Cryptocurrency Market Updates

Bank of America, the second largest bank in the US, has said that cryptos pose a material risk to its business. The bank said that this technology could impact its ability to adhere to money laundering laws. Cryptos could also pose as a competitive threat which could force the company to spend more money to stay abreast with customer preferences.

The French stock market regulator has released a statement with regard to cryptocurrency related derivatives. A part of the statement says that such products can no longer be advertised online.

The UK Treasury Committee announced that it was launching an inquiry in to multiple issues related to cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. Some of the issues that the Treasury Committee will look into will be the role of cryptocurrencies in the UK, the possible impact of blockchain technology on the financial sector, etc.

A technical glitch in a Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange which allowed users to buy Bitcoin for free. Zaif, an exchange registered with the government and run by Tech Bureau Corp, stated that an error occurred with the price calculation system, which caused the price of Bitcoin to be displayed as ¥0.

Bitcoin Core is ready to introduce new changes to the Bitcoin code, but the 0.16.0 release – the 16th big release since the cryptocurrency was created – is different from all the others. This time, SegWit is now getting developers to put together a more structures and focused release of the software, which will make it easier for users to transact through the software’s wallet.

Chinese giant Lenovo is filing a new patent which suggests that a blockchain technology could become a part of a system to validate physical documents. This set-up could use digital signatures that are coded into physical document that can be “read” by computing devices to verify the authenticity of a document.

Switzerland’s Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) published a set of regulatory guidelines on Friday for the regulation of Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) as a way of helping Blockchain technology enter Swiss markets successfully.

7 customers of Coincheck have filed a lawsuit against the company at the Tokyo District Court. After the cryptocurrency exchange was hacked for $530 million worth of NEM tokens, Coincheck froze all withdrawals for several hours. Unfortunately, by doing so, the ensuing volatility saw customers’ investments shirk rapidly as prices began to fall.

In recent weeks, customer complaints against the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase have been piling up. The issues are wide ranging from unreleased Bitcoin, missing wires, disabled accounts and the latest – unauthorized charges to customers’ linked bank accounts.

Valentine’s Day was a good day for Litecoin. While mostly all major crypto assets did well in the market, Litecoin was by far the biggest gainer. The altcoin’s price shot up by more than 30%.