• Ethereum rally lost momentum
• Visa is planning to launch digital currency with Ethereum blockchain
Bitcoin, the first and leading cryptocurrency in terms of trading volume and market capitalization, went through its third “halving” on Tuesday May 11 2020. This major adjustment to how the cryptocurrency operates has only happened twice before and happens about every four years. Halving means that crypto miners are rewarded with a certain amount of bitcoins every time a block is formed (approximately every 10 minutes). When Bitcoin started for the first time, 50 bitcoins per block were given to miners as a reward. After extraction every 210,000 blocks (approximately every 4 years), the block reward is halved and will be halved until the block reward reaches 0 (around 2140). For now, the block reward is 12.5 coins per block and will decrease to 6.25 coins per block in half.
Following Bitcoin’s hyped halving event, many traders expected a drop in value, especially after BTC fell to $8,100 on May 10. However, following this aforementioned uncertainty, the most popular coin advanced 6% and reached $9,500 level in less than 48 hours. Yesterday Bitcoin price reached the $9,944 level and many investors hoped that Bitcoin would pass through the $10,000 mark. However market bears took control over the market on Friday and the price has dropped 5%. Later in the session Bitcoin managed to erase some of the earlier losses. Price bounced off from the intraday low of $9,236 and is currently trading around $9,584.00 however, the short-term trend remains bearish amid low volatility. The next critical support is located at $9,000. A Bitcoin move back through to $9,665 levels would bring $10,000 back into play.

Visa has filed a patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to create digital currency — potentially using Ethereum as the blockchain.
As per the record of the filing, the application was made on February 14. However, it had been filed back in November 2018. Investors have sought a patent for a digital currency recorded on a blockchain and controlled by a central entity computer.
The new coin may be based on Ethereum network for the proposed coin that is supposed to be backed by the US Dollar. The process of maintaining the value of the stablecoin is described as follows:
“...every time a dollar worth of digital fiat currency is generated, the central entity ensures that a corresponding physical dollar bill is removed from circulation, in order to regulate the value of the digital fiat currency."
Although the application mentions the US dollar as the currency that will be used in the project, Forbes reported that the patent could apply to other central bank digital currencies such as pounds, yen, and euros: “The physical currency of a central bank anywhere in the world could be digitized.”
It seems that the above mentioned news did not have much effect on the price of the second most popular cryptocurrencies in the world. Ethereum like many other cryptocurrencies is dealing with an increase in selling activity on Friday. However, there is a regular upwards trend on Ethereum and the trend line seems to underpin the demand.

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