Summary:
- Ethereum hard forks to be activated probably today
- Major Japanese bank to launch its own digital currency
- Ethereum moves slightly higher ahead of Constantinople
The largest virtual currency Bitcoin saw a moderate drop yesterday but it closed Wednesday’s trading only slightly below its opening price. Nevertheless, major cryptocurrencies have launched today’s trading in rather upbeat moods as they have experienced slight rises so far. What’s interesting, Ethereum may probably activate its delayed hard fork on Thursday. According to CoinMarketCap, the capitalization of the entire crypto market stands a little below the $131 billion handle whereas the market capitalization of altcoins sits around $62.5 billion on Thursday morning.
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Bitcoin (BITCOIN on xStation5) experienced a noticeable drop during yesterday’s trading but it managed to end Wednesday only slightly lower than where it had started. Furthermore, the largest cryptocurrency has increased to above the $3800 mark so far today. Source: xStation5
Ethereum to activate its hard forks probably today
The two Ethereum hard forks called Constantinople and St. Petersburg are expected to be activated on Thursday. The both upgrades are planned at 7 280 000 000 block, and there are around 2000 blocks left to the mentioned block at the time of writing this post. Having said that, the activation of them is expected in less than 12 hours. Let us remind that the Constantinople hard fork was originally planned to take place in the second half of January, but a discovered security bug caused the postponement for over a month. The St. Petersburg upgrade is aimed to disable the mentioned vulnerability in the Constantinople code. It is worth noting the Ethereum upgrade will decrease block reward issuance to 2 from 3 Ethereum.
Ethereum (ETHEREUM on xStation5) has moved higher ahead of the planned Constantinople and St. Petersburg hard forks. The cryptocurrency is trading a little above the $136 handle on Thursday morning. Source: xStation5
Top Japanese bank plans to launch its own digital currency tomorrow
Mizuho Financial Group, the Japanese banking giant, will show its own digital currency on March 1, according to the Nikkei Asian Review. The bank’s coin will be called J-Coin, and it is likely to be tied to the Japanese currency - one J-Coin will be worth one Japanese yen. Moreover, Mizuho has probably teamed up with dozens of Japanese financial institutions in connection to the introduction of the new bank’s digital currency. Let us remind that JPMorgan unveiled its own digital currency some time ago as the first US major bank doing such a step.
Ripple (RIPPLE on xStation5) closed Wednesday’s trading lower. The virtual currency has managed to rise during Thursday’s trading though. Source: xStation5
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