Market Update 3.18.19 – Australia Unveils National Blockchain Strategy
Market News
Australia Unveils National Blockchain Strategy
Karen Andrews, the Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, and Simon Birmingham, the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment made a joint announcement on March 18 that a new national Blockchain strategy as well as roadmap was being laid out in order to help the country’s Blockchain industry develop into a global leader.
The two ministers told the media that this new roadmap would cover aspects such as the development of regulations, capacity and skill building, innovation, collaboration, investment as well as competitiveness in the international arena.
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Citi Cancels Plan to Launch Bank-Backed Crypto
Citigroup cancelled its plans to launch a bank-backed cryptocurrency. Before JP Morgan Chase & Co. launched its new cryptocurrency, the JPM Coin, Citi had already explored the option of creating such a currency for its own banking network. This was in 2015. The project had never been formally announced – no even as a proof of concept. It was called Citicoin and the project was being explored by the bank’s innovation lab in Dublin.
However, after taking assessing the experiment, the bank concluded that while Blockchain technology did have potential, there were more effective as well as efficient ways to improve payments systems without having to resort to cryptocurrencies. The bank stated that after it had experimented with Citicoin, it had decided to make more meaningful changes to their existing rails.
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Crypto Will Bring Something Greater than Social Networking
On March 17, during an interview with the Telegraph, the British mainstream publication, the founders of crypto exchange Gemini, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (better known as the Winklevoss Twins) stated that while Facebook’s secret cryptocurrency-based project was a win for the industry, in the long run, cryptos would bring in something much more substantial than social networking.
Facebook is reportedly finally entering the crypto space with a project that is developing a system to incorporate crypto stablecoin payments networks into a massive messaging service that will umbrella WhatsApp, Instagram as well as Facebook Messenger.
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Total Market Cap: Mar 18
Trading volumes of the cryptocurrency market have started the week down at $28.88 billion. The capitalization of the market has also dropped to $139.15 billion.
Bitcoin Price Analysis: Mar 18
Since yesterday, the price of Bitcoin has fallen by 0.17% to its current $4,017.83. The capitalization of the digital asset has also dropped to $70.69 billion and trading volumes are currently at $8.79 billion.
Ethereum Price Analysis: Mar 18
Ethereum’s price is down by 0.78% to $139.43 and its capitalization in the market stands at $14.68 billion. Trading volumes in the crypto are at $4.12 billion.
State of the Top 10 Cryptocurrencies: Mar 18
Since yesterday, the cryptocurrency market has continued to fall, with most of the biggest cryptos trading down today. The only exception is Bitcoin Cash, which has jumped 5.37% in trading so far today. Of the other nine in the top ten list, EOS is the worst impacted, with a 1.26% drop in its token price.
- Bitcoin’s trading at $4017.83, falling 0.17%. Today, the market cap of the asset is at $70.69 billion.
- Ethereum’s trading at $139.43, falling 0.78%. Today, the market cap of the asset is at $14.68 billion.
- Ripple’s trading at $0.316049, falling 0.68%. Today, the market cap of the asset is at $13.09 billion.
- Litecoin’s trading at $60.03, falling 2.19%. Today, the market cap of the asset is at $3.65 billion.
- EOS’s trading at $3.75, falling 1.26%. Today, the market cap of the asset is at $3.39 billion.
- Bitcoin Cash’s trading at $160.36, rising 5.37%. Today, the market cap of the asset is at $2.83 billion.
- Binance Coin’s trading at $15.77, falling 0.50%. Today, the market cap of the asset is at $2.22 billion.
- Stellar’s trading at $0.0108715, falling 0.15%. Today, the market cap of the asset is at $2.08 billion.
- Tether’s trading at $1.01, falling 0.04%. Today, the market cap of the asset is at $2.02 billion.
- TRON’s trading at $0.023039, falling 0.87%. Today, the market cap of the asset is at $1.53 billion.