: the first one lasted 13 minutes and 25 seconds, during which time 23.76 billion BTT were sold at a price of 0.00001824 BNB per unit; in the second stage, 35.64 billion BTT were sold at a price of 0.00447261 in 14 minutes 41 seconds. In just two of these sessions, 962 cryptoinvestors (340 in the BNB session and 622 in the TRON session) invested more than $ 7 million in the project.
Bears on the cryptocurrency market have dominated for more than a year. In various thematic chats you can hear a huge number of stories about the loss of more than 80-90% of the deposit in dollars, but customer losses are not reflected in any way on the cryptocurrency exchanges.
Huobi Global CEO Livio Weng in an interview with the South China Morning Post (SCMP) shared information, according to which 70% of the company's revenue brings the main exchange business.
BitPay, one of the largest payment blockchain providers in the world, announced a new record reached in 2018. The company processed payments in the amount of more than $ 1 billion and again showed record income.
In addition, Dish Networks, HackerOne, and the Ohio State Government have joined the payment network. The B2B division showed record numbers and grew by 255%, as many law firms, data centers and manufacturers in the IT industry connected to bitcoin reception.
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.
US regulatory agencies - the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) are exploring the possibility of providing federal banking licenses for technology companies that provide financial services, such as remittances and lending.
The presence of a federal license will allow FINTECH companies to reduce costs and develop new regions and products. However, they do not intend to invest heavily in expansion without having access to payment systems, settlement services and other tools of the US Federal Reserve (Fed).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.
Analysts of the MarketWatch portal analyzed the ICO market and concluded that the number of initial placement campaigns conducted in accordance with all the requirements of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) increased significantly in 2018.
MarketWatch searched the Edgar database using the keywords "coin", "ICO", "token", "initial coin offering" and "saft". According to their data, a total of 287 campaigns with ICO signs were held, which together collected $ 8.7 billion. The highest rate was registered in the second quarter - 99 companies. For comparison, in 2017, only 44 campaigns were held, collecting a total of $ 2.1 billion.Despite yesterday's volatility in cryptocurrency markets and a noticeable drop in the price of Bitcoin, well-known digital currency critic Jeffrey Gundlach said that in the near future the price of the first cryptocurrency will reach $ 5,000.
In an interview with CNBC Channel, Gundlach, who is the head of DoubleLine, which manages assets of $ 200 billion, noted that risky investors could make easy profits if they turn to Bitcoin trading.During the session of questions and answers on the Reddit portal, the founders of the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange - brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss predicted that in the future the capitalization of the cryptocurrency market would exceed $ 7 trillion.
According to the twins, the evolution of technology in the future will change the trade, financial system, Internet and cash. They stressed that the process would not be easy and perhaps not very successful, but the brothers believe that technological revolutions will create new rules and this will lead to success.
Former Goldman Sachs partner Michael Novogratz is not worried about the long drop in quotations on the cryptocurrency market and is increasing his position in the Galaxy Digital trading bank he founded.
According to the information giant Bloomberg, he bought 7.5 million shares for $ 5.5 million, which corresponds to 2.7% of all Galaxy Digital shares in circulation.
There is a strong likelihood that cryptocurrencies will become the most effective asset in 2019, said Travis Kling, former head of Point72 Asset Management, a hedge fund that controls assets worth $ 12.4 billion.
The founder of the "Ikigai" fund said that cryptocurrencies were never present during the "bearish" mood in traditional finance, and the fall in the Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones indices could bring more investors into the cryptocurrency space.
Cryptocurrency enthusiast and founder of Morgan Creek Digital Assets Anthony Pompliano expressed his opinion in an interview with Blockchain Reporter that over time all assets will become digital and then the golden age of cryptocurrency will begin.
Pompliano said that he first heard about Bitcoin while working on Facebook in 2014. However, he decided to enter the cryptocurrency industry only in 2016, when he studied the prospects of the technology and the possibilities of its application.President and Chief Operating Officer of Coinbase Asiff Hirji said that institutional investors who have short-term goals, it is better not to touch cryptocurrency.
During his speech on CNBC, Hirji stressed that his company warned investors to be cautious during the period of explosive growth of Bitcoin back in 2017, but many cryptocurrency enthusiasts did not heed the warning.
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.Brian Armstrong, CEO of the American Cryptocurrency Exchange Coinbase, urged wealthy cryptocurrency holders to donate their assets to charitable or other purposes.
In a blog post on The Giving Pledge, a charity website created by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet to encourage rich people to use their money for worthy goals, Armstrong wrote:
"Once a certain level of wealth is reached, there is little additional utility from spending more on yourself. … Whether it's through improving education, creating a more level playing field, or increasing economic freedom, I'm interested in helping more people see their ideas come to fruition in the world."
