Summary:
- Russia’s watchdog plans to track virtual currencies
- Japanese city tests blockchain-based voting system
- Bitcoin (BITCOIN on xStation5) clearly breaks the $7000 mark
Investors have begun Monday’s trading in downbeat moods which have been reflected in widespread falls of major cryptocurrencies. Over the past 24 hours major virtual currencies went down, but declines were not so significant (Bitcoin nearly 1% down, Ethereum nearly 2% down). Nevertheless, the market capitalization of the most famous cryptocurrency increased over the entire weekend to around $125 billion. The capitalization of the whole market stands a notch below $235 billion which is also a higher value than the Friday’s one. Today’s newsflow concerns the new Russian watchdog’s plans and the Japanese city’s blockchain-based voting trial.
Over the weekend BITCOIN jumped to nearly the $7300 handle, but it did not hit this mark. The most popular cryptocurrency has started the week with a red candlestick on the H4 interval, and it is trading in the vicinity of $7175 at press time. Source: xStation5
Let’s start with news from Russia where the local watchdog, called Rosfinmonitoring (Federal Financial Monitor Service), wants to develop a cryptocurrency tracking tool, as reported by BBC Russia. For this purpose, the Russian watchdog granted nearly 200 million rubles for the Moscow Institute for Security and Information Analysis (SPI). Rosfinmonitoring wants to use the mentioned tool against financial crimes (it is believed that cryptocurrencies are often used in criminal activity). The new tracking system will be probably finished by the end of the year. Either, there is still a big question mark… Could cryptocurrencies be efficiently tracked?
Last week, ETHEREUM experienced two noticeable increases. The cryptocurrency, like other peers, has not started Monday positively. ETHEREUM has seen four consecutive sell candlesticks on the H4 chart. Nevertheless, the virtual currency with the second largest capitalization seems to be stabilising between $265 and $290. Source: xStation5
The second report comes from Japan where the local government of Tsukuba (the Japanese city with over 200 thousand inhabitants) has finished the test of a blockchain-based voting system. As Japan Times published on Sunday, Tsukuba tested the blockchain system last week. The modern blockchain system is to be used to decide on local social development programs. Having applied blockchain in a voting process is one of the most popular ideas for this technology.
Recent RIPPLE’s volatility is similar to Ether’s one. At press time, the digital currency is fluctuating a notch below the $0.33 handle moving below the 8- and 33-period moving averages on the H4 interval (the yellow and purple lines on the chart). Source: xStation5