Bitcoin price has exceeded $20,000 today. The cryptocurrency market looks bullish and many traders believe that the price could go higher. But there are fears that there may soon be a strong and long fall. I would like to ask you about your trading strategy and your plans in this market. Thanks

Research shows the U.S Dollar has been used to launder money 800x more than Bitcoin



The cryptocurrency industry has faced a lot of resistance mainly from governments of the globe for several reasons. One of the main reasons given is that cryptocurrencies can be used for money laundering and lawmakers have proposed a complete ban several times. Some data, however, reveal information that is contrary to this belief.

Research conducted by research firm Messari reveals that more U.S Dollars have been used to launder money than Bitcoin. Precisely, the data reveals that the U.S Dollar has been used in money laundering 800 times more than Bitcoin. “For every $ in BTC spent on the darknet, at least $800 is laundered”, it states.



This is a rather disturbing revelation as Bitcoin has been attacked by several government officials lately. United States President Donald Trump said earlier this month that Bitcoin has no value and unregulated cryptocurrency can be used for unlawful behavior like drug trade and others (including money laundering).

The U.S Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin expressed concerns about cryptocurrency just days after Trumps’ tweet about Bitcoin. Again, it was concerned on what cryptocurrency can be used to do on the darknet despite the fact that the U.S Dollar is used to commit the same illegal acts more than Bitcoin.

This data could be invalidating the claims that Bitcoin is mainly used for criminal activities. As a matter of fact, transactions using Bitcoin are more traceable than any fiat and so can be more easily traced than transactions in U.S Dollars.

The crypto community considers such criticisms as publicity for Bitcoin and the crypto industry as a whole because it means the industry is important enough for the U.S government to give an opinion on. With the pressure to regulate the industry mounting, it might be a matter of time before the industry comes under full regulation.

Some are however of the opinion that the government might just be afraid of what Bitcoin could do to the U.S Dollar rather than being concerned about money laundering as regulation hasn’t succeeded in curtailing the situation.

https://zycrypto.com/research-shows-the-u-s-dollar-has-been-used-to-launder-money-800x-more-than-bitcoin

New ECB boss Christine Lagarde could enact Bitcoin friendly legislation

Bitcoin and crypto-supportive legislation could be on the way now that Christine Lagarde has been selected to serve as the new European Central Bank president.

Will the ECB support Bitcoin?

Recently nominated European Central Bank (ECB) president Christine Lagarde has a history of making statements which cryptocurrency investors interpret as being supportive. In April, Largarde made comments suggesting that financial institutions and regulators are underestimating the potential influence digital currencies could have within the sector. Lagarde cautioned that digital assets are “shaking the system” and while interviewing with CNBC Lagarde elaborated on this point by saying:

"I think the role of the disruptors and anything that is using distributed ledger technology, whether you call it crypto, assets, currencies, or whatever…that is clearly shaking the system.” 

According to Lagarde, it’s crucial that the current financial system is not disrupted to the extent “that we lose the stability that is needed” and these statements align with Largarde’s comments from a 2017 interview where she cautioned that cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology should not be ignored by the financial sector and international regulators. 

Lagarde could bring a different approach

The timeline of Lagarde’s comments have been positively embraced by the crypto community and many are hopeful that as ECB president, Lagarde will enact crypto-supportive legislation that will bode well for the growing sector. Unlike previous ECB president Mario Draghi who often described cryptocurrencies as “highly risky”, Lagarde’s experience as a politician and the diversity of her career experiences could lead her to approach cryptocurrencies differently than her predecessors. 

A growing number of institutions are expressing interest in cryptocurrencies and currently, Facebook, J.P. Morgan, Bakkt, and Fidelity Investments are all on the verge of offering investing and custody services to retail and institutional investors.

Lagarde appears to realize that as more multinational corporations, tech startups and multi-billion dollar financial institutions embrace cryptocurrency it will be increasingly important for entities like the ECB to develop a plan for accommodating and interacting with digital assets.

Do you think Lagarde will support BTC and crypto-friendly policies? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

https://bitcoinist.com/european-central-bank-head-christine-lagarde-could-enact-bitcoin-friendly-legislation

Tron Surpasses 500 Dapps and 700,000 Active Users, Report Claims



The TRON ecosystem has, according to its weekly decentralized application (dapp) report, surpassed the 500 dapp mark. These are said to be used by over 700,000 active users.

The report, published by the Tron Foundation on its Medium blog, claims the TRON network has surpassed other decentralized application networks like Ethereum and EOS in active users, reaching 710,700 in the first half of this year.

Per the report, the number of dapps in its ecosystem grew to 502, although the number of daily active users and transaction volumes dipped in the first week of July. The report further introduced several new games to its community.

Among them are a ‘lucky number’ game that’ll see users pick a right number to get TRX rewards, and a boardgame-based platform for TRON users. Blockchain data shows the cryptocurrency’s ecosystem now has over 1,300 nodes supporting it.

TRON’s TRX token is, at press time, trading at about $0.032 after rising about 2.5% in the last 24-hour period. The cryptocurrency’s market cap is of $2.19 billion, which makes it the tenth largest cryptocurrency by market cap, behind Bitcoin Satoshi’s Vision and ahead of Cardano’s ADA.

Last month, TRON officially launched the testnet for the Sun Network, its scalability solution. The network includes an initiative called DAppChain, which is a “side chain scaling project designed for TRON’s smart contracts, which aims to enable DApps to run with extremely low Energy consumption, high security, high efficiency through customized methods on the chain."

The cryptocurrency s also set to be added to the popular Opera browser, as in May its team revealed it was looking to soon “support TRON’s TRX and other TRC-20 standard tokens.” The Opera browser expects to, within a year, add support for multiple other blockchains .

As recently covered, TRON founder Justin Sun recently broke his silence on Ponzi schemes after he was accused of being associated with a scheme that defrauded investors out of as much as $30 million.

https://www.cryptoglobe.com/latest/2019/07/tron-surpasses-500-dapps-and-700000-active-users-report-claims

Ethereum wil lead the next bull run | Ethereum provides internet to West Africa



There is good news on the horizon for Ethereum Hodlers. Let’s discuss some ideas for the next bull run and then jump into the most recent news for the Ethereum project.

Nothing should be taken as financial or investment advice. Enjoy the ride.

Next Crypto Bull Run

Upcoming developments on the Ethereum blockchain could postpone the projected bull run we have waited so patiently for. It can be assumed that the ongoing influx of capital due to token sales during the 2017 bull run had a larger part to play in the FOMO then previously realized. In 2017, international streams of investments would pile into almost any token sale regardless of working product, whitepaper, or if the project was even legit, talking about you Bitconnect.

It would not be far fetched to say that Ethereum could easily trigger the next bull run as well. Clearly from the most recent Bitcoin price flux, there was not enough pressure to create altcoins to follow. This could be due to the fact that the Bitcoin price is heavily manipulated on fiat to crypto trading pairs and not as much influenced by crypto to crypto trading pairs. This may become a stronger case as the markets develop and financial vehicles begin to open up to the more traditional markets.

Ethereum Leads the Next Bull Run

Due to the increased exposure to Bitcoin based on futures, cash settlements, and stablecoins, the surge in Bitcoin price did not effect the rest of the market as anticipated. Granted, there could still be an altcoin market right around the corner. With current information, it seems as if Bitcoin price surging is no longer enough to carry the market upwards independently.

There could be multiple reasons for this, but most evidently is the lack of surge in the Ethereum price and tokens. Remember, most coins on the market are tied to Ethereum if they are token based, utilizing one of the protocols, or running through smart contracts Ethereum hosts on the network. Additionally, there are numerous global business models structured around Ethereum and the native language solidity. It makes sense that without Ethereum surging to new yearly highs like in 2017, the market will not follow Bitcoin alone. To note, most DEXs are also Ethereum based and the change in Bitcoin price will have very little effect on those markets as they continue to grow.

Ethereum Tenthening

Besides the bull run focus, there is currently a proposed plan that should be implemented throughout 2021 for the Ethereum updates. The plan aims to cut the Ethereum mining rewards from 2 ETH per block to only .22 ETH. By no means is this plan set in stone, but there is a good fundamental basis behind the severe cut. Specifically, Ethereum will be transitioning to its Proof of Stake consensus algorithm over the next two years. This means validators of the network will no longer require the larger rewards in order to pay for the mining expenses.

The reason this update will take as long as two years is due to the immense complexity of the network. Additionally, it will take time for all of the Proof of Work mining farms to convert over to the staking chain. For some time, there will actually be Ethereum on the proof of work chain, and some following behind it on the proof of stake chain.

Trustnodes wrote an awesome article on the technical aspects behind some of the projected updates. I suggest heading over there if you want to learn more about the nitty gritty details of this proposed plan. Although, I would not think to highly of it as none of the developers really know the exact changes that will befall Ethereum in the coming years. This is the problem with announcing anything, it could not even happen.

Ethereum Providing Internet

https://twitter.com/kiwi66/status/1144561429753847808/photo/1

In completely unrelated news, an Ethereum based venture, Cajutel, has become licensed to start its services in SierrLeona to bring affordable internet to the region. Based on the Yahoo article that covered this news, only 13% of the country is currently able to access the internet (the thing you are on right now), and the ones that can access it spend an average of $99 per month to do so. The internet they do receive is additionally extremely slow, has low bandwidth in general, and nearly no data (5mbps).

Removing the limitations from poorer countries around the world is apart of what the crypto movement was initially designed to do. It is exciting to finally see these things happening. Soon West Africans will be able to access cheap and reliable internet, which will help the country flourish from improved trade, education, and resource development.

https://sanfranciscotribe.com/Home/index.php/2019/07/06/ethereum-will-lead-the-next-bull-run-ethereum-provides-internet-to-west-africa

Coinsquare, Just Cash Partnership enables non-bank ATM crypto transactions



Coinsquare, a Canadian cryptocurrency trading platform, announced it has bought an eight figure controlling stake in fintech software producer, Just Cash. The acquisition will enable the firm to introduce crypto transactions on traditional, non-bank ATMs in the United States.

Just Cash developed a software to retrofit ATMs to sell cryptocurrencies via a customer’s debit card without having to upgrade the machine’s hardware.

Coinsquare CEO Cole Diamond confirmed that the technology has already been introduced to some ATM machines, a process that will continue until the end of next year.

There are approximately 250,000 non-bank ATMs that can potentially be upgraded with this feature. By partnering with two of the three major producers of non-bank automated teller machines – Nautilus Hyosung, Triton, and Genmega, though he was unable to disclose which ones – Diamond said Coinsquare expects to integrate with approximately 170 thousand machines across nearly all 50 states.

“We will outnumber the total number bitcoin ATMs within a year,” Diamond said.

Users will be able to buy and transact with bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ether, dash, litecoin, stellar, ripple, doge, among others directly through their bank accounts.

The machine will then offer a printed receipt that shows the user’s private and public keys, “effectively your paper wallet,” Diamond said.

The company’s roadmap includes a full US expansion in 2020, with the ATMs serving as an entry point. Just Cash’s software will “piggyback on the regulatory efforts” Coinsquare has pulled through in anticipation of this market entry.

Diamond hopes the ATMs serve as an efficient on-ramp to the crypto-uninitiated.

“Right now, there is a lack of mainstream cryptocurrency adoption because most people are intimidated by the process to acquire it,” he said in a statement.

Diamond also said this feature will “bridge the gap” between traditional banking and the crypto industry, though he does not expect to integrate the software with bank partners soon.

“One, we need to believe [banks] want to use it… Banks have been hesitant to get involved [in anything crypto,]” he said, adding bank ATMs require the development of additional software upgrades, as each entity runs proprietary software.

The merged firms will operate under the Coinsquare brand, though Just Cash will maintain a degree of autonomy.

https://www.coindesk.com/coinsquare-just-cash-partnership-enables-non-bank-atm-crypto-transactions

Binance appoints former Ripple executive to lead US crypto exchange initiative



Binance appointed the former head of institutional liquidity at Ripple as the lead for the exchange’s upcoming U.S. crypto exchange operator, BAM trading services.

According to a press release made by BAM Tuesday, the new CEO Catherine Coley will head up the launch of Binance’s recently announced outpost in North America, Binance.US, and subsequently BAM’s “market expansion” in the continent.

https://twitter.com/cryptocoley/status/1146065626886111232

BAM highlighted Coley’s dedication “to improving global access to digital assets”—the new chief whip having worked in institutional FX for Morgan Stanley and Silicon Valley Bank prior to joining Ripple.

Binance: On the road to regulation

Coley’s appointment comes on the tail of Binance’s mid-June revelation that it would be blocking U.S.-based users from its global exchange and instead servicing them with a fully regulated, local, fiat-to-crypto platform.

The move may be seen as a major breakthrough in Binance’s aspirations for global conquest, with CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao having suggested as recently as September his major crypto exchange had little interest in winning over regulators in the North American market.

Yet, Binance has been light on details on how its new FinCEN-registered partner BAM will operate, assuring that more information will be released on how Coley’s firm will help “serve the U.S. market in full regulatory compliance”.

To Zhao, Coley may be a steady sign that Binance is ready for North American regulation.

“Our community is very lucky to have someone as passionate, versatile, and hardworking as Coley to lead Binance.US. I am confident that with Coley’s leadership and Binance’s leading technology platform, Binance.US will be able to provide valuable services to the U.S. community, said Zhao.”

https://cryptoslate.com/binance-appoints-ripple-executive-lead-us-crypto-exchange