Here’s what you need to know on
Markets:
BTC/USD is currently trading at $9,446 (+1.7% on a day-to-day basis). The coin hit a new high of 2020 at $9,523 during early Asian hours and been moving within a short-term bearish trend ever since.
The ETH/USD pair is currently trading at $183.0 (+5.3% on a day-to-day basis). The Ethereum retreated from the intraday high of $185.49; now, it is moving within a short-term bearish trend amid shrinking volatility.
XRP/USD settled at $0.2415 after a spike to $0.2446 during early Asian hours. The coin is up 3.5% in recent 24 hours.
Among the 100 most important cryptocurrencies, the best of the day are V Systems (VSYS) $0.0468 (+37.5%), ICON (ICX) $0.2527 (+23.57%) and BlockStamp (BST) $1.60 (+22.16%), The day’s losers are, ABBC Coin (ABBC) $0.1027 (-9.5%), DxChain Token (DX) $0.0010 (-9.42%) and Centrality (CENNZ) $0.0684 (-7.42%).
Chart of the day:
LTC/USD, 4-hour chart
Market:
Bitcoin gained over 30% of its value since the beginning of the year and settled above SMA200 daily. According to Fundstrat Global Advisors Managing Partner Tom Lee, the first cryptocurrency extended the upside momentum 80% of the time after breaking that important technical barrier. The expert believes that it is a strong bullish signal that implies that Bitcoin is poised for a strong rally.
Industry:
Bitfinex launched margin trading for Tether Gold trading pairs with USD, Tether and Bitcoin ((XAU₮/USD, XAU₮/USD₮, XAU₮/BTC). The trading started on January 30, with a maximum leverage of x5 available for traders. In a separate development, the exchange announced an increase of maximum leverage for BTC/USD from 3.3x to 5x.
Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Bitfinex commented:
“The launch of margin trading on Tether Gold will allow more advanced trading strategies, enabling a more sophisticated means of hedging exposure and managing risk. Raising our leverage from 3.3x to 5x is a noteworthy development, and is also timely given growing interest in gold and other safe haven assets amid the recent turmoil that we’ve seen in equity markets.”
An Austria-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitpanda exploits Brexit to promote online trading with cryptocurrencies as a way to financial freedom. The company launched the marketing campaign that coincides with Brexit. The team wants to draw attention to Brexit issues and focus on the solutions that Bitpanda provides for the challenges ahead. Their billboard with a slogan “Millions of people can´t be wrong, unless they are British” will appear across major sites in London, Glasgow and Brussels.
Scammers stole $4.3 billion in digital currencies in 2019, which is three times as much as in 2018, according to the recent data provided by Chainalysis. The experts of the research company noted that the majority of scams were variations of Ponzi scheme. PlusToken and OneCoin scams were the largest and high profile cases.
The vast majority of that $4.3 billion went to just two large-scale Ponzi schemes, without which crime overall would account for just 0.46% of all cryptocurrency activity. Scammers take advantage of the unique position cryptocurrency currently occupies in the public eye: Most people have heard of it, and many believe it has “get rich quick” potential.
Regulation:
Cryptocurrency trading platform GO.Exchange halted operations, citing burdensome regulatory requirements as a primary reason behind the decision. The cryptocurrency exchange is a subsidiary of OmiseGO (OMG) developer, fintech company Omise Holdings. The exchange stopped all operations except withdrawals as of January 30. The company applied for Maltese license, but new anti-money laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements in the EU proved to be too tough to stay competitive.
Despite our advancement on the license, we decided to stop this effort due to external factors that came into the picture, such as increasing regulatory complexities and uncertainty regarding the evolution of cryptocurrency regulations, which considerably changed the cost/benefit analysis of operating an exchange.
Quote of the day:
Sometimes you gotta step back and realize how far Bitcoin has come. A decade of safe, fast, borderless transactions without a bank or government involved whatsoever.
Erik Voorhees, CEO of ShapeShift
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