Cryptocurrency Market Updates

Market Update 5.15.19 – Facebook Hires 2 Coinbase Veterans

Chainbits Staff | Publish date: 05/15/2019

Market News

Facebook Hires 2 Coinbase Veterans

According to local news reports, Facebook has hired 2 of Coinbase’s veterans for its compliance division this month. At least one of them will be involved with the company’s blockchain initiatives.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Jeff Cartwright has joined Facebook as a policy and compliance manager. However, his profile does not detail whether he will be involved in the social media giant’s blockchain projects. The other candidate, Mikheil Moucharrafie, as joined the company as a compliance officer.

Collaboration Between Traditional and Crypto Custodians to Grow

During a panel discussion titled Custody: The New Global Competitive Landscape at the Consensus 2019 conference on May 13, the Chief Executive Officer of Onchain Custodian, Alexandre Kech made a prediction that that the collaboration between traditional and cryptocurrency custodians would grow.

Kech stated that crypto custodians had the agility in terms of technology as well as compliance to deploy cryptocurrency tokens much fast, thereby giving them an advantage. On the other hand, traditional custodians are more often than not wary of taking on new coins because of institutional barriers. These custodians usually partner with their crypto counterparts to gain access to digital assets for their customers.

NRW Announces Plans to Establish European Blockchain Institute

The German state NRW’s (North Rhine-Westphalia) government has announced that it will be establishing a European Blockchain Institute for research into blockchain technology. This announcement was made via a press release on May 13. According to Andreas Pinkwart, the Economics Minister for NRW, this new institute will be founded in Dortmund later in 2019, at the IML (Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics).

In the press release, the NRW government stated that Europe is currently trailing behind the United States in advancements in blockchain technology and that the region needed to catch up. Pinkwart stated that through this institute, this was a goal that they were trying to achieve.

Total Market Cap: May 15

Trading volumes have shot up massively in the last 24 hours in the cryptocurrency market and are now at $100.51 billion. The capitalization of the market has also continued to rise and is now $244.97 billion.

Bitcoin Price Analysis: May 15

While BTC continues to remain above the $8k mark, at this time, its price is down by 0.86% and is trading at $8014.78 a token. The asset’s capitalization now stands at $141.87 billion and volumes of trade are at $30.28 billion.

Ethereum Price Analysis: May 15

Unlike Bitcoin, the price of Ethereum continues to skyrocket, now up by 9.05% to trade at $229.04. Its capitalization is now $24.29 billion. Trading volumes for the asset are at $13.07 billion.

State of the Top 10 Cryptocurrencies: May 15

The meteoric rise of the price of the 10 most valuable tokens in the world has slowed down at the moment. There are still some that are showing large jumps, such as Stellar, up by 10.48%, Ripple, up 10.20% and Ethereum, up 9.05%. However, the rest are showing either minor gains or losses. Bitcoin is down by 0.86%, but the biggest loss is for Bitcoin Cash, which is down 3.41%.

Bitcoin is trading at $8014.78, slipping 0.86%. This token’s market valuation is now $141.87 billion.
Ethereum is trading at $229.04, gaining 9.05%. This token’s market valuation is now $24.29 billion.
Ripple is trading at $0.427219, gaining 10.20%. This token’s market valuation is now $18 billion.
Bitcoin Cash is trading at $386.59, slipping 3.41%. This token’s market valuation is now $6.87 billion.
Litecoin is trading at $93.24, gaining 1.43%. This token’s market valuation is now $5.76 billion.
EOS is trading at $6.20, gaining 1.91%. This token’s market valuation is now $5.65 billion.
Binance Coin is trading at $25.25, gaining 3.70%. This token’s market valuation is now $3.56 billion.
Tether is trading at $1, slipping 0.43%. This token’s market valuation is now $2.80 billion.
Stellar is trading at $0.122188, gaining 10.48%. This token’s market valuation is now $2.34 billion.
Cardano is trading at $0.086566, gaining 8.77%. This token’s market valuation is now $2.24 billion.