Summary:
- Mastercard fills another crypto-related patent application
- US SEC postpones a decision on VanEck’s Bitcoin ETF application
- Huge sell-off in the cryptocurrency market, major coins sink dramatically
Recent weeks have not been successful for the cryptocurrency market to say the least. Today’s trading brings another losses as major coins have sunk dramatically. EOS (EOS on xStation5), Dash (DASH on xStation5) and Stellar (STELLAR on xStation5) have experienced over 10% drops. As a result, the capitalization of the whole market has declined to a little below $110 billion.
Bitcoin (BITCOIN on xStation5) has broken through its recent lows, and it is trading in the vicinity of the $3400 handle at press time. Source: xStation5
The US Securities and Exchange Commission delayed a decision on VanEck’s Bitcoin ETF application. The Commission pushed a deadline to February 27, 2019. However, the SEC’s step was widely expected, and it is not the first postponement of this decision as SEC has already postponed it several times this year. “The Commission finds it appropriate to designate a longer period within which to issue an order approving or disapproving the proposed rule change so that it has sufficient time to consider this proposed rule change”, as the SEC’s official statement reports.
Ethereum (ETHEREUM on xStation5), like its bigger peer, has experienced significant drops, but its scale has been slightly larger compared to Bitcoin. The third largest virtual currency has lost nearly 9%. Source: xStation5
Mastercard, a US-based payment giant, applied for another crypto-related patent. According to the patent application published yesterday by the US Patent and Trademark Office, Mastercard declared that it has developed a way of crypto payments allowing to keep anonymity. “Some users may be uncomfortable with having so much data attributed to their wallet, which can run counter to the primary aim of many users in using a blockchain: anonymity”, as the document says. The payment giant sums up that “there is a need for a technical solution to increase the anonymization of a wallet and the user associated therewith in a blockchain”. Let us recall that it has not been the first such an application filled by Mastercard, because the company has been keeping an eye on blockchain and cryptocurrencies for a long time.
Ripple (RIPPLE on xStation5) broke a support placed at $0.35 and dipped toward the $0.30 mark. Source: xStation5
