news 30th

Market situation

• The market recorded some gains this week with Bitcoin leading the way.

• Current prices:
• BTC = around $8.2k (+11%)
• ETH = around $466 (+1%)
• XRP = around $0.45 (0%)
• NEO = around $33 (-2%)
• IOTA = around $1.01 (+1%)
• VEN = around $2.52 (+39%)
• XLM = around $0.32 (+11%)
• BNB = around $14.72 (+22.5%)
• XMR = around $139 (+7%)

Even with the negative ETF decision it still looks bullish. It is unclear however if Bitcoin will continue to outperform alts.

Bitcoin ETF Rejected

• On 26th of July The Securities and Exchange Commission rejected a request from Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss to run a bitcoin-related exchange traded fund.

• The SEC was not persuaded that the twins and their company could protect investors from abuse and fraud. The agency said it would not approve the first-ever bitcoin ETF because the digital currency isn't "resistant to manipulation." The Winklevoss twins own cryptocurrency exchange Gemini Trust, where the ETF would've been traded on.

• "The Commission thus cannot, on the record before it, conclude that bitcoin markets are uniquely resistant to manipulation," the agency sumarised.

• The market responded badly to the news with around $500 Bitcoin price decrease but the bleeding has stopped for now.

EU Parliament bullish?

Users - from individuals to large energy buyers, investors and traders - will now be able to create accounts, browse through the first renewable energy auctions available on the platform, and express their interest to participate.

• On 25th of July following a detailed review of the industry and its underlying technology, the political body has formally acknowledged that cryptos such as Bitcoin, Ripple and Litecoin have an inherent value.

• The European Parliament Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs issued a report outlining their expectations of the future for the cryptocurrency industry. By stating that cryptocurrencies are a “digital representation of value,” the analysts have aligned BTC, XRP and other altcoins with fiat currencies. The report is quite positive in general.

• “Other innovations with a relevant impact in the financial sector are the new cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, which are digital currencies that operate in a decentralized way by means of P2P technologies, like blockchain, and without participation or supervision by any central bank or institution,” the report stated.

Ripple updates

• On July 23rd Wirex has annouced that users can now now buy, sell, exchange and deposit Ripple (XRP) using the Wirex App. Wirex is a cryptocurrency card that allows users to directly sell their crypto through their debit card. They are supporting Bitcoin, Litecoin and now Ripple. The company plans to add Ethereum next.

• By adding Ripple Wirex is the only digital money platform that lets users exchange and spend Ripple like traditional currency – in-store and online.

• Additionally Weiss Ratings - a popular website for financial ratings and decision has declared Ripple as preferred cryptocurrency for moving digital assets between cryptocurrency exchanges.

• Ripple is currently the 3rd most valuable coin according to mcap with mcap of under 18B.

Ark updates

NEO Foundation initiated the election of new consensus nodes, starting the era of decentralization of NEO. The candidate node run by City of Zion, after running smoothly on TestNet for over six months, got elected as the new consensus node.

• On 24th of July Ark has released an update explaining that they will stop working on the ARK Core v1 software backwards compatibility. They explain that it would be more beneficial for the project to focus on v2 and bringing it to mainnet as soon as possible

• They also released a list of several major technical improvements that prove that the team is working on the project with full speed.

• Ark has also annouced Ppartnership with Hiway.io. Hiway is a blockchain based hiring platform focused on helping find highly qualified candidates for critical openings in the blockchain industry.

• Hiway is currently in the ICO and development phase and will be looking into ways to use the power of Ark network in the development stage of the marketplace. Ark is currently in top 80 with mcap of under 130M.

Payfair updates

• On 25th of July Payfair has released and update in which they mentioned a very major change.

• Payfair is a decentralized Escrow platform and p2p exchange that allows users to buy cryptocurrency from other users. It can compared to the more popular centralised LocalBitcoins website.

• In a bid to be competitive, Payfiar have moved away from the usual maker fee pricing structure. What this means is market makers and advert creators are now rewarded with zero fee’s. This is to encourage listings and increase volume. Local Bitcoins and other peer to peer exchanges have fees so this move gives Payfair advantage.

• On top of that Payfair has done some update to its social media (mostly Reddit). The Payfair token is currently outside of top 700 with mcap of under 3M.

Waves updates

• On 24th of July Waves has released a major update (1.0) to the client officially ending the beta stage. Waves Client Beta was first released on 13 December 2017, with the launch event held in Amsterdam. In total there were 53 releases of the beta version.

• The reworked Waves DEX boasts a completely new interface, new APIs and improved stability, due to custom-built data infrastructure. It allows the users to store, send, exchange and issue tokens easily, swiftly and securely, no technical background required.

• Waves DEX is trying to compete with the most popular crypto exchanges through simplicity combined with high liquidity (>$7,000,000 average 24h volume) and low fees (<$0.01 or 0.003 WAVES per order).

• The WAVES token is currently in the top 50 with mcap of around 250M.